Computer science claims slight victory in high schools

For the first time, a slim majority of all U.S. high schools–51 percent–offer foundational computer science, up from 35 percent in 2018.

The new statistics come from the 2021 State of Computer Science Education: Accelerating Action Through Advocacy, released by Code.org, the Computer Science Teachers Association, and the Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance.

The latest data reveals that disparities exist regarding who has access to and who participates in computer science education. Students who attend rural schools, urban schools, or schools with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students are less likely to have access to computer science.…Read More

How to ensure your district networks are safe and secure

COVID closed in-person classrooms and also gave a boost to cyberthreats to school district networks. As data security breaches–including ransomware attacks, phishing, and unauthorized disclosures–show no sign of slowing, K-12 IT leaders need to be ready.

IT teams understand how important cybersecurity measures are, but many struggle to pinpoint where to begin when their resources are limited.

Threats to K-12 education networks will never be eliminated, but there are strategies to successfully defend sensitive school district information. Want to learn more? Join a conversation with fellow edtech leaders and experts as they share best practices on both the technical aspects–software and services–and the human aspects–professional development and community education–of keeping your district networks safe and sound.…Read More

EdisonLearning Joins with Digital Learning Collaborative to Improve Online Education

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – December 6, 2021 — EdisonLearning, a longtime innovator in public education and leading provider of digital learning solutions for grades 6-12, is proud to announce that it has joined The Digital Learning Collaborative (DLC), a membership organization dedicated to exploring, producing, and disseminating data, information, news, and best practices in digital learning.

“Online and blended learning have become powerful solutions to improve students’ access to a high-quality education, regardless of their life circumstances, socioeconomic status or zip code,” said Thom Jackson, President and CEO of EdisonLearning.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the spread of digital learning, we see the need for collaborative thinking around successes and best practices, which is why we are excited to partner with the DLC to transform opportunities and outcomes for schools, educators and students across the country,” Jackson said.…Read More

IRIS Wins ‘Educators Pick Best of STEM 2021’ Award for Earth Science

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 30, 2021) — The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) was recently named a winner in the ‘Educators Pick Best of STEM 2021’ Awards in the Earth Science category. The awards, which are a combined effort of Catapult X, the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), and MCH Strategic Data, are the only awards judged by STEM educators for STEM educators. IRIS was selected for its positive impact on student learning and STEM education in today’s schools.

IRIS entered three of its hundreds of educational resources for judging by STEM educators: the Station Monitor, an app where students can examine up-to-the-minute ground motion recorded by  local, regional, or global seismographs; the Layered Earth activity where students compare observed seismic data to predictions they make from a model to determine that the Earth must have a layered internal structure and to estimate the size of Earth’s core; and the IRIS Earthquake Browser, which lets students examine patterns of global, regional, and local seismicity by exploring millions of earthquake epicenters on an interactive map of the world.

Winners of the awards were chosen based on reviews by the educator judges, as well as by a popular vote by more than 2,500 educators. One educator judge said, “The IRIS Consortium offers comprehensive resources for Earth Science students from middle school all the way through University. It gives teachers access to seismological data students can analyze at home or in the classroom. And they are FREE!”…Read More

How math learning supports the future of work

Math is everywhere around us, whether we realize it or not. Every time we conduct an internet search, order something online, or automatically get recommendations for products that we are looking for, there is math at play behind the scenes. Search platforms use algebra to rank websites based on relevance, and all e-commerce and OTT platforms employ probability and statistics. But are we failing young minds when it comes to helping them develop a strong math learning foundation?

We need to reconsider how students have been taught math and encourage a strong base of skills, such as coding, data analysis, and problem-solving, which matter in today’s world and will in the future. Inspired by my understanding of the challenges faced by students, I believe children can master math, but also fall in love with it.

Where my love of math began…Read More

Learn how secure, compliant workflows with Adobe are helping schools improve efficiencies, data security & compliance

Building efficiencies in your back office (or should we say back school) operations is essential to running a compliant school operation. Amongst the myriad disruptions to school district operations last year, the ability to properly manage traditionally paper-based processes was taken away. The only solution was to automate—and most schools have discovered they are better off because of it. Replacing old paper trails with codified digital workflows complete with e-signatures not only better protects the data on those forms but better ensures the validity of the transactions themselves.

Register now!

Join eSchool News’ panel of experts in the second part of our webinar series to discuss building efficiencies and data security and compliance in education. Hear how replacing those folders filled with parent-signed health and AUP forms with online solutions improves the user experience for everyone—parent, teacher, and administrator alike. Learn methods to capture signatures for important documents like IEPs and vendor contracts while staying compliant and also saving time and money.…Read More

3 ways to prepare for rigorous math learning

While students across all grades have shown growth during the pandemic-related learning disruptions, that growth hasn’t kept pace with what we’d expect to see in a typical year. According to the most recent data, students in grades 2–8 have fallen an average of 11 percentile points below typical year expectations in math.

In terms of instructional time, it will take approximately 11 weeks to make up that lost ground, though it varies widely from grade to grade. Recouping an 11-percentile point drop in 2nd grade, for example, will require an estimated five weeks, while covering a similar drop in 6th grade will take more like 15 weeks.

The issue is that the math skills we expect students to master do not always increase linearly in terms of difficulty. If math standards and skills are a staircase, most of them are short, relatively uniform steps up—but every once in a while, we expect students to take big leaps in understanding and ability.…Read More

3 steps to better edtech integration

The pandemic forced a significant shift from traditional classrooms to virtual and hybrid teaching environments–often before schools and districts were ready. It quickly became apparent that reliable virtual learning tools were a must-have for teachers to be productive.

However, classroom technology is only valuable if it builds a positive learning environment. Solutions must also be scalable for successful reiteration on the technology itself, based on research, data, and analysis. If a school has software that can analyze the effectiveness of academic content based on the average grades of the schools that adopt it, for instance, the statistical data will show the content schools should use to improve student performance.

With integrated technology and software, schools improve student performance and teacher productivity through more accessible application and learning of edtech systems.…Read More

Post-pandemic, where do education leaders go?

Education institutions have remained admirably fluid over the past year and a half through the rollercoaster of remote and hybrid learning and teaching environments–scaling systems, devices, and processes for a learn-from-anywhere structure.

These changes are working well for many. New data from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) found that over half of institutional leaders plan to maintain “some or all of their emergency remote learning offerings via distance education after the pandemic.”

While the virtual learning model is largely beneficial for student continuity, K-12 districts and higher education institutions are increasingly targets for cyberattacks. Howard University and Allen Independent School District in Texas are just two recent examples.…Read More

11 facts about K-12 IT leadership

Broadband access and the ever-growing equity gap are among K-12 IT leaders’ top concerns, according to CoSN’s annual IT Leadership Survey.

The survey, released in collaboration with the Ed-Fi Alliance and other partners, is based on a national survey of nearly 400 school systems and provides a nuanced look at the challenges K-12 IT leadership has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were proud to once again work alongside the CoSN team in developing this report,” said Sean Casey, manager of strategic partnerships at the Ed-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit devoted to helping school districts and states achieve data interoperability. “At Ed-Fi, our goal is to define data standards to solve problems shared by all educators and to arm the learning community with useful information, as found in this report, for conscientious decision-making that leads to better outcomes for learners everywhere.”…Read More