Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Level Data, Inc. Acquires GlimpseK12

KALAMAZOO, Michigan – Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the leading financial measuring tools for businesses and industries everywhere, including school districts. But another ROI is even more important to schools, Return on Instruction.

Level Data, Inc., North America’s leading school and student data validation software provider serving more than 7 million in student population, announces it has purchased Glimpse K12, a school curriculum measurement tool that shows district leaders which education programs are being utilized, and their effects on student progress, so data-based decision making can occur by school leadership in both forms of ROI.

“We optimize school spending around what works for students,” said Nicole Pezent of Glimpse K12. “The Glimpse platform strategically aligns everything the district is doing to raise student achievement, captures how they are implementing it, and measures these activities versus student outcomes. Administrators receive return-on-investment and return-on-instruction reports to guide future decisions.…Read More

Indiana’s Vigo County School Corporation Adds New, High-Tech Tools Supporting Teaching and Learning to Students’ Digital Book Bags

Charlotte, NC — Students across Indiana’s Vigo County School Corporation (VCSC) will add new, high-quality learning resources to their digital book bags this Fall thanks to a new partnership with worldwide edtech leader Discovery Education. In this new collaboration, Discovery Education will provide district students in grades K-12 exciting new digital and print services that will help them explore their curiosity about all subjects. In addition, district educators will receive in-depth professional learning opportunities that will help them integrate their new resources into instruction and create engaging lessons that prepare students for success beyond the classroom.

VCSC is one of Vigo County’s largest employers, serving nearly 14,000 students across three traditional high schools, five middle schools, 15 elementary schools, an alternative school, and a virtual school. VCSC works to build upon the strengths of their diverse community to create a comprehensive and engaging learning environment that supports the lifelong success of all students.

The VCSC community sees educational technology’s potential to advance relationships between teachers and their students, shrink long-standing accessibility gaps, and increase the depth of learning experiences for all children. So, to support district goals in the sciences and other academic disciplines, school administrators sought high-quality digital resources that featured hands-on components and could easily be integrated into teaching and learning. Following a thorough review of available solutions, VCSC’s administration selected the following Discovery Education resources for K-5 classrooms:…Read More

How to Keep Your Teachers

Obviously, the past few years haven’t been easy for anybody. But the strain on school intervention specialists thrust into remote learning during group trauma has been especially great. In this conversation, Rami Tulp, assistant director of intervention for Katy ISD in Texas details some of the ways her district has catered to the needs of both students and faculty. Have a listen and scroll down for some edited excerpts.

We support intervention teachers who work with the students who are most at risk of dropping out—the students who struggle the most. And, you know, that cannot always be the most appealing job when you’re looking at teaching. So we really have been making sure that we support our intervention teachers with good resources as well as professional learning where you want to come back every year and continue to be an intervention teacher and support struggling kids…Coming out of the pandemic, some student struggles with learning have increased. And we need new strategies on how to support these kids. We need to keep building on the strategies that we already have, but also some new ideas, some new techniques. We’ve been doing a lot of campus visits, getting out to campuses and supporting teachers whenever they call, whenever they need an extra set of hands or an extra set of eyes with a class.

Some of the stories that some of our teachers shared when they were working with students virtually is that the home that the children were in wasn’t always somewhere they felt safe or comfortable. They didn’t want to unmute because in the background there might be screaming or something like that happening. We did have quite a few kids who were having to watch over their younger siblings. So there could be little screaming kids running around. We had some kids zooming from a bathtub because it was the quietest place in the house…Some kids were worried about how their hair looked because they haven’t been able to go out and get their hair fixed. …Read More

ParentSquare Releases Back-to-School Resources, Including Updated Checklist for Successful Home-School Communications

Santa Barbara, CA — The summer break gives district and school administrators time to evaluate the efficacy of the approaches they used in the previous academic year and create new strategies as needed. To help educators increase the support that both students and teachers receive from family engagement, ParentSquare, the award-winning unified school-home engagement platform for K12 education, has compiled resources for improving school-home communications in the upcoming school year.

The primary resource is the company’s updated “Back-to-School Checklist For Successful School-Home Communications,” a comprehensive list for organizing and implementing critical tasks. Based on ParentSquare’s experience of working with thousands of schools and districts for more than a decade, the checklist includes:

  • 4 steps to help readers take stock of what’s working and where to improve
  • 5 ways to benchmark your processes and plans against K12 best practices
  • 6 items to include in your annual communications plan
  • 6 set-up or administrative tasks
  • 7 key launch activities to start your year off right

The checklist also includes a “Other Back-to-School Tasks” section where users can add items that are specific to their school or district.…Read More

Outdoor learning helps our district’s students see sustainability in action

Key points:

  • Sustainability initiatives are increasingly important to school districts, students, and their communities
  • One school district is combining sustainability initiatives with STEM learning to empower students in their learning
  • See related article: How outdoor learning spaces lead to STEM engagement

Modesto City Schools is located in Northern California, and we receive more than 260 days of sunlight annually. While the sunshine typically provides ideal climate conditions, it can also be a double-edged sword. For several years, California residents have been affected by drought and have gained a thorough understanding of the need for water frugality and sustainable lifestyles.

Modesto City Schools has prioritized sustainability initiatives designed to address climate change, reduce our carbon footprint, combat air pollution, and educate the next generation of students about a sustainable lifestyle—and that includes renewable energy.…Read More

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District virtual schools need to innovate beyond flexibility and security

Key points:

  • It’s time to transform district virtual schools from pandemic stop-gaps into pioneering models of 21st-century learning
  • The sustainability of district virtual schools hinges on whether they can evolve beyond the current versions we see in most districts
  • See related article: 5 tips to keep online students motivated

Imagine a classroom where learning transcends physical boundaries, and where every student’s need is met with individualized attention. This isn’t a distant dream, but an emergent reality born in the wake of the global pandemic. 

Prior to the pandemic, approximately 375,000 students attended online schools—less than 1% of the total number of US K–12 students. But as the crisis unfolded in 2020, virtual schools became a preferred educational choice for a significant number of families. Our survey in August 2021 found that 43% of districts had introduced a full-time virtual school option during the pandemic. These were new schools that students and families could opt into, separate from the emergency remote instruction commonly provided during the pandemic though existing brick-and-mortar schools.…Read More

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Are ransomware attacks the new snow days?

Key points:

In early January, the Des Moines Public Schools, the largest school district in the state of Iowa, fell victim to a ransomware attack that forced the district to take its network offline and students to miss more instructional time.

In addition to the disruption to operations, the district discovered that the attackers compromised the personal data of nearly 7,000 individuals, putting them at increased risk of identity theft and other crimes.…Read More

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Key tips to help educators thwart cyberattacks

Key points:

  • There are simple and proven tactics to help schools avoid common cyberattacks
  • Remaining vigilant and knowledgeable helps educators form safe habits to dodge cybercriminals
  • See related article: Defending against the most common cyberattacks

It’s not a topic we’re unfamiliar with: Criminal hackers are increasing their activity and they’re targeting K–12 schools, threatening districts with damaging financial and learning-downtime costs. The K12 Security Information Exchange (K12 SIX) tracks publicly disclosed school cyber incidents and reports an average rate of more than one K–12 cyber incident per school day across U.S. public schools.

With increased cyberattacks, the idea of a potential threat to a school or district feels daunting to ward against, but, more often than not, these simple tactics outlined below can support educators thwart some of the most common attacks.…Read More

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