New research shows slight rebound in post-pandemic learning

NWEA, a nonprofit, research and educational services organization serving K-12 students, has released new research highlighting the latest data on achievement during the pandemic.

Key findings from this third school year impacted by COVID-19 suggest early signs of rebounding offering some hope. However, results also underscore that recovery is still years away and there is a need for sustained urgency in addressing interrupted learning.

The study is the latest in a series of research from NWEA focused on tracking the impact of the pandemic on learning. It used data from over 8.3 million students who took the MAP Growth assessment in reading and math during the COVID-impacted years (spanning 2018-19 to 2021-22) and compared these data to an equivalent sized sample of students who tested before the pandemic (spanning 2015-16 to 2018-19). Key takeaways from this latest data bring both hope and concern.…Read More

3 collaborative strategies to bolster cybersecurity

In the fall of 2021, the Center for Internet Security’s Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) reported an expected 86 percent increase in cybersecurity incidents targeting K-12 school systems over the course of one year. Public and private schools provide a broad surface area for exploitation and are often the target of malicious hackers looking for financial gain or to steal the sensitive personal data of teachers and students.

Countering these ransomware attacks with proper cyber hygiene practices can be especially difficult if there is little or no room in the IT budget, or if curriculum leaders lack involvement in the effort to enhance cybersecurity.

As a result, there are a few helpful benchmarks that can assist IT administrators in their ever-evolving quest to bolster cybersecurity measures and limit schools’ exposure to pervasive attacks. …Read More

PowerSchool to Launch Connected Intelligence, First Fully Managed Data-as-a-Service Platform for K-12 Schools

FOLSOM, Calif — PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC), the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced it has launched Connected Intelligence by PowerSchool®. Partnering with  Snowflake via the  Powered by Snowflake program, Connected Intelligence by PowerSchool is the first fully managed K-12 Education focused Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform. It provides school districts and education agencies with a unified, global, fully managed, and secure platform. With Connected Intelligence by PowerSchool, school districts retain sole ownership of the data and have the ability to collaborate with internal stakeholders and external partners efficiently and securely.

By unifying all data under one comprehensive platform, segregated by school district, with built-in, stringent data security and governance controls, educators and school district or state-wide leaders will be able to take advantage of many benefits, including the following:

  • Increase equitable opportunities for all students. Connecting data from early childhood to adulthood can help improve a wide variety of initiatives aimed at supporting student outcomes and can even be leveraged within post-secondary support and workforce development.
  • Spend fewer resources managing data access and storage. Instead, educators can spend their time actually using data thanks to machine learning and analytics that create alerts if a student is exhibiting warning signs (e.g., an increased chance of not graduating on time).
  • Store education data securely and in one place. Access to all data in one place empowers educators and stakeholders with key insights to improve student outcomes.
  • Expand access to all data, including historic, current, future and any third-party data sources. This includes labor and workforce development data and secure inter-agency data sharing and collaboration, such as with juvenile justice, foster care, and other social services agencies, which aims to position all students for life-long success and their communities for positive social and economic futures.

“Connected Intelligence by PowerSchool gives state departments of education and school systems the ability to transform the economic and social outlook of their communities by bringing all their data together and giving them unprecedented ease of access, unparalleled performance, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing their data is safely secured,” said Shivani Stumpf, Group Vice President, New Solutions of PowerSchool. “This innovative, all-inclusive data ecosystem that we’ve developed, and built on Snowflake’s Data Cloud, aims to help education leaders make the most effective and efficient use of data with greater agility, and to inform their investments so that they can focus on what matters most — improving student outcomes and preparing all learners for success.”…Read More

Vernier Software & Technology Launches E-Book to Support Hands-On Science Learning for Middle School Students

BEAVERTON, Oregon, July 27, 2022 — Vernier Software & Technology has launched Light & Matter: Vernier Supplement to OpenSciEd Unit 6.1 to support engaging, hands-on science learning for middle school students. This free e-book incorporates data-collection technology into the first lesson in OpenSciEd Unit 6.1, which is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), to help students gain a deeper understanding of the initial scientific concepts being taught and to motivate their learning throughout the remainder of the unit.

“It is so important for teachers to have high-quality content to help build students’ STEM literacy at an early age,” said John Wheeler, CEO of Vernier Software & Technology. “Our partnership with OpenSciEd gives middle school teachers access to free, standards-aligned, technology-integrated instructional materials to support this work. The new supplement, in particular, helps set the stage for the following lessons in the unit by encouraging students to collect and analyze data as they engage in three-dimensional learning and explore how light interacts with matter in the world around them.”

After watching a perplexing movie involving a one-way mirror, Light & Matter: Vernier Supplement to OpenSciEd Unit 6.1 prompts students to use a Go Direct® Light and Color Sensor to quantify amounts of transmitted and reflected light, then compare the sensor readings with what they perceive with their own senses. Using various models, students develop an understanding of two of the ways light interacts with matter. They also answer the question, “How can something act like a mirror and a window at the same time?”…Read More

YouScience Releases National Student Ability Report, Indicates Widening Gap Between Students Aptitudes and Workforce Needs

AMERICAN FORK, Utah, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ —  YouScience, the leading student engagement platform that leverages data science to improve student success and bridge the divide between education and careers, today announced the release of a new national report, ” State of The Future U.S. Workforce: Student Ability Report.” The findings reveal that students have the aptitudes, or talent, to excel in today’s in-demand jobs, but often lack interest in these fields, in some cases due to lack of knowledge about available careers. There is a critical need to address this career exposure gap. In doing so it can help engage students towards an educational pathway that results in career success.

The Report findings are an analysis of anonymized data from the YouScience Discovery aptitude assessment taken by 239,843 male and female U.S. high school students during the 2021 school year. The students represent all 50 states. YouScience Discovery uses psychometrically valid brain game-like exercises combined with an inventory of interests to uncover students’ aptitudes. Unlike interest-only surveys, aptitude assessments measure abilities, such as numerical reasoning, comprehension, spatial visualization, inductive reasoning, and sequential reasoning, to show how a person performs in given areas. Moreover, unlike interests, aptitudes don’t change and stabilize around age 14,  according to research

“This latest data paints a critical picture for industry and education: the skills gap is widening. Plus, it is widening at an increasingly rapid rate which impacts every aspect of our economy. Students must be better aligned to and prepared for the future needs of our workforce. We know students have the talent, but they are not being adequately exposed to the career pathways wherein they possess natural skills and where they have the most potential to thrive,” said Edson Barton, Founder and CEO of YouScience. “The good news is there is still time to close the gap and help all students become more engaged in their educational journeys and futures through early aptitude assessment and proper career guidance and exploration.”…Read More

Pivot Interactives Named Best of STEM by Science Educators

MINNEAPOLIS, July 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Minneapolis, Minnesota Pivot Interactives, a phenomena-based, active learning tool for science teaching, has been honored with three Educators Pick Best of STEM awards, an EdTech program judged solely by science and STEM educators. Educators named Pivot Interactives Best of STEM in three categories: “Best of STEM for Phenomena-Based Teaching and Learning,” “Best of STEM for Video-Based Learning,” and “Best Resources for Analyzing and Interpreting Data.”

“We are thrilled to be recognized by science and STEM educators with this award,” says Peter Bohacek, CEO and Co-Founder of Pivot Interactives. “At Pivot, we are educators first and foremost, and to be recognized as the Best of STEM by teachers is deeply rewarding. The needs of science teachers have profoundly changed in the last few years, and we will continue to innovate to create the tools that educators need most.”

Pivot Interactives won the following Best of STEM Awards:
Best of STEM for Phenomena-Based Teaching and Learning
This category honors organizations that anchor instruction to meaningful natural phenomena.…Read More

7 things K-12 IT teams can do now to manage OT risks

The education sector continues to get slammed by cyberattacks. Microsoft’s Global Threat Activity Map by Industry shows that, as of June 16, education institutions had been victims of 5.9 million malware attacks within the last 30 days.

The rapid shift to distance learning accelerated an already growing trend. Relentless cyber activity, ransomware, and more sophisticated attacks expose education IT professionals to increased pressure to maintain operational continuity. Education IT leaders and chief information security officers must continually worry about protecting key information systems and data.

At the same time, we’ve also seen an increase in attacks on operational technology (OT) components of companies’ IT infrastructure. In the spring of 2021, the National Security Agency released a cybersecurity advisory that, while focused on the Defense Industrial Base, is applicable to many organizations. While there have been many such attacks, the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack launched by the DarkSide hacking group and recent confirmed attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities by the Russian Sandworm group stand out as extreme examples.…Read More

West Ada School District Approves Seven-Year Adoption of i-Ready® Classroom Mathematics as Its Core Math Curriculum

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass. (July 13, 2022) — West Ada School District in Meridian, Idaho has adopted Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Classroom Mathematics as the primary math curriculum support material for Grades K–5 for the next seven years. Starting in the 2022–2023 school year, more than 800 teachers will use the discourse-driven, standards-aligned i-Ready Classroom Mathematics curriculum to help approximately 17,500 students throughout the state’s largest district become independent mathematical thinkers.

“Using academic data, West Ada has identified math as a primary focus for improvement in our continuous improvement plan,” said Dustin Barrett, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction. “Through our partnership with Curriculum Associates, we are optimistic that the robust nature of the
i-Ready Classroom Mathematics materials, applied in a guaranteed and viable manner for [Grades] K–5, will provide West Ada the ability to improve student math proficiency. The i-Ready Classroom Mathematics materials will allow West Ada to teach, assess, and intervene utilizing easily accessible and actionable real-time data to best support student learning.”

i-Ready Classroom Mathematics will be used alongside the online i-Ready Personalized Instruction and i-Ready Assessment programs, which have already been implemented by the district, to provide teachers with a comprehensive and aligned solution for supporting math achievement. i-Ready Classroom Mathematics was reviewed and chosen by a district adoption committee composed of educators, parents, and community members as part of the selection process.…Read More

5 insights about post-pandemic education

This school year marked the first “almost normal” school year since the 2018-19 school year. Most began the school year with mask mandates, and many quarantined entire classes or grades due to COVID-19 outbreaks, but schools remained open and students filled classrooms.

The fact remains that learning is forever changed. The pandemic highlighted vast inequities in communities across the nation, teacher burnout increased tenfold, and the issue of students’ learning preferences–in school, hybrid, or online–attracted more debate.

A series of factsheets from the Clayton Christensen Institute explores five insights about post-pandemic education, backed by data, which could have major implications for schools and districts as they prepare for the 2022-23 school year.…Read More

Trustifi Recognized with Four Awards for Data Protection and Classification in First Half of 2022

LAS VEGAS — June 30, 2022 — Leading cybersecurity and data management firm Trustifi has added four new awards as of this month, demonstrating its consistent reliability in protecting customers against email-related cyber threats. The latest slate of honors includes a Gold Globee, Gold Stevie Award, SourceForge’s Top Performers Award, and a place on Expert Insights’ Top 100 Most Innovative Cybersecurity Companies list for 2022.

“Our most important endeavor is protecting information. Our customers rely on us to keep their data safe, and we take that seriously because we know we are protecting their livelihood and all that entails,” said Trustifi CEO Rom Hendler. “Recognitions like these showcase our solutions and their efficacy across many different customer bases.”

Two awards were determined based on overall company performance, while the others were focused on specific product benefits. For instance, Trustifi’s Inbound Shield and Outbound Shield were recognized. Inbound Shield protects organizations and individuals by analyzing, detecting and classifying an abundance of malicious email types — including phishing, spam and viruses. Outgoing emails are protected with Outbound Shield, which secures information with data identification features and has quick implementation and automated integrations for common office suite software.…Read More