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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.

VHS Learning Supports Students’ College and Career Readiness via Expanded Catalog and New “Exploring College & Careers” Infographic

Boston – April 14, 2022 – Giving students the chance to explore subjects beyond those in a standard core high school curriculum is a crucial step in readying them for college and careers. Students taking online high school courses through VHS Learning will start the 2022-2023 school year with many unique for-credit options, from Python Programming to Law, thanks to the nonprofit’s newly expanded course catalog. These new courses add to the more than 300 courses already available.

VHS Learning’s new courses for the 2022-2023 academic year include the following:

  • AP® Chinese Language and Culture
  • Business Law
  • Career Exploration and Readiness
  • Chinese 3
  • Civics and U.S. Government
  • Law and the U.S. Legal System
  • Python Programming
  • Spanish 1 Credit Recovery
  • Spanish 1 Summer
  • Studio Art
  • Veterinary Medicine

AP® Chinese Language and Culture runs 33 weeks, while the other new courses are semester-length and run for 15 weeks. These new courses enable students to discover subject areas that might not otherwise be available to them at a high school level.…Read More

YouScience Releases Career Insights Report on Women, STEM, and the Talent Shortage

AMERICAN FORK, Utah, March 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ —  YouScience, a leader in aptitude-based assessments, personalized career guidance, and industry-recognized certifications that support college and career success, today announced the release of a new national report,  Career Insights: Women, STEM, and the Talent Shortage. The insights are based on data gathered from the test results of more than 100,000 female high school juniors and seniors across the nation who completed a  YouScience Discovery assessment. The findings uncover a significant career exposure gap for women, as their aptitude scores for STEM-related occupations far outweighed their self-defined interest in them.

According to a 2021  ManpowerGroup survey, talent shortages in the U.S. have more than tripled in the last ten years, with 69% of employers struggling to fill positions, up from just 14% in 2010. Globally, estimates show that by 2030, the talent shortage could reach 85.2 million people, resulting in the loss of trillions of dollars in economic opportunity for companies.

YouScience garnered the insights by analyzing student’s self-defined interest in top careers versus their aptitude for success in those careers, including STEM and other high-paying opportunities. The data includes the top 50 most frequent career matches from a selection of 500.…Read More

Why self-discovery increases college and career success

What do you want to be when you grow up? As we get older, the answer often changes from highly visible and glamorous endeavors, such as being an actor or a rockstar, to something more useful and meaningful to us personally.

Determining a great career path, however, isn’t always easy and is more often than not inhibited by a lack of exposure to career options and awareness of our own natural abilities. Yet, in order to secure the right educational pathway, students are asked to make a decision as early as high school and sometimes even middle school. 

Statistics show that over the course of a person’s lifetime, they will work an average of 90,000 hours. That’s a lot of time. Time that, if not mapped out properly, can be costly and less than satisfying. So how does a high school-aged student choose a career path at such a young age? What are the steps students need to take to pick a fulfilling profession? …Read More

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4 ways online tutoring helps our at-risk, low-income district achieve goals

Our urban Title I district serves a population of 78 percent at-risk students and 84 percent low-income families. We were already managing low proficiency rates on math and ELA state assessments prior to the pandemic, and the move to remote learning made it even more difficult for teachers to engage with students who couldn’t be on campus.

The shifting rigor of Maryland’s College and Career Ready Standards pushed our students even further behind the curve. We knew we needed a program to accelerate learning outcomes and boost proficiency rates on MCAP/PARCC assessments while also providing academic support to students in need.

Finding the right solution…Read More

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10 SEL activities for high school students

Between balancing core instruction, administering assessments, grading homework, and ensuring students are prepared for college and career, high school teachers have a lot on their plates. SEL activities can make your jobs easier!

When students have strong social and emotional skills, they are more motivated, engaged, and understand the value of their learning. SEL also helps reduce disruptive behavior and office referrals, which allows teachers to spend more time on their instruction. Additionally, SEL activities can improve high school students’ college and career readiness and help them set goals for life after high school.

It’s easy to integrate SEL activities in your core instruction! Here are 10 activities and lesson ideas for high school students–organized by subject area–to get you started.…Read More

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Are your students ready for their next step?

After more than a year of virtual learning, many educators and parents are investigating approaches to accelerate learning to ensure students are ready for their next step.  Learning does not just mean facts and content but includes a broad range of skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and effective written communication, as well as social and emotional well-being.  

While content knowledge is a requisite part of a student’s education, on its own it is insufficient if a student is to thrive academically and professionally. Students’ critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication skills are essential for success in college and career. These are the skills in high demand by employers and higher education institutions.

Prior to the pandemic, CAE’s data show that 60 percent of students entering college are not proficient in these essential skills. Furthermore, 44 percent are still not proficient when they graduate. These are the students most at risk–and proficiency is likely even lower now, given the impact of the pandemic. CAE’s data also shows that students who are more proficient with these essential skills are more likely to have positive college and career outcomes.…Read More

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16 college and career readiness resources

College and career readiness should start early to help students develop growth mindsets and outline goals for their personal success. With students coming from different backgrounds and socio-economic situations, one path doesn’t fit all.

College readiness and access is often difficult, and students aren’t always sure how to embark upon their chosen career path. COVID-19 made college and career readiness more complicated for some students who chose to delay their postsecondary plans during the pandemic due to health, safety, family, and financial concerns.

Here are a handful of college and career readiness resources and tools to help educators at all levels inspire their students to pursue their academic and career goals.…Read More

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CAE Presents Case For Authentic Assessment To Improve Student Outcomes At Beyond Multiple Choice Seminar

Experts in performance-based assessment share research on student engagement and effort

June 3, 2021, NEW YORK – The Council for Aid to Education, Inc. (CAE), a nonprofit developer of performance-based and custom assessments that authentically measure students’ essential college and career readiness skills, recently presented “Leveraging Performance Tasks to Assess College Readiness”, at “Assessment Challenges of Our New Decade” hosted by Beyond Multiple Choice. An international community of education and training-industry stakeholders committed to exploring, innovating, and implementing the future of assessment, Beyond Multiple Choice drew hundreds of attendees from around the world, explored urgent challenges confronting the future of assessment, and shared expert visions, plans, and tools to address them.

According to Beyond Multiple Choice, assessments have come increasingly under fire over the past decade, with critics claiming they are overused, inequitably applied, and not aligned with optimal outcomes for training and education. The challenges of COVID-19 highlighted already existing perceptions of assessment deficiencies.…Read More

Mississippi’s Vicksburg Warren School District and Discovery Education Launch New Partnership

SILVER SPRING, MD (Thursday, May 20, 2021)—Mississippi’s Vicksburg Warren School District (VWSD) today launched a new multiyear partnership with Discovery Education that helps educators connect current classroom instruction to students’ possible future career paths. Supported by the CVS Health Foundation and the CATCH Global Foundation, this new collaboration empowers district educators in grades K-6 with the dynamic digital resources and professional learning they need to equip every student to succeed in challenging courses, meet academic standards, and graduate from school prepared for college and career ready. Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms. 

The Vicksburg Warren School District (VWSD) serves all of Warren County, Mississippi, and has an enrollment of approximately 7,200 students in grades Pre-K through 12. VWSD consists of three high schools (grades 9 – 12), three middle schools (grades 7-8), ten elementary schools, and an alternative program. As VWSD’s 2019-2024 Strategic Plan calls for increased opportunities to build student’s college and career readiness, the district sought a flexible digital resource that could provide relevant, real-world learning experiences, expand digital learning in all disciplines and grades, and support instruction either in the classroom or remote environment. 

Following a careful review of available options, VWSD selected Discovery Education’s flexible K-12 learning platform for classroom use. Discovery Education’s platform connects educators to a vast collection of compelling high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, and professional learning resources. Together, these resources give educators everything they need to facilitate instruction in any learning environment and create lasting educational impact.…Read More

CAE And Centerpoint Education Solutions Collaborate To Support Mutual College And Career Readiness Goals

Nonprofits will seek opportunities to ensure assessments and curricula measure and teach essential skills most important to secondary and higher education students and institutions

May 18, 2021, NEW YORK – The Council for Aid to Education, Inc. (CAE), a nonprofit developer of performance-based and custom assessments that authentically measure students’ essential college and career readiness skills, announced a collaboration with CenterPoint Education Solutions, a nonprofit organization that provides aligned curriculum, assessment, and professional learning solutions to empower educators to help students succeed. 

The like-minded nonprofit organizations will share ideas and key learnings, identifying ways to meet the needs of today’s states, districts, schools and students. Tying CenterPoint’s’ data literacy services to CAE’s assessment approaches offers mutual clients innovative solutions to address potential learning gaps.…Read More