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.

5 reasons to use a one-stop-shop communications platform

Key points:

  • School communications platforms shouldn’t make communicating more complicated–they should ease a burden
  • The right platform can result in cost savings and can increase flexibility and consistency across a school district
  • See related article: Your top 5 school-home communication challenges, solved

When our School Administrative Unit (SAU) set out to find a communications platform that all six of its schools could use across all grades, we had good reason for doing so. For starters, our administrators were using one communication system and teachers were using a completely different system.

Teachers had to create their own distribution lists, which weren’t always current. For example, one might develop a distribution list at the start of the new school year but would get a new student in January and forget to add the new parents to the distribution list.…Read More

SchoolStatus Announces Acquisition of ClassTag Strengthening its Suite of K-12 Data, Workflow, and Communications

RIDGELAND, Miss. —  SchoolStatus, a leader in K-12 data and communications, announced today the acquisition of  ClassTag, a unified family communication and engagement platform for educators, schools, and districts.

This strategic acquisition expands SchoolStatus’ current offerings with a robust communications app that enables sharing of essential student-level data in streamlined and easy-to-use ways. ClassTag’s smart messages reach all families based on their preferred channel (SMS, email, app, web or paper) automatically translated into 100+ languages. Seeing all relevant student information in one place helps families stay informed and get involved.

Based in New York, ClassTag is a unified family engagement platform used by over 5 million families. The platform enables teachers to efficiently communicate and coordinate with families and provides school and district leaders with insights on effective ways to build school-home connections that improve student outcomes.…Read More

How we ensure flexibility in our school district communications

Key points:

  • School district communications can be complicated by multiple languages and how families prefer to receive messages
  • Flexible communications can help districts resolve a number of issues, including parent outreach and delinquent accounts
  • See related article: Language barriers still impede home-school communication

Fairfield City Schools is a suburban district with approximately 10,000 students. About 40 percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch, and we have large populations of Spanish- and Nepali-speaking students.

With so many students coming from a range of backgrounds, school district communications can be challenging for us. To complicate matters further, the communication system that we previously used made it appear as if our messages had been sent when they had not. It caused an onslaught of complaints from families that took me and other staff away from doing our jobs. Here’s how we make sure that we are able to deliver the correct messages to the people who need to hear them while regaining time to focus on other tasks.…Read More

FCC proposes $200M for K-12 cybersecurity

Key points:

  • The FCC is calling attention to the urgent need for more tools–including funding–to combat K-12 cybersecurity risks
  • A new proposal would allocate up to $200 million over three years to harden cyber defenses and determine the most effective methods to protect schools and libraries
  • See related article: Are ransomware attacks the new snow days?

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is asking her fellow Commissioners to support a proposal that would take further steps to enhance cybersecurity protections to protect school networks.

In a speech before the School Superintendents Association and the Association of School Business officers, Rosenworcel said she would be sharing with her colleagues a plan to create a pilot program to invest in cybersecurity services for eligible K-12 schools and libraries.…Read More

SchoolStatus Achieves Significant Business Momentum in 1H 2023, Fueled by Growing Demand for its K-12 Data and Communications Solutions

RIDGELAND, Miss.–  SchoolStatus, a leader in K-12 data and communications, achieved new business milestones that demonstrate strong company momentum in the first half of 2023 and growing excitement about its solutions from educators and administrators across the country. To support the increasing demand for its solutions, the company has expanded its sales team by 42% this year and appointed Sarah Kiley as Senior Vice President of Sales to lead the team. SchoolStatus also added Michael Wolset as Vice President of People.

In the past six months, SchoolStatus grew its base of district partners, expanding to new states and districts. In June 2023, G2, the world’s largest independent software and services review platform, selected SchoolStatus for 24 awards including Best Support, Most Likely to Recommend, and Easiest to Use.

Rebecca Moye, Data Coordinator for Rome City Schools, in Rome, Georgia, shared that, “SchoolStatus is a pillar of our strategic plan at Rome City Schools to engage with stakeholders…Last year we had 98% engagement in the last 90 days.”…Read More

3 reasons to spend ESSER funds on school-home communications

Key points:

  • School-home communication is critical in boosting attendance and decreasing absenteeism
  • A thoughtful school communication plan is as important to good schooling as a great teacher
  • See related article: 5 ways video improves school-home communication

When you think about Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, do you think “HVAC?”

While ESSER funds were vital for making schools safer during the pandemic, they cover more than infrastructure. The true goal of ESSER funding is learning recovery, and the heart of learning recovery is attendance.…Read More

ParentSquare Releases Back-to-School Resources, Including Updated Checklist for Successful Home-School Communications

Santa Barbara, CA — The summer break gives district and school administrators time to evaluate the efficacy of the approaches they used in the previous academic year and create new strategies as needed. To help educators increase the support that both students and teachers receive from family engagement, ParentSquare, the award-winning unified school-home engagement platform for K12 education, has compiled resources for improving school-home communications in the upcoming school year.

The primary resource is the company’s updated “Back-to-School Checklist For Successful School-Home Communications,” a comprehensive list for organizing and implementing critical tasks. Based on ParentSquare’s experience of working with thousands of schools and districts for more than a decade, the checklist includes:

  • 4 steps to help readers take stock of what’s working and where to improve
  • 5 ways to benchmark your processes and plans against K12 best practices
  • 6 items to include in your annual communications plan
  • 6 set-up or administrative tasks
  • 7 key launch activities to start your year off right

The checklist also includes a “Other Back-to-School Tasks” section where users can add items that are specific to their school or district.…Read More

Rise Vision Named “Student Safety Solution Provider of The Year” in 2023 EdTech Breakthrough Awards Program

(June 08, 2023) –– Rise Vision, the #1 digital signage software solution for schools, announced that it has been named “Student Safety Solution Provider of The Year” in the 5th annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by EdTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global educational technology market.

Rise Vision helps schools improve communication and safety, increase student involvement, celebrate student achievements, and create a positive school culture. Rise Vision provides easy to use technology, which educators are able to use to manage communications across districts.

Rise Vision offers over 500+ professionally designed, animated, and customizable templates. In addition, through popular integrations, users are able to automatically pull content from services like Google Slides, Canva, Twitter, and more.…Read More