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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.

K12 Technology Company Edlio Acquires SchoolInfo, Launches Edlio Access App

GLENDALE, Calif. (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Edlio, leading provider of technology solutions for K-12 schools, is pleased to announce its acquisition of SchoolInfo, creators of premier mobile apps for schools.

SchoolInfo has proudly served the education market for 10 years, and has created mobile apps for more than 2,500 schools, districts, and other organizations. Nearly 3 million teachers, parents, and students worldwide rely on SchoolInfo products.

Edlio serves over 16,000 schools, and is a proven partner for K-12 leaders. Since 2001 they have worked to innovate and adapt to the ever-changing needs of teachers and school administrators. Edlio’s technology is designed to be user-friendly for any educator, yet powerful enough to meet the needs of even the largest school districts and communities.…Read More

SchoolStatus Acquires TeachBoost, Enhancing Communications and Support Solutions for K12 Educators

RIDGELAND, Miss. , March 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — SchoolStatus, a leading provider of K-12 school communications solutions designed to improve student outcomes through data and parent engagement, announced today the acquisition of TeachBoost, a privately-held, education software company that builds tools to support educator observations, evaluations, and coaching.

The acquisition of TeachBoost further accelerates SchoolStatus’ strong momentum and supports its strategy to build a K12 communications and operations ecosystem that leverages the power of its data and engagement platform to drive better user experiences and student outcomes.

Since its founding in 2012, TeachBoost has built simple, user-friendly tools to help educators elevate observation, evaluation, and professional development beyond compliance. Its cloud-based platforms—TeachBoost Pro and TeachBoost Coach—enable schools and districts to create more meaningful interactions among teachers, coaches, and administrators, and to drive smarter, data-driven decisions about the best way to develop educators. TeachBoost’s platforms can be customized to meet the needs of schools, districts, and organizations of any size and across any workflow. Its robust reporting and data visualization tools help make the best use of limited time and resources to make sure every student experiences the highest quality instruction.

“The addition of TeachBoost enables SchoolStatus to offer our district partners a leading solution for every step of the K12 teacher development process, from evaluation and compliance to personalized coaching that drives educator growth,” said Russ Davis, CEO and founder of SchoolStatus. “It’s an excellent complement to our leading data and communications platform, as it will help strengthen communications between educators, administrators, and coaches, ultimately leading to greater student success.”

“At a time when teachers and kids need more support than ever before, we need to make sure educators have the tools to leverage every interaction as an opportunity for growth,” says Jason DeRoner, TeachBoost’s CEO and co-founder. “Stronger teacher–leader relationships lead to increased greater educator capacity, which in turn drives student achievement. The combined forces of TeachBoost and SchoolStatus will help teachers and leaders establish and deepen critical relationships based on mutual trust and transparency.”

About SchoolStatus
SchoolStatus is a leading provider of a K12 communications and operations ecosystem that leverages the power of its data analytics and engagement platform to drive better user experiences and student outcomes. SchoolStatus removes technology, language, and access barriers to parent engagement, and has successfully facilitated hundreds of millions of messages between educators and student families through its platform. SchoolStatus, along with its recent acquisitions of the Operoo and TeachBoost, gives educators across 44 states access to the leading solutions for insights and data to support strategic decision-making. For more information, visit schoolstatus.com.

Latest NWEA Research Shows K12 Educational Gaps Still Wide, but Show Signs of Stabilizing

PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ —  NWEA — a not-for-profit, research and educational services provider serving K-12 students — today released  new research that illustrates the scale and disproportionate nature of the disruption in student learning resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The research,  Learning during COVID-19: An update on student achievement and growth at the start of the 2021-22 school year, is the third in a series of research briefs by NWEA focused on understanding how the pandemic has affected student reading and mathematics outcomes.

The research examined   MAP Growth assessment scores from six million U.S. public school students in grades 3-8 from fall 2021 compared to students in the same grade in fall of 2019, the last quarter unaffected by COVID-19. The research found evidence of significant levels of unfinished learning, particularly in math, however, gaps between current achievement and pre-pandemic achievement have not increased since the end of 2020-21, which may indicate the impacts of the pandemic are stabilizing. 

Key findings include: …Read More

Emeritus Expands into K12 through Acquisition of iD Tech Bringing Equitable STEM Education to Adults and Youth Globally

The companies will bring expert instruction in STEM fields to individuals worldwide,with a shared goal of bridging the STEM opportunity gap

Singapore and Mumbai, India– May 19, 2021 –  Emeritus, the global leader in making high-quality education accessible and affordable to individuals, companies, and governments around the world, announced today a definitive agreement to acquire iD Tech, the world leader in youth STEM education for $200 million. The acquisition, which is being made through Emeritus’ parent company Eruditus, marks Emeritus’ expansion into K12 STEM education, as the company grows to prepare individuals of all ages to succeed in the workforce, and positions Emeritus as one of the largest and fastest growing skilling platforms. Upon the closing of the transaction, iD Tech will operate independently, maintaining its all-star team of instructors and employees. Emeritus and iD Tech’s distinct, yet highly complementary, offerings will be scaled to support a global audience with improved learning experiences.

STEM career opportunities are projected to grow exponentially, with an estimated 3.5 million jobs in the U.S. alone that need to be filled by 2025. With offerings from both companies in coding, math, game development, robotics and more, Emeritus and iD Tech are positioned to make STEM learning more accessible, paving the way for brighter futures in STEM occupations.…Read More

K-12 education needs a cybersecurity overhaul

The 2019-2020 school year faced unprecedented challenges with the abrupt shift to remote learning brought about by the pandemic. But while schools struggled to adapt to these changes, there was another troubling trend on the rise: a surge in cybersecurity attacks.

A recent report from the nonprofit K12 Security Information Exchange found that these incidents increased 18 percent over the last year to reach a record high, equating to more than two cybersecurity incidents per day.

This statistic underscores that the K-12 sector is increasingly becoming a prime target for attack. And, as the report put it, “while policymakers and school leaders have historically demonstrated a reasonable duty of care in protecting members of their school communities from physical security risks, natural disasters, and extreme weather events…such a commitment has heretofore largely been absent with respect to school-related cybersecurity risk.”…Read More

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New Collaboration Gives Online Teachers a Standard for Improving Successful Outcomes

Standard for Success, the industry-leader in teacher evaluation software, and Stride, Inc., the nation’s leading provider of online and blended education, have entered into a new agreement that will allow online teachers at Stride K12-powered schools, and even school districts to evaluate online teacher performance, competencies, and domains in real-time.

“After a school year like no other, parents, students and districts have worked hard to provide educational solutions for their students.” said Todd Whitlock, CEO and co-founder of Standard for Success. “Our custom tool standardizes the feedback opportunities for teachers and administrators. This aggregates teacher observations for real-time coaching, to celebrate excellence, and to help improve teacher and student growth all in line with our goal to help schools develop better teachers, better students, and a better world.” 

The tool is expected to roll-out across all Stride K12-powered schools this school year providing teacher feedback to improve outcomes as students head toward end of year testing.…Read More

School District Uses Digital Signage to Stay Connected

Keeping connected amidst the global pandemic has become critically important for schools. Central Lyon School District in Rock Rapids, Iowa has leveraged its digital signage to facilitate sporting events and maintain a community spirit – even while observing official health and safety guidelines. 

Central Lyon is a unique K12 school district that serves 780 students, from preschool to high school, in one large campus building. While they were fortunate to be able to open for the fall 2020 school term, they needed to adapt to new protocols and guidelines for social distancing. 

In addition to mandatory mask-wearing for students, there are also limitations on attendance for sports and other events. School safety is of utmost importance so digital signage has been an important ally in communicating the social distancing regulations and attendance capacity limits. …Read More

Rise Vision Creates Free Black History Month Posters for Schools

In honor of Black History Month, Rise Vision has released 10 FREE Black History Month posters for schools to print out, share on their digital signage, websites, and social media, or use in their classrooms and lesson plans.

The posters are available for download in high-resolution JPG and landscape and portrait-oriented PDFs.

“As a software company that supports K12 schools, we live and breathe technology development and all things education. For Black History Month, we want to help raise the visibility of unsung contributors to U.S. and world history.” Shea Darlison, Head of Marketing…Read More

Instructure Acquires Certica Solutions to Make Learning Personal for Every Student

Instructure today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Certica Solutions, an industry leader in K12 assessment and analytics, and longtime partner of Canvas and MasteryConnect. Through this acquisition, Instructure will provide the comprehensive and open set of tools educators need to drive student outcomes by bringing together a learning management system, assessment management system, assessment content, and data analytics into one streamlined K12 learning experience.

“This topsy-turvy year has only underscored just how important it is to know if our students are learning, whether they are being taught in the classroom or online,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. “Welcoming Certica into the Instructure family will support educators by combining our assessment platform with smarter, standards-based assessments, assessment item banks, and powerful analytics empowering educators to make learning personal for each student.”

Certica has been a pioneer in K12 assessment creating a high-impact program of standards-aligned item bank content, predictive benchmark assessment, rigorous formative assessment, and teacher-ready analytics to provide the most immediate, accessible and actionable data for educators to use in the classroom.…Read More