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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.

How I make online teaching work as a high school educator

I have been teaching at traditional and charter schools for the past 18 years, and I remain encouraged by the determination of the students I serve, even when faced with the challenges we’ve seen over the past several years due to the pandemic.

It’s a humbling experience to be a part of their academic journey, knowing that in some way I played a role in their success. To provide positive and meaningful experiences for students makes me feel honored to be an educator.

Like many of my peers, however, the onset of COVID-19 showed me it was time to make changes in my career and put my needs first after nearly 20 years in the profession. I’ve always had a passion for traveling, exploring other cultures, and learning new things—part of the reason why I became a teacher.…Read More

Connecticut’s Jumoke Academy Charter School Selects Discovery Education Social Studies Services to Propel Student Success

SILVER SPRING, MD — Connecticut’s Jumoke Academy Charter School today announced a new partnership with Discovery Education, the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. This collaboration provides the educators at the Academy’s three campuses access to a suite of award-winning, digital resources that create enriching, real-world learning experiences and prepare scholars for citizenship in today’s culturally diverse, democratic society. 

A public charter school system located in Hartford, Jumoke Academy serves approximately 675 pre-kindergarten through eighth grade scholars across three campuses. Noted civil rights leader, educator, and child advocate Thelma Ellis Dickerson founded the Academy in 1997 to prepare children to overcome any cultural, social, or economic challenge and successfully compete in the global marketplace. 

Seeking a digital solution that would support deeper student engagement in social studies, the Academy reviewed several possible options. Following careful review, the Academy selected the following Discovery Education services for use across its three schools: …Read More

North Carolina Education Corps and Littera Education Partner to Improve Reading Achievement for North Carolina K-3 Students

New York — The North Carolina Education Corps (NCEC) will partner with Littera Education to support and improve reading outcomes for thousands of North Carolina students who need to get back on track after more than two years of learning interruptions.

Launched as a joint project of the North Carolina State Board of Education and the Office of the Governor as a response to the pandemic, NCEC now works with state-level agencies and local school districts as an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit to recruit, train and support part-time literacy tutors. This year, Corps members will deliver high-impact tutoring to K-3 students in over 30 districts and charter organizations throughout North Carolina.

The partnership with Littera will give NCEC unmatched ability to track and assess the instruction. Littera’s Academic Support Platform simplifies scheduling and matching tutors with students; it also enables easy data aggregation, including what skills students covered and the length of sessions. A new mobile app allows tutors to instantly log feedback and session data from their phones, giving program coordinators continuous feedback as they support over 500 Corps members serving students across the state.…Read More

Los Angeles Unified School District Offers Spectrum Enterprise Stay Connected K-12 Solution to Families as a Way to Receive Robust Home Internet Access at No Cost to Students

LOS ANGELES – Charter Communications, Inc. today announced that it is working with the  Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the country’s second largest school district, to help thousands of families who lack robust internet connectivity at home enroll in the  Spectrum Enterprise  Stay Connected K-12 solution, which is provided at no cost for students. The Stay Connected K-12 offering is part of the District’s broader efforts to help close the digital divide in its communities and make it easier for all students to fulfill their academic potential.

Stay Connected K-12 provides schools the ability to offer high-speed, reliable broadband internet access directly to their students in their own homes so learning and teaching are uninterrupted. Participating families are not billed for the service.

“Without reliable internet access, our students don’t have what they need to learn,” said Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent of LAUSD. “It’s as simple as that. Los Angeles Unified is relentless in our efforts to equip our students with the resources they need to achieve their full academic potential.”…Read More

Bamboo Learning’s “Comprehension Through Conversation” EdTech Solution for K–5 Students Gaining Momentum

SEATTLE—March 7, 2022—Bamboo Learning, Inc. today announced that Bamboo learning EDU, the first “Comprehension Through Conversation” learning application for students in grades K through 5 introduced in January 2022, has been selected for an innovative student literacy pilot at the John Rex Charter School (JRCS) in Oklahoma City. JRCS, which was recognized as a 2020 National Blue Ribbon
School, seeks to determine the Bamboo Learning EDU solution’s impact on reading achievement, speaking fluency, vocabulary acquisition, and content knowledge-building among its economically and racially diverse student body. All JRCS students in grades K–1 have iPads for use at school, making the Bamboo Learning EDU iPad app an excellent fit.

Bamboo Learning also announced today that LearnPlatform, a nationally recognized edtech research company, has certified that the Bamboo Learning EDU solution meets the evidence requirements of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) aligning with Level IV “Demonstrates a Rationale” status. LearnPlatform’s team of researchers analyzed Bamboo Learning EDU’s foundational pedagogy, concluded that Bamboo Learning EDU’’s Logic Model is informed by high-quality research, and outlined the expected short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes.

“Bamboo Learning’s innovative ‘Comprehension Through Conversation’ approach to literacy has a solid grounding in existing research,” said Dr. Mary Styers, Director of Research at LearnPlatform. “By offering fiction and nonfiction books leveled by grade, and inviting students to use their voice to engage in reading & listening comprehension and vocabulary building activities, the product has a clear pathway
to improving student literacy.”…Read More

KIPP Public Schools Expands Partnership with YouScience Bringing Student Aptitude Assessments to 48 Schools Across the Nation

AMERICAN FORK, Utah, March 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Today,  YouScience announced its career guidance tool,  YouScience Discovery, is now available for students in 48  KIPP Public Schools, a network of national public charter schools. With the recent expansion, YouScience Discovery now reaches over 3,000 high school and 200 middle school students. Nearly 19,000 KIPP Public School students have taken the YouScience Discovery Assessment since the partnership began in 2016.

YouScience is the only provider of a fully-integrated platform that delivers highly accurate aptitude-based assessments, personalized career guidance, and industry-recognized certifications. With YouScience Discovery, KIPP students are provided with a proven, research-based assessment that empowers them to discover their aptitudes, eliminating their natural bias and showcasing opportunities for success.

“Knowing what students are good at, or their natural aptitude, is one of the most accurate measures of which careers they will excel in. It’s critical we help students understand this as early as possible, so that they can select the best educational pathway for themselves. In return, this will help combat the country’s current talent gap,” said Edson Barton, Founder and CEO of YouScience.…Read More

K-12 Districts Nationwide Expand Usage of ParentSquare to Strengthen Family Engagement

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. Jan. 20, 2022—As educators gear up for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year, school-to-home engagement continues to be a top priority. To unify all school communication and build stronger communities, school systems nationwide — including public, private, and charter school systems — have signed on to expand their use of ParentSquare, the premier unified school-home engagement platform for K-12.

Recent school districts to renew and expand their ParentSquare features include the Pleasanton Unified School District, Napa Valley Unified School District, and the Yakima School District. ParentSquare is the only fully unified product that engages every family with school communications and communications-based services—all the way from the district office to the classroom teacher, and all in one place.

Extending community reach. Pleasanton USD, in northern California, has over 14,000 students enrolled in its 30 schools. The district’s overarching goal for signing on with ParentSquare was to make information more accessible and digestible for families, especially during the pandemic. The district recently adopted ParentSquare’s new Community Groups feature to contact alumni of its oldest high school about that school’s centennial. “Some alumni have email, some just have a phone number, but with Community Groups, we now can reach everyone, with relevant information,” said Patrick Gannon, the district’s communications and community engagement coordinator.…Read More

Inaugural Catalyze Challenge Winners To Transform Journey From Classroom To Career

SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER 4, 2021 – In an effort to level the playing field for all students and catapult young people into meaningful careers, the Catalyze Challenge, co-sponsored by American Student Assistance, Arnold Ventures, Charter School Growth Fund and the Walton Family Foundation has awarded over $4M to accelerate bold career-connected learning solutions aimed at helping students better access economic opportunity after leaving school.  

Fifteen winners — community organizations, entrepreneurs, and cross-sector partnerships from across the country — will pilot, launch and scale solutions designed for the leaders of tomorrow’s workforce. 

“Being a thriving, productive and joyful member of society means having the agency to meaningfully shape one’s own future and the future of our communities. There’s never been a more opportune moment to equip young people with the skills and mindsets to drive change for themselves and our country,” said Romy Drucker, Education Program Interim Director at the Walton Family Foundation.…Read More

5 ways bullying changed during the pandemic

Throughout my career as a school counselor, I’ve worked with students in a variety of educational settings. This includes alternative and charter schools, traditional brick-and-mortar settings, and online school.

Even though they’re all different, I’ve witnessed similar bullying behavior and trends in each of them.

Here are five ways bullying has changed during the pandemic–and one way it’s stayed the same:…Read More

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ASU Prep Digital Forges Partnership With Ohio Charter School Network To Reduce Student Learning Loss Due To Covid Quarantine

ARIZONA AND OHIO (Sept. 16, 2021) – After powering through a year or more of remote and hybrid learning due to COVID, a significant share of traditional school districts are returning to familiar in-person models this school year. Even so, the advantages of online learning remain clear, particularly in the event of student quarantines. In Cleveland, one forward-thinking network of schools is offering students and their families a first-of-its-kind solution to keep students up to date with the school content and curriculum they have the potential to miss because of a COVID quarantine.

A new offering called Learning Under Quarantine from ASU Prep Digital, envisioned for Breakthrough Public Schools in collaboration with The 305 Education Group, is now in place. To prevent COVID learning losses, ASU Prep Digital provides online instructors to teach Cleveland-area students who miss in-person learning due to a 10-day quarantine. This innovative approach increases teaching and learning time simultaneously, while providing a practical solution for schools that simply do not have the human or financial resources to operate dual in-person and online models.

During the 2020-21 school year, Breakthrough – one of the highest-performing public, nonprofit charter school networks in Ohio – only operated remotely. However, for the 2021-22 academic year, network leaders knew changes were necessary.…Read More