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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.

3 ways to make inflation interesting for students

Inflation hit a four-decade high in the United States during September, with the consumer price index up 8.2 percent from a year earlier. While most adults are painfully aware of higher prices for everything from food to fuel, teens may be blissfully ignorant.

There are a few reasons inflation may not feel relevant to teens. If teens aren’t yet working and earning their own money, they’re buying things with their parent’s funds. The cure for inflation is simply to ask mom or dad for more money. Working teens will definitely be feeling the burn of increased prices, but their time horizon tends to be focused on today versus how inflation will impact them decades down the road.

Storytelling can be an effective way for teachers to make topics like inflation relevant to students. Storytelling makes abstract concepts come to life and can help students envision themselves in the story.…Read More

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Children’s mental health remains a major concern

The child and teen mental health crisis is still an issue in the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. While there is some indication that numbers might be stabilizing, remaining the same still means children’s and teens’ mental health are in a crisis. In fact, it is still a major concern that could have a lasting impact on the future of this generation of individuals as they grow and develop.      

The hard truth is that many children and teens need support to develop social skills, coping mechanisms, and emotional intelligence that are critical to lifelong well-being.  

Many of the same mental health challenges for children in the United States have remained consistent from the fall of 2021 to the fall of 2022, according to a new study titled Back to School 2022: The Mental Health and Wellbeing Impact on Children in America.…Read More

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4 ways to avoid cybersecurity snake oil

When it comes to cybersecurity, you want to do right by your students, your schools, and your district–but it’s not that simple.

The cybersecurity industry is massive, representing literally thousands of vendors in the United States alone, with the global cybersecurity market staged to grow to over $350B by 2026. The options are extensive and confusing, and sales teams have mastered the art of introducing fear, uncertainty and doubt into the minds of their prospects.

In a perfect world, sales teams that exist to protect organizations would be trustworthy and altruistic, but with that much scrap up for grabs, snake oil salespeople are out in full force trying to get your business. To help you sidestep this minefield, here are four steps to take with your cybersecurity program.…Read More

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3 strategies to support youth mental health

Every year more than 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States–that breaks down to 7,000 students every day. Leaving high school has major implications for the rest of a student’s life, including considerably higher rates of unemployment, poverty, depression, chronic physical and mental illness, incarceration, and even a shorter life span. 

Among the students who do not complete high school, over 20 percent did so because of early onset psychiatric disorders, with mood disorders being the most common.

This is extremely concerning, as the U.S. has recently experienced significant increases in struggles with youth mental health. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, along with the Surgeon General issuing a national advisory in the wake of alarming increases in the prevalence of mental health challenges.…Read More

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Special education students need a whole child approach

In early 2020, 7.3 million students received special education services as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s 14% of K–12 students in public schools in the United States who depend on additional—and often very specialized—services to support their ability to learn and live their lives fully.

But once the pandemic set in and schools closed their doors, the elaborately precarious systems that have been constructed to meet the needs of these students collapsed.

In October 2020, a little more than two- thirds of K-12 principals estimated that their students with disabilities would perform somewhat or much lower than they had before the pandemic. A year later, a November 2021 survey by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates—an advocacy group for students in special education and their families—found that 86% of parents reported that their child experienced learning loss, skill regression or slower-than-expected progress in school.…Read More

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Gen Z students are aiming for STEM careers

A majority of high school and college students chose STEM as their No. 1 preferred career path, according to a survey of 11,495 Gen Z students conducted by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS).

The 2022 Career Interest Survey gives insights into what motivates an adventurous, civic-minded, concerned, vocal, tech-savvy, emerging workforce.

NSHSS is an academic honor society that recognizes and serves high-achieving student scholars in more than 26,000 high schools across 170 countries.…Read More

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VHS Learning Students Earn Gold and Silver Medals on the 2022 National Latin Exam

Boston – July 28, 2022 – Two VHS Learning students earned top honors on the 2022 National Latin Exam (NLE), with one achieving a perfect score and earning a gold medal. Both students took VHS Learning’s Advanced Placement® Latin course, which is the equivalent of a first semester college Latin course.

The NLE is a test given annually to Latin students across the United States and around the world. The NLE was taken by more than 100,000 students in 2022.

On the Advanced Latin Reading Comprehension exam, one VHS Learning student answered 40 of 40 questions correctly, earning a gold medal and a summa cum laude certificate. On the Advanced Latin Poetry exam, another VHS Learning student received a silver medal and a maxima cum laude certificate.…Read More

Powerful strategies to motivate girls in STEM

The history of STEM is filled with amazing women who revolutionized our understanding of science. Take Grace Hopper, one of the first computer programmers who went on to become a rear admiral in the United States Navy. Chien-Shiung Wu was a renowned physicist who helped crack the secrets of nuclear physics. Alice Ball saved countless lives by developing a treatment for leprosy, while Ynés Mexía gave us a better understanding of the many plants which make up our environment. The list goes on, and only grows more extraordinary!

Unfortunately, women only make up 28 percent of the STEM workforce. This is because many young girls have struggled to engage with STEM while in school. The reasons for this are numerous, from forced stereotypes to a lack of role models.

As a result, many young women are missing their chance to pursue STEM in higher education, and the world is poorer for it. So, how can educators take steps to correct this imbalance?…Read More

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How to ensure digital equity in online testing

The SAT will be moving online for students in the United States beginning in 2024. The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam will be taken entirely online next year. Many other states already have fully online tests—and in response to the pandemic, graduate entrance and career certification exams have shifted online as well.

But as more high-stakes exams transition to an all-digital format, experts warn that students who are not as digitally literate as their peers could be placed at a disadvantage. As the trend toward wholly online testing continues, education leaders must consider how to ensure digital equity for the students taking these exams.

A study published in 2019 by Ben Backes and James Cowan from the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Institutes for Research found that students who took the Massachusetts state exam online performed worse, on average, than students of similar abilities who took the same test on paper. The difference was less dramatic for second-time test-takers, suggesting that familiarity with the digital format played a key role in the discrepancy.…Read More

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Saint Louis University School of Education and BloomBoard Partner to Help School Districts Elevate the Careers of Paraprofessionals and Address Teacher Workforce Shortage

ST. LOUIS, MO (June 23, 2022) — Saint Louis University School of Education and BloomBoard have partnered to announce a new initiative to help superintendents and school boards address the current crisis of teacher recruitment and retention.  The initiative will include the development of collaborative strategies with school districts and educational leaders to enhance the number of PK-12 teachers to meet the needs of today’s students. 

One of the first initiatives is the development of a program to support classroom aides and other paraprofessionals with earning a bachelor’s degree in education and qualifying for licensure as an elementary teacher in many states.  Saint Louis University has a long-standing tradition of high-quality online education for undergraduate degree completion for busy adults who are building careers in business, nursing, social work, and information technology. The Saint Louis University School of Education has been dedicated to developing teachers, principals, and superintendents through its comprehensive set of academic programs and faculty-led research.

“Classroom aides and paraprofessionals are among the most dedicated personnel in a school district, and they often have strong ties to the community.  We want to support those who are seeking ways to elevate their careers and become licensed teachers,” says Gary Ritter, PhD, Dean of the School of Education. …Read More