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.

Frontline Education Releases Year-to-Date Administration Software Innovation Summary

Malvern, Pa. (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Frontline Education, a leading provider of administration software purpose-built for educators in K-12, today released a comprehensive year-to-date innovation summary that underscores the company’s commitment to anticipating and meeting the evolving needs of school districts across the country. Investments made across its broad portfolio of connected solutions for human capital management, student and special programs, business operations and analytics support educators in streamlining administrative processes and optimizing district operations so school leaders can prioritize their time on delivering high-quality education.

“The technology needs of K-12 school leaders are at the core of our software and services strategy, which inspires us to always embrace an innovation-first mindset,” said Kevin Haugh, Chief Product Officer of Frontline. “As school leaders endure the busy back-to-school season, our aim through these new or enhanced capabilities is to assist districts in fulfilling their goal of achieving operational excellence. This summary highlights Frontline’s leadership in and dedication to providing cutting-edge tools and resources that empower educational institutions to succeed in an ever-changing landscape.”

Year-to-Date Product Highlights
Human Capital Management
Frontline’s Human Capital Management (HCM) solution plays a pivotal role in assisting school districts in the process of attracting, engaging, nurturing, and retaining personnel, all while enhancing the overall employee experience. The significance of HCM has grown into a strategic imperative for school districts, especially in the face of ongoing challenges related to shortages of both teaching and non-instructional staff. Several of Frontline’s HCM products were enhanced during the first half of the year. …Read More

Reliable internet and Wi-Fi in schools should be top priority

Key points:

Connected Nation’s 2022 Report on School Connectivity notes that one-third of school districts–23.5 million students–still need improved access to the internet and digital learning. Without access to reliable internet and Wi-Fi-dependent devices, students and teachers face disadvantages, and schools can have a hard time meeting their educational goals.

Let’s look at why that is–and what can be done to ensure connectivity in every classroom.…Read More

HMH Introduces Generative AI Teacher Supports in its Connected Literacy Solution to Empower Educators

BOSTON – As part of its human-centered approach to AI in K-12 education, learning technology company  HMH today announced new OpenAI-powered integrations within  Writable, its award-winning writing practice and assessment solution for grades 3-12. Within HMH’s connected literacy solution, Writable’s new GenAI capabilities increase the impact teachers can have by engaging more students with targeted feedback and motivating better writing in the moment. This approach to AI is teacher-guided, allowing teachers to incorporate AI-suggested feedback and scores into their instruction. This saves valuable time teachers can use to invest in student connections.

“At HMH, we believe technology should be applied with purpose to deepen the human connections that accelerate learning outcomes,” says Jack Lynch, CEO at HMH. “Today’s announcement represents a thoughtful step forward in the transformative journey of using generative AI to enhance student learning and give teachers time back to do what only they can do, which is really connect with their students on a human level.”

Providing comprehensive and skill-aligned feedback on student essays is time-consuming, and educators often wish they could offer more support during a student’s writing process. To address this challenge, Writable’s new generative AI-powered tools include AI-generated prompts and assignments, AI-suggested feedback and scores on any writing assignment, as well as tools to guard against plagiarism and detect AI writing in student submissions.…Read More

55 back-to-school tips and insights for a great year

It’s back-to-school season across the country, and while this is met with mixed emotions, like it or not, classroom doors are open and welcoming students.

Here are some back-to-school tips, advice, and valuable insights from educators, stakeholders, and industry experts.

We need to prioritize discussions on how to effectively support multilingual students. Our country is home to a wide range of diverse and vibrant cultures, and it’s important that we acknowledge and value the languages these students already bring with them when they enter U.S. schools. Unfortunately, our education system often struggles to provide adequate support for these students if they don’t know English. However, I am hopeful that this year we will witness a renewed commitment towards providing resources, policies, and initiatives that cater to English Language Learners and promote multilingualism in schools. School and district leaders will be actively seeking innovative approaches, leveraging data, and collaborating with advocacy organizations and policymakers to bring about meaningful changes in how we educate English Language Learners.
–Dr. Maria Armstrong, Executive Director, Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS)…Read More

If zero trust is good enough for the government, it’s good enough for your school

Key points:

  • Zero trust is akin to modern, agile defense systems that scrutinize every object seeking entry
  • Embracing zero trust is an investment in a school’s future–and also a commitment to safeguarding knowledge and innovation
  • See related article: Bolstering cybersecurity with zero trust

Educators and administrators are holding their breath at the dawn of another academic year. They are well aware that schools are increasingly targeted by hackers, with 1 in 4 falling victim to cyberattacks in the past 12 months.

These hallowed halls of knowledge store vast amounts of sensitive data, from student records to financial information. Consequently, this makes them attractive targets. To make matters worse, growing connected device networks and remote learning opportunities present even more vulnerabilities.…Read More

10 things schools need to do to build students’ networks

Key points:

  • Students need more than skills to succeed–they need networks of people willing to help them on the path to success
  • Building students’ social capital and their networks is critical to their future success
  • See related article: How did the pandemic impact students’ social capital?

While durable skills and career-connected learning are important in setting students up for success as they enter college or the workforce, focusing on these skills alone won’t help students reach their goals, particularly in light of growing opportunity gaps.

If students are to be aware of potential career paths, they’ll need not just classroom learning and skills, but also personal and professional relationships that serve as gateways to career opportunities. …Read More

Leveraging edtech to help students, teachers stay connected through illness

Key points:

  • The pandemic was tough on education, but wider access to virtual learning is a positive outcomes
  • In particular, edtech helps students and teachers stay connected when they would otherwise have to miss school for medical reasons
  • See related article: Prioritizing teacher well-being can help schools retain talent

There’s no disputing the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on almost every aspect of daily life — from the ways we interacted with the people around us to how we earned our living, received our medical care, and even did our weekly food shopping. However, few areas of modern life were more significantly affected than education.

Students, parents, and teachers alike were compelled to rapidly adjust to new learning methods, environments, and technologies. Today, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the results of this sudden and unprecedented shift to remote learning are being roundly, but not always justifiably, criticized. Though pandemic-related learning loss is a legitimate and profound concern, to discredit virtual learning on this basis would be to misread the situation and to miss out on an invaluable opportunity.…Read More

Why connected laptops are a pathway to digital liberation

Key points:

  • Digital classrooms–and their remote students–are here to stay
  • School facilities face unprecedented demand for broadband across education sites

The introduction of always-connected PCs and Chromebooks continues to be the catalyst for digitally liberating many students. Now is an especially exciting time to turn to this idea as PC and Chromebook battery life innovation, as well as performance, speed, audio, and video enhancement, is finally getting to the level needed to handle the digital criteria and learning throughout a school day and beyond.

Hotspots were heralded as the rescue, but often without weighing the pros and cons, especially in relevance to long-term solutions. What’s been overlooked is the substantial amount of learning time wasted just to leverage hotspots for learning. Connected laptops are a streamlined solution as the connection is built in, flexible and fitting into the ever-changing education system without the disruption of time.…Read More

HMH Completes Acquisition of NWEA

Learning technology company HMH announced that it has completed its acquisition of assets from research and educational services organization NWEA. The combined organization will harness the collective power of instruction and research-based insights to support educators in their efforts to drive better outcomes for students.

NWEA CEO Chris Minnich will join HMH’s executive leadership team as president of a new NWEA division. The division will maintain its current offerings including its flagship assessment MAP Growth and continue to offer platform-agnostic assessment solutions to its thousands of partners globally. In addition, educators will benefit from a connected solution linking NWEA’s assessments with HMH’s curriculum. This will enable them to better understand how students are growing academically and how to maximize that growth with content specific recommendations that advance student learning.

“We are thrilled to welcome NWEA’s talented and innovative team to the HMH community. Together, we are deeply focused on the transformative power of education,” said Jack Lynch, CEO of HMH. “We look forward to diving into our collective work in support of students and teachers.”…Read More

Lightspeed Systems’ New ‘Digital Equity’ Module Provides Actionable Insight Into Students’ Internet Connectivity And School-Issued Device Health When Learning Outside of School

AUSTIN, TX –  Lightspeed Systems, the leader in safe, secure and equitable education technology, announces  Digital Equity—a module that provides robust and real-time connectivity and device health data on students’ school-issued devices. Digital Equity helps school and district leaders understand the challenges students experience while trying to study outside of school so they can ensure all students stay connected to learning. 

According to the  2022 Student Home Connectivity Study from the Consortium for School Networking (COSN), gaps remain nationwide in network performance and internet speeds at all grade levels for students connecting from outside a school, with approximately one-third of high school students experiencing “Far Below” or “Below Guidelines” for connectivity from home. In addition, large disparities exist among student subgroups, particularly by ethnicity and socioeconomically disadvantaged students.  

Empowering school and district leaders, Digital Equity provides a complete, real-time view of each student’s school-issued devices, including a device’s overall health, operating system, internet speed, service provider and more. Leaders can drill-down into specific data on each individual student and their devices, as well as view overall district-wide usage to help identify local communities that need additional support and resources. Digital Equity is customizable, giving leaders the option to turn on specific data and usage stats.  …Read More