OpenStax, a non-profit organization aimed to providing free, peer-reviewed undergraduate textbooks and supporting materials, has recently turned its sights to the K-12 market.

The organization is launching a new effort to bring digital textbooks into high schools, and not only are they free, but they are designed to personalize learning, according to TheJournal.com. As of 2012, states and districts are estimated to spend around $5.5 billion on K-12 textbooks each year, and with OpenStax, they could be saving that money.

The groups textbooks, which are free, saved $13 million in costs for hundreds of thousands of college students, said OpenStax. The books they produce are open source and free online, but are also available in print for a small fee. The K-12 effort, which is fueled by a $9 million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundatin, will be different in one respect: it will also include new technologies to help students learn. 

"The technology is already here, in the sense that most of us use it online every day," said OpenStax Managing Director Daniel Williamson, also in a prepared statement. "However, the full potential of this technology has yet to be realized for education. The project will allow us to demonstrate that this technology is effective and can be used in the classroom to improve both students' and teachers' return on effort."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor