The district is developing a training video to help schools recognize and respond to bomb threats.

Following the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, U.S. Homeland Security determined that schools and hospitals are two of our country’s most vulnerable soft targets.

Attacks on schools in the U.S. would have a ripple effect across the world. While schools in Israel, for instance, are behind chain link fences, most schools around the U.S. and in other countries are not locked down. When most people envision what a locked-down school would look like, the image is a hard one for people to accept.

Legislators in central Ohio are pretty serious about citizen safety. According to the Policy Analysis on School Safety, created by the Ohio Collaborative and part of the Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology, legislators have passed several laws regarding student safety, including:
• Mandating zero tolerance regarding violent, disruptive or inappropriate behavior
• Requiring school safety planning regarding crisis-oriented safety issues (i.e. a school safety plan for each building)
• Requiring fire drill and lockdown procedures and practice
• Permitting school discipline codes to address student misconduct that occurs off school grounds
• Requiring that schools establish an anti-harassment and bullying policy

In light of the new safety legislation tied to students, Worthington City Schools created a position called Student Support, which has student safety as a core responsibility. This individual participates in the central Ohio chapter of Homeland Security. This chapter meets regularly with safety officials so that everyone knows the important personnel in case a safety issue arises.

The Homeland Security Advisory Committee of Ohio asked our district to work with it to develop a training video on how to recognize and respond to bomb threats, as well as how to respond appropriately if a bomb is found on campus, in an effort to help address the vulnerability of schools. The Advisory Committee received a federal grant from Homeland Security for the development of the video and supporting materials.

We started the process by creating a workgroup to develop the video and supplemental materials. The workgroup is made up of individuals from the Homeland Security Advisory Committee, Worthington City Schools, the Columbus Division of Fire Bomb Squad (DCFBS), Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Paratus Solutions–a nonprofit healthcare and public health emergency preparedness organization in central Ohio–various local safety officials and PublicSchoolWORKS, our safety compliance vendor.

The "Overall Level of Effort" approach might provide a model for traditional schools to follow—and it suggests that one size need not fit all when it comes to student-teacher ratios.

What number of students should each teacher teach? How many is “too many”?

As a lifelong passionate fan of the teaching profession, I used to believe these questions had a pretty simple answer: The fewer the better. Throughout the class-size debates of the past 15 years, which have led to limits in the range of 20 students per teacher in California, Florida, and elsewhere, I was firmly in the “small is beautiful” camp. And while I still believe in the power of personalized instruction at the hands of a teacher with the time to focus on one student at a time, I have come to regard arbitrary student-teacher ratios as a holdover from the Industrial Age of education. Here in the Information Age, we have more precise instruments at our disposal. It turns out that the right answer is: It depends.

This change in my thinking has come about through my involvement since 2001 in online learning for grades K-12. The company I helped launch and still work for, Connections Education, is known for its high-quality, highly successful Connections Academy virtual schools and now also its Connections Learning line of curriculum and instructional services for school districts, state education departments, and other institutions. As the K-12 online and blended learning field has evolved over this past decade, I’ve found that the first misconception my comrades-in-arms and I have to dispel is that “online” means “teacherless.” Nothing could be further from the truth. National standards of quality for online learning from organizations like the International Association for K-12 Online Learning and the Southern Regional Education Board all stress the central importance of expert teachers in ensuring a successful online experience.

But how many students can each one of these expert teachers effectively teach? At Connections, we calculate this answer through a set of metrics we call “Overall Level of Effort,” or OLE for short. This begins with the understanding that the teacher does not have to literally deliver the content, any more than a tech-savvy face-to-face teacher does—the curriculum and supportive technology provide instant access to the facts. However, some content requires more mediation from a teacher than others.

Freshmen retention rose during the program’s first year.

In 2007, when California Lutheran University (CLU) campus leaders noticed a drop in freshman return rates, they charged me with serving as CLU’s retention champion. As the first director of retention, I felt a responsibility to develop a retention program that would uphold the university’s commitment to inclusive inquiry.

Although CLU first used the “r” word on campus in 2007, I would argue that the university’s retention efforts have been underway for decades, if not centuries. Part of a 500-year-old tradition of Lutheran education, CLU encourages critical inquiry from its entire population, including students, faculty, and staff. This culture fosters critical thinking and exploration.

With roughly 3,700 students enrolled at CLU – 2,200 undergraduate and 1,500 graduate – I recognized the need for a comprehensive retention program that would capture student needs and challenges across the entire campus to keep them all on the road to graduation.

Over the past five academic years, we raised CLU freshman retention rates from 78 percent to almost 83 percent. Throughout these years we learned that increased retention depends on motivation, perseverance, and a strategic plan with clear improvement goals. Our success is fueled by the following hybrid approach.

Multiple power sources

Although I lead CLU’s retention efforts, retention must be addressed by a number of campus departments in order to generate significant results. For example, while the residential life team works to foster an inclusive on-campus community, the faculty develops academic programs that motivate students.

Broadband providers and their customers, including schools, will face new compliance challenges as the web of federal programs supporting broadband service grows larger and more intertwined.

With broadband service becoming an increasingly essential tool for participating in modern life, federal policy makers are pursuing regulatory reforms that will fundamentally refocus the government’s “Universal Service” programs and related regulations to spur more broadband deployment and adoption—a marked departure from the historical primacy of circuit switched voice services.

These reforms promise to give community anchor institutions, including schools and libraries, access to a wider variety of affordable broadband service than ever before. The changes also promise to expand the range of broadband services eligible for support under the federal Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism (also known as the “e-Rate”).

At the same time, broadband service providers and their customers—including schools—will face new compliance challenges as the web of federal programs supporting broadband infrastructure grows larger and more intertwined.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has under consideration:

• Multiple proposals—chiefly including the America’s Broadband Connectivity (ABC) Plan, proposed by large and midsize telecommunications companies, as well as an alternative plan championed by Google, Skype, Sprint, Vonage, and others—to transform the High-Cost Universal Service Support Mechanisms to provide direct support for broadband facilities and services, in accord with the blueprint outlined in the National Broadband Plan. These proposals would create the Connect America Fund (CAF), described last year in the  National Broadband Plan. The ABC Plan would provide $2.2 billion annually in support for broadband facilities and services where no unsupported competitor offers such services today, while the Google Plan would create separate technology-neutral Broadband Build and need-based Broadband Operations components. The ABC Plan also would create the Advanced Mobility/Satellite Fund (AMF), as described in the National Broadband Plan, to provide $300 million for mobile broadband service in unserved areas, including limited support for the installation costs of satellite broadband equipment installations.

• A proposal to create a Low-Income Broadband Support pilot program, which could include support for deployment of network facilities and customer premises equipment, provision of broadband service, and digital literacy training to encourage sustainable broadband adoption.

• Reforms to the Rural Health Care Support Mechanism, which has struggled to fulfill its promise since it was created. Complementary programs—such as Health Information Technology (HIT) loans, offered through the joint efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and USDA Community Connect grants—might help rejuvenate this program.

In addition, the FCC will be watching to see the results from the 2011 “Learning on the Go” wireless pilot program for schools and libraries, which could expand the range of mobile broadband services eligible for federal e-Rate support as early as Funding Year 2013.

As these proposals become reality, broadband providers and e-Rate customers are likely to see expanded service options and more affordable rates. However, compliance with all of the requirements of overlapping and complementary federal programs will become increasing complicated.

One school invested in a program to boost its students' math performance.

As with so many other schools around the country, it was apparent that too many of our students, at all grade levels, were struggling with math and were performing significantly below grade level. Many of our students came to us with skill gaps of up to six or seven years, for which they had to attain proficiency within three, two or, unfortunately, even in one year. How could we reasonably expect our teachers to prepare students for higher-level math when many of their students were still functioning at such low-grade levels?

Over the years, we tried several math intervention approaches, but many of our students still did not understand math and continued to perform at significantly lower grade levels. As such, we knew we needed to find a different math intervention solution that would enable our teachers to teach math at grade level, but also meet the needs of those below-grade-level students, supporting a diverse set of needs and different learning styles.

Research shows that if our students fail science and math in the sixth grade, it will increase their risk of dropping out, and we wanted to decrease the likelihood of that happening to our students. We knew that the math intervention solution we chose had to identify the skill gaps not mastered in earlier grade levels, and then deliver targeted instruction to close those gaps through a prescriptive course plan that would quickly bring them up to grade level.

We wanted a solution with a strong instructional component that was designed by real teachers for struggling math learners. To support our diverse student population, we needed quality video instruction with extensive descriptive graphics. Plus, to help our students with the more difficult math concepts, we needed educational explorations, manipulatives, and practice to reinforce learning. Other critical needs included ongoing assessments and easily accessed and understandable reports for teachers, students, and parents to measure progress. In addition, we needed all of this at an affordable price.

Solution

Fort Stockton Middle School, located in west Texas, serves 540 students in a district of 2,378 students. Sixty-five percent of our students are economically disadvantaged, 412 are minority students, and many are English language learners. While Fort Stockton Middle School has a rich tradition of outstanding student achievement and provides a sound, standards-based education, some of our students continued to demonstrate weaknesses in math achievement year after year.

A few steps for better communication between parents and teachers can help children in the classroom.

You won’t likely wow parents by sharing the classroom rules and procedures. You will, however, wow them by sharing valuable information about their child. How do you do this effectively if you have to discuss lack of progress or less than acceptable behavior? What if I told you there is a research-based strategy for establishing a positive relationship between parents and teachers? Way to Go includes the theory, the research, components needed for you to implement the strategy, comments from experienced teachers who have implemented the strategy, and even the survey for you to replicate to determine your own results.

The success of the Way to Go strategy hinges on two points, the first point being that collaborative communication between parents and teachers will produce positive outcomes such as accurate information, rapport, and confidence in the mutual support of each other. On the other hand, one-sided communication will most likely yield accusation, assumptions and even gossip to gain support against the other party, and lack of mutual support (Schumacher, 2007).

The other point necessary for the success of the strategy is the depth of implementation on the parts of the school and individual teachers. Success of the Way to Go strategy will depend on the school’s taking responsibility for initiating the communication and that it must be positive. Parents already expect that the school will contact them when their child is misbehaving or falling behind.  In fact, the expectation is so strong that the very appearance of the teacher’s name on their caller ID is grounds for many parents to experience an elevation in their heart rate (DeBruyn, 1999).

There are four distinct parts to the Way To Go strategy. Because I am an educator by profession, it helps me to remember them with the use of the acronym “TELL:”
T    Tell the Teacher More Day
E    Engage in the best avenue of communication for each family
L    Listen without defense to the parent
L    Lead as the professional

The latest version of SAS' free Curriculum Pathways software includes lessons for students in grades 6-8 as well as high school.

A popular online education resource now provides interactive curriculum tools specially tailored to correspond with both state standards and the Common Core standards—and U.S. educators can use the product free of charge.

SAS, a major business analytics company, released a new version of its Curriculum Pathways web-based resource on Aug. 15. The new version of SAS Curriculum Pathways includes expanded content (including content aimed at middle school students), a more user-friendly interface, and enhanced search capabilities that allow teachers to find material for specific state or Common Core standards.

Forty-four states and the District of Columbia follow the Common Core standards, a college and work preparation framework introduced in 2009 by state officials. The standards currently prescribe benchmarks in English/language arts and mathematics.

In math, for example, the standards outline a detailed progression of student achievement goals, from kindergarten students developing basic understanding of numbers to high school students making mathematical models of everyday scenarios.

Although previous versions of Curriculum Pathways provided curriculum mapping for 13 states for grades 9-12, the new version maps to standards in each of the 50 states for grades 6-12. Teachers can search for resources to match a particular standard, or do the reverse and see which standards a resource can fulfill.

Digital natives have been immersed in a world of video games, computers, digital music players, and cell phones since they were born.

We believe many American schools today provide an effective education, but that the bar is rising, requiring new ways to think about how to educate today’s students. A growing number of experts and educators are examining the ABC’s of how the system approaches the challenges of educating this generation of students. These students are fundamentally different than their predecessors even a single generation ago, and hybrid education could provide powerful solutions.

Experts point to the current crop of digital natives–kids born into a world of modern technology. Digital natives have been immersed in a world of video games, computers, digital music players, and cell phones since they were born. That’s vastly different from the world of digital immigrants–an older generation that’s learning to adopt technology later in life.

Digital immigrants are learning to speak a language that doesn’t come as naturally to them. While many have successfully mastered all types of technology, it’s a language they’ve adopted incrementally. Digital natives, on the other hand, have been shaped by the internet, Google searches, and instant messaging from day one and can’t imagine life without technology.

The terms digital native and digital immigrant were coined in 2001 by Marc Prensky, an internationally acclaimed thought-leader, speaker, writer, consultant, and game designer in the fields of education and learning who’s also an outspoken proponent of creating a new educational paradigm that makes learning more relevant to today’s students. It’s an idea that’s sparked much debate and inspired some educators to adapt blended or hybrid learning programs to teach and inspire today’s students.

The undeniable truth is that the world we live in outside the classroom has drastically changed. It begs the question: how can our classrooms change and evolve as well?

Digital natives: Students 2.0

“Today’s students are incredibly sophisticated,” says Rajeshri Gandhi, an academic advisor at Thesys International, an educational company and provider of hybrid education programs. “The availability of the internet has conditioned them to ask questions and get answers instantaneously.” That’s a far cry from the card catalog and encyclopedias most digital immigrants grew up with.

As technology changes, so do digital languages.

Marc Prensky eloquently coined the metaphor of the “digital immigrant” to define an adult who has “immigrated” into the use of technology. This is opposed to a “digital native” who has grown up with and surrounded by technology from their conception.  According to Prensky, these digital natives are more fluent and more accepting of technology than older generations who, from old habits, use technology less frequently and less eloquently than our younger successors.

When I first heard Prensky speak about the digital immigrants and digital natives, it hit home as an easy framework for my mind to wrap around. Back then, my five-year-old daughter could play Freddy Fish on the computer and read and listen along on an Arthur CD-ROM disk, while I, as a digital immigrant, carried a “digital accent” from my first technology language, such as looking up answers to questions in books rather than searching online for the answers. Worse yet, I might call a person I just eMailed to make sure they got my eMail.  We all have those little stories on how our digital accents permeate technology use today.

Prensky warned us that it is not “cute” or “a joke” that our digital natives speak a technology-based language that is immersed in their learning, while teachers and society speak a different language.  In the 10 years since Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants was published, educators have struggled to interpret and translate this digital language into an effective curriculum using a potpourri of hardware, software, and Web 2.0 tools.

Through the years, I have aimed to integrate the latest technology into my classroom to accommodate the digital native. From my experiences teaching students about integrating technology in the K-12 classroom, and raising my high school daughters, I have slowly seen a paradigm shift among these digital natives. These natives, who once laughed at my own digital accent, now speak with digital accents reminiscent of a digital immigrant. Accents include questions such as, “Can you tape this television show?” when on a DVR, no physical tape exists; renting a DVD when it is a Blue-Ray disk; or calling internet searches “Googling” when actually using Bing.

An Alliance for Excellent Education report says educational technology should be an integral part of all federal education programs.

As schools increasingly embrace digital learning, a new report says more federal action is needed to encourage the effective use of educational technology.

The Alliance for Excellent Education hosted a recent webinar to discuss its report, which highlights examples of successful digital learning around the country and recommends several steps for the federal government to take in order to build on this success and bring it to scale nationwide.

“We are moving from a predominantly print-based to a digital learning environment,” said Karen Cator, director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education (ED), noting why now is the perfect moment for more government action.

“From Gutenberg to gigabytes,” added webinar host Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, co-chair of the Digital Learning Council (DLC) project, and former governor of West Virginia.

According to the report, “Digital Learning and Technology: Federal Policy Recommendations to Seize the Opportunity—and Promising Practices That Inspire Them,” the federal government should do more to help state and local education systems with this major transition in education.

In particular, the report says, the government should:

1. Infuse technology throughout all federal education programs.

2. Restore the dedicated funding stream for educational technology that was lost when the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program was not funded in the last federal budget.

3. Encourage states to implement the 10 recommendations from the Digital Learning Council (DLC), a bipartisan group led by Wise and former Florida governor Jeb Bush. These recommendations include moving from seat time to competency as a measure of student advancement, and ensuring that all students have access to high-quality digital learning opportunities.