This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.
State and federal officials are beginning to raise concerns over the use of Tutor.com in schools due to its ownership by China-based investment firm Primavera Capital Group. The pushback against the 24/7 on-demand tutoring and homework services provider has been particularly strong among Republican leaders.
The Florida Department of Education, for instance, recently sent a letter to public K-12 and higher education leaders in the state flagging “potential issues” with Tutor.com given its Chinese ownership.
The letter from Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said school districts, charters and state colleges “should not contract with companies that have ties to foreign countries of concern.” Diaz added that education leaders must guarantee their contracts are in line with state laws and regulations on student data protections.
Tutor.com disputes that its services pose any threat to student data privacy. “We are disappointed by the recent outreach from the Florida Department of Education, which mistakenly assumes that private information of those who use our tutoring services could be transferred to China,” a Tutor.com spokesperson said in a statement to K-12 Dive.
The scrutiny of Tutor.com comes as the influx of tech into classrooms and growing complexity of cyberthreats have made student data privacy a top priority for leaders at the federal, state and district levels. Those concerns also come at a time when some members of Congress are seeking to ban TikTok because of the social media app’s Chinese ownership. TikTok’s parent company is ByteDance, a portfolio company of Primavera.
Districts should ‘err on the side of caution’
Tutor.com said in its statement that Primavera “is not involved in the day-to-day operations of Tutor.com.”
The company contracts with major school districts including Los Angeles Unified School District, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and Clayton County Public Schools in Georgia, according to its website. It provides nearly two million sessions per year for tutoring, homework help and test preparation.
“Primavera does not have — and may not obtain — access to Tutor.com’s IT systems, per a U.S. government national security review conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that was voluntarily initiated by both parties when the private equity firm acquired Tutor.com,” the spokesperson added.
Tutor.com was founded in Delaware over two decades ago, and Primavera has owned the company since 2022.
In most cases, when a company is purchased by an investment firm, it shouldn’t raise flags because these firms are usually not involved in their company’s daily operations, said Lisa Plaggemier, executive director of the National Cybersecurity Alliance. However, that changes if an the investment firm is based in China, she said, adding that these fears that data could be shared with the country’s government are not unwarranted.
“The government involvement in all things that look like business is pervasive in China,” Plaggemier said. “At face value, you could say ‘Oh, well they only made an investment. How involved are they really with Tutor.com?’ But in a case where this is a country with a 100-year plan to be dominant, you have to look at it through that lens.”
With that in mind, Plaggemier said, it’s a good idea for school districts and their boards to reconsider or pull out from their contracts with Tutor.com. “I think you have to err on the side of caution and assume that there’s probably some access to that data by the Chinese.”
As part of Tutor.com’s agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the company must have a data security officer to monitor and ensure compliance with data protection measures on an ongoing basis. The person in this role must be vetted and approved by U.S. government officials, according to the company’s spokesperson.
Additionally, Tutor.com’s spokesperson said the company has two independent directors who are required, vetted and approved by U.S. government officials. Those directors’ primary responsibility is to ensure that personal data is “appropriately safeguarded.”
While it appears Tutor.com’s efforts to protect data are “well-intentioned,” Plaggemier still questions “How do you verify these things?” For her, the risks involved with Tutor.com don’t seem worth it for schools — especially if there are alternative platforms.
“If there are other viable solutions where you don’t have the same concerns, then why would you take on the additional risk that’s partially funded by an adversary?” Plaggemier asked.
Other pushback
The pushback on Tutor.com is still unfolding. Santa Rosa County Schools in Florida canceled its contract with Tutor.com two weeks after parents brought forth their concerns over Tutor.com’s ownership, WEAR News recently reported.
A parental rights organization, Parents Defending Education, has been flagging similar concerns over Tutor.com and is tracking the company’s contracts with states and school districts throughout the country. Hawaii, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina and West Virginia all currently use Tutor.com’s services via their education departments or public libraries.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, introduced a bill last month that would ban the Department of Defense from using Tutor.com. The company currently provides services to DoD service members and their families.
“There is no reason the Pentagon should be paying a Chinese-owned service that collects the data of our service members and their families. There are plenty of American companies that offer tutoring services and aren’t subject to the Chinese government,” said Cotton in a statement.
Last April, an email went out to families in the Troy School District outside Detroit. Signed by unnamed “concerned Troy parents,” it said that a district proposal to end “basic” and “honors” math classes for sixth and seventh graders was part of a longer-term district plan to completely abolish honors classes in all of its schools.
Superintendent Richard Machesky and his team were stunned. The district was indeed proposing to merge separate sixth- and seventh-grade math tracks into what it said would be a single, rigorous pathway emphasizing pre-algebra skills. In eighth grade, students could opt for Eighth Grade Math or Algebra I. But the district had no plans for changes to other grades, much less to do away with high school honors classes.
Earlier that month, Machesky and a district team of curriculum specialists and math teachers had unveiled the plan during a series of meetings with parents of current and incoming middle schoolers. Parents had largely expressed support, said Machesky: “We thought we were hitting the mark.”
Boulan Park Middle School math teacher Jordan Baines gives tips to help her students figure out a mathematics problem in Troy, Michigan. Credit: Amanda J. Cain for The Hechinger Report
No matter. The email blast spurred opponents to show up at a board workshop and a town hall, and a petition demanding that the middle-school plan be scrapped got more than 3,000 signatures. At a packed board meeting that May, more than 40 people spoke, nearly all opposed to the plan, and the comments got personal. “Are you all on drugs?” parent Andrew Sosnoski asked the members.
It’s part of the skirmish over “detracking,” or eliminating the sorting of kids by perceived ability into separate math classes. Since the mid-1980s, some education experts have supported such moves, citing researchshowing that tracking primarily serves as a marker of race or class, as Black and Hispanic students, and those from lower-income families, are steered into lower-track classes at disproportionate rates. In the last 15 years, a handful of school districts around the country have eliminated some tracked math classes.
While there’s been ample research on tracking’s negative effects, studies of positive effects resulting from detracking are scant. In perhaps the only attempt to summarize the detracking literature, a 2009 summary of 15 studies from 1972 to 2006 concluded that detracking improved academic outcomes for lower-ability students, but had no effect on average and high-ability students.
Proposals to curtail tracking often draw fiery opposition, sometimes scuttling the efforts. The Portland school district in Oregon planned to compress two levels of middle school math into one starting in 2023, but after criticism, said the issue needed more study. Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a Republican, won office in 2021 on an education platform that included protecting tracking, after an outcry over a state department of education plan that included language about “improving math equity,” which some interpreted as limiting tracking. The San Francisco Unified School District, which in 2014 detracked math through ninthgrade, recently announced that it’s testing the reintroduction of a tracked system, following a lawsuit from a group of parents who alleged that detracking hurt student achievement.
The pushback, often from parents of high-track students with the time and resources to attend school board meetings, is part of why tracking, especially in math, remains common. In a 2023 survey of middle-school principals by the Rand Corporation, 39 percent said their schools group students into separate classes based on achievement.
But some places have changed their math classes with minimal backlash, and also ensured course rigor and improved academic outcomes. That’s often because they moved slowly.
Math teacher Jordan Baines of Troy, Michigan, with students at Boulan Park Middle School.
Credit: Amanda J. Cain for The Hechinger Report
Evanston Township High School, in Illinois, started detracking in 2010, collapsing several levels in two freshman-year subjects — humanities and biology — into one.
Then, for six years, the school made no other changes. That allowed leaders to work out the kinks and look at the data to make sure there were no negative effects on achievement, said Pete Bavis, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
Teachers liked the mixed-ability classes and asked to expand them to other subjects, so in 2017 the school began detracking sophomore and junior English, Geometry and Algebra II.
At South Side Middle School and High School on Long Island, detracking went even slower, taking 17 years to fully roll out. The district started in 1989 with middle-school English and social studies, and progressed to high school math and chemistry by 2006.
The pace let parents see it wasn’t hurting their children’s achievement, said former South Side High Principal Carol Burris. During that period, the proportion of students earning New York’s higher-level Regents diploma climbed from 58 percent in 1989 to 97 percent by 2005. “I always told parents, when we started moving this through the high school, ‘Look, if this isn’t working, I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to hurt your kid,’” she said.
Those slow rollouts contrast with what happened in the Shaker Heights City School District in Ohio in 2020. That summer, school leaders needed to simplify schedules to accommodate a mix of online and onsite students because of the pandemic. They saw an opening to do something that had long been in the district’s strategic plan: end tracking in most fifth- through ninth-grade subjects.
But teachers complained last spring that it had gone too quickly, saying that they didn’t get enough training on teaching mixed classrooms, and that course rigor has suffered. Even supporters of detracking suggested it had happened so fast that the district couldn’t lay the groundwork with parents.
Shaker Heights Superintendent David Glasner said he understands those concerns. But he said he also heard from parents, students and instructional leaders in the district who say they’re glad the district “ripped the Band-Aid off.”
A math class at Boulan Park Middle School in Troy, Michigan, which has detracked some of its math classes. Credit: Amanda J. Cain for The Hechinger Report
In Troy, despite the pushback from parents, the school board ultimately voted 6-1 for the change, noting that the district had spent four years studying options and that teachers and outside experts largely supported the plan.
Machesky said if he had it to do over, he’d communicate with parents earlier. The anonymous email took advantage of an information void: The district had communicated the proposal only to parents of current and upcoming middle schoolers. Most who turned out to oppose it had younger kids and hadn’t been told, he said.
Leaders in Evanston and South Side both say they also framed detracking as a way to create more opportunities for all students. As part of getting rid of tracks, Evanston created an “earned honors” system. All students enroll in the same classes, but they can opt into honors credit — which boosts their class grade by a half-point, akin to extra credit — if they take and do well on additional assessments or complete additional projects.
School leaders in South Side also ensured that detracked classes remained as challenging as the higher-level classes had been previously, Burris said. To make sure students succeeded, the school arranged for teachers to tutor struggling students in a support class held two or three times a week and in a half-hour period before school, changing the bus schedules to make that work. Teachers also created optional activities for each lesson that would push higher-achieving students if they mastered the material being covered.
“You have to make sure you’re not taking something away from anyone,” said Burris.
To prepare for pushback, Evanston also formed a “rapid-response team” that answered parent questions about the new system within 24 hours and developed dozens of pages of frequently updated FAQs. That took the pressure off teachers, letting them focus on the classroom, said math department chair Dale Leibforth. By the end of the first year of detracking, the school had gotten just three complaints, all requests for fixes to narrow technical problems rather than wholesale critiques, said Bavis.
“We imagined a catastrophe,” he said. “We asked, ‘what could go wrong?’” and mapped how to handle each scenario.
In response to continued critiques of its detracking effort, last fall Shaker Heights pioneered another idea: an evening immersion experience that lets parents sit through detracked classes. The four mock sessions — two in literature and two in math — were followed by questions and answers.
Parents were respectful but probing: How do teachers work together to make the new system work? Do kids know when they’re grouped with others who are struggling in a skill? Are the books we worked with really at sixth-grade level? While there’s no data on the session’s effects, Glasner says they “absolutely did move the needle” on community opinion.
Research from the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, suggests that districts should focus on how detracking helps all students, rather than emphasizing that the efforts are aimed to advance equity and benefit students in lower tracks, said senior fellow Halley Potter. That approach gives parents of higher-track kids the idea that their own child’s academics are being sacrificed to help others.
The Troy district, in Michigan, has moved to end “basic” and “honors” math classes for sixth and seventh graders. Credit: Amanda J. Cain for The Hechinger Report
That fits with what Machesky thinks happened last spring in Troy. “We kind of got caught up with the equity arguments that were raging in districts nationally at the time,” he said.
After last May’s board vote, opponents launched a recall petition against three board members who’d voted in favor of the change. To get on the ballot, it needed 8,000 signatures but got fewer than half that.
Since then, the opposition there has gone silent.
Last fall the district held “math nights” to talk about the new system and let parents ask questions. The students have settled in. “I have received zero negative communication from parents — no emails, no phone calls — zero,” said Machesky.
Whether detracking spreads may depend on the experience of parents and students. Back on Long Island, parent Mindy Roman’s three children graduated from South Side High in 2009, 2012 and 2018, and she said she’s glad they were in classes with diverse groups of students. Her children didn’t have classes with a Black student until middle school because of the way elementary school lines were drawn, she said. And all three did well in the district’s detracked courses.
But Roman said she’s heard from current parents with the opposite experience. “It’s not ‘oh my God, my child is getting access to these unbelievable opportunities,’ but more like, ‘my kid is gonna get a 70 in a class when they could get a 90. I don’t want them to be put under that much pressure.’”
John Murphy, who was principal at South Side High from 2015 to 2023, said he started hearing around 2018 from people worried about the effects of the workload on their children’s mental health, and the school responded by giving less homework. Even so, “students are working way harder than they did 20 years ago,” said Murphy, now an assistant for human resources to Superintendent Matthew Gaven.
Still, academic outcomes at South Side have improved since the district eliminated tracking. In 2021-22, 89 percent of South Side graduates earned the highest-level diploma the state offers — the advanced Regents diploma — compared with 42 percent in New York state as a whole. Another 9 percent earned the Regents diploma.
That said, the district recently made an accommodation. Post-Covid, a small group of parents of middle schoolers told the district they didn’t think their children were ready for Algebra I because of the pandemic-era learning interruptions. So South Side Middle School retracked eighth-grade math starting in the 2023-24 school year, offering parents the choice of Algebra I or a grade-level math course. Gaven said that only around 7 percent of parents of eighth graders asked for that option, and that demand for it might taper as schools return to normal.
It’s an opt-in model far different from those that direct students into lower-level courses because of test scores or teacher recommendations, said Gaven. “We know our kids can handle algebra, but we respect our parents as partners and wanted to give them a voice and an option.”
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
The edtech market is saturated with various tools designed to improve children’s literacy from e-readers to apps to digital libraries. Over the past few years, more literacy tools have been using generative AI, either to accelerate children’s reading proficiency or to stimulate more reading interest.
Recently, a new kind of tool has emerged. Referred to as AI-powered reading coaches, assistants or tutors, these tools use generative AI to provide learners with personalized reading practice, stories, feedback and support.
Some of these tools focus on a specific learning objective, such as phonics instruction, or on a thematic area within a story. Others incorporate personal data like the child’s name and offer options for choosing settings and avatars, providing unique narratives for each child.
As a professor of reading and children’s development, specializing in children’s digital tools, I’ve researched what works and what doesn’t when it comes to coaching children to read. And by collaborating on research with colleagues through WiKIT, an international research organization focused on edtech evidence, I’ve reviewed multiple tools using generative AI to teach children to read. I have seen that many have the potential to bring learning breakthroughs, for example, by offering personalized fluency practice or feedback tailored to each user. But there are very real concerns about the impact of these tools on children’s literary and literacy experiences.
Potential Opportunities and Drawbacks
Depending on the tool, these AI-powered reading coaches, assistants and tutors include a variety of elements to support children with literacy. Some common features include using speech recognition technology to listen to a child read and then using AI to select from a bank of interventions or feedback, using AI to generate narrative texts for children to read or to create distinct prompts based on the child’s ability. And like many edtech tools, it’s common for these to use reward systems, such as giving learners the ability to collect badges or prizes as they progress. Each of these elements comes with its own set of opportunities and drawbacks.
Using speech recognition technology to listen to a child read and using AI to offer feedback can be helpful as long as the technology is based on science-backed design. It is problematic that many tools claim to be science-based but in reality, have not been developed by learning scientists and have not been tested in rigorous evaluation studies. Such tools are typically designed to engage and motivate the child in interacting with stories, but don’t always lead children to improve their reading skills.
The same is true for AI-generated narratives, which typically engage children by allowing them to make choices, such as what kind of character and setting to pick for a story, and by personalizing the experience, say by making the protagonist a character with the child’s name and age. But AI-generated narratives often misalign with what science recommends for children’s literary experiences. For example, AI-generated narratives often exhibit inconsistencies in story elements. On one page, the main protagonist may appear as a 5-year-old blond girl, but on the next page, she transforms into a teenager with no prior time indication in the text. Inconsistencies in story events are also very common: In a story I recently created on one of these tools, the main character, Natalia, who I named after myself of course, suddenly was interacting with a new character, “Remi’s dog,” with no prior reference to how Remi or the dog got into the story. Research indicates that such narrative disruptions confuse young readers and hinder readers’ empathy for the characters.
Drawing on research is valuable for effective content as well as the format of narrative texts. Currently, most stories generated by AI resemble illustrated e-books rather than digital picture books. Typically, in an illustrated e-book, characters are merely drawn to reflect the information in the text. If the text says, “Natalia is wearing a yellow shirt as she stands in her garden smiling,” the character would be drawn to match exactly that description. In contrast, in high-quality children’s picture books, both pictures and texts contribute to the narrative’s depth, expanding children’s horizons, making them reflect and engage in abstract thinking. The kind of literary experience that authors like Jacqueline Woodson achieved in her book, “Brown Girl Dreaming,” where poetry paints a picture in readers’ minds, elevating the reading experience to art.
Also, in high-quality digital children’s books, voiceovers do not merely recite the written text, but they augment the story with additional emotion and drama. With the complementary, mutually enriching roles of images, texts and voice-overs in stories, children can become not only better readers, but can also develop stronger writing skills and media competence.
While the aesthetic quality of AI-generated stories may improve over time, I am concerned about how exposure to such stories might shape children’s standards for story quality. Children’s multimodal ability to make meaning of a story is diminished when these quality markers are taken away. Despite claims by producers of digital story-making tools to democratize access to story production, poorly designed digital books may inadvertently widen the gap between digitally produced narratives and those crafted by professional authors. Such disparities introduce a sharper divide in terms of what literary critics deem high-quality literature worthy of exposing children to, as opposed to quick reads generated on demand by AI tools. While the latter may entertain, the former serve to educate.
Concerns about AI-powered reading coaches, assistants and tutors relate to both learning to read and reading to learn, especially when it comes to AI-generated prompts. Many digital book producers already integrate real-time conversation prompts that can enhance children’s comprehension and these have been found to support literacy development. The new AI-generated prompts may also help children, but not as much as reading with a skilled human adult, such as a teacher, parent or tutor — and they should not be used to replace that experience. Overall, while these tools hold potential, they also may exacerbate the existing digital divide, particularly for children who either lack access to the technology or a qualified adult to work with them on using it effectively.
How the Research On These Tools Is Unfolding
As the tools are still in development, researchers can only predict, rather than determine, their effects. Based on academic research about reading motivation, we can anticipate some challenges. For example, research shows that extrinsic motivators, like badges, are either negatively correlated or insignificantly associated with reading competence. On the other hand, intrinsic reading motivation, which stems from readers’ curiosity and active involvement in the reading process, is moderately and positively correlated with measures of reading competence.
Contrary to these findings, AI-powered reading coaches seem designed to prioritize encouraging external motivation. Children’s progress and time spent on the platforms is rewarded with stickers, applause and unlockable rewards. Comprehension checks via quizzes can be easily bypassed through trial and error, resulting in children pretending to read and receiving rewards for incorrect answers. Moreover, there’s no external assessment to gauge if skills transfer to other texts, weakening the accountability of these technologies.
A recent meta-analysis of interventions that foster reading motivation revealed a small but noteworthy impact from strategies that customize texts to various reading levels or incorporate real-world connections. Importantly, this short-term effect is more noticeable among advanced readers than struggling ones. Yet, as of now, the AI-powered reading coaches on the market lack the specificity of effective targeted approaches.
Observing these trends is disappointing. These tools have the potential to enhance reading experiences for children, if they’re designed with insights from educators and researchers, particularly in the field of learning science. For example, these tools could disrupt traditional ideologies in literary texts if they involved teachers in the design process. Through this collaborative approach, they could also foster teachers’ AI literacy. And product developers could draw from learning science research to build tools that foster children’s self-expression and creativity.
Unfortunately, there is a staggering lack of collaboration between the community of edtech companies building children’s technology products, educators and researchers possessing domain-specific knowledge. Even when companies engage with researchers, it tends to be sporadic communication advice rather than continuous dialogue. And while some companies test their tools with teachers, it’s more common to develop features that are popular or aligned with pressing curriculum requirements rather than latest and best science.
Who suffers most from low quality technologies? The children. So, how can we ensure that learners’ agency, volition and ability to make free choices, is preserved and encouraged in their interaction with AI-powered reading coaches?
Currently, this key question boils down to concerns about data privacy and improving consent-gathering procedures for data. However, answering the question also involves determining who ultimately benefits from these tools. If children are the intended beneficiaries, then the companies building these tools must reconsider their strategies for design and scaling. Instead of rapid scaling and integration into various reading products driven by tech trends and investor demands for growth, edtech development requires a more patient approach. This involves participatory design with diverse groups of children and engaging educators and researchers in iterative co-creation cycles. Let’s not diminish the potential of these technologies by hastily releasing tools that are not yet mature enough to fully support children’s development.
That buzz has all but vanished, especially when it comes to the idea of setting up shared virtual spaces like the ones imagined by the science fiction author who coined the term metaverse.
So what happened to the early education experiments in the metaverse, and what do those watching the space think is next?
To find out, we checked in with two experts for this week’s EdSurge Podcast — the same folks we had on as guests two years ago at the height of the metaverse craze. Those guests are Greg Heiberger, associate dean for academics and student success at South Dakota State University and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“I’m actually OK that a lot of the buzz is going somewhere else because I think it helps us to focus not on the shiny object … but on what really matters to us,” says Heiberger, whose university was one of those funded by Meta to make a campus in VR.
But he admits there are downsides, too.
“What’s heartbreaking is there was money, there was money flowing from Meta into education directly … and that tap has been pretty well closed, and that I think is tough,” he says.
Hirsh-Pasek notes that there have been important developments in VR even though they aren’t getting as much attention. For instance, she praised Apple’s recent product release of the Apple Vision Pro, which she says solves an important challenge of the technology by allowing users to opt to see a view of the outside world even while wearing the headset. In her testing of the device, she said she felt truly immersed in a demo that allowed users to appear to walk among dinosaurs. “But basically you’d be watching an Imax movie,” she said of the device’s strengths. “And for education, we need more. We need interactivity. And it must be social.” Her takeaway for now is the device “is built for entertainment,” but that her “dream” is that more social aspects can be added later.
Both experts still see important applications for VR in education, and for a concept like a metaverse eventually emerging and bringing more experiential learning to students. And they are calling on tech companies to seek input from educators and education researchers as they continue to develop the hardware that will make such virtual worlds possible.
Hear their experiences and predictions on this week’s episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts, or use the player on this page.
Earlier this month, the University of Southern California announced that Asna Tabassum would be the Class of 2024′s valedictorian, with a 3.98 GPA and in recognition of her community service and leadership skills. She is graduating with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide.
But on Monday, USC canceled the speech.
In an announcement dated Monday, Provost Andrew Guzman said the “intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East” has “created substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement.”
“After careful consideration, we have decided that our student valedictorian will not deliver a speech at commencement. While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety,” he wrote. “This decision has nothing to do with freedom of speech. There is no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement. The issue here is how best to maintain campus security and safety, period.”
The school did not elaborate further. Reached for comment, the provost’s office directed HuffPost to Guzman’s statement.
Tabassum, in an interview with HuffPost, questioned the university’s reasoning and told HuffPost she felt disappointed and let down by USC.
“I am surprised that my own university – my home for four years – has abandoned me,” she said.
In a statement published on Monday, Tabassum said that she was not aware of any specific threats against her or the university, and that during a meeting last Sunday, administrators told her that “the University had the resources to take appropriate safety measures for my valedictory speech, but that they would not be doing so since increased security protections is not what the University wants to ’present as an image.’”
“Security and safety is also my concern. That’s consistent with my commitment to human equality and human rights. I don’t think that they’re mutually exclusive at all,” Tabassum told HuffPost. She noted that notable figures including former President Barack Obama, rap star Travis Scott and right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos have all been able to visit campus grounds.
“The university has created many safety measures, and created room for many more speakers, who are more controversial and more significant than I am,” said Tabassum. “I’m the valedictorian. I’m someone who the university has chosen to represent its students. When it comes to actually believing if the university is making this decision about safety, I have to consider it in the lens of the university making the decisions to protect others who have come onto campus but not protecting me.”
This week, Columbia University’s president is set to testify at a congressional hearing about campus safety, four months after a similar hearing resulted in the resignation of two Ivy League presidents. And the Department of Education launched a series of investigations last November into several universities where students have reported antisemitic or Islamophobic incidents.
Tabassum said she was denied a chance to let others see someone like her give a high-profile speech ― a South Asian hijab-wearing Muslim, someone “representative of communities and of the masses of people who never saw the institution made for them,” she told HuffPost. “I wanted to offer the hope that … we can succeed [at] institutions like USC.”
But after having her invitation canceled, Tabassum said those hopes fell flat.
“How can we protect the expression of human rights and protect that expression for the sake of all communities, and not just those that I might most represent?” she asked.
According to USC’s Annenberg Media, some students and alumni said Tabassum’s social media activity ― which includes a link to a pro-Palestinian page ― was antisemitic. Guzman, however, wrote that this decision was made “based on various criteria ― which did not include social media presence.”
Since the university’s decision, Tabassum said she’s been overwhelmed by messages of both support and hate. People from her elementary school who she hasn’t spoken to in a decade reached out. Others have taken to Instagram to speculate about her ethnic background and her political views, and to applauded the university’s decision to revoke her invitation.
Rep. Omar (D-Minn.), one of the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress, called the move “shameful” in an X post on Tuesday.
Tabassum “earned her spot after years of hard work and academic excellence. Bigotry towards minority students can’t be normalized,” she wrote.
The university said it will not be selecting a replacement for Tabassum at the main graduation ceremony, which was scheduled for May 10. Approximately 65,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony for the school’s roughly 19,000 graduates, according to Annenberg Media.
“I was hoping to use my commencement speech to inspire my classmates with a message of hope,” Tabassum wrote in her statement. “By canceling my speech, USC is only caving to fear and rewarding hatred.”
Support HuffPost
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Your Loyalty Means The World To Us
At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.
Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That’s why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we’ll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can’t find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you’ll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.
MINNEAPOLIS, April 16, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Every academic year, ASSE International Exchange Students from around the world contribute to the vibrant tapestry of communities across the United States, offering a unique opportunity for cultural exchange without the need to travel abroad. Word of mouth and local events prove to be effective means of disseminating information and sparking interest in hosting these students. ASSE International, a nonprofit public benefit organization, is thrilled to unveil its annual “ASSE Super Saturday Event,” designed to heighten awareness nationwide about the rewarding experience of hosting a foreign exchange student.
ASSE’s Super Saturday 2024 will take place on April 20, 2024.
On this day, ASSE Area Representatives, State Coordinators, Host Families, and Exchange Students will come together within their local communities to promote the joys of global friendship through high school student exchange programs. Thousands of ASSE participants, including students, host families, and volunteers, will set up booths at various venues such as festivals, farmer’s markets, sporting events, libraries, and shopping malls to engage with people and discuss the value of cultural exchange and hosting an exchange student.
ASSE Exchange Students, aged 15 to 18, are carefully selected based on their academic achievements and personalities. Host families have the opportunity to choose a student from diverse backgrounds, countries, and interests. These students arrive with their own spending money and comprehensive insurance coverage.
Whether you’re a young family, retired, a single parent or empty nesters, hosting one of our students from countries like France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Denmark, Thailand, and more, offers a remarkable opportunity to extend your family’s reach across the globe without leaving home.
To learn more about becoming a host family for one of these extraordinary young students or to find out about ASSE Super Saturday Events in your community, please call Saphia Lesch at (800) 736‐1760 or go to www.host.asse.com.
By generously opening your home to a young person from overseas, you contribute to our global mission of fostering peace, kindness, and mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other nations worldwide.
ASSE invites you to embark on the journey of welcoming your new son or daughter into your family today.
Source: ASSE International Student Exchange Programs
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
For way too long in my first years of teaching, the second an administrator walked in to observe me, I started malfunctioning like a weird, anxious robot.
BEEP BOOP BOP. WHAT IS THE LEARNING TARGET …?
I don’t blame former teacher me for behaving oddly. Observations can be tricky for a variety of reasons, among them:
The teacher’s nerves knowing they’re being evaluated
Many evaluation systems not being set up for very standard classroom practices (e.g., when students are taking tests, working independently, etc.)
Buried in those responses were little pieces of advice that shined like little flecks of gold. Here’s one from Isabel C:
“Anytime it’s my observation, I tell the kids admin is there to observe how they are behaving in my class!”
A similar one from Mark L.:
“I was lucky in that nothing unusual happened during the observations I had with my middle school students. I’d prep the students beforehand by telling them the evaluator—usually the principal—was there to observe you. It worked every time.”
And another from Anjali P:
“It’s so simple. Prep the students ahead of time to believe an administrator is coming to observe student behavior.”
These teachers have it figured out, y’all.
Why this is genius:
It’s not untrue. The administrator is there to observe students. A huge part of evaluating a teacher means noting how students are behaving, interacting, and connecting with the teacher.
It allows the teacher to be evaluated on actual teaching instead of factors out of their control (e.g., student behavior).
It can help lower stress on the teacher’s part knowing there’s a support in place to help minimize outbursts and other less predictable behaviors.
However, like anything in the classroom, you need to be careful about how you implement this strategy.
But proceed with caution:
Share this as preparatory information, not a threat. You don’t want to exchange your own lowered anxiety for higher anxiety in your students. “Just wanted to let you know Principal Weatherall will be in tomorrow to take some notes on student behavior and participation. I told her you all are excellent students, so you have nothing to worry about. Can someone remind me of our norms for when we have a visitor?”
Don’t attach a bribe. Several teachers shared that their observation horror story involved their students sharing the agreement directly with the principal or appraiser. “Ms. Castillo said if you said we’re good, she’ll give us candy! Have we been good?” Cringe.
Use this technique to minimize the rare outbursts, not cover up poor classroom management or other things your administrator should know. If you truly struggle with behavior management (which is not uncommon for new teachers), you want support from your administration, not for them to think you run a perfect classroom.
P.S. I got to chat with Isabel (one of the teachers who shared this hack), and she said this: “You might also add that teachers, parents, and admin people love to see successful students—‘successful’ being students with the skills to know how to do school!” We think this trick lets student success be the focus of an observation.
23 SOAR Scholars receive $5,000 scholarships, mentorship, and ongoing support as they pursue their higher education.
AUSTIN, Texas, April 16, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– LOAR PLLC is excited to announce the recipients of the 2024- 2025 SOAR Scholarships. These 23 remarkable women will each receive a $5,000 scholarship and will be provided professional development and mentoring throughout their college or graduate school experience. They will be attending universities throughout the State of Texas and are to be congratulated on winning in such a highly competitive environment. The recipients will be honored at LOAR’s Summer Celebration on June 8, 2024.
With this announcement, LOAR PLLC is proud of the over $250,000 in scholarships awarded in the three years of the SOAR Scholarship Foundation and is grateful for the opportunity to support and mentor these future leaders.
The 2024 SOAR Scholars’ class includes returning SOAR Scholars Anjali Iyer (University of Texas – Austin), Maria Isabel Ramos Martinez (University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley), Alondra Salinas (Texas A&M – College Station), and Mia Simmons (Baylor University). New SOAR Scholars include Brianna Andrews (Texas A&M – International University), Samantha Delgado (SMU Dedman School of Law), Taryn Dia (Baylor University), Madelyn Garcia (Texas A&M – College Station), Addison McKenna Goncalo (University of Texas – Austin), Danielle Gonzales (Texas A&M – College Station), Jocelynn Gonzales (Texas A&M – Corpus Christi), Isabella Herrera (University of Texas – Austin), Ivana Kiage (University of Houston), Julia Norton (Texas A&M – College Station), Vivianna Noyola (Baylor University), Andrea Nwaokolo (University of Texas – Austin), Sekinah Okunnu (University of Houston), Olivia Reyna (University of Texas – Austin), Olivia Rhoades (Texas A&M – College Station), Ashley Shtaih (Texas Christian University), Alexa Tovar (University of Texas – Austin), Tiffany Tran (University of Texas School of Dentistry – Houston), and Daphne Uribe (McGovern Medical School – University of Texas Health Science Center).
Congratulations also to the 2024 SOAR Scholar graduates. Arielle Allen is graduating from the University of Texas School of Law with her J.D. degree with Pro Bono Honors and will be joining LOAR PLLC as an attorney. Madi Ang is graduating from the University of Texas with a B.S. Honors in Nutritional Sciences. She will be matriculating at the University of Texas Dental School in Houston in August. Alejandra De La O is graduating with honors from the University of Texas with a B.S. in Public Relations and Advertising and will be continuing at the University of Texas to pursue her graduate studies. Tran Le Abraham will be graduating from The University of Texas School of Law with a Juris Doctorate, and after graduation will be working at the Texas Association of School Boards.
LOAR PLLC is a fast-growing, woman-owned, law firm with offices located in Austin, DFW,Waco, and Edinburg, serving all Texans. The firm launched SOAR, a nonprofit scholarship foundation, to provide annual college scholarships to outstanding female students who are the future leaders of their schools, communities, and businesses. Visit SOAR to serve as a mentor or donate. For more information on LOAR PLLC, follow us on Facebook,Instagram and LinkedIn or Email us or call us at 888-288-6503.
Growth hacking is a systematic and relentless effort to expand rapidly while testing out different techniques and measuring their respective success rates. HR tech companies must entrust their marketing teams with the arduous task of analyzing different strategies to determine which ones hit the target and which should go by the wayside. Bear in mind that the growth funnel has five stages: acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. If you have an HR startup, you can kickstart this process by driving traffic to your website or service using methods like SEO, PPC, and social media advertising. Once you’ve achieved that, potential clients must be able to quickly realize how useful your product is and why you stand out from the crowd. Likewise, after a client is hooked, you want them to refer others to fuel organic growth. In short, a marketing pro’s job is never done when it comes to attracting clients and keeping them loyal. Fortunately, this ultimate guide has all the growth hacking strategies you need to devise an action plan for your HR SaaS technology that brings in targeted leads and builds brand credibility.
The 4 Phases Of The Growth Hacking Process
1. Idea Initiation
When you venture into SaaS growth hacking, start by aligning your product or service with the market’s needs. It doesn’t mean that your offering needs to necessarily be groundbreaking but catered toward the needs of a large customer base. You should allow your HR marketer to conduct extensive research and identify the best promotion strategies. One great way to understand how valuable your product is would be to ask your audience how they would feel if your offering ceased to exist.
2. Experimenting
This is where trying out different growth hacking tips starts. HR marketing agencies may create different landing page examples, run various ads, and use A/B testing. Ask yourself, “What element can we add to make an ad more powerful?” or “How would things change if we removed an element?” Don’t stay stagnant, and always look for additional tools and methods to improve your visibility. Knowing your vulnerabilities helps you grow quickly.
3. Scaling
After HR marketers have tested different options, it’s time to scale the most successful growth hacking strategies. You may need to increase your allocated resources for additional paid ads and hire extra personnel to reach out to potential customers. However, you still need to analyze your techniques and measure your success. Just because a tip was effective during testing doesn’t mean that it will drive growth the way you thought.
4. Retention
At this point, your experiments have been tried, tested, and refined to fit your growth goals. They are bringing in new customers and solidifying your growth every day. Consistent expansion is achieved, but this doesn’t mean that you should stop trying out new growth hacking strategies. Your HR marketing team must keep testing and optimizing their successful methods to validate their effectiveness and achieve sustainability.
Why advertise with eLI?
Discover how we help HR tech companies build awareness, boost website traffic, and generate qualified leads.
Why Marketing Is Crucial For HR Tech Companies: Marketing And Earned Media Strategies
The HR technology market is projected to reach $76.5 billion by 2031. With a limited number of companies dominating the market, HR startups and large, already established companies alike must implement effective growth hacking techniques to be competitive. Through content marketing, you can craft informative and comprehensive blog posts, infographics, and articles. This allows you to build awareness regarding the HR tech market and propose solutions to pressing issues. Carefully crafted HR content makes complex information simple and keeps clients engaged even after making a purchase. One of the top growth hacking strategies for any business is earned media strategies, which refer to paid ads and content you own and publish yourself. In both cases, potential customers are encouraged to hold positive discussions about your brand.
The Differences Between Traditional PR Vs. Digital Marketing Campaigns
Both traditional and digital PR campaigns have the same goal: increasing brand awareness. The first utilizes staple media like the radio, newspapers, magazines, TV, and event organizing. On the other hand, digital marketing focuses on websites, blogs, social media, and video platforms. HR tech companies can benefit from both, but digital PR is often more subtle and less intrusive. Instead of throwing its campaign in people’s faces for immediate visibility, it aims to rank highly on Google’s result pages (SERPs). Building backlinks has a massive influence on placing a campaign and corresponding brand in high-authority media publications. One of the core differences between these marketing strategies is reaching target audiences. Traditional campaigns reach everyone regardless of their interest, while digital marketing targets potential clients.
Increasing Leads Through Customizing Messages To Segmented Audiences
The first step of this HR tech growth hack is to analyze the data you’ve collected to identify segments of your leads. You may use various criteria, including demographics, industry, location, job role, and company size. You should also implement quizzes and surveys to gather additional information. Then, you can craft user personas of your ideal customers to better understand their profiles. Based on their age, gender, education, income, and goals, you need to divide them into different categories. Next, create a proposition and highlight why clients should pick you over your competition. Start writing your messages and ensure they align with the personas you’ve created. The tone of voice and vocabulary should resonate with their needs and expectations. Don’t forget to add a powerful CTA, inviting everyone toward the next steps of your sales funnel.
The Best Demand Generation Strategies For HR Tech Companies
HR tech companies must invest in demand generation for their services or products by carefully developing a content strategy. If you want to stand out in an overcrowded HR technology market, you could use content syndication to increase brand visibility, maintain high engagement levels, and create demand for your offerings. Capitalize on your social media presence by creating targeted ads, publishing thrilling content, and engaging in conversation with your community. And what better way to increase reach than by collaborating with influencers and taking advantage of their authority? It is quite similar to partner marketing, where you leverage an influential person’s or business’s networks to extend to new markets. In addition, you can host webinars to showcase your expertise and get to know your target audience. You should also use marketing automation tools to understand which strategies lead to conversions and higher sales.
Ways To Close The Gap Between Marketing And Sales
Growth hacking strategies for HR tech companies include flawless communication between marketing and sales departments. The two should be able to define their course of action, build a strong brand image, and set KPIs. Using a structured discussion format allows all voices to be heard equally, mentioning their needs without leaving anyone outside of the circle. Despite marketing and sales being different areas, they should share a leader who unites, organizes, and aligns everyone. Also, it’s beneficial to ask your sales representatives about customer questions, common issues, and weaknesses. You may need to offer them extra information so their pitches are more convincing. Additionally, your teams must meet weekly and engage in brainstorming sessions. Salespeople offer their input regarding the target audience so HR tech marketers can deliver the campaigns to the right people. You must build a blame-free team where everyone accepts responsibility for mishaps and no one is thrown under the bus. Another tip to bridge the gap is to provide marketing and sales with the same technology. Everyone uses the same tools and can better collaborate and understand each other.
How To Construct Your Brand Story, Credibility, And Trust In The HR Tech Market
The first step for HR startups to make themselves visible and stand out is to craft an intriguing brand story. Successful HR tech marketers know how to evoke emotion, communicate a company’s mission, and win customers’ trust. To engage your target audience, you can craft an authentic and consistent brand image that has a traditional story structure and centers around your customers. It’s important that your marketing efforts recognize the human side of your client base by offering them a lifeboat for their most common issues. However, even if you create a compelling story, how do you win people’s trust when you are new to the game? It’s simple: you provide real case studies and customer testimonials. You mention the various challenges they faced and how your tools helped them overcome the hurdles. Hosting webinars can also help you demonstrate your authority and expertise in the HR tech market, making your company more competitive. Maintaining consistency and transparency allows your brand to grow its reliability as you actively show that you stick to your promises.
Successful Growth Strategies For HR Tech Companies
1. Leverage Referrals
Among the best growth hacking strategies you should consider for your HR tech company are referrals. A customer buys your product or service, is satisfied with it, and invites friends and peers to purchase it, too. Doesn’t that sound simple? It sure does. And it’s the exact same way PayPal grew its user base by 7–10% daily. They would offer $10 cashback for each referral, investing $60 million. Yes, this amount sounds extreme, but it did help the company attract 100 million new members. Then, Dropbox followed PayPal’s example. However, the brand did not have the same resources. So, instead, they offered 250MB of free storage for referrals, increasing their signups by 60%. This proves that you don’t need to invest exorbitant amounts of money but rather find a unique offering that clients won’t be able to resist.
2. Partner With Influencers And Brands
Marketing for new HR tech companies may differ from what big conglomerates are doing. It’s much easier and more affordable to identify social media influencers, podcasters, and bloggers in your niche and collaborate with them. You may offer free products or access to your services in exchange for promotion and honest reviews. A single post or mention from someone with 10–100K active and engaged followers offers you targeted exposure and guaranteed leads. But how do you prove to them that they need to promote your brand without getting paid? Well, your marketers will draw an immediate connection between your HR tech company and their brand. You can also make them affiliates and provide a much more powerful incentive for their collaboration.
3. Create Guest Posts On Industry Websites
Even when you’ve created the most informative and transformational article, your reach is limited if it’s located only on your company’s website. Therefore, you should submit it to other blogs and make sure to add a link to your own website. Make sure to modify your content based on each publication’s format. This way, you generate high-quality leads that are most certainly interested in your services. If you want to start guest blogging, here’s how you can publish an article on eLearning Industry. Many HR tech companies and other SaaS software can leverage built-in audiences to get the right leads and boost website traffic.
4. Run Contests
Did you know that one of the most effective growth hacking strategies for HR tech companies is to run a contest or giveaway? They are great incentives for increasing participation and building brand awareness. You may start by offering a free service or a massive discount by simply asking people to like your post and follow your social media accounts. Or you may opt to run a simple sweepstakes on Twitter. You should promote your contest across all platforms to increase visibility and participation. Remember that everyone gets excited at the possibility of winning something exclusive, whether it’s a free product or VIP access to a service.
5. Create A Sense Of Urgency And FOMO
Psychology and marketing are much closer than you’d think. In fact, many people are convinced to make a purchase faster when there is a sense of urgency attached. For instance, early or VIP access and unique discounts create severe fear of missing out (FOMO) and push customers to buy your services. This is why beta access is so popular with clients. Adding a countdown timer is a wonderful growth hacking tip that drives excitement and anticipation. Don’t forget to promote your offers across all social media platforms and create hype.
6. Know Your Competition
The HR tech market is quite competitive, and there are many top players out there who have the lead. So, what better way to reach their level than by observing what they are doing? Analyze their methods, gather insights, and see how they can benefit your brand. Do not follow their example blindly, as you want to stay true to your unique identity and not copy others. Stay active across all social media platforms where they are present and target their audience. Based on what they offer, present your counteroffers and explain why your HR tech company is better.
7. Get Included In Marketplaces
While creating a great-looking website and maintaining engaging social media are necessary, you also need to be present in relevant marketplaces. Customers visit those when they need to find a product or service they need, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be among other brands. So, assemble a list of the most popular marketplaces, create a profile, and include and promote your services. Be an active part of the community by leaving comments and engaging in conversations. Don’t forget to connect with other brands and possible clients on social media and expand your network. For example, the largest HR tech companies have joined niche directories. You can do the same!
8. Invest In Email Marketing
A great growth hacking example is creating a meticulous email marketing strategy. Don’t just send generic emails without a clear purpose. When you’re close to launching a new product or service, email your client base, tease your launch, and announce the official release date. Therefore, you slowly build people’s curiosity and excitement. And this is the perfect time to promote your contests, win-back offers, or referral opportunities. Provide links to your social media accounts and encourage everyone to join you there to stay up-to-date regarding special offers and discounts.
9. Add Gamification To Your Onboarding
An essential growth hacking tip is to make your new customers’ onboarding as engaging as possible. Gather insights and check the points where most of your clients exit your platform. To fix these problematic areas, you want everyone to feel special by personalizing the process. Walk them through your product’s or service’s functions and share tips on how to enjoy the benefits. How can gamification be added to the equation, though? Well, if we take a look at Dropbox’s example, for every action a new user takes, a new milestone is unlocked. For example, Dropbox unlocks a new reward if you link your Facebook profile to their website.
10. Become An Expert In SEO
Search Engine Optimization experts have certain SEO skills. HR tech marketers know how crucial Search Engine Optimization is in growing brand awareness and improving your position on Google’s ladder. First, you must do extensive research and identify the most commonly used keywords your competitors utilize in their content. You should take things a step further by optimizing your voice search and utilizing featured snippets. Then, you can create content based on trending topics and use relevant and popular keywords throughout your posts.
How Inbound Marketing And Social Media Affect HR Tech Marketing
Apply Inbound Marketing Growth Strategies That Work
Inbound marketing begins by attracting strangers to your website via SEO, social media, content, and video marketing. These people soon become clients, and if they are satisfied with your services, they turn into promoters. HR tech companies must know that this form of marketing focuses on creating high-quality content that builds powerful brand awareness and fosters long-lasting relationships with customers. Focus on identifying client personas by utilizing Facebook insights. You may also conduct surveys and interviews with existing clients and leads to understand how your efforts resonate with your audience. And remember to make your content visual by adding images and videos and employing storytelling in your posts.
Increase Reach And Engagement Through Social Media Marketing
Ask yourself: how many times have you purchased a product after seeing it advertised on social media? Capitalizing on the immense power and possibilities of the latter is an invaluable growth hacking strategy for HR tech companies. Thanks to the nature of social media, you get the chance to present your brand and services to people from all around the globe, increasing your reach monumentally. When you upload captivating content, you hook potential clients and push them to take an interest in you. Imagine how easily internet users share videos about pets and babies with friends. They can do the same with your content when it’s engaging and resonates with them. Eye-catching images, real-life or animated videos, and success stories are your tickets to successful social media marketing.
Invest In Partnership Marketing And Online Advertising Campaigns
All this information can be overwhelming to most HR startups as newcomers to the competitive world of the HR tech market. Instead of panicking and making questionable moves, partner up with an experienced marketer and let them guide you through the haze. Is this a serious investment? Sure it is. Think of it as a box of cereal. Their creators don’t just throw it on grocery stores’ shelves and expect consumers to buy it. They create captivating and dynamic video campaigns and promote them on various platforms. This is how you should approach promotion for your brand. Your marketing agency can organize webinars and other events so you can showcase your expertise in the HR tech market and build credibility. Furthermore, your partners can create and manage pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns on dominant platforms. Leveraging marketing experts’ help gives you a competitive edge while helping you navigate the cluttered market.
What Marketing For HR Tech Companies Looks Like In 2024
The best growth hacking tip for 2024 is to make the most of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). When talking about AI, we refer to generative, autonomous, and causal Artificial Intelligence. They are projected to play a critical role in the HR technology market, which is experiencing unprecedented growth. These tools can automate and streamline time-consuming processes and allow professionals to focus on activities that demand their full attention. AI can assess candidates, create shortlists, and arrange interviews. Additionally, it gathers and analyzes employee data and makes valid predictions regarding engagement, attrition, and performance. As a result, managers and leading figures locate issues and treat them at the early stages, preventing major struggles. The implementation of AI virtual assistants can guide employees through different stages of onboarding and answer common queries. However, utilizing such technological advancements is a long process that requires a lot of training and human judgment. Machines are not infallible and may sometimes draw inaccurate conclusions. This is where the human element steps in to analyze the results and decide whether they should be considered or not.
Key Takeaway
The HR tech company market is growing exponentially, and it’s only natural for competition to increase and challenge everyone to engineer strategies that will catapult them ahead of their rivals. As Gen Z is venturing into the global workforce, companies (AKA your potential clients) are forced to reconsider their stance toward remote and flexible work. That’s why they’re looking to invest in technologies that promote collaboration and virtual communication to address the need for improved work-life balance. Thus, HR tech companies must leverage the latest and greatest marketing solutions and growth hacking strategies to showcase their USPs.
Kist’s “little safe place” boxes are modeled from the self-regulation and emotional identification tools in the “safe place” corner of her classroom, an area that also contains a rug and pillows to comfort students. In a moment of dysregulation, whether the student is using the box or the safe place corner, a classroom adult can guide them to use these tools to recognize and move through their emotions. Each student also has a family photo in their box. “Connections to home are just so helpful if they’re upset about anything,” said Kist.
Learning to identify emotions
Identifying emotions is a complex process. For young children the first steps in this process are learning to recognize facial expressions, tone of voice and body language, according to Goodwin, the child psychologist. They also need to learn to label those context clues with language.
According to Goodwin, children should be able to identify emotions by around three or four years old. Although most children will learn how to identify emotions naturally through social interaction, parents and educators can facilitate that learning. “The biggest thing you can do is just talk about emotions,” she said. Taking opportunities to talk about and label your own emotions or the emotions expressed in a children’s TV show or book can be helpful. It is also helpful for parents and educators to label emotions that a child is expressing for them so that “in the future they can then learn to label it themselves,” Goodwin said.
To help students build empathy, Goodwin recommends parents and educators ask young children what a character in a book or tv show might be feeling, and why they might be feeling that way. One activity that Goodwin has found useful in her personal and professional life is “feeling charades.” In this game, both children and adults act out a feeling, while the other participants guess what feeling they are expressing. Feeling charades can also be played with puppets or toys.
Learning to regulate emotions
In Kist’s classroom, students practice emotional regulation strategies throughout the day, not just when there’s a peer conflict or an individual child is distressed. “You can’t teach it when they’re in the middle of it,” Kist said. When a child is upset, she takes time to acknowledge the student’s feelings, reflect back to them what their face is expressing and suggest an emotion that they might be feeling.
Kist’s students also practice different breathing techniques throughout the day. Breathing exercises can be helpful for self-regulation, but young children need concrete explanations, so the techniques Kist uses have a symbol, such as a star or a balloon. The visual reminders are printed on a small laminated page in their “little safe place” box. When a student needs to access deep breathing, they can pull out their breathing card and choose an exercise. Kist and her students also make up their own breathing exercises, always involving a physical aspect like deep breathing while swinging their leg to kick an imaginary ball.
The “safe place” corner of Jenny Kist’s classroom contains a rug and pillows to comfort students, as well as tools to help them identify and process their feelings. (Courtesy of Jenny Kist)
Goodwin suggested encouraging children to breathe in through their nose and out through their mouth by pretending to smell a flower and blow out a candle. This can be given as a verbal explanation, but can also be helped by using fake flowers and candles, or even drawings for children to reference.
Goodwin also uses belly breathing, where young children put their hands on their bellies as they breathe to feel how their abdomen expands and contracts with each breath, as well as five-finger breathing, where children trace their fingers on one hand with the index finger on their other hand as they take slow breaths, one per finger. Teaching these techniques can be frustrating because kids at this age are easily distracted and learning these skills for the first time. It “just takes like a lot of modeling,” and “a lot of reminding,” said Goodwin.
COVID-19 origins and ongoing impact
Kist originally created the “my little safe place” boxes when the early learning center went virtual in spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the unfamiliar experience of virtual learning, she wanted to find a way to provide a portable and accessible version of the safe space corner for each student.
Initially, not every student was given a “little safe place” box. But as she saw how helpful they were to the students that she had given them to during at home learning, Kist decided that every student in her classroom should have one. Since incorporating the boxes in her in-person classroom, she has seen students bring other students their boxes in moments of dysregulation. She has also seen some of her young learners singing their “I love you” nursery rhymes with each other unprompted.
Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email
Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter
Parents of three and four-year-olds will find out on Tuesday the primary school offered to their children for academic year beginning September.
On national primary school offer day, local councils make contact with families and carers to inform them what schools their three to four-year-olds have been accepted into.
The majority of pupils are expected to be offered a place at one of their preferred primary schools, while most will be offered their top choice.
The time of the announcements varies by council area, and parents will be informed via email or letter.
Will I get my first choice primary school?
The pupils are likely to get one of their top choice primary schools, according to a blog published by the Department of Education.
In 2023, 92.5 per cent families received an offer from their first choice of primary school and 98.3 per cent received an offer from one of their top three choices.
At the same time, over one million additional school places have been created between May 2010 and May 2023, with many more in the pipeline.
File: Children enjoy outside play at St Mary’s CE Primary School on 8 March 2021 in Stoke on Trent, England (Getty Images)
What do I do after I receive an offer?
When you have been allocated a school, you must formally accept the offer by a certain deadline that the local authority will set.
Your local authority should have a step-by-step guide on what to do next.
How are primary school places decided?
All schools have admission criteria to decide which children get places. This criteria is set by the school or local council.
While all state-funded schools must give top priority to admitting children who are in care or have been in care, admission criteria is different for each school. They may choose to give priority to children:
Those who live close to the school
Those who have a brother or sister at the school already
Those from a particular religion (for faith schools)
Those who are eligible for the pupil premium
Those whose parent has worked at the school for two years or more
Your local council can give you information about a school’s criteria.
What do I do if I do not get the school I wanted?
If you’re not offered your first-choice school, you can appeal the decision. However, it is advised that you accept the school you are offered even if you decide to appeal, in case your application is rejected.
You can add your child’s name to the waiting list for any school that you’ve applied for. Schools must keep a waiting list for at least one term. The waiting list will be ordered by the school’s oversubscription criteria.
How do I appeal?
Parents or carers who want to appeal a decision should first contact the school’s admission authority, which is responsible for organising the appeal panel. They can ford their school’s admission authority by visiting their local council website.
The panel is independent and will look at the case presented by both the admission authority and the parent before coming to a decision.
The decision of the appeal panel is binding – if the appeal is upheld, the admission authority must offer your child a place at the school.
In a labor market marked by high executive turnover and shortened leadership tenures, many organizations are recognizing the value of promoting from within. Internal CEO appointments hit a record high in 2023, and internal recruitment at all levels is increasingly central to strengthening organizational culture and succession planning.
If you are a newly promoted member of a senior leadership team in higher education, we offer our congratulations and a piece of advice: even as you hit the ground running, don’t rush past the benefits of newness that would ordinarily accrue to an appointee coming from the outside.
Most Popular
What does this mean for you, the newly promoted leader? Rising from within your institution, you bring many advantages. You’re familiar with its history, goals and challenges. You know the administrative systems and processes. But overreliance on familiarity carries risks and can foreclose valuable opportunities. If your college or university doesn’t provide mentoring or coaching for newly promoted leaders, consider creating your own onboarding, with the following practices as a guide.
Reinvest in relationships. Given your prior interactions with members of the senior team or their deputies, it might be tempting to assume you’ve already established a sufficient working connection with them. But newness in your role is a rare and valuable opportunity to get to know them and their work differently and more deeply—and vice versa.
Seek out regular informal meetings with your colleagues to ask questions. Be open with them about what aspects of senior team work might be new to you, such as board relations or institution-wide budgeting. Resist the idea that requesting get-to-know you time from busy administrators is an imposition; in most cases, it is a welcomed opportunity for them to reflect on the larger purpose of their day-to-day work and the insights they have gained in their own leadership journey. Moreover, the better you know one another, the more readily you can collaborate and offer mutual support.
Look with fresh eyes. You might not be new to the institution but the occasion of your promotion is a call to view it anew, clearly and expansively. The Zen tradition might characterize this practice as “beginner’s mind.” Such a mindset pays dividends to you and your college or university, especially as you join a senior team setting institutional direction and strategy. “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities,” observed a noted Zen teacher, “but in the expert’s, there are few.” One of the gifts of being new is the freedom to ask “Why?” and “Why not?” with little risk of penalty or embarrassment. Embark on your new role from a place of possibility and commit to returning to it often.
Reframe wins and losses. Serving at the senior leadership level is less about leading the work than charting the course. The mindset required is less “Are we getting the work done?” and more “Are we doing the right work?” As a leader at this level, you are called to look broadly, institution-wide, at the full landscape of opportunities and threats, needs and constraints. In this context, your mindset around wins and losses will probably need to shift. You yourself might not have “won” the budget increase you requested for your division but, as part of the leadership team, you helped allocate institutional resources strategically to advance the institution’s work and secure its future.
Contribute to the collective intelligence. In an effective organization, only the thorniest issues come to the leadership table. (If they weren’t thorny, they’d be solved at more junior levels). Very few issues at the senior team level are straightforward or unidimensional. Those concerning, say, ways to expand diversity, equity and inclusion; communicating through crisis; or developing institutional strategy for AI require a team’s collective intelligence. Your strengths—and those of your colleagues—enhance the cognitive and strategic capacity of the whole team.
It might be tempting to think that you don’t need to give much mindshare to Thorny Topic X because it doesn’t have direct connection to your domain or area of expertise. Not true. You are on the senior team for more than your subject-matter knowledge; you’re no longer free to say “not it.” Make time to understand the issue and its context—then bring your best thinking to the table.
Nearly every notable action an institution takes, whether a policy change, an investment or divestment, a program launch or closure, has ripple effects in other areas. When you join a senior leadership team, you are called to care—and care deeply—about the whole of the institution. The buck stops at the senior table. You and your colleagues—collectively, “the administration”—rise and fall together. Onboarding yourself carefully to new relationships and new ways of thinking is vital. Doing so will ensure that you add value not merely because you know the place and its past, but also because you’re prepared to ask new questions to shape its future.
Laurie Fenlason, founder and principal ofL. Fenlason Consulting, advises leaders, teams and boards on strategy, visibility and strategic communications. Jenn Desjarlais is a principal with Cambridge Hill Partners, a consulting group supporting leadership and organizational development.
There has been much talk and concern in recent months about making higher-level math more accessible to high schoolers, particularly low-income students from Black and Hispanic communities. Much of this discussion dwells on what is the best curriculum to use to teach Algebra I and other higher-level math courses.
The right curriculum is important, of course. A high-quality curriculum creates the foundation for success in math. A curriculum that values culturally responsive education enables teachers both to value the many kinds of experiences that students bring to classrooms and to push them academically while engaging them personally.
But properly implementing an Algebra I curriculum is at least as important as the curriculum itself. The core of implementation, meanwhile, is coaching each teacher for the specific challenges they will face in their classrooms. The key to success is ensuring that teachers understand the vision for how to implement the curriculum and are therefore motivated and prepared to use it to help children learn in ways that are relevant to them.
In a way, it’s like photography. The key to creating art with light and time is not the equipment. Although Hasselblad and Leica cameras and a metal case of Nikkor lenses are great in the hands of those who know how to use them, a great tool to create expressive photographic art can also be found in your purse or pocket. As with teaching algebra, the key is not the specific tool, but knowing the right approach and being trained well enough to be confident in using that approach.
I’ve seen a focus on implementation pay off in my own work as director of Algebra Success for the Urban Assembly. One of our coaches at the nonprofit, Latina Khalil-Hairston, encouraged teachers at Harry S Truman High School in the Bronx to tinker with their curriculum to encourage more student involvement.
They created a new lesson structure that focused more on getting students to help each other solve problems than on getting direction from teachers. While doing so, they were mindful of adopting this new structure within the challenging constraint of having only 45 minutes for each lesson. Teachers saw more participation and better results, which has been its own motivation.
Professionals in all fields need coaching and support — why would high school math be any different? We wouldn’t give a basketball playbook to a player and expect them to be LeBron James. Even LeBron James still practices and gets coaching feedback. Even the most accomplished among us need to see a vision of excellence.
Yet I have seen many schools fall into the trap of investing in a curriculum without giving teachers the most useful ways to implement it. Unsurprisingly, these schools fail to achieve the results they hoped for and then abandon one curriculum for another.
But the curriculum is just the camera. Training and coaching, personalized to each teacher, produce the art.
And that coaching should not only help teachers understand their tools, but also help them better understand the backgrounds of their students to ensure that their perspectives are part of the learning process. Knowing the nature of the student body can dramatically enhance understanding, retention and interest in math (or any subject).
I’ve seen the results. Just last year, we saw pass rates on the Algebra I Regents for schools participating in our Algebra Success program rise 13 percent over the previous year. College-readiness math results rose 14 percent.
It is time for schools and districts to abandon the search for the one perfect curriculum — it does not exist. Instead, they should focus on how to better implement the systems they have in an engaging, effective way. They should invest in the training and support of teachers to master the instruction of that curriculum. With these changes, we know students will find success in Algebra I, putting them on the path to higher-level math courses and postsecondary success.
Shantay Mobley is the director of Algebra Success for the Urban Assembly, a nonprofit that promotes social and economic mobility by innovating in public education. She previously was a math teacher, school leader and instructional consultant.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
JJC leads the way for community colleges, embracing Advising App™ to empower staff with advanced AI capabilities. This technology promises enhanced productivity, reduced managerial intervention, and improved employee satisfaction.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., April 15, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Canyon GBS™ marks a significant milestone as Joliet Junior College (JJC) signs up for Advising App™ (https://advising.app) to launch a higher education-specific, enterprise AI assistant at scale for staff. This groundbreaking collaboration signifies a pivotal moment in the advancement of AI-driven support systems within the education sector. As one of the first community colleges in North America to deploy a compliant, secure, scaled enterprise AI assistant for staff, JJC sets a new benchmark for strategy and operational excellence.
This landmark collaboration underscores JJC’s forward-thinking leadership in applying AI to their daily operations, while Canyon GBS™ reaffirms its standing as a leading provider of purpose-built solutions for colleges and universities.
“At Canyon GBS, we’re dedicated to empowering educational institutions with cutting-edge AI technology that drives positive outcomes for students and staff alike,” says Joe Licata, Founder and CEO of Canyon GBS™. “Our collaboration with Joliet Junior College highlights our commitment to democratizing access to AI solutions in higher education, offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional enterprise offerings while delivering the highest standards of quality, security, or functionality.”
Following in the footsteps of Arizona State University (ASU), which announced in January a pioneering collaboration with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT Enterprise into their university, Canyon GBS™ continues to lead the charge in shaping the future of enterprise AI in academia. With a commitment to fostering innovation and student success, Advising App™ offers a powerful, yet affordable solution designed to revolutionize administrative processes and enhance staff productivity across college campuses.
“JJC is proud to be the first community college in the nation to partner with Canyon GBS, a company built by higher education professionals for higher education professionals, working to ensure the responsible use of AI tools across institutions,” said Dr. Clyne Namuo, President of Joliet Junior College. “This partnership places JJC at the forefront, providing a tool for our faculty and staff to enhance and streamline what they do to support our students.”
“As one of the first colleges in North America to deploy a scaled AI solution for staff, Joliet Junior College exemplifies a commitment to innovation and student success,” says Dr. Mark Koan, SVP of Tech Strategy and Partnerships at Canyon GBS™. “We are proud to partner with JJC in this transformative endeavor and look forward to driving continued advancements in AI-driven support systems for higher education institutions worldwide.”
About Canyon GBS™
Based in the vibrant Phoenix Metro Area and supported by a global team, Canyon GBS™ (https://canyongbs.com) is a pioneering tech company crafting impactful solutions powered by AI. With a diverse range of offerings tailored for sectors such as higher education, public sector government agencies, non-profits, and small businesses, Canyon GBS™ is dedicated to enhancing operational efficiency. Our mission is to equip organizations with powerful yet accessible AI-powered technology to better serve their constituents. Through our relentless pursuit of innovation and customer-centric approach, Canyon GBS™ strives to be a trusted partner in navigating today’s digital landscape.
About Joliet Junior College
Located in the south Chicago suburbs, JJC is the nation’s first public community college, with six campuses and education centers that serve approximately 27,000 students annually. JJC’s nine academic pathways offer customized, affordable certificate and associate degree options for immediate career placement, as well as seamless transfer capabilities through its partners across Illinois and throughout the US. JJC students also benefit from a collective $13 million in state and federal grants, and scholarship assistance in excess of $750,000 each year. Learn more at www.jjc.edu.
By the time he entered six grade, he could spell his name, but he still couldn’t make out words, spell, or read with understanding. The situation was made worse by a series of teachers who made him feel worthless.
“Many of the teachers were not very patient, not very kind,” he said.
“I struggled in school with a deep sense of loss and shame and humiliation.”
Juleus Ghunta (Courtesy of Juleus Ghunta)
When Ghunta was about 12, a young teacher-in-training decided to start a special reading program for struggling students. Ghunta was the first student to sign up. That teacher, whose name he does not recall, would become Ghunta’s unsung hero — the person who changed his life.
“The teacher was incredibly kind to me,” he sad. “She was patient. She was creative. She did not ask anything of me, except that I work hard and believe in myself.”
Under her guidance, Ghunta’s reading skills finally started to improve. And his sense of inadequacy began to lift.
“She had left me with the gift of literacy,” he said. “And with a deeper appreciation of my personhood, and value as a human being.”
After Ghunta’s experience with the teacher, his life took a new direction. He graduated from elementary school with a number of academic awards, including one for “most improved in reading.”
He went on to college, and later, graduate school. Today, he is the author of two children’s books, including Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope, about overcoming difficult experiences in childhood. He’s now working on his first full-length collection of poetry.
In 2010, Ghunta went back to his old school, to ask the principal and teachers if they knew his old teacher’s name. But no one did. He still hopes to find her one day, so that he can tell her thank you for seeing his potential.
“I would love for her to see the significant impact that she has made on my life, and the ways in which I have carried this memory of her — the hope, the light, with me — and how it continues to be a source of joy.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
While the concept of HQIM has been established and embraced in other core academic disciplines, applying this concept to social studies has been more complex. Unlike content standards for math or science, where there is more uniformity across states, social studies standards can vary significantly from one state to another. This variation reflects the diverse historical and cultural priorities of different states. Additionally, social studies encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including history, geography, civics and economics, each with its own set of disciplinary practices. This variety makes it challenging to create materials that are universally recognized as high quality across all aspects of social studies.
Recently, EdSurge spoke with Kathy Swan, a 20-year veteran professor of social studies education at the University of Kentucky. Swan worked as a bank examiner for the FDIC before transitioning to teaching, which she pursued both domestically and internationally for about 10 years. She then earned her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky.
Throughout her career, Swan has been interested in inquiry-based pedagogy, drawing from her experiences as a teacher. Despite initially having reservations about standards, she became the lead writer and project director of the College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework, a set of national standards for social studies education. Swan views the C3 Framework and inquiry-based learning as guideposts for teachers to create and implement effective and engaging social studies classrooms. She has leveraged her expertise to contribute to Imagine Learning, where she served as a lead consultant in the development of Traverse, its new social studies program.
EdSurge: What is inquiry-based learning? Why is it considered an effective instructional strategy?
Swan: Inquiry is life. Our lives in the natural world are driven by a series of existential questions, as well as supporting questions (or just-in-time questions), that help us navigate each moment. Just today, I asked myself, “Should I eat that? What do I think about the state of the union? Should I go for a walk or go straight to work?”
Inquiry-based learning frames learning through questions rather than answers, and in the classroom, students drive those questions with guidance from teachers. Social studies education, in particular, has often focused on the answers to questions about when something happened or who someone was, learning the molecular pieces of content. Inquiry tries to shift that to questions students can think about, providing them greater agency with the questions that drive the learning. In other words, they aren’t just memorizing answers.
That is the strength of inquiry; it unites us across the educational spectrum. In a book I recently co-authored, I suggested that inquiry is to education like liberty is to democracy — it’s baked into the cake. We didn’t just discover inquiry, which I find really reassuring as an educator because we are in this field where there can be a fad every week. The fact that we’ve been talking about inquiry in education for over a hundred years, from when John Dewey codified it, helps me believe in it and invest my time and energy into it. We are just having an old conversation with new tricks.
Introducing Traverse, a digital-forward, inquiry-driven social studies curriculum for grades 6-12.
How does the C3 Framework differ from traditional sets of standards, and what factors contributed to its widespread adoption in social studies education?
The C3 Framework is the equivalent of our national standards document, but it’s not a set of standards. The Common Core in ELA and math was a set of standards meant to be adopted almost whole cloth by states, and overnight, almost 90 percent of states adopted them. Science [standards] followed that idea.
We understood that a set of standards in social studies would be tricky due to the names, dates, places and events that people fight about. There can be pushback, particularly around content people are passionate about, so we took a different approach. Instead, we created a framework that outlines these dimensions and indicators that states could use to inform their social studies standards. We wanted social studies standards to have the flexibility to speak to culturally responsive pedagogies and, on the other hand, not let the federal government tell local or state governments how curricula should be created.
The C3 Framework was released in 2013. We really waited for the phones to ring the day it was published. We joke about it in the book we just wrote, Revolution of Ideas: A Decade of C3 Inquiry. C3 dropped like a feather. Nobody seemed to care [laughs]. Then, over time, C3 gained momentum in all the right ways. It has become the vernacular, the North Star of social studies.
One reason the C3 Framework eventually experienced widespread adoption is that it is a flexible document that gives states greater agency. However, the more important reason is that the framework provides good ideas that resonate with real teachers and policymakers. The foundation is so well established. Who can argue with inquiry? C3 won on the strength of its ideas.
An inquiry-based education trains students for college, career and civic life — C3! The most important thing we do in social studies education is prepare citizens to live in a diverse democracy. Inquiry is a way to construct democratic laboratory experiences where students can practice living in a deliberative, diverse democracy.
How does inquiry-based learning integrate into the development of HQIMs for social studies?
The acronym HQIM might be fairly new, but the concepts behind it are not. HQIMs are standards based, inquiry based and allow for differentiation. The C3 Framework is built on compelling questions: questions designed for multiple perspectives and more than one answer. The HQIM social studies practices speak directly to the disciplinary practices in C3. And inquiry, as a practice, relies on examining diverse perspectives to understand human phenomena.
The C3 Framework and HQIMs complement each other; they both support an equity lens we need in social studies through inquiry. The sources we use within an inquiry that students examine must allow those perspectives to surface. The inquiry process not only considers different past and present perspectives but also emphasizes student perspectives as they use evidence and their own reasoning to answer compelling questions. It’s important to unpack the layers of those perspectives within an inquiry experience.
What additional insights can we glean from the C3 Framework as we define HQIMs for social studies?
It is critical that we, as educators, teach the entire Inquiry Arc — all four dimensions. Dimension One is about developing questions to drive the inquiry. It provides the So what? for the social studies practices. But sometimes, teachers want to jump to Dimension Two, where the content concepts and disciplinary practices reside. Dimension Three focuses on evaluating sources and using evidence. Dimension Four is important because it pushes students to express their conclusions and take informed action. This can be another tricky space for teachers. Dimensions Two and Three are already in most teachers’ wheelhouses, but Dimensions One and Four can feel like Narnia. But those tricky spaces are the difference-making spaces. They speak to the vibrancy of the social studies curriculum.
When I look at a social studies curriculum, I’m not just thinking, Can students construct an evidentiary argument after reading a source in response to a question? I’m thinking, Where’s the life? Where’s the energy? Where is the vibrancy that can be transferred into the classroom? The vibrancy develops in that important question that makes students want to learn more, and then it comes in at the end, where students are able to express themselves and take action. You can have a lot of curriculum that checks boxes, but will it come alive in a classroom?
BETHESDA, Md./PRNewswire-PRWeb/ —EPS Learning, the leading provider of PreK-12 literacy solutions, announced that four of its programs have been recommended by the Virginia Board of Education for evidence-based literacy instruction that’s aligned to science-based reading research. The recognition supports Virginia schools in a multi-year effort to improve early learning outcomes for students who are below proficiency levels in reading.
According to the 2022–2023 Virginia Assessment Results, which demonstrate significant and persistent learning loss in reading and math, more than half of students in grades 3-8 either failed or were at risk of failing their reading SOL exam. To remedy reading proficiency beginning in the 2024–2025 school year, the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA) will mandate core literacy and research-grounded instruction for K–5 students. The enacted legislation provides tools, resources, technical assistance and funding to schools within the state.
EPS Learning programs meet the required parameters to be recommended as top literacy intervention solutions, including alignment with evidence-based literacy instruction, comprehensive and intensive intervention, support that is accessible and can be easily implemented into any curriculum, inclusivity and representation. The EPS Learning programs included in the recommendation are:
SPIRE Family (Specialized Program Individualizing Reading Excellence): Provides explicit, systematic, multisensory instruction through an easy-to-implement intensive program.
Reading Assistant for SPIRE: Offers assessment, including a dyslexia screener, highly personalized reading practice for students and real time performance data for teachers through an AI-powered virtual “tutor.”
Megawords: Teaches the reading, spelling and contextual uses of multisyllabic words through multisensory instruction and a systematic progression of skills.
Wordly Wise 3000: Provides direct academic vocabulary instruction to develop the critical link between vocabulary and reading comprehension.
SPIRE Next™: Provides skills-based, genre-specific instruction and practice that uses close reading to build comprehension.
Additionally, EPS Learning offers several sets of decodable readers and other materials not subject to VLA approval that complement these programs:
Readfetti – full-color fiction and non-fiction decodable readers and read aloud cards that align with many popular phonics programs
Mac & Tab – decodable readers featuring an adorable cat and rat, made popular through the Primary Phonics program
Alphabet Series – decodable readers including charming stories, made popular through the Recipe for Reading program
“The recognition of EPS Learning solutions by the Virginia Department of Education further validates our framework for literacy instruction that’s backed by nearly 70 years of experience,” said Steven Guttentag, Chief Executive Officer at EPS Learning. “We champion Virginia’s significant efforts to ensure that all students in the state can access literacy as the springboard to lifelong learning and opportunity.”
About EPS Learning EPS Learning has partnered with educators for more than 70 years to advance literacy as the springboard for lifelong learning and opportunity. The 20+ literacy solutions included in the EPS Literacy Framework are based on the science of reading and support grades PreK through 12, all tiers of instruction, and every pillar of reading. EPS Learning offers evidence-based intervention and customized professional learning to help move students toward growth, mastery, and success. Visit http://www.epslearning.com to learn more.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
Background: Who determined the five components of reading? Congress asked the National Reading Panel NRP to determine the best approaches to help children read. As a result of their research and evaluation, the organization issued an evidence-based, nearly 500-page report of their findings. Teaching Children to Read divided reading instruction into five components and summarized available research. […]
9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004))
