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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.

Schools in All 50 States and Two U.S. Territories Offer Students Access to Quality Online Courses from VHS Learning

Boston – Feb. 3, 2022 – In 2021, 44 new schools partnered with VHS Learning, a nonprofit empowering schools with the industry’s best teacher-led online learning programs. Located across the United States and around the world, these school partners are now offering their students access to the nonprofit’s more than 300 core and elective courses online. With the addition of these schools, VHS Learning is now partnered with schools in all 50 states, two U.S. territories, and 63 countries.

“Having partners in all 50 states is a first for us, and it’s extremely fitting that this milestone marks our 25th anniversary” said Carol DeFuria, President & CEO of VHS Learning. “Our students have maintained a high level of academic performance even during the pandemic, by continuing to surpass national averages for Advanced Placement® pass rates. Our history of excellence helps schools feel confident about choosing VHS Learning to meet their online education needs.”

The new U.S. school partners are in twelve states – Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. New international school partners are in China, Taiwan, Korea, Portugal, Sierra Leone, and the United Arab Emirates.…Read More

Kiddom Expands Partnership with Kendall Hunt Publishing

SAN FRANCISCO — January 12, 2022 — Kiddom, the first all-in-one education platform for high-quality digital curriculum, today announced an expansion of its partnership with Kendall Hunt Publishing. As a Certified Partner of the nonprofit OpenSciEd since August 2021, Kendall Hunt will offer a customized version of OpenSciEd’s high-quality middle school science instructional materials in a dynamic format through Kiddom’s comprehensive digital curriculum platform. This expansion comes on the heels of Kiddom and Kendall Hunt’s successful partnership in February 2021 to provide the Illustrative Mathematics K-12 math curriculum to users interested in a more robust or exclusively digital experience.

“Working with Kendall Hunt for the past year has been a dream for Kiddom and we’re thrilled to further strengthen our partnership with the integration of their customized OpenSciEd offering for middle school science,” said Abbas Manjee, co-founder and Chief Academic Officer at Kiddom. “OpenSciEd’s commitment to flexibility and quality directly align with Kiddom’s core values and we are looking forward to offering a dynamic, fully customizable version of OpenSciEd’s standards-aligned materials on our digital curriculum platform.”

Kiddom provides teachers and administrators with all the tools they need in one digital setting so they have a single, cohesive place to seamlessly access high-quality content and personalized learning. With Kiddom, teachers no longer need to juggle multiple tools and can access 70,000+ high-quality, modifiable, standards-aligned curated supplemental resources in an integrated content library. Its key features are in alignment with the five key features of OpenSciEd’s instructional materials, including:…Read More

How to assess your school’s indoor air quality

COVID-19 ushered forth a plethora of new safety guidelines and strategies intended to bring students and teachers back to the classroom as safely as possible. Indoor air quality has topped the list of school leaders’ concerns.

With students back in physical classrooms, air quality must take priority regardless of a district’s mask policy.

Join this eSchool News webinar to learn about:…Read More

Delaware Department of Education, DuPont and Discovery Education Launch First-of-Its-Kind Partnership Supporting STEM, Career, and Technical Education Statewide

DOVER, Del., Nov. 22, 2021 – The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE), DuPont (NYSE: DD) and Discovery Education today announced a new, first-of-its-kind partnership that will increase student access to high-quality STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) instructional resources, as well as instructional materials and other supports to enhance career and technical education programs across the state. The three-year partnership program directly supports the Delaware Pathways initiative — an innovative effort helping students develop the academic, technical, and employability skills needed for successful, in-demand jobs across Delaware.

“Acquiring academic knowledge, technical skills, and meaningful work experience gives students the freedom to choose their life’s path,” said Delaware Secretary of Education Susan Bunting. “This new partnership provides Delaware students an even better opportunity to develop the skills needed for the careers of tomorrow. Thus, I look forward to supporting the progress of this exciting new collaboration.”

“Connecting what is being taught in the classroom to Delaware employers is critical,” said Luke Rhine, Director, Career & Technical Education and STEM Initiatives at the Delaware Department of Education. “The resources provided through this partnership will support middle school and high school teachers as they build bridges between classrooms and careers for all students. We are thankful for partners like DuPont who share our goals related to STEM- and career-focused education.”…Read More

Positive Action, Inc. Enters Partnership to Distribute Content via PresenceLearning’s Therapy Platform

TWIN FALLS, IDAHO, November 11, 2021 – Positive Action, Inc. (“PAI”), the leading education  and technology company for evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs, has  entered a distribution partnership with PresenceLearning, Inc., the leading provider of live online therapy tools and special education related services for K-12 schools.

“PresenceLearning’s technology platform is breaking down barriers for students to access quality special education services from a live clinician,” said Alex Allred, CEO of PAI. “We are delighted to pair our SEL curriculum content with PresenceLearning’s platform in support of the mutual objective of delivering the most effective SEL learning experience to students.”

Via PresenceLearning’s platform, students log in from school or home to live teletherapy sessions with licensed clinicians. Special education related services delivered include speech language therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral and mental health therapy, and assessments. Clinicians within PresenceLearning’s network will be able to access complete digital curriculum materials from Positive Action’s SEL programs, including comprehensive education materials (most with approximately 140 lessons), student activity sheets, thumbnail graphics for posters, and other visual aids. Proven effective in multiple randomized controlled trials, the Positive Action SEL program is designed for use in all tiers of instruction and includes specialized materials designed for drug education, anti-bullying, family, and counselor objectives.…Read More

6 pillars of strong online PD

A 2021 study by the Council of the Great City Schools emphasizes the need for teachers to have ongoing access to high-quality professional development (PD). The study maintains that high-quality PD “must be actionable and contextualized within the framework of daily classroom life – whether those classrooms are physical, virtual, or hybrid.”

This study, along with recent events, demonstrates that, as with most other forms of education, professional development needs to be flexible and convenient yet still robust.

Face-to-face PD is still the optimal experience, of course, but sometimes that’s just not an option. And, while webinars offer a decent alternative, I would like to posit that online PD is an even better option for these times.…Read More

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Schools are getting creative as they strive to improve indoor air quality

After shouldering responsibilities for keeping students and staff safe and healthy in a global pandemic – you may have felt the weight of the world on your shoulders for the past several months or still feeling this with expectations for next year.

The changes and demands of the past year are a lot for school administrators – and their heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems – to handle. As we are hearing from public health experts and air quality specialists, effective ventilation systems are essential to help reduce the transmission of the COVID-19 virus or any other airborne illness in public facilities, from office buildings and restaurants to schools.

In his book Healthy Buildings, author Joseph G. Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program and associate professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, concludes that up to 90 percent of schools in the U.S. are not meeting the minimum ventilation standards set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).…Read More

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4 tips to make virtual learning fun for students

While COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available, the Delta variant of the virus is raging across the country and forcing schools to navigate continued risk. Because of this, the virtual learning experience has lasted.

Educators, fatigued by tech challenges, student disengagement, reduced virtual attendance, and lower test scores, are worried. That said, virtual learning will continue for the foreseeable future because, still, no one knows what that future looks like.

Educators will have to focus on the advantages of the virtual classroom system, ways to improve virtual learning as a whole, and the quality of online education. By learning to engage virtual students in digital classrooms, educators will be able to build relationships with and teach students well–no matter what the world looks like as the rest of 2021 rolls on.…Read More

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