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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.

What are the next steps to defend K-12 schools from cyberattacks?

Education has been dealt a difficult hand over the past several years. The mass shift to virtual schooling during the pandemic upended systems in so many ways, and it shone a light on the aging infrastructure and technical deficits so many school districts struggle with. Not only did children and teachers have to be more flexible and resilient than ever, but districts also have been hammered by ransomware and other cyberattacks.

At the same time, schools aren’t always getting the right guidance for dealing with the increased cybersecurity threats. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released late last year found that the U.S. Department of Education’s current plan for addressing K-12 school threats needed updating and was primarily focused on mitigating physical threats. And that plan was issued in 2010–in terms of cybersecurity, that might as well be eons ago.

So, what should education IT leaders be doing? And what should they be on the lookout for?…Read More

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Federal funding can help you install air purification systems in your school

Prior to the pandemic, many schools, colleges, and universities had indoor air quality challenges, but the past 18 months has brought a heightened awareness to a growing problem. Forty percent of the nation’s school systems need to replace at least half of their HVAC systems, according to a 2020 study by the Government Accountability Office.

Proper ventilation is a key prevention strategy for mitigating pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, as well as reducing dust, allergens, and VOCs to improve health and well-being.

Many school, district, and higher education leaders are working to improve indoor air quality for their facilities and the government has offered funding to supplement those costs.…Read More

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How AI technologies support school safety

The COVID pandemic has changed much about how we live and how we work. Nowhere is this more evident than in our schools – in how we safely teach our students and how our students learn, safely. The challenge with schools is that, from a safety perspective, educational institutions were already under siege.

Consider the following: According to the National Fire Protection Association, there are more than 3,200 fires each year in schools in the U.S. According to the United States Government Accountability Office, there are roughly 115 school bus incidents involving fatalities each year. Of course, most people don’t realize this because this information is overshadowed by the 180 school shootings in the U.S. from 2009-2018, according to CNN.

And now – in 2021 – we have inserted the impact of a global pandemic into this already-volatile situation, with almost no suggestions or assistance to these schools regarding how to safely re-open and keep our school campuses open.…Read More

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3 reasons we’re still using outdated assessments

For many years, educators have strived to balance the grip of testing for accountability with the need for actionable data. Though the sustained school closures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have undoubtedly presented new challenges to the assessment landscape, these changes also amplified pre-existing concerns within the traditional, summative assessment approach.

For too long, educators have had to rely on end-of-year testing data to gauge their students’ knowledge. The problem? Summative assessment data is only available to teachers when it’s too late to use that data to inform instruction and improve student outcomes.

When state assessments were canceled in 2020 and districts were left to their own devices to measure and address learning needs, teachers, district administrators, and state leaders alike were forced to ask the question: Is there a better way to gauge what students know throughout the year?…Read More

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4 challenges–and solutions–around assessments and accountability

A new report examines some of the biggest challenges related to assessments and accountability, and offers recommendations for educators and policymakers as they move past spring 2021 and aim to improve student success rates.

The report comes from NWEA and Education Reform Now (ERN), which worked together with organizations representing state departments of education, school districts, policy and advocacy groups, and universities, to identify recommendations and potential policy options that re-envision assessments and accountability measures this spring—and–beyond to better advance student success.

The overall goal? Through productive meetings and discussions, identify ways to ensure systems support deeper learning and give educators and policymakers the critical data they need to support students, improve achievement and outcomes, target resources, and develop new instructional policies and practices.…Read More

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3 key considerations for the future of assessments

The cancellation of summative assessments in the spring of 2020, coupled with the variability of the spring 2021 testing season, significantly impacted the K–12 assessment landscape, making formative and frequent checks for understanding an educators’ main line of sight into what students know and don’t know.

Though formative assessments have proven instrumental in addressing learning gaps related to school closures, the need for accountability testing has not gone away. At its core, accountability testing exists to ensure every student receives a high-quality education. However, its standardized approach has made it difficult for teachers to quickly address learning needs and adjust instruction to improve student outcomes.

As schools and districts prepare for the future of assessment, there are a few considerations to keep in mind.…Read More

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4 tips for making your coaching experience impactful

Professional development is changing. There are numerous new models: blended learning, personalized learning, culturally responsive teaching, and more. There is new technology: learning management systems, apps, websites, and more.

As we ask teachers to adopt these new models and tools it is essential that we provide ongoing and continuous support through instructional coaching. For teachers who are working with an instructional coach, here are four tips to ensure that your experience has a positive impact on you and your students.

1. Work with a master teacher
Coaching works best when the coach and teacher view their relationship as a thought partnership and see themselves as accountability partners. Amazing things can happen when you pair two thoughtful educators who are willing to do hard work and are energized by their goals. Working with a coach who has extensive experience in the classroom will ensure that you learn new strategies that you might not have been exposed to before. Your challenges, worries, and fears are likely something that your coach will have also experienced. While your coach is not meant to be an expert, working with an educator who has been there and done that will ensure that you learn something new and feel supported as you make shifts in your practice.…Read More

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How an edtech innovation is giving performance assessments new life

Across the country, educators and policy makers are searching for ways to develop and implement innovative assessment programs to address accountability requirements and to reform instruction. As both local and state educators consider new assessment models, they find themselves coming up against many issues of time. It’s widely agreed that there’s too much time spent on testing and test prep, and there’s too little time to teach and take on additional responsibilities to transform instruction. Educators often feel that innovation represents an additional burden on their time rather than a benefit.

Since the last big push to reform instruction and assessment nearly a quarter century ago, we’ve developed new psychometric techniques as well as new technologies to assist us in our attempts to innovate.

Internet access, electronic collection of student work, and online distributed scoring, for example, can all play significant roles in making performance assessments more manageable and efficient.…Read More

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PresenceLearning’s fall webinars to focus on closing achievement gap for students with special needs

PresenceLearning, provider of telemedicine/telehealth services in education and health care, is launching a free, three-part webinar series for special education leaders this fall. The series, “Results Matter – Closing the Achievement Gap,” will kick off on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific with “Results Driven Accountability: Where Were We? Where Are We? Where Do We Go Next?” led by RDA expert Dr. Alan Coulter.

To register for the webinar, visit http://www.presencelearning.com/sped-ahead-webinar/results-driven-accountability-where-were-we-where-are-we-where-do-we-go-next/.

In March 2012, the Department of Education announced it was taking new steps – what is referred to as Results-Driven Accountability (RDA) – to close the achievement gap for students with disabilities by shifting from a focus on procedural compliance to increased attention on educational outcomes. During the webinar, Dr. Coulter will discuss the current state of RDA and how it is affecting special education leaders. He will provide a timely update on RDA, explore the implications of RDA, and offer up guidance on where RDA is heading and how educators can prepare for it. As a result of the webinar, attendees will be able to:…Read More