Pivot to Remote Learning Allows TCS’ Ignite My Future in School Program to Reach 1 Million U.S. K-12 Students

NEW YORK, February 25, 2021:  Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that its Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) STEM/computer science education program — which was created in partnership with Discovery Education, the global leader in K-12 digital resources and professional learning — surpassed its five year goal of reaching one million U.S. K-12 students, a full year ahead of schedule. The pioneering program empowers educators to teach computational thinking, which are the critical skills that help students solve real-life problems and challenges by expressing them in a way that computers can solve.

In the wake of COVID-19, TCS moved the IMFIS program to a 100 percent virtual format, helping improve equity and access to high-quality digital content for educators and students, specifically those from under resourced communities. TCS will continue growing its investment to bring IMFIS to every student and educator in the U.S. and abroad, while focusing on supporting disconnected and marginalized student populations and empowering girls in STEM. Beyond the U.S., the virtual program is now enabled to be rapidly adopted by educators in more than 70 countries in response to the growing global interest in computational thinking resources to engage students.

Launched in September 2017, the program has now empowered nearly 20,000 teachers and 1.1 million students across 353 school districts, across all 50 U.S. states. The top 10 states for classroom adoption are California, Texas, New York, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Educators across core subjects use lessons such as Build a movement, where students learn how data and algorithms impact something that ‘goes viral’; Outbreak, where students analyze how a virus spreads and can be contained; and Emoji Essay, where students use abstraction to explore language and communication.…Read More

BetterLesson Appoints Seasoned Educational Technology Leader Matthew Kennard as CEO

BetterLesson, a leading provider of high quality virtual and in-person K-12 professional learning, announces Matthew Kennard as its new CEO. In this role, Kennard will guide BetterLesson’s accelerating growth and focus on scaling the business’ operations to meet demand. With Kennard adding operational expertise, BetterLesson co-founders Erin Osborn and Alex Grodd will concentrate on forging large-scale partnerships, iterating on existing products, and driving future product development.

“Matt is an experienced leader with deep domain expertise and insights. His long history of successful collaboration with school districts combined with deep user empathy for teachers and administrators make him a uniquely perfect fit for leading BetterLesson,” said Tory Patterson, BetterLesson board member and Managing Director at Owl Ventures.

BetterLesson launched in 2008 with a mission to provide a simple way for educators to connect and share high-quality lesson plans. Since then, the organization has grown into a professional development leader with a team that possesses extensive educational experience and a deep-seated commitment to equity in education. Trusted by thousands of educators and hundreds of schools, districts, and organizations, BetterLesson’s professional learning services are action-oriented, evidence-based, collaborative, and tailored to the needs of individual teachers and the students in their classrooms.…Read More

Latest Updates to Discovery Education’s Flexible K-12 Platform Keeps All Learners Connected to Engaging Content, Instructional Strategies, and Professional Learning

Discovery Education today announced a series of updates to its flexible, award-winning K-12 learning platform that will keep teachers and students connected to the service’s engaging content, instructional strategies, and professional learning resources wherever learning is taking place. Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources and professional learning for K-12 classrooms.

Discovery Education provides all educators and students a simple, secure, and reliable user experience. Recognizing that every school system has their own unique technological configuration, Discovery Education has architected its K-12 learning platform to maintain maximum flexibility in a variety of areas including:

Login – New updates to Discovery Education’s learning platform now allow teachers and students to login through a variety of ways, such as:…Read More

Osceola County Brings Flexible K-12 Learning Platform and Coding Resources to All Elementary Educators and Students Through Expanded Partnership with Discovery Education

Florida’s School District of Osceola County (SDOC) today announced the expansion of its multiyear partnership with Discovery Education.  In the latest phase of this collaboration, educators and elementary students in 29 schools will receive access to Discovery Education’s flexible K-12 learning platform, as well as an innovative Coding resource designed to provide elementary students a secure understanding of that important discipline’s fundamentals. Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms.

Earlier this year, the SDOC team was looking for supplemental, cross-curricular digital resources to support elementary students’ continued academic growth during in-person and virtual instruction. The district selected Discovery Education’s flexible K-12 learning platform, which connects educators to a vast collection of compelling high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, and professional learning resources. Together, these resources give educators everything they need to facilitate instruction in any learning environment and create lasting educational impact.

Discovery Education’s team continues adding, contextualizing, and organizing exciting new content and timely resources to the platform each month in response to current events and the ever-evolving needs of educators. These resources, sourced from trusted partners, are aligned to state and national standards, and help educators bring the outside world into teaching and learning every day.…Read More

Here’s what helps–and hinders–K-12 innovation

A personalized, learner-centered educational experience is one of the main drivers of K-12 innovation and extraordinary student outcomes, according to CoSN’s annual innovation survey.

The survey includes three categories: accelerators that pave the way for teaching and learning innovation in schools, hurdles that hinder it, and tech enablers are tools that districts can leverage to surmount hurdles and embrace accelerators.

Accelerators of K-12 innovation include:
1. Personalization: As the consumer sector has exploded with new ways to customize user experiences and products, schools are also finding ways to provide customized learning and support at the individual level.
2. Social and emotional learning: A core function of education is building skills and understanding mental, social, and emotional well-being, including empathy, grit, persistence, flexibility, and adaptability.
3. Learner autonomy: Learner autonomy is all about student agency, encompassing anything from letting students choose how they access content, to how they organize their learning, to how they exhibit their learning.…Read More

Mark Friedman Joins Frontline Education as Chief Marketing Officer

Frontline Education™, a leading provider of school administration software purpose-built for K-12, today announced that Mark Friedman has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Friedman will lead Frontline Education’s go-to-market strategy, business development and client communications programs, bringing 25 years of sales, marketing and business development experience to the company.

“The chief marketing officer is critical to the future success of Frontline Education as we continue to scale the company, growing our portfolio and our brand,” said Mark Gruzin, CEO of Frontline Education. “We are excited for Mark Friedman to bring his broad expertise and client-centric approach to Frontline, enhancing ur go-to-market initiatives with a proactive strategy that provides tangible value to our clients.”

Prior to joining Frontline Education, Friedman served as SVP, Global Customer Success for Genesys, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer for SoundBite Communications, President & CEO of Peppercoin and VP of Global Marketing for Lucent/Kenan Systems. In these various positions and throughout his career, Friedman has explored the organic integrations between marketing, customer success, and other customer-facing functions.…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

Personalized, Peer-To-Peer Tutoring and Flexible Jobs for Students

Few groups were hit as hard by the pandemic as our nation’s youth. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, COVID-19 disrupted an estimated 56.4 million K-12 students’ studies, and another 19.7 million U.S. college students felt its negative impact. Countless young adults lost or were unable to secure critical part-time jobs. Now, Knoyo Tutoring has launched, with an innovative concept that offers personalized tutoring from college honor students to students of all ages in a supportive, stress-free community. The company was created by a diverse team of 18 college students in collaboration with The National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS), a student-centric honors and scholarship organization. Knoyo’s mission is to provide students with a pressure-free environment where they can learn, share experiences and knowledge, and navigate their world with confidence.

“Overnight, COVID-19 turned students’ lives upside down. The abrupt switch to online learning created massive academic setbacks and students needed help,” said Knoyo President James Lewis. “We moved quickly to convene a team of outstanding college students who worked with us to create a relevant, contemporary tutoring service centered on a relationship-driven student experience. It also meets an economic need by offering a flexible source of income for college students who tutor through the program.”

Knoyo is a 24/7 virtual tutoring platform and community that’s different from other tutoring services in a number of important ways. First, it lets students chose the tutor that best fits their needs based on subject matter expertise, college, and common interests. Knoyo goes beyond offering test prep to providing help with homework, raising students’ GPAs, and supporting them in the college application process. Tutors come from a wide range of universities, from junior colleges to the Ivy League, ensuring there’s a match for every student. Tutors can set their own schedules and rates, and sessions are coordinated on the Knoyo platform.…Read More

NASA and Discovery Education Invite Educators and Students Worldwide to Join the Exploration of Mars Through a Special Livestream of the Perseverance Rover’s Landing

On February 18, 2021,  NASA’s Perseverance rover is set to touch down on Mars and begin exploration of the Red Planet. To commemorate this historic occasion,  Discovery Education—the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms—is partnering with  NASA to bring students worldwide a special no–cost livestream of this momentous event.

This special livestream of the Perseverance rover’s landing on Mars is scheduled to begin on Thursday, February 18 at 2:15 p.m. ET.   Featuring insights from NASA experts and a behind-the-scenes look at the activities of the Perseverance mission control team, the livestream will culminate with the rover’s real-time touchdown on Mars. To register to attend this event, visit Discovery Education’s  Mars Landing Livestream homepage.

In addition to the livestream, Discovery Education and NASA are making available exclusive resources supporting the integration of NASA’s latest mission to Mars into classroom instruction.  Among these helpful resources is a 3-2-1 Pyramid graphic organizer to help educators build students’ summarization and critical thinking skills while watching the Countdown to Mars livestream.  Another resource available to support educators sharing this event with students is a ready-to-use Studio Slideshow.  Using this Slideshow, educators can fuel student interest in space, build knowledge, and check for understanding about relevant topics.  These resources and others being made available to educators and students are designed to be used in any learning environment and can be found on Discovery Education’s  Mars Landing Livestream homepage.…Read More

ManagedMethods Launches Industry-leading Student Cyber Safety Monitoring Powered by Artificial Intelligence

ManagedMethods, the leading Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 cybersecurity, student safety, and compliance platform for K-12 school districts, today announced the launch of its Signals student safety monitoring feature.

Signals by ManagedMethods is an AI-powered student safety monitoring feature that helps administrators detect when a student is in crisis and in danger of potentially harming themselves. It does this by monitoring district Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 accounts for distress signals, and hidden cries for help. Upon detection, Signals sends alerts to designated school administrators in real-time. These alerts include the information needed to understand the incident, allowing for quick response to a student in need.

“We have put a tremendous amount of effort into developing the K-12 education industry’s leading AI technology for student safety monitoring over this past year,” said Charlie Sander, Chief Executive Officer at ManagedMethods. “Student safety is such an important focal point in making—and keeping—schools safe. We’re proud to see Signals already making a positive impact on students and staff in schools today.”…Read More

IXL Learning Agrees to Acquire Wyzant Tutoring Marketplace

IXL Learning, the K-12 personalized learning platform used by 11 million students, today announced it has agreed to acquire Wyzant, the nation’s largest marketplace for online tutoring. The addition of the Chicago-based company will expand IXL’s capacity to address the needs of all students with personalized, one-on-one mentoring. 

Founded in 2005, Wyzant offers an expansive digital network of more than 65,000 tutors from a broad spectrum of academic and professional fields. Wyzant seamlessly connects students to the perfect tutor for online or in-person lessons geared toward their unique needs. Wyzant tutors serve learners of all ages and backgrounds, offering in-depth guidance on topics including English, language arts, physics, calculus, coding, LSAT test prep, music and more. 

“Wyzant expertly brings together students and world-class instructors. We’re excited to welcome Wyzant’s talented team to IXL and build a strong partnership rooted in a love of learning,” said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL.  …Read More