Classlink for System Admins

Newsela supports single sign on (SSO) and rostering with ClassLink.

While Newsela Lite users can use SSO and manually sync classes through Classlink, Auto-Rostering with ClassLink is available only to schools and district with a Newsela subscription.

Please see below for our steps on how to integrate Newsela with ClassLink.

  • In ClassLink, go to the App Library.

  • Find Newsela.  You will see two versions of the Newsela app:

  • Click the + Add button next to the relevant Newsela OAuth icon.

    • Most districts should select the Newsela OAuth icon. 

    • If you plan to upload a file with Newsela usernames and passwords to Classlink, please use the Newsela SSO icon.

  • Newsela will now appear in your ClassLink portal.

  • From the Dashboard, navigate to Applications.

  • Click the Add Applications button.

  • Find Newsela and click the+ Add button next to Newsela.

  • Select full permissions.



Newsela recommends impersonating a few teachers and going through the login and class import workflows to make sure the integration is working as expected.

All users, including students, need to have emails in ClassLink. Emails serve as unique IDs for all users. If your school or district does not use student emails, you can construct unique IDs using your email domain to serve as unique IDs.

For districts with a Newsela subscription, Newsela will sync all data shared in Classlink on a nightly basis.

For Newsela Lite, Newsela imports and updates data when users sign in. When a teacher signs in for the first time, Newsela creates their account. Teachers will need to sync classes in order to import their classes  and roster their students. When a student signs in for the first time, Newsela creates their account and connects them to any classrooms imported from ClassLink in which they are enrolled.

If you want to check that the process is working as expected, we recommend asking a few users to sign in to confirm that they can sign in and see classes.

Selecting the type is not a required step. If you’re prompted to select type on the Edit Application page, close the page and add Newsela from the App Library.

You do not need to share your tenant id, key, or secret with Newsela. Newsela automatically receives these credentials from ClassLink when you set up the integrations.



We recommend that districts do not enable DataGuard for Newsela as it will impact the teacher experience.

For additional details, please review these ClassLink articles: