EdStart.com has purchased student response system ExitTicket from Leadership Public Schools or LPS,  it annouced in a press release from March 2 about the acquisition. The sum of the purchase was not disclosed. 

Dr. Louise Walters and LPS teachers designed ExitTicket straight in the classroom to meet the very crucial need to speed up the performance of students, especially those who are entering school "significantly below grade level." LPS conducted rigorous testing in various subject areas using the application for two years and found that significant academic gains "of two to three grade levels within a single year" was evident when teaching was done together with ExitTicket, the statement said.

LPS Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Walters, known globally for the work she does in reforming academic systems and innovative educational approaches to education, said in the statement, "Because ExitTicket has been designed by teachers directly in the classroom, it feels very natural to both students and teachers. It's an innovative blend of real-time technologies and instructional strategies that offer a very new and unique insight to standards aligned student assessment data. ExitTicket enables teachers to truly deliver differentiated and personalized learning strategies to every student at an individual level."

Starting in August last year, the application became publicly available to all teachers at no charge and in just six months, over 2,500 schools in 92 countries began using the ExitTicket.

With the acquisition, EdStart.com will now be supporting and running the application. LPS, however, will continue to work together with EdStart by providing research and innovation. The version 4 of the application was also recently rolled out.

EdStart.com Chief Executive Officer Dr. Scot Refsland said, "Originally, ExitTicket was designed to be an internal tool within LPS to solve the substantial skill gaps many urban kids face when entering high school. But it wasn't long before ExitTicket spread into other schools. They also experienced similar efficacy results by implementing ExitTicket into their classrooms. Since LPS had no way of supporting the sudden and growing demand for ExitTicket, EdStart.com was thrilled to help expand and support such an incredibly effective application."