What is "Amplify Education" and Why Did MCPS Pay Them $500K?

Looking through the "Funding Accountability and Transparency Database," we see that so far this year in FY 2014, MCPS has paid "Amplify Education" over a half-million dollars.

Here's the only reference to "Amplify" I could find on the MCPS website:

I did, however, find this disturbing article online:

...hundreds of designers, programmers, writers, artists and all manner of tradesman toil away on some aspect of Amplify.

Mainly, that's a tablet computer, created for K through 12 classroom usage, and a Common Core-based curriculum, designed by Amplify.

Amplify’s mission statement declares, “Amplify is reimagining the way teachers teach and students learn.” That message seems drilled into the heads of everyone I meet. Certain phrases tumble out of everyone’s mouth, a corporate mantra that quickly loses steam. The first time I heard “We’re not trying to replace teachers. We’re trying to be the teacher’s assistant,” it rang true. The fourth iteration, less so.

Whether it’s true or not remains to be seen. Given the newness of classroom tablets, there aren’t many studies gauging the devlices' effectiveness. According to the U.S. Department of Education, "technology-based instruction can reduce the time students take to reach a learning objective by 30 to 80%," and a PBS study states that 81% of teachers feel tablets aid education. While the numbers might seem shockingly high, many experts warn these studies are vague at best and don't completely tell the whole story.