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.

Why system transformation is likely a pipe dream

Key points:

  • Public schools are part of a complicated system
  • True system transformation will require disruptive replacement

I can’t count the number of times people at an education conference have approached me and said something to the effect of, “But how do we transform the education system?” or “We need to focus on system transformation” or “How do we scale system transformation?”

I get why they share these sentiments with me. Ever since I wrote Disrupting Class in 2008, I’ve been publicly in favor of transforming education, not merely reforming it (although I do work in both spheres). But when I hear calls about transforming existing systems, I recoil a bit and grow suspicious. There are many reasons for my reaction.…Read More

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ClassIn Launches its World-Class Teaching and Learning Platform in the United States

SAN DIEGO (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ClassIn, a world leader in hybrid, blended, and remote learning solutions, today announced the launch of its globally recognized platform in the United States. The ClassIn platform has been purpose-built for education and based on nearly a decade of research, development, and in-market experience. Through its software and hardware solutions, ClassIn provides the digital infrastructure for the hybrid future of education by building classrooms in both the virtual and physical worlds. ClassIn is the only end-to-end education platform with a full suite of innovative tools and features, all designed with hybrid-first pedagogy at its core. It supports active learning, student flexibility, and various teaching and learning methods.

While schools have worked to embrace technology for decades, innovation has been slow and fragmented, and most new technologies have been designed to solve a singular problem. Today, the average US teacher uses 148 different EdTech products and the average US school district uses over 1,400 EdTech solutions. The pandemic exacerbated this issue, as most schools implemented “emergency remote teaching” instead of pedagogically aligned instruction, cobbling together many disparate technologies that were not built or designed for education.

“Remote and hybrid teaching brought long-touted but previously out-of-reach, student-centric instruction to life, making room for self-guided learning, flexible schedules, and additional time to explore volunteer, hobby, and work opportunities,” said Sara Gu, Co-Founder, and COO at ClassIn. “We’re at an inflection point. The classroom of the future will be networked, digitized, and intelligent, which means our learning solutions must be built on a solid foundation: based on hybrid-first pedagogy and backed by learning science. With over 50 million students using our solution in 160+ countries, our hardware and software solutions reduce districts’ need for the patchwork of over 1,400 different technologies by combining many of those capabilities seamlessly.”…Read More

3 ways teachers can navigate the evolving field of computer science

As recently as a decade or two ago, technology education consisted of typing, learning to draft emails, or doing a little work in a spreadsheet. Learning those skills may have been relegated to a business information class or weekly trips to a computer lab. Today, most students are expected to learn to code, and most states have coding requirements—some starting as early as kindergarten.

That’s a significant change in less than a generation. Computer science is a rapidly advancing field; educators have to make those changes if they are going to prepare their students for the modern world. Trying to teach a subject that’s ever-changing might feel a little intimidating to some teachers, especially if they don’t have a background in the field. Fortunately, the skills students learn in computer science are evergreen, and many of the changes within the field are manageable for the educators involved.

Here are three keys to preparing to teach this dynamic subject without feeling like the ground is constantly shifting under your feet.…Read More

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With greater access to devices, teachers are folding more tech into instruction

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

Before the pandemic, U.S. history teacher Travis Malekpour hesitated assigning his students work in the classroom that required a computer. He knew not every student had a laptop or tablet.

Three years later, Malekpour, who teaches in Queens, doesn’t think twice about assigning and grading in-class work that requires a device. …Read More

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PowerSchool Partners with Scribbles Software to add More than 2,000 Colleges to the Naviance eDocs Network

Charlotte, North Carolina – Scribbles Software today announced a partnership with PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC), the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, and PowerSchool Naviance. This partnership will nearly double the number of institutions in the Naviance eDocs network, greatly expanding college access for high school students.

Scribbles Software has served over 12 million students with transcript requests since 2012 and provides over 400 districts and charter schools with a best-in-class network to ensure easy and equitable access for students pursuing higher education. In the last year alone, Scribbles completed nearly one million electronic transcript requests from districts across the United States, including 25 of the 30 largest districts in the country.

“Scribbles is thrilled to partner with Naviance to expand access to a broader higher education network. Through this partnership, districts and schools will be able to empower more students to have more access to life-changing opportunities,” said Marshall Simmonds, Vice President of Sales for Scribbles Software.…Read More

My top 3 digital science lab resources

As a former molecular biologist turned college and 7-12 educator, I have taught laboratory science classes for the past 3 decades. I’ve seen a lot of changes in science education (especially digital content) over the last 30 years, but one challenge has remained the same: students have to learn laboratory skills.

As a science department chair at a high-performing public high school in Arizona, I can attest firsthand to the stress this component of science education places on young, new science teachers who may not have the benefit of being a trained research scientist in college and who feel intimidated to lead an entire class of 30+ adolescents through a lab that they must by themselves prepare everything for.

This insecurity can lead to many 7-12 science teachers opting not to complete many hands-on labs with their students either because they lack the resources or the confidence to do so. Add to this the fact that districts often emphasize and require science teachers to host and participate in school and district Science Fairs, and it is no wonder that good science teachers are hard to come by.…Read More

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Curriculum Associates and Corwin Partner on i-Ready® Assessment and Professional Learning Services

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass.— Leading education companies Curriculum Associates and Corwin are partnering to help districts nationwide elevate teaching and learning practices that most impact student growth. The partnership allows the two companies to make recommendations and referrals for the other’s products and services. Educators will see the power of adopting both the i-Ready Assessment with its best-in-class services to help measure and deliver purposeful, data-driven instruction, and Corwin’s professional learning consulting services, which are rooted in Professor John Hattie’s Visible Learning research to build knowledge and skills for effective teaching practices. Additionally, Hattie will now serve as a technical advisor for i-Ready Assessment, bringing over 30 years of research on what works best to improve learning.

“Professor Hattie’s Visible Learning research and our i-Ready Assessment program are a natural complement to one another. The research helps teachers tune into the strategies that have the most impact on student learning, and i-Ready helps teachers truly understand the impact their instruction is having in that moment,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “Through the partnership with Corwin, we will collectively be able to help more educators use practices to drive student outcomes, while further strengthening i-Ready Assessment through Professor Hattie’s expertise.”

Corwin’s professional learning consulting services provide sustained, job-embedded professional learning to support educators in implementing effective classroom strategies that have the greatest influence on student achievement. Notably, the Visible Learning research, which is at the center of these services, is the world’s largest evidence base on what works best to improve learning. It encompasses more than 1,850 meta-analyses, comprising more than 108,000 studies involving more than 300 million students to date.…Read More

Paper™ acquires MajorClarity to Create a Comprehensive Career & College Readiness Platform

MONTREAL – Paper™, the leading Educational Support System (ESS), today announced that it has acquired MajorClarity, a best-in-class Career & College Readiness (CCR) tool. Together, the companies will offer a comprehensive CCR platform that will support all students, regardless of their preferred path after high school.

Today, most high schools and CCR programs are focused primarily on college preparation, despite the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that in 2021, only 61% of high school graduates enrolled in college—a 20-year low for college enrollment.

These reports indicate that a growing number of high school graduates are enrolling in Career and Technical Education (CTE) or trade schools, enlisting in the military, or going directly into the workforce. However, these students have fewer career readiness tools at their disposal than their counterparts who plan on attending college.…Read More

IGNITE! Reading Announces $10m Series A Financing To Meet Accelerating School Demand For Its Virtual 1:1 Literacy Tutoring Program

SAN FRANCISCO – Ignite! Reading, a rapidly growing provider of virtual tutoring services that enable K-12 schools to dramatically accelerate student reading progress, closed a $10 Million Series A round of financing, led by Rethink Education. Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin and founding or current partners from Comcast Ventures, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Hellman & Friedman and Wing Venture Capital also participated in the financing as individual investors. The funding will be used to add more world-class professionals to Ignite’s leadership team, invest in its technology platform, and enable the company to scale its program to meet accelerating demand from schools and districts nationwide. 

Ignite is helping K-12 schools reverse pandemic-related learning losses by providing struggling readers with 15 minutes a day of one-on-one virtual instruction by tutors trained in the Science of Reading. Ignite’s easy-to-implement program teaches foundational reading skills, and students recorded an average of 2.4 weeks of reading progress for every week in the program during the 2021-2022 school year. The company is now teaching students to read in over 35 schools across seven states with no achievement gap for students of color, students with IEPs, multilingual learners or students receiving free or reduced-price lunches.

“With students learning to read at twice the rate that would be expected in a traditional classroom setting, Ignite! Reading’s one-on-one, high-dosage tutoring model is not just transforming how kids are taught to read, but how literacy instruction is being operationalized in schools. Teachers love the academic results Ignite is delivering and are equally excited by the significant positive impact on students’ social emotional learning,” said Jessica Reid Sliwerski, Co-Founder and CEO of Ignite! Reading.…Read More

KCAV and Rise Vision Help Middle School Use Digital Signage and Social Media App to Boost Student Motivation and Engagement

Derby, Kansas – Derby North Middle School (DNMS) in Derby, Kansas, has found a unique and effective way to build culture and increase student engagement with the help of Rise Vision digital signage software and Class Intercom.

DNMS had faced issues with their previous digital signage provider, including hard-to-use software, inconsistent uptime, and lack of support. With the help of Kansas City Audio Visual (KCAV), a Rise Vision partner, DNMS switched to Rise Vision for their digital signage needs. 

DNMS has taken a unique approach to student recognition with the integration of its social media accounts and Rise Vision displays. With the use of the Class Intercom app, students create photo and video content, write a post about DNMS, and select which school social media channel to post it to. The content then gets delivered to moderators at DNMS who approve it or send back changes to the student. Once the content is approved, it gets published on DNMS’s social media accounts and automatically pushed to displays around the school for everyone to see.…Read More