Approved Digital Tools & Apps for SFUSD Students

Amplify Science: curriculum for grades K-8 that blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools to empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers.

Dreambox: Gamified lessons recommended for PK-8. Dreambox is centrally-funded for all K-8 students. High School sites should complete an ISA to purchase.

Desmos: Students graph, plot data, evaluate equations and explore transformations. Includes standards aligned lessons and activities. 

Khan Academy: an interactive learning tool

KQED Learn/KQED Teach, science resources

PBS Learning Media: a science resource

SERP Interactives: a physics simulation

PhET Simulations: a physics simulation

Tuva: Real-world data sets that students can use to create their own graphs and charts. Includes standards aligned lessons and activities. Recommended for 6-12. 

Green Guardians: an environmental literacy resource

GeoGebra: Geometry, algebra, statistics and calculus activities recommended for grades 6-12. 

Blue Bot: Students write algorithms to control and move the “Blue Bot” robot. 

Scratch and ScratchJr: Block-based coding software that students can use to create games, animations and stories. 

Code.Org: Interactive computer science curriculum. CS Fundamentals (K-5) - Students learn the fundamentals of computer science with drag and drop blocks and can create drawings and games. CS Discoveries (6-12) - Introductory computer science course with lessons and programming practice (app design, animations, etc.).

Tinkercad: Online 3D modeling design tool that students can use to quickly turn their ideas into a CAD model for a 3D printer. 

BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr: Interdisciplinary lessons presented as animated movies, games, quizzes, and interactive features. Sites or departments wishing to purchase BrainPOP or BrainPOP Jr should complete an Individual Service Agreement.* After the ISA is finalized, DoT will make the program(s) available in Clever.

WGBH Interactives: a science resource

Newsela: Non-fiction articles and text sets offered at multiple lexile levels. Articles can be found on a variety of topics, including science, history, social studies, and current events. Texts are organized as both standalone and text sets, with accompanying lessons and assessments. Available in Spanish. Recommended for 3-12. *Pro-licenses have been purchased centrally for the 2020-21 school year. 

Raz Kids Plus: Leveled texts paired with interactive reading skills practice. Available in Spanish. Recommended for K-5. Raz Kids Plus is centrally-funded for grades TK-2, and is available in Clever for homeroom teachers, certain SPED teachers, IRF's, ARTIF's, and Lit Coaches. 

Typing Club: Game-based lessons to teach and develop typing skills.

KQED Learn/KQED Teach: Self-paced online courses with step-by-step videos and hands-on activities around Media Literacy and Media Making

Hoopla: ebooks, audiobooks and comics offered by the public library system for students to “borrow”. Available in Spanish. Recommended for K-12. 

Britannica and Britannica Escolar: Encyclopedia with up-to-date articles, images, videos, audio clips, primary sources, maps, research tools. Available in Spanish as Britannica Escolar.Articles can be annotated & saved to Google Drive. Recommended for K-12. 

SIRS Discoverer: Research database for beginning researchers, especially elementary and middle school students and educators. Articles can be annotated & saved to Google Drive. Recommended for K-8

Gale in Context: High School: Research database for a wide array of subjects up-to-date reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, and audio files. Articles can be annotated & saved to Google Drive. Recommended for 6-12. 

Sirs Issues Researcher: Research database for background and current analysis necessary for understanding current and pervasive issues.  Articles can be saved to Google Drive. Recommended for 6-12

BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr: Interdisciplinary lessons presented as animated movies, games, quizzes, and interactive features. Sites or departments wishing to purchase BrainPOP or BrainPOP Jr should complete an Individual Service Agreement.* After the ISA is finalized, DoT will make the program(s) available in Clever.

myOn: myON Reader is a student-centered, personalized literacy environment that gives students access to more than 6,000 enhanced digital books. 

iSPIRE: Reading intervention multisensory structured curriculum. Working directly with the Special Education Supervisor and school Psychologist, teachers determine which students with IEPs will benefit from this program.

Newsela: Non-fiction articles and text sets offered at multiple lexile levels. Articles can be found on a variety of topics, including science, history, social studies, and current events. Texts are organized as both standalone and text sets, with accompanying lessons and assessments. Available in Spanish. Recommended for 3-12. *Pro-licenses have been purchased centrally for the 2020-21 school year. 

Quill: Interactive writing and grammar training tool. *Funded by Curriculum and Instruction for all high school users for the 2020-21 school year. 

Wonders: Curriculum that builds proficiency in speaking, listening, reading and writing with scaffolded support for all language proficiency levels.

Brainpop ELL: English Language Learning lessons presented as animated movies, games, quizzes, and interactive features that support the four main language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Sites or departments wishing to purchase BrainPOP should complete an Individual Service Agreement.* After the ISA is finalized, DoT will make the program available in Clever.

Actively Learn: Catalog of texts and videos. Experience engaging standards aligned instruction including the ability to add or modify instruction and to bring your own content and share with colleagues. It includes differentiation tools including text to speech and translation in over 100 languages.

• 3P Learning
  • Gooseberry Planet
  • Mathletics
  • Mathseeds
  • Readiwriter
  • Reading Eggs
  • Spellodrome
  • STEMscopes Science
  • WordFlyers
• Achieve 3000
• Apple
  • Apple Classroom
  • Garage Band
• Cloud Lab (New Visions)
  • Autocrat
  • Copy Down
  • Goobric
  • Form Mule
  • Quiz Banker
  • Doctopus
  • Form Ranger
  • Sheet Spider
  • Doc Appender
• Common Sense Media
• Edmentum
  • Study Island
  • Exact Path
  • Courseware
  • Reading Eggs
  • Assessments
  • EdOptions
  • Calvert Learning
  • Education City
  • ESL Reading- Smart
• EVERFI
• Flocabulary (NearPod ISA)
• GoGuardian (Liminex ISA)
• Greenfield
  • Greenfield University
  • Lexia Reading (Core5, PowerUp, RAPID Assessment)
  • Reading Plus
  • Symphony Math
• iChineseReader (iChineseEdu ISA)
• Imagine Learning
  • Imagine Edgenuity
  • Galileo
  • Imagine Learning EL Education
  • Imagine Learning Odell Education
  • Imagine Learning Guidebooks
  • Imagine Language & Literacy
  • Imagine Reading
  • Imagine MyPath
  • Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics
  • Imagine Math
  • Imagine Math Facts
  • Imagine MyPath
  • Imagine Learning Twig Science
  • Imagine Learning Robotify
  • Imagine Español
  • Imagine Lectura
• IXL
• Learning A-Z
  • Reading A-Z
  • Raz-Kids
  • Raz-Plus
  • Headsprout
  • Science A-Z
  • Writing A-Z
  • Vocabulary A-Z
  • ELL Edition
• Renaissance
  • Freckle
  • MyON
• TextHelp
  • Read & Write
  • Snapverter
  • Wriq
• Wowzers

The free version of these apps are approved for use during distance learning. However, they are not available for purchase because the vendors have not completed our contracting requirements.

• Ed Puzzle, curate or create instructional videos, add voice narration, and embed formative assessment questions
• Formative, an assessment tool (formerly called GoFormative)
• Kahoot, used to gamify instruction as a pre-assessment to spark interest and/or formative assessment to adjust instruction
• Loom, a video communication tool
• Miro, a whiteboarding tool
• Padlet, a collaboration tool
  • You must not share the link or code outside of your class
  • You must not set the privacy to public
• Pear Deck, a direct instruction tool
• Socrative, a gamified assessment tool
• Sprocket, a curriculum management tool
• Sutori, a collaborative instruction & presentation tool
  • Teachers and students must not share codes or links with the public.
  • Teachers and students must not set classes or posts to “Public.”

Central office teams - if your resource appears in this list and you wish to have it fully recommended, please email help@sfusd.edu with the subject "Approvals for Backpack Resources."

The following applications are approved for use with students. We strongly recommend using a "Recommended" or "Additional Approved" application from above because they are significantly easier to use and manage, and offer strong integrations with existing SFUSD systems. Pricing and purchase details for these (and all other) applications can be found on the Contracts page.

• Adobe Creative Cloud (submit a ticket to help@sfusd.edu for information)
• Avant Assessment
• BookNook: a reading intervention tool
• Celtx: a script-writing and production tool
• Edgenuity: approved for use in credit recovery and provided by Curriculum & Instruction. (If you wish to purchase other Edgenuity services, please submit a ticket for the Digital Backpack team at help@sfusd.edu)
• Explore Learning: Explore Learning sells Reflex Math, a tool for practicing basic math skills. (Explore Learning does not support Clever rostering at this time)
• GoalBook: (by Enome) is tool at SFUSD through the Special Education Department (If you wish to purchase other Enome services, please submit a ticket for the Digital Backpack team at help@sfusd.edu)
• Grammar Gallery (by SG Consulting) (If you wish to purchase other SG Consulting services, please submit a ticket for the Digital Backpack team at help@sfusd.edu)
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: sells Reading Inventory, provided in Clever by RPA (If you wish to purchase other HMH services, please submit a ticket for the Digital Backpack team at help@sfusd.edu)
• Learning Ally: an audiobook solution, with a focus on vision-impaired and dyslexic learners
• Loom: The expressiveness of video with the convenience of messaging. Communicate more effectively wherever you work with Loom.
• McGraw Hill: vendor of the WONDER and ALEKS tools (If you wish to purchase other MGH services, please submit a ticket for the Digital Backpack team at help@sfusd.edu)
• MIND Research Institute: creator of ST Math, a visual teaching tool for K-8
• Miro: a collaborative online whiteboard platform designed for remote and distributed teams.
• N2Y: develops curriculum and communication tools with a focus on Special Education
• Read Naturally: research-based reading interventions
• Rosetta Stone: provides SaaS-based subscription access to its language learning solutions and services for K12, including English listening, oral speaking, vocabulary, grammar and writing practice for newcomer students at various levels. 
• SchoolMessenger: the District's communications platform
• School Specialty: makers of iSPIRE, a reading support and intervention tool
• Scientific Learning Corporation:  Cloud-based educational software company providing effective intervention solutions that help every child achieve their learning potential.
• Starfall Education: provides games, books, and movies for reading, phonics, and math
• Tobii Dynavox: publishers of Boardmaker, a SPED tool

Other Applications

A very limited number of applications are approved for purchase under special circumstances and are not listed here. Please contact the Digital Backpack team by submitting a ticket to help@sfusd.edu if you have questions about a program or website that you do not see.

At this time, we are not accepting requests to approve additional applications. We appreciate your patience while we implement the approval process, which is expected in Fall 2022.