Savvas Realize Earns Award for Best Remote and Blended Learning Tools

Savvas Learning Company, a K-12 next-generation learning solutions leader, is proud to announce that Savvas Realize™ has earned a Tech & Learning 2021 Award of Excellence for Best Remote and Blended Learning Tools for grades K-12. Savvas Realize, one of the edtech industry’s most versatile learning management systems (LMS), was honored in both the primary and secondary education categories as a technology solution that is “key to helping schools transition to remote, hybrid, and blended learning environments.”  

The Tech & Learning 2021 Best Tools for Remote and Blended Learning is a new category in its Awards of Excellence program, which recognizes innovation in the edtech industry. The new award celebrates exceptional technology solutions that delivered “quality, continuous teaching for remote learning in 2020.” Judges deemed these products as “standouts for helping students, parents, and teachers succeed in these new learning environments.” Savvas Realize also won a Tech & Learning Award of Excellence in 2020.

“We are honored that Tech & Learning has once again recognized Savvas Realize as an exceptional LMS that makes distance learning simpler and more productive so students can get the most out of their learning, no matter where it takes place,”said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “Our groundbreaking platform is part of our overall commitment at Savvas to provide the most innovative digital tools, coupled with the highest-quality, standards-aligned content, to empower educators and engage all learners.”…Read More

imagiLabs raises $300k pre-seed to further bridge the gender gap in coding

imagiLabs (www.imagilabs.com), the all-female founded startup that makes coding more accessible to young girls, has raised $300k (€250k) in pre-seed funding, allowing it to further equip the next generation of working women with critical coding skills.

Angel investors participating in the round include Eros Resmini, Founder & Managing Partner at The Mini Fund and the former CMO of messaging platform Discord; David Baszucki, CEO of gaming giant Roblox; members of Atomico’s Angel Program; and Propel Capital, the investment arm of Stockholm’s leading tech incubator Sting. 

A number of high profile proponents of gender equality in technology participated in the round. The financing will be used to maintain imagiLabs’ significant international growth and to continue to foster an engaged community of young girl coders, who use the imagiLabs apps to learn from each other, share coding tips and designs, and build relationships.…Read More

Think Together’s Helen Welderufael is Named a 2021 “Next Generation of Afterschool Leaders”

Think Together, a Santa Ana-based and California’s leading nonprofit provider of afterschool, expanded learning and school improvement programs, is proud to announce the National AfterSchool Association (NAA), has named Think Together Regional Operations Analyst Helen Welderufael, as one of NAA’s 2021 Next Generation of Afterschool Leaders.

Welderufael joined Think Together in 2018 as the Regional Operations Analyst for the San Bernardino Region. In her role, she oversees the compliance, evaluation, data collection and training for one of Think Together’s largest regions which includes 91 schools across seven school districts.

“We’re so proud of Helen and all she has already accomplished during her very promising tenure at Think Together,” said Randy Barth, Think Together founder and CEO. “Her strong organizational skills, reliability and drive have earned her the respect of her peers and leaders alike and we’re thrilled to have her represent our organization among our industry’s top leaders.”…Read More

Savvas Learning Company and WestEd Provide Cutting-Edge Math Screener and Diagnostic Assessments

As part of its commitment to helping educators address the challenges of unfinished learning, Savvas Learning Company is excited to announce it has teamed up with WestEd to develop one of the edtech industry’s most advanced math screener and diagnostic assessments that can enable teachers to quickly identify learning gaps and promote positive student outcomes.

Savvas, a K-12 next-generation learning solutions leader, will be launching its new Savvas Math Screener and Diagnostic Assessments for use with its enVision® Mathematics, the nation’s most popular math program. Developed in partnership with WestEd — a non-profit research, development, and service agency with expertise in assessments — the new Savvas assessment tools provide a clear picture of student performance at the individual, classroom, and district levels, and offer teachers actionable data to inform instruction.

“Students do not come to the math classroom with the same skills and content knowledge. This is especially true during this pandemic, with learning disruptions causing some vulnerable and disadvantaged students to fall further behind than their peers,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “Yet identifying performance gaps can take up limited teaching time. That is why we have made it our mission to create an easy, fast, and reliable way to diagnose students’ math proficiencies to help get them back on track and accelerate their learning.”…Read More

Covid’S Hit on Education and Literacy Levels Will Impact a Generation – Can Ebooks Help Us?

Scholastic US research indicates that of children who had read an eBook, 26% of boys and 16% of girls said they were reading more books as a result. National Literacy Trust research found that boys were significantly more likely to say that they read on screen (65.7%) than in print (55.4%) outside school.[1]

To help tackle falling literacy levels and utilise the reading skills and motivation benefited from eBooks, ‘Nimble Stories’, a new eBook start-up company is launching a crowdfunding effort on Thursday, 4 March 2021.

Nimble Stories is an easy eBook subscription service for Schools, Parents and Guardians, providing short stories and children’s books – perfect for learning, fun adventures and bedtime reads. Nimble Stories will be releasing new titles every week, meaning you can always find something new – across both fiction and non-fiction categories. With unlimited downloads, your subscription makes sure the fun never stops. There’s no limit or allowance to worry about – just complete access to the entire Nimble Stories’ library, as if it were your own. All eBooks are easy to read, available offline and can even be printed at home or in the classroom.…Read More

Parents are critical to college and career readiness

On March 13, Keller, a second grader at Vermont’s Hinesburg Elementary, came home from school and didn’t return for six months. Like 20 million other students across the United States, Keller, with no preparation or warning, abruptly shifted to online learning.

Two hundred miles south of Hinesburg, Matt was a ninth grader when COVID-19 struck in Boston. Like Keller, he left school in mid-March and has not been back since. Thus began the most disruptive period in the history of American education.

Pick Boston, Hinesburg, or any other city or small town, and the story’s the same: Most students are learning less, and 10 percent of America’s K-12-aged students no longer attend class, either in-person or virtual.…Read More

Calling STEM Educators: Vernier Software & Technology Now Accepting Applications for its 2021 Engineering Award

Vernier Software & Technology is now accepting applications for the 2021 Vernier Engineering Award. The annual award, with prizes valued at $5,500, recognizes one middle school, high school, or college educator from any STEM subject area for innovatively using Vernier products to teach engineering concepts or practices to students.

“We are committed to supporting educators in every way possible as they work to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers,” said John Wheeler, CEO of Vernier Software & Technology. “The Vernier Engineering Award is one way to recognize educators for their innovative use of data-collection technology—whether it is being used in the classroom or remotely—as well as share their best practices with others.”

Applications for the Vernier Engineering Award are due by February 15, 2021, and the winner will be announced on the Vernier website and Vernier social media channels in March 2021. To enter, educators must complete an online application and produce a short video that briefly describes how they are using Vernier products and what engineering concepts or practices are being taught using them.…Read More

Kaiser Permanente, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and Discovery Education Offer New, No-Cost, Digital Resources Supporting Emotional Resiliency

In what has been an unprecedented and challenging year for schools across the U.S., educators now have access to new, no-cost digital content that supports their own and their students’ emotional resiliency from Ready, Set, RISE!, a unique virtual resource from  Kaiser PermanenteAlliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation), and  Discovery Education. Kaiser Permanente is the nation’s largest nonprofit and an integrated health system. Healthier Generation is a non-profit dedicated to creating environments supporting children’s physical, social, and emotional health. Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources and professional learning for K-12 classrooms.

Ready, Set, RISE! offers educators a series of no-cost, on-demand e-learning modules built to highlight the importance of human connection and empathy in schools. The series provides educators with a foundational understanding of trauma-informed educational practices and policies they can use to create more student-centered learning environments for all learners.

The first module focuses on educator self-care in any teaching environment, while the second module offers educators new strategies for helping students neutralize the effects of adversity, societal oppression, and implicit bias. Additional modules, coming in early 2021, will address how to recognize and respond to sign of trauma in schools and explore the science of implementation. Overall, the Ready, Set, RISE! series covers core social and emotional learning concepts, as well as logistical and administrative concerns regarding planning, implementing, and sustaining trauma-informed practices in schools.…Read More

Savvas Announces its enVision® Mathematics Common Core Grades 6-8 © 2021 Earns Highest Rating from EdReports

Savvas Learning Company, a next-generation learning solutions leader for K-12 education, is proud to announce that its enVision® Mathematics Common Core Grades 6-8 © 2021 received the highest rating from EdReports.org. With this latest designation, the nation’s most popular math program has earned “All-Green” ratings for the entire enVision Common Core K-12 series.

EdReports — the highly regarded, independent nonprofit designed to improve education by providing reviews of K-12 instructional materials — applies evidence-based analysis in evaluating math and ELA programs. By giving “All-Green” ratings to each of the products in the enVision Common Core K-12 line, EdReports has determined that the full math series consistently delivers high-quality, standards-aligned instructional material across all grade levels.

“We appreciate EdReports for recognizing the high-quality of our entire enVision K-12 math series,” said Savvas Learning Company CEO Bethlam Forsa. “Teaching with high-quality instructional materials has a direct impact on student learning outcomes. With its adaptive learning and innovative instructional design, enVision provides educators the high-quality curriculum they are looking for to increase both student engagement and achievement.”…Read More

Tobii Dynavox launches Boardmaker 7 – the new platform for special education

Tobii Dynavox, the global leader in assistive technology for communication, today announced the new generation of its special education platform Boardmaker. Boardmaker provides a fully inclusive education environment for parents, special education teachers and schools to millions of students around the world.

Boardmaker has been the world’s leading software for special education for the past 30 years and currently supports education, communication, and access needs for more than six million students in 51 countries. Hundreds of thousands of teachers rely on Boardmaker’s learning resources and have used it to develop more than a million education activities which all can be shared and accessed through the platform and its associated online user community.

In Boardmaker 7, features from previous generations have been combined in a new software that runs on Windows, Mac and Chromebooks in 14 languages. The software interacts seamlessly with Boardmaker’s online features, student management platform and the large online sharing community. It can be used by students via traditional computer interfaces, via touch screens, eye gaze and several other access options, making Boardmaker the most accessible platform on the market. Boardmaker 7 includes a modern and streamlined user interface allowing users to easily create and deliver print or interactive curriculum and communication support.…Read More

Savvas Launches New Interactive US and World History Series

Savvas Learning Company, a next-generation learning solutions provider for K-12 education, today announced the release of its new print and digital high school history series, US History Interactive ©2022 and World History Interactive ©2022, that promotes a deeper investigation of the past and connects history to the present.

With a focus on inquiry and critical thinking, the programs’ curriculum boosts student engagement with digital activities, culturally responsive content, and support for integrating social emotional learning skills. The series takes interactive learning to new heights with the inclusion of the award-winning Project Imagine series, which uses fully immersive experiences and diverse primary sources to make learning history come alive.

“History is more than the story of past events. It’s the story of people and their decisions, actions, and viewpoints, which in turn shape the story of our present and future. History becomes more relevant to students when they can experience it in a more personal way,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “Our new US History Interactive and World History Interactive series brings a modern lens to history by helping students make connections to compelling, real-world topics, while enabling them to become critical thinkers with valuable inquiry skills for college, career, and civic responsibility.”…Read More