Over $23.1 million in digital subscriptions to enhance digital learning across the state has been announced by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE).
The subscriptions will be at no cost to the districts as funding has been allocated by the MDE’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) II/American Rescue Plan federal funds.
Users including students, teachers, schools, and districts that qualify can now subscribe to content covering topics in English language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science from six vendors.
Here are the total programs, districts that have opted in, and total costs:
Homer (K-2 English Language Arts) – Designed to improve reading fluency, increase academic vocabulary and develop independent reading skills
Cohort 1 (started in January 2022): 37 districts
Cohort 2 (starts in July 2022): 48 districts
Total districts: 85
Total cost: $1,192,939.32
Newsela (3-12 English Language Arts) – Designed to provide content specifically for ELA, expand content curation to support academic standards and includes instructional supports
Cohort 1 (started in January 2022): 38 districts
Cohort 2 (starts in July 2022): 55 districts
Total districts: 93
Total cost: $3,957,975.05
Imagine Learning (K-8 Math) – Designed to build problem-solving skills, provide personalized learning and includes scaffolded instruction for all students
Cohort 1 (started in January 2022): 35 districts
Cohort 2 (starts in July 2022): 52 districts
Total districts: 87
Total cost: $7,929,765.50
News-O-Matic (K-8 Social Studies) – Publishes daily news articles with multimedia features and provides a teacher dashboard to help track and monitor students’ progress
Cohort 1 (started in January 2022): 41 districts
Cohort 2 (starts in July 2022): 48 districts
Total districts: 89
Total cost: $370,854.96
Discovery Education (K-6 Science) – Provides multimodal resources, aligns with academic standards and includes virtual STEM activities
Cohort 1 (started in January 2022): 38 districts
Cohort 2 (starts in July 2022): 65 districts
Total districts: 103
Total cost: $4,665,241.11
Gale (7-12 Science) – Includes interactive labs for biology, chemistry, and human anatomy; provides Lexile-level articles and includes multimedia content
Cohort 1 (started in January 2022): 38 districts
Cohort 2 (starts in July 2022): 51 districts
Total districts: 89
Total cost: $4,990,965.93
Total: $23,107,741.87
To see if you are in a qualifying district for one of the subscription vendors, click here.
