Thoma Bravo | Press Releases

Instructure to Acquire Certica Solutions to Make Learning Personal for Every Student

Written by Thoma Bravo | December 11, 2020

SALT LAKE CITY—Instructure today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Certica Solutions, an industry leader in K12 assessment and analytics, and longtime partner of Canvas and MasteryConnect. Through this acquisition, Instructure will provide the comprehensive and open set of tools educators need to drive student outcomes by bringing together a learning management system, assessment management system, assessment content, and data analytics into one streamlined K12 learning experience. 

“This topsy-turvy year has only underscored just how important it is to know if our students are learning, whether they are being taught in the classroom or online," said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. “Welcoming Certica into the Instructure family will support educators by combining our assessment platform with smarter, standards-based assessments, assessment item banks, and powerful analytics empowering educators to make learning personal for each student.”

Certica has been a pioneer in K12 assessment creating a high-impact program of standards-aligned item bank content, predictive benchmark assessment, rigorous formative assessment, and teacher-ready analytics to provide the most immediate, accessible and actionable data for educators to use in the classroom.  

As part of this acquisition, Instructure will add to its learning platform Certica’s Videri, a powerful K12 analytics solution that integrates district data from multiple sources into one place, making the data more actionable in the moment. The result is immediately actionable data shown with rich visualizations to support educators in addressing individual student needs, revealing district trends, and identifying at-risk students earlier.

More than 1,500 districts use Certica’s solutions in the United States, improving the learning experience for more than 12 million students. 

“We have maintained a mission of helping educators drive student improvement in the most effective and meaningful ways,” said Mark Rankovic, CEO of Certica Solutions. “Joining the Instructure family will open doors to helping more students and educators find the value of a rigorous standards-aligned assessment program with rich analytics.” 

Rather than being driven by bulky administrative systems, the Canvas Learning Platform is the first platform built specifically to amplify the power of teaching and maximize learning. Instructure is committed to providing educators with high-quality benchmark and innovative formative assessments to supplement or replace the traditional summative assessments that offer limited benefits to students. 

Ocean Springs School District in Mississippi is one of hundreds of districts using Certica’s CASE Assessments to improve students’ academic proficiency.

“There are not many assessment programs out there that truly meet the content needs of our students,” said Christopher Williams, Sr., Ph.D., Assistant Superintendent at Ocean Springs School District. “Using the CASE Assessments, we have seen in one year a minimum of a 10% increase in the number of students scoring proficient and advanced on the state assessment.”

The acquisition is expected to close before the end of the calendar year. 

About Instructure
Instructure helps people grow from the first day of school to the last day of work. More than 30 million people use the Canvas Learning Management Platform for schools and the Bridge Employee Development Platform for businesses. Learn more at www.instructure.com.

About Certica Solutions
Certica is dedicated to advancing academic progress and equity in education through measurable improvements in student achievement. Certica’s analytic, assessment, and data management solutions provide a foundation for standards-based learning and assessment, as well as teacher data literacy. Certica serves more than 1,500 K-12 school districts and numerous charter school organizations and educational service agencies. Learn more at www.certicasolutions.com.

Read the release on the Instructure website here.