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.

Specialized Education Services, Inc. Unveils 2023 Staff and Teacher of the Year Winners

PHILADELPHIA (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Specialized Education Services, Inc. (SESI), a division of FullBloom, a premier provider of education services for K-12 students who require additional educational and positive behavioral supports to overcome challenges that impede success in a traditional school setting, today announced Kristi Hoffman as its 2023 Teacher of the Year (TOY) and Ashanti Brooks as its 2023 Staff of the Year (STOY). The designations were officially made last week as SESI celebrated Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week.

SESI’s second annual STOY designation honors teachers who exemplify high-quality, evidence-based instruction and the importance of equitable education for all SESI students. New for 2023, full-time employees including social workers, behavior specialists and paraprofessionals, were eligible for nomination. The STOY program recognizes exemplary staff who demonstrate unparalleled dedication to supporting all students.

“SESI is delighted to celebrate Kristi and Ashanti, regional and campus level winners, and all nominees on the heels of this important week devoted to honoring the exceptional professionals in education,” said Dawn Thomas, president of SESI. “Our compassionate staff and teachers work tirelessly to unlock the potential of every student, a mission that has become increasingly crucial as the number of students receiving special education has grown over the past decade. Their passion for fostering student growth is evident in every classroom, therapy session and special activity.”…Read More

Poor math scores could be a result of student burnout

With math scores falling globally, top high school math students point to academic burnout as a key factor. Among their recommended solutions to boost math performance? Tackle the root cause of burnout, get diversion through non-academic activities, and make STEM classes more applicable to everyday life.

That’s the finding of a survey of 16- to 18-year-olds in the U.S. and U.K. conducted in March by Philadelphia-based Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). The survey gathered responses from 1,000 11th and 12th grade students from across the U.S. and sixth form students in England and Wales, as well as some of their teachers, to get their insights on the impact events of the last three years have had on math performance. The students queried are participants in this year’s MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge (M3 Challenge), an annual internet-based, intensive math modeling contest organized by SIAM.

“The poll shows that even top students have been struggling with school-related pressures, with 83 percent saying that they have experienced or somewhat experienced academic burnout in the last two years, and 32 percent saying their anxiety over math has increased,” said Dr. Karen Bliss, Senior Manager of Education and Outreach at SIAM. “Yet, rather than following the downward math performance trend, the majority still did well in math, with 35 percent landing even better math grades than previous years and 55 percent maintaining their average.”…Read More

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Alliance for Decision Education Unveils First K-12 Learning Standards for Decision Education

PHILADELPHIA — The Alliance for Decision Education, a national nonprofit organization leading the movement to have decision-making skills taught in K-12 schools, today announced the publication of its new K-12 Learning Standards. The Standards represent the movement’s initial effort to provide a framework for what a student should know and be able to do, with respect to learning how to be an effective decision maker. They are intended to be integrated into various classroom subject areas to inspire new ideas, meaningful shifts in pedagogy, new curricula, and school models that empower students to become skillful at making decisions.

“Students today face an unprecedented barrage of information that shapes their decisions and ultimately their lives over the long-term,” said Joe Sweeney, Executive Director of the Alliance. “As we continue to build a national movement for Decision Education, we hope that educators will read these standards, share them with colleagues, put them into practice, and offer us feedback to help turn these learning progressions into reality for this next generation and beyond.”

The Learning Standards can be found on the newly redesigned Alliance website, which is a part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to raise the awareness of Decision Education and provide tools to help incorporate it into K-12 classrooms. The updated site offers education resources, video and interactive materials, as well as blog posts and podcast episodes, all of which make it easy for visitors to learn about Decision Education and its importance to students, teachers, and families.…Read More

Board of Education President Joyce S. Wilkerson Receives The Benjamin Elijah Mays Lifetime Achievement Award

PHILADELPHIA – Board of Education President Joyce S. Wilkerson received the Benjamin Elijah Mays Lifetime Achievement Award today for her longstanding commitment to the educational needs of urban school children. The Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) presents this award each year to recognize current or former school board members who have made a difference for the students they serve. 

During her six-year tenure with the School District, Ms. Wilkerson guided the School District’s transition from the state-controlled School Reform Commission to the locally controlled Board of Education in 2018. The Board then oversaw the transformation of a District in fiscal and academic distress to one that improved educational outcomes for students, while it developed strong financial management, attaining an investment grade rating from Moody’s Investor Services for the first time since 1977.

Under Ms. Wilkerson’s leadership, the Board has developed partnerships that have generated additional support for students and has made investments to advance the Board’s strategic plan, known as Goals & Guardrails. In 2019, Ms. Wilkerson led the Board’s work to create and implement Goals & Guardrails, a plan designed to increase student achievement while providing the necessary conditions that support learning. …Read More

Catapult Learning Introduces New High-Dosage Tutoring Program To Reinforce Foundational Math And Literacy Skills For K-12 Students

August 23, 2021, PHILADELPHIA – Catapult Learning, a provider of intervention programs for students and professional development solutions for teachers in both public and nonpublic K-12 schools, today announced the availability of its new high-dosage tutoring offering, an intensive program designed to reinforce students’ foundational skills and quickly recover their unfinished learning. Debuting as students return to school, the program supports academic and social emotional growth during this critical time in their educational journey. It is uniquely designed for grades K-12 and features an acceleration approach that targets key prerequisite and grade-level standards and skills, providing a personalized plan to guide instruction and support differentiation.

With more than 5,000 educators, Catapult’s proprietary high-dosage tutoring program is designed to scale individualized learning. Led by expertly trained tutors, the program begins with an academic diagnostic assessment to pinpoint areas in which support is needed. From there, an individualized plan is created to set learning goals, followed by flexible instruction up to five times a week, with 45+ minute sessions in small group settings. Students are re-assessed throughout the program to monitor progress and growth, allowing for ongoing plan recalibration and goal resetting.

“Our high-dosage tutoring solution is an evolution in Catapult’s mission to help our partners positively impact every child with whom they engage,” said Devon Wible, vice president of academics, Catapult Learning. “This comprehensive and integrated approach for families and schools focuses on the whole student, optimizing academic and social-emotional outcomes to accelerate learning and enable significant achievement over a single school year.”…Read More

Cablecast Community Media Platform and Screenweave LIVE Keep North Penn School District Students Broadcasting

As the educational access channel for the North Penn School District, North Penn Television (NPTV) brings timely information to residents in the Montgomery County suburbs of Philadelphia via its cable channel, website, and social media. When schools across Pennsylvania closed earlier this year during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff and students leveraged Tightrope Media Systems’ Cablecast Community Media platform and new Screenweave LIVE cloud-based service to continue broadcasting to their community.

North Penn School District comprises 13 elementary schools, three middle schools, and one high school. Operated by high school students under the guidance of the district’s Coordinator of Communications Media, Bob Gillmer, NPTV covers everything from Board of School Directors’ meetings to high school sports and concerts. In addition to its weekly “Mornings” news program, NPTV also broadcasts the monthly “North Penn Right Now” live to the community and to all of the district’s 13,000 students and staff in their classrooms or offices.

NPTV had already been using the Cablecast platform as its playout and automation system prior to the pandemic, with Gillmer praising its ease of use and rich feature set as ideal for the educational channel. “It has all the tools that you really need, particularly for a PEG channel, college or school at our level,” he said. “It even has tools you may not realize you need yet, and then when you think ‘I wish I could do this,’ you find that it’s already there.”…Read More

How Owen J. Roberts School District made the remote transition

That COVID “where were you when” moment from last March is still fresh in Paul Sanfrancesco’s mind. Watching neighboring districts announce closures and realizing his own faculty would be stranded at home, contingency plans were hatched and devices were launched to prep students for remote learning.

And while no one could have been completely prepared for what has since developed, schools in the Owen J. Roberts School District (OJRSD) were already using several learning management tools that eased the transition. They also continue to learn new techniques and strategies as all schools everywhere move into the unknown.

Sanfrancesco is Director of Technology for OJRSD. The district, located in northern Chester County, Pennsylvania, comprises five elementary schools, one middle school, and the Owen J. Roberts High School. The student population for the entire district is around 4,800 students. Sanfrancesco teaches as a professor in the Graduate Education Department at Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA and Neumann University, Aston, PA. He was named CTO of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology and one of the “20 to Watch” educators by the National School Boards Association for his work in IT.…Read More

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How we found budget for student programs in our printers

Demographics

Hatboro-Horsham School District, located in suburban Philadelphia, has a strong history of academic excellence. Serving approximately 5,000 students, the district provides education from grades K-12.

It has received blue ribbon honors from both the Pennsylvania and United States Departments of Education. Hatboro-Horsham’s schoolboard, parents, teachers, and staff are committed to moving into the future of education.…Read More

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30+ new tools and services we saw at ISTE 2019

Another ISTE has come and gone–were you in Philadelphia for ISTE 2019? If not, don’t worry–we’re highlighting some of the newest and most innovative edtech tools we saw at the show.

Coding and robotics (check out our ISTE 2019 robotics round-up), social and emotional learning, and building employability skills were at the top of the many trends and focus areas highlighted during the conference.

It was nearly impossible to see and attend everything the conference had to offer, and many educators who couldn’t attend followed keynotes with the #ISTE19 hashtag (they also threw in a #NotAtISTE tag for good measure).…Read More

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3 winning characteristics of a school STEAM program

I started my career at The Shipley School, an independent K-12 school located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, at an innovative and exciting juncture. In 2014, Shipley was starting an engineering course from scratch, and having spent several years in the industry as an engineer and several more as a math and science teacher in Philadelphia-area schools, I jumped at the opportunity to pioneer a new program as an Upper School (grades 9-12) teacher.

At the same time, Shipley was making great strides to build out its STEAM program, which is similar to a STEM program. It includes science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses, but also has an added focus on the arts. A STEAM program offers a more holistic approach to education than STEM, marrying subjects that traditionally have been separate–like arts and engineering.

From formalizing plans to create a “MakerSpace” outfitted with 3-D printers to incorporating STEAM projects in classrooms across disciplines, these initiatives underscored Shipley’s mission of developing a love of learning in each student and preparing them for whatever may come beyond the confines of the classroom after high school and college.…Read More

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