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.

Prioritizing teacher well-being can help schools retain talent

As a school administrator, you’re faced with a range of challenges every day. One of the most common at the moment is mitigating the negative impacts of teacher shortages. After all, without a consistent and functional faculty, the quality of students’ education is likely to suffer.

Therefore, it’s important to examine the elements that affect teacher retention. Some of the key influencers here tend to be those related to educators’ wellness. Teachers often report experiencing extremely stressful conditions–not to mention that various pressures of their careers often see them on the road to burnout.

It’s no wonder, then, that establishing methods to prioritize teacher well-being can help your school retain talent. Let’s take a closer look at some key areas of focus in this regard.…Read More

Kentucky Educational Cooperatives Partner with BloomBoard to Increase Statewide Teacher Retention

Cold Spring, KY and Murray, KY —  Bloomboard, the leading provider of teacher micro-credentials, announces a partnership with  Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services (NKCES) and  West Kentucky Educational Cooperative (WKEC) to administer an innovative, on-the-job  rank change program. This program aims to accelerate the careers of Kentucky teachers while supporting Kentucky school districts’ efforts to attract and retain talent.

“Teacher shortages are affecting the day-to-day demands of teaching and learning in school districts across the state,” said Amy Razor, Executive Director of NKCES. “These programs will support Kentucky school districts by attracting and retaining teachers in a way that’s sustainable to achieve long-term outcomes.”  

The Education Professional Standards Board’s approval of the program qualifies it as a rank change vehicle for teachers to achieve permanent Rank II or Rank I and to receive associated recognition and salary advancement in all public and private school districts in Kentucky. The Foundations in Teaching and Learning program provides an on-the-job approach, allowing educators to learn and demonstrate mastery of subjects by showing what they know in their classroom practice. …Read More

AI education is critical for an equitable tomorrow

Underserved communities are universally disadvantaged in their access to resources and high-quality technical education compared to  their urban counterparts. Data suggests that between 2000 and 2019, the number of college graduates (ages 25-34) in urban America increased from 26 percent to 39 percent, while in rural America, this number increased only by 6 percent(15 percent to 21 percent). This divide can be attributed to the convergence of resources, talent, and opportunities in urban clusters.

A game-changing tool for intervention – one primed to reshape these metrics for rural America, revitalize their economies, and uplift their people – is AI education. Today, the demand for AI adoption is increasing across the world. In fact, AI’s contribution to the global GDP is expected to soar to $15.7 trillion by 2030.

The technology’s applications span a range of business functions and industries, holding the promise of new efficiencies and automation. Therefore, partaking in opportunities that enable skills in the technology is imperative.…Read More

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Is K-12 ready for skills-based hiring?

There are very few silver linings emerging from the worldwide pandemic related to education, but one of them is a crystalizing view about the importance of “skills visibility.” Skills are becoming and will soon be the currency in the new emerging global talent and hiring ecosystem.

This means that learners and earners will be judged and digitally discovered not by a paper resume that lists their college major, their clubs and activities, and their job experience so far, but instead, they will be digitally discoverable by employer search engines that set algorithms to look for named skills (thus, the skills become the currency).

Why is this view emerging? At the Education Design Lab, where we have been charting and designing new education models around the needs of “new majority learners” for eight years, we have been surprised ourselves by how quickly the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated three key factors. …Read More

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Parallel Learning Expands Executive Team With New Esteemed Digital Health and Education Talent to Further Scale and Accelerate Growth

NEW YORK, NY (FEBRUARY 4, 2022) – Parallel Learning (Parallel), the digital health platform that provides a new way to test, diagnose, and empower students with learning and thinking differences, announced today two new key hires to its growing executive team, in addition to plans to expand its services into Illinois, Texas and Florida next month. Susan Liu joins as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Robert Stager joins as Director of Partnerships, with both executives bringing extensive knowledge to the digital health and education space. The recent hires will support Parallel’s continued growth plans, fueling its mission to support and advocate for children with learning or thinking differences.

Prior to Parallel, Liu was VP of Clinical Operations at Cerebral Inc., a fast-growing online mental health company, where she led the clinical operations and customer service function through the company’s rapid growth from pre-Series A to a multibillion valuation Series C. As an experienced start-up operator with a background in public health and a passion for building teams from the ground-up, Liu scaled the operations to serve over 200,000 patients in less than two years and grew the clinical network from less than 100 to more than 2,000 nationwide in less than one and a half years. In her role as COO at Parallel, Liu will focus on building the systems and processes for scale and growth, in go-to-market operations as well as clinical and care operations.

“I’m thrilled to join the Parallel team and to dedicate my focus to empowering young students—especially during this dire time of need as the U.S. faces a massive education crisis,” said Susan Liu, Chief Operating Officer at Parallel Learning. “As a proud immigrant and a product of the public school system myself, I am passionate about increasing access to care and opportunity for kids of all ages. I look forward to bringing my expertise to this role to help us continue to grow and achieve our goals, and I could not be more excited to be part of this dynamic team.”…Read More

The State of Utah Empowers Educators to Close the Career Exposure Gap for Students Across the State

AMERICAN FORK, Utah, Jan. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ —  YouScience, the only fully-integrated platform provider of highly accurate aptitude-based assessments, personalized career guidance, and industry-recognized certifications, today announced the results of its new statewide talent report of Utah middle school and high school students, ” 2022 Utah Talent Report.” These initial findings reveal that while Utah students possess the necessary talents needed for Utah’s in-demand careers, many students do not show interest in these areas. The results point to a potential “career exposure gap,” meaning that students who are naturally talented in areas such as computers and technology and manufacturing show little interest in these fields, often because of lack of exposure to existing opportunities and awareness of their own abilities.

YouScience analyzed the anonymized results of more than 23,000 Utah middle and high school students through its  YouScience Discovery aptitude-based career guidance assessment, which was made available to Utah schools statewide for the 2021–2022 school year. The findings showed that across all grade levels there was a mismatch between the careers students were interested in and the careers for which they had aptitudes.

Utah educators and educational stakeholders are leading the charge in working to close this gap by using YouScience Discovery, which assesses each student’s natural talents (aptitudes) and strengths and then introduces the students to a wide variety of related career opportunities. YouScience Discovery provides students with insights into how their natural talents translate to careers where they are naturally wired to perform well and find satisfaction, and can often be more successful. Natural talents can be detected as early as middle school (aptitudes solidify by age 14), providing educators and parents time to ensure students build on their natural strengths through course selection and, ultimately, college and career choices.…Read More

World’s Largest Robotics Competition Returns: Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation to Host Live Remote VEX Robotics World Championship

The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit and VEX Robotics, is back to showcase the incredible talent and skill of a range of student competitors by hosting the first-ever Live Remote VEX Robotics World Championship May 17-29, 2021. Leveraging the REC Foundation’s Live Remote Tournament interface, teams from around the world will be able to compete in real-time tournaments or live skills matches to be crowned champions. 

World’s Largest Robotics Competition Returns: REC Foundation to Host Live Remote VEX Robotics World Championship 2021

During the live remote event, students in grades three through college will compete in timed, heart-pounding robotics competition matches with their custom-built robots. Like at past world championships, competitors will have the opportunity to see familiar faces, activities, and share the excitement of the event.…Read More

ClassTag Launches ClassTag Connect Parent Engagement Platform

ClassTag, the leading parent-teacher communication platform, today announced the introduction of ClassTag Connect, an all-in-one engagement platform that provides robust data-driven insights to facilitate greater parent, teacher, and administrator involvement and insights from classroom to district. Over 25,000 schools and several districts, including South-Western City School District, Phoenix Talent School District, and Salado Independent School District are currently using ClassTag Connect.

“The COVID pandemic has prompted school districts to recognize the value of a single, cohesive engagement platform that will avoid overwhelming parents with siloed communications. Our platform provides a way for districts and their individual schools to facilitate meaningful, personal, two-way communication between parents, teachers and administrators while simultaneously offering school and districts actionable insights behind parental engagement levels, ensuring that every family is empowered during this challenging time,”  said Vlada Lotkina, CEO and Co-Founder of ClassTag.

For example, ClassTag Connect allows schools and districts to send important updates in real time to each parent’s preferred messaging channel, whether that’s via the app, email, SMS, web or paper. The accessibility of ClassTag Connect also extends to families who do not speak English as a first language as well, as the app allows for automatic translation into 60+ languages.…Read More

Free digital course on Zoom

Teachers, professors, educators, and instructors are suddenly in a place where they need to teach from home to their students. Several of these teachers do not know how to navigate online courses and distance learning. 

 

Actor and Voice talent, David Lawrence XVII, who is the creator of the voice acting website, vo2gogo.com decided to create a free digital course on Zoom targeted for teachers. Lawrence’s new project “Teach Your Course Online” has launched today. The video course gives teachers a step by step process on how to engage with their students, use the correct cameras and lights for their makeshift video classrooms and his own personal tips and tricks.…Read More

5 ways schools throw away talented teachers

New report reveals there’s no pipeline for teacher talent in schools; leadership not cultivated

leadership-teachers-schoolsAccording to a new report based on thousands of educator responses, schools across the country don’t have a pipeline for leadership, discouraging talented teachers from staying in education. The problem: The unending cycle of mediocrity based on last-minute leadership hires for those often unprepared for the challenges facing schools today.

The report, “Building Pathways: How to develop the next generation of transformational school leaders,” by Bain & Company—a management consulting firm often working with schools and charter schools—discusses how despite student achievement progress in many districts across the country, there is still a lack of consensus around what works…except good leadership.

“We know that an essential ingredient behind each school success story is extraordinary leadership,” says the report. “Yet we have far too few transformational school leaders today to replicate the results that are possible at a greater scale. The reason: Most school systems fail to methodically develop talented educators into a deep bench of prospective leaders with the experience and ability to build an extraordinary school.”…Read More

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