The Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) Announces New Regional Directors

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 30, 2021) – The Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) has elected Pedro Rivera and Dr. Frank Rodriguez to its Board of Directors. Rivera, who is the former Pennsylvania Secretary of Education and currently serves as president of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Pennsylvania, was named the Director of Region 6 Northeast. Rodriguez, who is superintendent of the Beaufort County School District in South Carolina, was named director of Region 7 Southeast.

ALAS announced the appointments during the ALAS 18th Annual National Summit in October. As regional directors, Rivera and Rodriguez will support the work being done by the ALAS State Affiliates in their respective regions. Region 6 Northeast includes the Washington DC area, New York, and Pennsylvania. Region 7 Southeast includes Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

“Our regional directors are an incredible resource for school and district leaders in their regions,” said ALAS Executive Director Dr. Maria Armstrong. “President Rivera and Dr. Rodriguez understand the education issues that impact the Latino community and have long histories of educational leadership. We look forward to their support of our state affiliates and the Latino-serving leaders in these regions.”…Read More

What will it take to protect schools’ digital landscape?

Malicious actors have been turning their attention to the nation’s schools in a significant and unwelcome way. The State of K-12 Cybersecurity: 2020 Year in Review report found an 18 percent increase in publicly-disclosed incidents over 2019 – the equivalent of more than two incidents per school day in 2020. Education was the second-most targeted sector in the first half of 2021, according to the a midyear threat report.

The shift to remote learning last year is partly to blame for this rise in attacks, as teachers and students relied on technology to deliver lessons, complete homework, and interact with students. When attackers target schools, learning is often disrupted, sometimes for days, as critical systems are taken offline.

The problem is significant enough that President Joe Biden signed into law the K-12 Cybersecurity Act, strengthening federal efforts to examine the cyber risks facing these institutions. And just what are those risks – and what needs to happen next? Read on.…Read More

Automation can help K-12 cybersecurity–here’s how

Across industries, ransomware and cyberattacks have proliferated in the past year, largely due to the rapid shift to remote work and school. The education sector has been hit particularly hard–the 2020 calendar year saw a record-setting 408 publicly disclosed cybersecurity incidents in the K-12 sector, according to The State of K-12 Cybersecurity: 2020 Year in Review.

The report, put out by the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, found that the attacks affected 377 school districts in 40 states and cost millions of dollars to resolve.

The unfortunate reality is that the problem isn’t going to go away–the threat landscape will continue to expand. And compounding this is the fact that education IT departments are too often underfunded. This is where automation can play a key role.…Read More

West Sound STEM Network Expands Partnership with Slooh to Engage More Students in Space Exploration

Washington Depot, Connecticut, October 29, 2021 – Slooh, the only organization offering live online telescope feeds of amazing astronomical events to students, and the West Sound STEM Network recently expanded their partnership to help more teachers and students throughout northwest Washington State engage in space exploration that is aligned with state and national standards. After successfully providing a number of Network member schools with access to Slooh’s robotic telescopes and patented Mission Interface last year, West Sound STEM Network is now expanding the program to reach 250 teachers and 10,000 students. This comes as Slooh works toward its goal of helping one million students nationwide experience the wonder of space from their classroom and home computers.

“Our partnership with Slooh is – and has been – highly inspirational for our teachers and students,” said Dr. Kareen Borders, executive director of the West Sound STEM Network. “Our schools are actively exploring the moon, Mars, and beyond in real time!”

Serving the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, the West Sound STEM Network is a public-private regional network committed to building PreK-career pathways to postsecondary credentials and a stronger STEM workforce. The cross-sector network of businesses, school districts, education agencies, higher education institutions, Career and Technical Education (CTE) practitioners and providers, government, military, community, Tribes, library systems, nonprofits, out-of-school providers, and workforce development agencies introduce and link students, teachers, and the community to high-quality STEM resources, such as Slooh.  …Read More

Delta variant forcing districts to find new ways to assess learning

At this point last year, we hoped we’d be on the other side of COVID-19. Instead, the combination of the Delta variant and a new school year means educators and administrators are finding themselves in a state of flux. Cases in school districts are on the rise. Large numbers of students are quarantining. In some instances, there aren’t enough teachers in school buildings to conduct in-person learning.

As we enter the third school year affected by the pandemic, teachers are facing a whole new type of disruption to their ability to teach. Now more than ever, they need to be able to continually assess learning, to have a line of sight into what students know and what students do not yet know.

Why is it so hard right now?…Read More

3 ways to personalize your digital PLN

I am currently in an online doctoral program at Winona State University. One of our recent discussion queries required answering the following prompt: “Share three pieces of your own PLN that you think would be helpful to the others.”

I wasn’t quite sure if I should share platforms, tips, or connections, so I will be sharing three things I wish I would have considered sooner than later.

1. Drop the IRL

I have listened and visited with Angela Maiers–an educator, consultant, and speaker–a number of times. One thing that she frequently shares in her keynotes is around dropping the “IRL” (in real life) mentality when talking with your online PLN. For those who connect with you virtually, a digital relationship is IRL. You may never physically meet these individuals due to logistics, geography, or time and that is ok. Such relationships do not necessarily become instantly more meaningful when you meet in the same moment of time or space.…Read More

CASEL mourns the loss of Dr. Roger P. Weissberg, Board Vice Chair and Chief Knowledge Officer

CHICAGO – It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Roger P. Weissberg, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) Board Vice Chair and Chief Knowledge Officer.

Dr. Weissberg was a leading voice and foremost expert on social and emotional learning (SEL), and his seminal research helped to establish a substantial evidence base for SEL and to transform how school districts and state departments approached education. He was a co-founder of CASEL, where he spent the past 25 years guiding the organization and contributing to the growth of the SEL field. Dr. Weissberg was also Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where he was named the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning Research in 2011. 

“Roger made incalculable contributions to the science, practice, and policy of education in the United States and around the world,” said CASEL co-founder and board chair Timothy Shriver. “SEL has brought empathy, compassion, and strength to the lives of millions of children and adults, and no one did more to open their hearts and ours too than Roger. Future generations will long be indebted to him and those of us lucky enough to know and work with him will cherish his memory, his kindness, his endless commitment, and his life changing friendship.”…Read More

KSDE and Illuminate Education Partner to Expand Statewide MTSS Initiative

TOPEKA, KAN.  September 1, 2021 — The  Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and  Illuminate Education have signed a four-year agreement that increases access to Illuminate’s FastBridge universal screening, skills analysis, and progress monitoring tools for academics and social-emotional behavior (SEB) for districts across Kansas. The collaboration means KSDE will use ESSER funding to fulfill half the cost of FastBridge subscriptions for any Kansas district that adopts the solution. Kansas districts already using FastBridge will receive a credit. The initiative is designed to further the state’s work on its multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) program.

“FastBridge screening and progress monitoring systems have been great for not only our academic purposes, but also our social-emotional data,” said Brittany Schields, Curriculum & Instruction Coordinator at Garden City Public Schools. “Our counselors create support groups using the social-emotional screening information while our buildings utilize academics to create interventions and classroom supports. Data collection is easy, but the different ways to analyze the data using the reports are even better. It has been a useful and necessary tool that Garden City Public Schools has relied on for years.”

As part of the agreement, Illuminate will provide a mix of virtual and onsite professional development for KSDE leaders and district staff on FastBridge, ensuring strong implementations across the state.…Read More

Why automation is key to education’s cybersecurity problem

Across industries, ransomware and cyberattacks have proliferated in the past year, largely due to the rapid shift to remote work and school. The education sector has been hit particularly hard–the 2020 calendar year saw a record-setting 408 publicly disclosed cybersecurity incidents in the K-12 sector, according to The State of K-12 Cybersecurity: 2020 Year in Review.

The report, put out by the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, found that the attacks affected 377 school districts in 40 states and cost millions of dollars to resolve.

The unfortunate reality is that the problem isn’t going to go away–the threat landscape will continue to expand. And compounding this is the fact that education IT departments are too often underfunded. This is where automation can play a key role.…Read More

3M and Discovery Education Announce State Merit Winners in the 2021 3M Young Scientist Challenge

SILVER SPRING, Md. & ST. PAUL, Minn. (Wednesday, June 23, 2021) – 3M and Discovery Education today announced 30 State Merit Winners in the 2021 3M Young Scientist Challenge. As the nation’s premier middle school science competition, the 3M Young Scientist Challenge features outstanding innovations from young scientists that utilize the power of STEM to improve the world.

The 3M Young Scientist Challenge asks students in grades 5-8 to identify an everyday problem in their community or the world and submit a one- to two-minute video communicating the science behind their solution. An esteemed and diverse group of judges, including 3M scientists and leaders in education from across the country, evaluated entries based on creativity, scientific knowledge, and communication effectiveness.

“The 3M Young Scientist Challenge demonstrates the transformative power of young minds to address global challenges by combining their unique and diverse perspectives on innovation, creativity, and a passion for a better world,” saidDenise Rutherford, senior vice president and chief corporate affairs officer, 3M. “This year’s state merit winners prove the efficacy of STEM thinking. We are proud of this year’s competitors and remain committed to building greater STEM-equity that unlocks the power of people, ideas and science and imagines what’s possible.”…Read More