What We Do: K-12 Digital Learning Platform

Our award-winning K-12 platform empowers educators with more than 200,000 multimodal resources vetted and curated to support differentiated, scaffolded learning in any environment. Teachers can create and manage lessons, personalize assignments, develop and deliver formative assessments, track student progress in real time, access professional learning, and collaborate with educators globally. Students can discover exciting, age-appropriate content to feed their curiosity and show their knowledge and skills of challenging concepts by engaging with our assignments.

Teaching with Evidence, Learning By Design

The Discovery Education platform is built upon a theory of action about how best to enhance the K-12 teaching and learning experience. A theory of action is a collection of statements that hypothesize how intentional actions will result in change, based on insights from existing research. Collectively, our theory of action statements describe the philosophical foundation underpinning our approach to teaching and learning. At the core of our change model are three essential components, or domains, of high-quality teaching and learning in a K-12 environment:

• Domain 1: Evidence-Based Instructional Practices
• Domain 2: Science of Learning & Universal Design for Learning
• Domain 3: Formative Assessment & Feedback

Based on this theory of action, Discovery Education produced a logic model that serves as a conceptual map for the DE platform.

Learn more about our theory of action at its research base.

Theory of Action

Learn more about the logic model behind Discovery Education’s K-12 learning platform.

Logic Model

The Leader in High-Quality Content

DE resources incorporate both original content designed by teacher-author teams and curated content selected through a diligent review process. We also employ a multistep process to evaluate content against a rubric that includes alignment to standards and discipline-specific educational research, productive student engagement, practical and appropriate use of instruction, and affirmative, authentic representation of diverse people and experiences.

Meeting the Needs of All Learners

All Discovery Education digital resources are built upon the principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and culturally responsive best practices. Features such as closed captioning, video transcripts, page ruler, and text-to-speech, multiple Lexile levels of core content, Spanish translation and 180 additional languages through Google Translate, and Microsoft Immersive Reader make content accessible to diverse learners, including English language learners and students receiving special education services. Resources such as Background Builders and the Social-Emotional Learning Center are designed to support differentiated and scaffolded instruction as well as address the needs of the whole child. Digital tools that support learning, like Studio, gives educators and students the opportunity to create, share, and collaborate on assignments, quizzes, and projects.

Meeting Evidence-Based Standards & Funding Goals

Discovery Education’s robust suite of K-12 products and services meet rigorous evidence-based standards defined in ESSA — meeting Tier 4 evidence criteria for federal requirements — and are aligned to the funding goals outlined in the CARES, CRSSA, and American Rescue Plan legislation. Original content undergoes independent evaluation to confirm best practices in curriculum design and integrity. For example, Math Techbook was independently verified by EdReports to meet the highest levels of mathematical content and pedagogy in 2017 and ranked the best math app or tool by The Tech Edvocate in 2019. Content collections are regularly evaluated and updated, and new content added, to ensure accuracy and relevancy.

DE Logic Model