FineTune, formerly known as AcademicMerit, is a leading educational technology company based in Boston — and with a talented team distributed across eight countries. We are building the first comprehensive platform for qualitative learning — essential skills like writing and critical thinking that have traditionally been difficult to measure and strengthen.While our original focus was solely writing in K-12, through a close partnership with the College Board, we are adapting our platform to accommodate teachers and students across all AP courses — more than three million users by 2019.Through a combination of sound pedagogy, elegant UX and UI, and sophisticated data analytics, we help users in K-12, Higher Ed, and beyond better answer the question, “Where do I go from here?”?Our StoryFineTune was originally founded as AcademicMerit by Ogden Morse, a high-school English teacher determined to find innovative ways to use cloud-based technology to bring best instructional practices to the classroom. Our company’s first product was Literary Companion?, a close-reading program designed to make classic literature more accessible to contemporary students; it was soon followed by Assessments21?, which enabled benchmark and formative writing assessments, and FineTune?, the first tool of its kind for competency-based professional learning in writing evaluation.It was this early focus on writing that laid the foundation for our company’s evolution. We came to understand that improving outcomes in writing requires seamlessly linking professional learning, student assessment, and data-driven differentiated instruction in a virtuous cycle¡ªa pedagogy that has since proved adaptable to virtually any context involving qualitative skills. Now, even as we continue to hone our solution for writing at all levels, the FineTune platform is expanding into these contexts throughout K¨C12, Higher Ed and professional training.