What’s New in Beanstack: 2026-27 School Year Edition

The back-to-school season is all about fresh starts, so we’re kicking things off by highlighting four of our newest features designed to inspire student engagement, support teachers and school administrators, and simplify your school’s reading program. Keep reading to discover what's new for the 2026-2027 school year!

1. Custom Backlogging Windows for Schools

Schools can now set their back-dated logging restrictions to between 1 and 90 days! This allows for more flexibility in promoting reading integrity and honest logging. Media Specialists Plus can enable and set this backlogging window on the admin view of their school site.

2. Daily Reading Goals for Schools

Schools can now set and track individual daily reading goals for their students on Beanstack! This allows teachers and librarians to meet students where they are in their reading journey, monitor progress over time, and foster reading motivation for every student.

Media Specialists Plus can set a default daily reading goal and authorize other staff to set goals for individual students.
Teachers and staff can track daily reading goal progress from the admin view of their Beanstack site.
Students can view their daily reading goal progress on both the web and mobile applications.

3. Reading Culture Awards (2026-2027)

This year, the Reading Culture Awards will run from August 1st, 2026 to December 31st, 2026. There will also be some fun prize changes to some of our milestones:

Igniter status: When your school reaches 25% participation, you’ll receive one free Benny plushie!
Trailblazer status: After reaching 75% participation, your school receives a $25 gift certificate.

4. Reading Motivation Index (RMI)

We’re thrilled to announce the release of Beanstack’s Reading Motivation Index (RMI)! This gamified survey measures students’ unique reading habits and gives educators in-depth reports at the student, class, grade, and school levels that include:

Actionable Insights: Take simple, meaningful actions that strengthen your reading culture and align with your students' motivation profiles.
Trend Tracking: Run up to 4 surveys per year to compare changes over time in students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors.
Drive Impact: Identify opportunities for intervention or reinforcement and design reading programs that cater to your unique set of readers and their top motivators.

RMI is now available for current and new clients. To learn more, please contact our team here, or to get started with RMI, check out this section of our Help Center.