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Tag: K12

  • STUDENT VOICE: Here’s how colleges can help more student parents graduate

    STUDENT VOICE: Here’s how colleges can help more student parents graduate

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    The first two times I tried college, I didn’t finish. There was never enough time to care for my young son, work a full-time job and do my schoolwork. And there was never enough money to pay rent, tuition and child care.

    On my third try, everything clicked. This time I was more motivated than ever before — to prove that I could do it, to prove the doubters wrong. 

    The first leg of my college journey came to a close this spring, after five grueling years, when I earned my associate degree in criminal justice from Howard Community College — a school that supports student parents like myself. 

    I now consider myself proof that motivated and supported student parents can beat the odds and earn a college degree, even though the deck is stacked against us. 

    One of every five college undergraduates in this country is caring for a dependent child. Student parents are usually women, at least 30 years old, raising children on their own. A third are Black, and a fifth are Latino. In addition, the largest share of student parents attend community colleges. There used to be a lot more of us, but a strong job market and the rising cost of tuition, housing and child care needs meant that many had to put their college dreams on hold.

    The financial and time pressures on student learners are immense. Fewer than 40 percent of student parents earn their degrees within six years. 

    Related: Interested in innovations in the field of higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly Higher Education newsletter.

    After I graduated from high school in 2019, I thought my road to a college degree would be relatively straightforward. I enrolled that fall but quit soon after I got pregnant. I returned to college in the fall of 2020, but caring for a newborn and trying to navigate online classes during the pandemic was simply too much. 

    The college experience on offer did not match my reality of being a student and a parent. I had dropped out of school once already. It was much too easy to do it again.

    Leaving college for a second time shattered my confidence and my belief in myself. 

    I was raised by a single mom who didn’t go to college. I saw how hard she worked at a low-paying job and how much she struggled but could never get ahead.

    I wanted to break that cycle. I was determined to provide a better life for me and especially for my son. I wanted to make sure he had everything he needed to grow up strong, healthy and smart. 

    I was going to be the one who made it — the one who was able to look back and say to all who had doubted me that I had done this for me and my little boy.

    Student parents are usually women, at least 30 years old, raising children on their own. Credit: Image provided by Abby Bediako

    In the fall of 2022, I tried again, this time at Howard Community College (HCC). The experience turned out to be completely different because HCC acknowledges and values parents like me and had assembled a plan and a program to support us. 

    HCC offered me enough scholarships and financial aid to cover my tuition and fees for two years. They even gave me an emergency grant when I had trouble making rent one time. They arranged a flexible schedule that let me take all but one of my classes online at night after I was done with my job and had put my son to bed. At my previous college, I’d had to drop in-person courses when I couldn’t find child care at night. 

    Howard also had a Career Links program designed specifically for single parents. It provided one-on-one academic and career counseling that helped me select my major, kept me on track to graduate and gave me the guidance I needed to figure out my future. 

    This tremendous amount of support made a huge difference. I renewed my faith in myself. Last fall, I made the dean’s list. This spring, I received my degree.

    Related: How parents of young kids make it through college

    Today, I have big plans for my future. I’m still working full-time, but this summer I started university classes so I can earn my bachelor’s degree. My son, who turned four this spring, is getting ready to start preschool this fall. 

    After I earn my four-year degree, I’d like one day to start a nonprofit that encourages other student parents, specifically single parents and children with an incarcerated parent. My son’s father has been incarcerated for the majority of my child’s life, and I want to provide comprehensive support and resources to help single parents like me overcome similar barriers.

    Parents like us need all the help we can get, and I want to provide the assistance that I was lacking for so long.

    College is difficult enough without adding a child and a full-time job to the mix. But when colleges can remove some of the financial, scheduling and other barriers that make it so much more arduous for student parents to finish their degrees, they demonstrate their support for their current students — and for the next generation to come.

    Abby Bediako graduated from Howard Community College in 2024 and is currently attending the University of Maryland Global Campus. Abby is featured in Raising Up, a documentary film series aimed at elevating the lived experiences of student parents in higher education.

    This story about student parents was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.

    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.

    Join us today.

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  • Student by day, cook by night. How a York County teen fared in K12 National Cook Off

    Student by day, cook by night. How a York County teen fared in K12 National Cook Off

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    York resident Aliyah Abdallah, 17 with her sweet and sour chicken presented in a pineapple. Abdallah entered the K12 Cook Off and was among six finalists who competed in Arlington, Virginia

    York resident Aliyah Abdallah, 17 with her sweet and sour chicken presented in a pineapple. Abdallah entered the K12 Cook Off and was among six finalists who competed in Arlington, Virginia


    Hand out

    Courtesy of The Abdallah Family

    As Aliyah Abdallah measured and prepped for her chicken dish, the overhead lights seemed brighter than those in her Mom’s York kitchen.

    Abdallah, one of six contestants in the K12 National Cook Off competition, noticed some other things too.

    “Main pressure was time and there was limited space in the kitchen area, so I always had to go first and explain what I made for them,” said Abadallah.

    Abdallah, 17, is a rising senior at Cyber Academy of South Carolina, an online and home school program.

    She entered the cooking competition, offered through the K12 Enrichment program to give online students opportunities to participate in challenges to win prizes for their talents.

    The teen was selected as one of the six student finalists for creating an original recipe. Abdallah’s entry recipe was sweet and sour chicken presented in a cut pineapple. The finalists received an all expense paid trip to Arlington to showcase their talents in a cook-off battle.

    The finals took place on July 13. The full program is available to watch Aug. 14 live on K12’s YouTube channel. Winners received $1,000 for first place; $500 for second place; $350 for third place, according to K12 Cook Off competition rules. Fourth through sixth place received a gift basket worth $300.

    Although she was the ”people’s choice” winner heading into the finals, according to K12’s website, her grand-slam dishes didn’t secure the top prize. Abdallah finished fourth. Though she came up short, she left with a new mindset.

    “It was a good opportunity for me to go, I enjoyed myself. I never got to do anything like this before,” she said.

    The York County resident always had a love for cooking and thought this opportunity would be fun to try.

    “When I started cooking I found the different spices and ingredients were interesting,” she said. “It’s always fun to cook for my family and community.”.

    ‘Nerve racking’

    Dr. Bilqees Abdallah, a medical doctor in geriatrics, was surprised when her daughter said she wanted to enter the competition. Her mom realizedAliyah needed to do something like this.

    “I was shocked she would take on such a challenge like this, I was super excited for her,” Bilqees Abdallah said.

    With many mixed emotions, her mother stated the program was very competitive and was enjoyable to watch.

    “It was nerve racking, we watched the kids preparing the food from a screen without audio,”Abdallah’s mother said. “All of us parents try to guess what the kids are looking around for in the kitchen and you can’t help them so it puts you on the edge of your seat.”

    Aliyah Abdallah with a welcome sign for the arriving finalists in Arlington, Virginia at the K12 Cook Off. York resident Abdallah, 17 entered the K12 Cook Off and was among six finalists who competed in Arlington, Virginia
    Aliyah Abdallah with a welcome sign for the arriving finalists in Arlington, Virginia at the K12 Cook Off. York resident Abdallah, 17 entered the K12 Cook Off and was among six finalists who competed in Arlington, Virginia Hand out

    The recipe and cooking rounds

    According to the mother and daughter, the cooks had two rounds to compete against one another.

    The first round was the dinner with one hour to cook, while the next was a dessert round with only 30-minutes.

    “We picked out of a hat what we would make,” Abdallah said. “I selected lemon for dessert and chicken breast for protein, green pepper as a vegetable and linguine noodles and spinach to make a creamy stuff chicken meal with fresh herbs.”

    “I created a lemon cheesecake cup, with lemon snap cookie in the center and graham cracker crumbs at the bottom and lemons on the side,” she said.

    Not knowing what’s next for the young cook, her mother hinted at a potential project with her older sister.

    “Aliyah and her older sister are planning a cookbook. It’s a work in progress but I am excited about that project,” Bilqees Abdallah said.

    “That is a long-term goal. (Ayaliah) and her sister have been compiling recipes over the years for their cookbook. Last I knew, their goal was to have a ‘family’ cookbook to pass on through the generations.”

    This story was originally published July 29, 2024, 6:00 AM.

    Related stories from Charlotte Observer

    Kyahl Dorsey is a reporter intern with the Rock Hill Herald and covers race and politics. He is a senior at North Carolina A&T. He previously interned with McClatchy working on podcasts and has been an anchor and reporter for Aggie News.

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  • PROOF POINTS: Some of the $190 billion in pandemic money for schools actually paid off

    PROOF POINTS: Some of the $190 billion in pandemic money for schools actually paid off

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    Reports about schools squandering their $190 billion in federal pandemic recovery money have been troubling.  Many districts spent that money on things that had nothing to do with academics, particularly building renovations. Less common, but more eye-popping were stories about new football fields, swimming pool passes, hotel rooms at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and even the purchase of an ice cream truck. 

    So I was surprised that two independent academic analyses released in June 2024 found that some of the money actually trickled down to students and helped them catch up academically.  Though the two studies used different methods, they arrived at strikingly similar numbers for the average growth in math and reading scores during the 2022-23 school year that could be attributed to each dollar of federal aid. 

    One of the research teams, which includes Harvard University economist Tom Kane and Stanford University sociologist Sean Reardon, likened the gains to six days of learning in math and three days of learning in reading for every $1,000 in federal pandemic aid per student. Though that gain might seem small, high-poverty districts received an average of $7,700 per student, and those extra “days” of learning for low-income students added up. Still, these neediest children were projected to be one third of a grade level behind low-income students in 2019, before the pandemic disrupted education.

    “Federal funding helped and it helped kids most in need,” wrote Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, on X in response to the two studies. Lake was not involved in either report, but has been closely tracking pandemic recovery. “And the spending was worth the gains,” Lake added. “But it will not be enough to do all that is needed.” 

    The academic gains per aid dollar were close to what previous researchers had found for increases in school spending. In other words, federal pandemic aid for schools has been just as effective (or ineffective) as other infusions of money for schools. The Harvard-Stanford analysis calculated that the seemingly small academic gains per $1,000 could boost a student’s lifetime earnings by $1,238 – not a dramatic payoff, but not a public policy bust either. And that payoff doesn’t include other societal benefits from higher academic achievement, such as lower rates of arrests and teen motherhood. 

    The most interesting nuggets from the two reports, however, were how the academic gains varied wildly across the nation. That’s not only because some schools used the money more effectively than others but also because some schools got much more aid per student.

    The poorest districts in the nation, where 80 percent or more of the students live in families whose income is low enough to qualify for the federally funded school lunch program, demonstrated meaningful recovery because they received the most aid. About 6 percent of the 26 million public schoolchildren that the researchers studied are educated in districts this poor. These children had recovered almost half of their pandemic learning losses by the spring of 2023. The very poorest districts, representing 1 percent of the children, were potentially on track for an almost complete recovery in 2024 because they tended to receive the most aid per student. However, these students were far below grade level before the pandemic, so their recovery brings them back to a very low rung.

    Some high-poverty school districts received much more aid per student than others. At the top end of the range, students in Detroit received about $26,000 each – $1.3 billion spread among fewer than 49,000 students. One in 10 high-poverty districts received more than $10,700 for each student. An equal number of high-poverty districts received less than $3,700 per student. These surprising differences for places with similar poverty levels occurred because pandemic aid was allocated according to the same byzantine rules that govern federal Title I funding to low-income schools. Those formulas give large minimum grants to small states, and more money to states that spend more per student. 

    On the other end of the income spectrum are wealthier districts, where 30 percent or fewer students qualify for the lunch program, representing about a quarter of U.S. children. The Harvard-Stanford researchers expect these students to make an almost complete recovery. That’s not because of federal recovery funds; these districts received less than $1,000 per student, on average. Researchers explained that these students are on track to approach 2019 achievement levels because they didn’t suffer as much learning loss.  Wealthier families also had the means to hire tutors or time to help their children at home.

    Middle-income districts, where between 30 percent and 80 percent of students are eligible for the lunch program, were caught in between. Roughly seven out of 10 children in this study fall into this category. Their learning losses were sometimes large, but their pandemic aid wasn’t. They tended to receive between $1,000 and $5,000 per student. Many of these students are still struggling to catch up.

    In the second study, researchers Dan Goldhaber of the American Institutes for Research and Grace Falken of the University of Washington estimated that schools around the country, on average, would need an additional $13,000 per student for full recovery in reading and math.  That’s more than Congress appropriated.

    There were signs that schools targeted interventions to their neediest students. In school districts that separately reported performance for low-income students, these students tended to post greater recovery per dollar of aid than wealthier students, the Goldhaber-Falken analysis shows.

    Impact differed more by race, location and school spending. Districts with larger shares of white students tended to make greater achievement gains per dollar of federal aid than districts with larger shares of Black or Hispanic students. Small towns tended to produce more academic gains per dollar of aid than large cities. And school districts that spend less on education per pupil tended to see more academic gains per dollar of aid than high spenders. The latter makes sense: an extra dollar to a small budget makes a bigger difference than an extra dollar to a large budget. 

    The most frustrating part of both reports is that we have no idea what schools did to help students catch up. Researchers weren’t able to connect the academic gains to tutoring, summer school or any of the other interventions that schools have been trying. Schools still have until September to decide how to spend their remaining pandemic recovery funds, and, unfortunately, these analyses provide zero guidance.

    And maybe some of the non-academic things that schools spent money on weren’t so frivolous after all. A draft paper circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research in January 2024 calculated that school spending on basic infrastructure, such as air conditioning and heating systems, raised test scores. Spending on athletic facilities did not. 

    Meanwhile, the final score on pandemic recovery for students is still to come. I’ll be looking out for it.

    This story about federal funding for education was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.

    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.

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    Jill Barshay

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  • PROOF POINTS: Teens are looking to AI for information and answers, two surveys show

    PROOF POINTS: Teens are looking to AI for information and answers, two surveys show

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    Two new surveys, both released this month, show how high school and college-age students are embracing artificial intelligence. There are some inconsistencies and many unanswered questions, but what stands out is how much teens are turning to AI for information and to ask questions, not just to do their homework for them. And they’re using it for personal reasons as well as for school. Another big takeaway is that there are different patterns by race and ethnicity with Black, Hispanic and Asian American students often adopting AI faster than white students.

    The first report, released on June 3, was conducted by three nonprofit organizations, Hopelab, Common Sense Media, and the Center for Digital Thriving at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. These organizations surveyed 1,274 teens and young adults aged 14-22 across the U.S. from October to November 2023. At that time, only half the teens and young adults said they had ever used AI, with just 4 percent using it daily or almost every day. 

    Emily Weinstein, executive director for the Center for Digital Thriving, a research center that investigates how youth are interacting with technology, said that more teens are “certainly” using AI now that these tools are embedded in more apps and websites, such as Google Search. Last October and November, when this survey was conducted, teens typically had to take the initiative to navigate to an AI site and create an account. An exception was Snapchat, a social media app that had already added an AI chatbot for its users. 

    More than half of the early adopters said they had used AI for getting information and for brainstorming, the first and second most popular uses. This survey didn’t ask teens if they were using AI for cheating, such as prompting ChatGPT to write their papers for them. However, among the half of respondents who were already using AI, fewer than half – 46 percent – said they were using it for help with school work. The fourth most common use was for generating pictures.

    The survey also asked teens a couple of open-response questions. Some teens told researchers that they are asking AI private questions that they were too embarrassed to ask their parents or their friends. “Teens are telling us I have questions that are easier to ask robots than people,”  said Weinstein.

    Weinstein wants to know more about the quality and the accuracy of the answers that AI is giving teens, especially those with mental health struggles, and how privacy is being protected when students share personal information with chatbots.

    The second report, released on June 11, was conducted by Impact Research and  commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation. In May 2024, Impact Research surveyed 1,003 teachers, 1,001 students aged 12-18, 1,003 college students, and 1,000 parents about their use and views of AI.

    This survey, which took place six months after the Hopelab-Common Sense survey, demonstrated how quickly usage is growing. It found that 49 percent of students, aged 12-18, said they used ChatGPT at least once a week for school, up 26 percentage points since 2023. Forty-nine percent of college undergraduates also said they were using ChatGPT every week for school but there was no comparison data from 2023.

    Among 12- to 18-year-olds and college students who had used AI chatbots for school, 56 percent said they had used it for help in writing essays and other writing assignments. Undergraduate students were more than twice as likely as 12- to 18-year-olds to say using AI felt like cheating, 22 percent versus 8 percent. Earlier 2023 surveys of student cheating by scholars at Stanford University did not detect an increase in cheating with ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. But as students use AI more, students’ understanding of what constitutes cheating may also be evolving. 

     

    More than 60 percent of college students who used AI said they were using it to study for tests and quizzes. Half of the college students who used AI said they were using it to deepen their subject knowledge, perhaps, as if it were an online encyclopedia. There was no indication from this survey if students were checking the accuracy of the information.

    Both surveys noticed differences by race and ethnicity. The first Hopelab-Common Sense survey found that 7 percent of Black students, aged 14-22, were using AI every day, compared with 5 percent of Hispanic students and 3 percent of white students. In the open-ended questions, one Black teen girl wrote that, with AI, “we can change who we are and become someone else that we want to become.” 

    The Walton Foundation survey found that Hispanic and Asian American students were sometimes more likely to use AI than white and Black students, especially for personal purposes. 

    These are all early snapshots that are likely to keep shifting. OpenAI is expected to become part of the Apple universe in the fall, including its iPhones, computers and iPads.  “These numbers are going to go up and they’re going to go up really fast,” said Weinstein. “Imagine that we could go back 15 years in time when social media use was just starting with teens. This feels like an opportunity for adults to pay attention.”

    This story about ChatGPT in education was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.

    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.

    Join us today.

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    Jill Barshay

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  • PROOF POINTS: AI essay grading is already as ‘good as an overburdened’ teacher, but researchers say it needs more work

    PROOF POINTS: AI essay grading is already as ‘good as an overburdened’ teacher, but researchers say it needs more work

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    Grading papers is hard work. “I hate it,” a teacher friend confessed to me. And that’s a major reason why middle and high school teachers don’t assign more writing to their students. Even an efficient high school English teacher who can read and evaluate an essay in 20 minutes would spend 3,000 minutes, or 50 hours, grading if she’s teaching six classes of 25 students each. There aren’t enough hours in the day. 

    Could ChatGPT relieve teachers of some of the burden of grading papers? Early research is finding that the new artificial intelligence of large language models, also known as generative AI, is approaching the accuracy of a human in scoring essays and is likely to become even better soon. But we still don’t know whether offloading essay grading to ChatGPT will ultimately improve or harm student writing.

    Tamara Tate, a researcher at University California, Irvine, and an associate director of her university’s Digital Learning Lab, is studying how teachers might use ChatGPT to improve writing instruction. Most recently, Tate and her seven-member research team, which includes writing expert Steve Graham at Arizona State University, compared how ChatGPT stacked up against humans in scoring 1,800 history and English essays written by middle and high school students. 

    Tate said ChatGPT was “roughly speaking, probably as good as an average busy teacher” and “certainly as good as an overburdened below-average teacher.” But, she said, ChatGPT isn’t yet accurate enough to be used on a high-stakes test or on an essay that would affect a final grade in a class.

    Tate presented her study on ChatGPT essay scoring at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Philadelphia in April. (The paper is under peer review for publication and is still undergoing revision.) 

    Most remarkably, the researchers obtained these fairly decent essay scores from ChatGPT without training it first with sample essays. That means it is possible for any teacher to use it to grade any essay instantly with minimal expense and effort. “Teachers might have more bandwidth to assign more writing,” said Tate. “You have to be careful how you say that because you never want to take teachers out of the loop.” 

    Writing instruction could ultimately suffer, Tate warned, if teachers delegate too much grading to ChatGPT. Seeing students’ incremental progress and common mistakes remain important for deciding what to teach next, she said. For example, seeing loads of run-on sentences in your students’ papers might prompt a lesson on how to break them up. But if you don’t see them, you might not think to teach it. 

    In the study, Tate and her research team calculated that ChatGPT’s essay scores were in “fair” to “moderate” agreement with those of well-trained human evaluators. In one batch of 943 essays, ChatGPT was within a point of the human grader 89 percent of the time. On a six-point grading scale that researchers used in the study, ChatGPT often gave an essay a 2 when an expert human evaluator thought it was really a 1. But this level of agreement – within one point – dropped to 83 percent of the time in another batch of 344 English papers and slid even farther to 76 percent of the time in a third batch of 493 history essays.  That means there were more instances where ChatGPT gave an essay a 4, for example, when a teacher marked it a 6. And that’s why Tate says these ChatGPT grades should only be used for low-stakes purposes in a classroom, such as a preliminary grade on a first draft.

    ChatGPT scored an essay within one point of a human grader 89 percent of the time in one batch of essays

    Corpus 3 refers to one batch of 943 essays, which represents more than half of the 1,800 essays that were scored in this study. Numbers highlighted in green show exact score matches between ChatGPT and a human. Yellow highlights scores in which ChatGPT was within one point of the human score. Source: Tamara Tate, University of California, Irvine (2024).

    Still, this level of accuracy was impressive because even teachers disagree on how to score an essay and one-point discrepancies are common. Exact agreement, which only happens half the time between human raters, was worse for AI, which matched the human score exactly only about 40 percent of the time. Humans were far more likely to give a top grade of a 6 or a bottom grade of a 1. ChatGPT tended to cluster grades more in the middle, between 2 and 5. 

    Tate set up ChatGPT for a tough challenge, competing against teachers and experts with PhDs who had received three hours of training in how to properly evaluate essays. “Teachers generally receive very little training in secondary school writing and they’re not going to be this accurate,” said Tate. “This is a gold-standard human evaluator we have here.”

    The raters had been paid to score these 1,800 essays as part of three earlier studies on student writing. Researchers fed these same student essays – ungraded –  into ChatGPT and asked ChatGPT to score them cold. ChatGPT hadn’t been given any graded examples to calibrate its scores. All the researchers did was copy and paste an excerpt of the same scoring guidelines that the humans used, called a grading rubric, into ChatGPT and told it to “pretend” it was a teacher and score the essays on a scale of 1 to 6. 

    Older robo graders

    Earlier versions of automated essay graders have had higher rates of accuracy. But they were expensive and time-consuming to create because scientists had to train the computer with hundreds of human-graded essays for each essay question. That’s economically feasible only in limited situations, such as for a standardized test, where thousands of students answer the same essay question. 

    Earlier robo graders could also be gamed, once a student understood the features that the computer system was grading for. In some cases, nonsense essays received high marks if fancy vocabulary words were sprinkled in them. ChatGPT isn’t grading for particular hallmarks, but is analyzing patterns in massive datasets of language. Tate says she hasn’t yet seen ChatGPT give a high score to a nonsense essay. 

    Tate expects ChatGPT’s grading accuracy to improve rapidly as new versions are released. Already, the research team has detected that the newer 4.0 version, which requires a paid subscription, is scoring more accurately than the free 3.5 version. Tate suspects that small tweaks to the grading instructions, or prompts, given to ChatGPT could improve existing versions. She is interested in testing whether ChatGPT’s scoring could become more reliable if a teacher trained it with just a few, perhaps five, sample essays that she has already graded. “Your average teacher might be willing to do that,” said Tate.

    Many ed tech startups, and even well-known vendors of educational materials, are now marketing new AI essay robo graders to schools. Many of them are powered under the hood by ChatGPT or another large language model and I learned from this study that accuracy rates can be reported in ways that can make the new AI graders seem more accurate than they are. Tate’s team calculated that, on a population level, there was no difference between human and AI scores. ChatGPT can already reliably tell you the average essay score in a school or, say, in the state of California. 

    Questions for AI vendors

    At this point, it is not as accurate in scoring an individual student. And a teacher wants to know exactly how each student is doing. Tate advises teachers and school leaders who are considering using an AI essay grader to ask specific questions about accuracy rates on the student level:  What is the rate of exact agreement between the AI grader and a human rater on each essay? How often are they within one-point of each other?

    The next step in Tate’s research is to study whether student writing improves after having an essay graded by ChatGPT. She’d like teachers to try using ChatGPT to score a first draft and then see if it encourages revisions, which are critical for improving writing. Tate thinks teachers could make it “almost like a game: how do I get my score up?” 

    Of course, it’s unclear if grades alone, without concrete feedback or suggestions for improvement, will motivate students to make revisions. Students may be discouraged by a low score from ChatGPT and give up. Many students might ignore a machine grade and only want to deal with a human they know. Still, Tate says some students are too scared to show their writing to a teacher until it’s in decent shape, and seeing their score improve on ChatGPT might be just the kind of positive feedback they need. 

    “We know that a lot of students aren’t doing any revision,” said Tate. “If we can get them to look at their paper again, that is already a win.”

    That does give me hope, but I’m also worried that kids will just ask ChatGPT to write the whole essay for them in the first place.

    This story about AI essay scoring was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.

    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.

    Join us today.

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    Jill Barshay

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  • ParentSquare Acquires Remind, Expanding Options for School-Home Engagement 

    ParentSquare Acquires Remind, Expanding Options for School-Home Engagement 

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    Santa Barbara, CA — ParentSquare, the award-winning unified school-home engagement platform for K12 education, has acquired  Remind, a popular platform for communication and learning. 

    The merger will expand ParentSquare’s current offerings with additional communication tools that reach students and families where they are and support learning wherever it happens. Millions of educators, students, parents and caregivers utilize the Remind platform to connect with the people and resources that help them teach and learn. The Remind platform is used in over 80% of public schools and by 60% of teachers in the United States.

    The combined company will be known as ParentSquare, and its core business will continue to be school-home communications. ParentSquare will merge the two companies’ leadership, teams and communications platforms, preserving the best features from both sets of products and giving customers the option of adopting additional features. Remind products will keep their names. 

    “Remind has a very strong following with teachers, and ParentSquare has a strong unified platform for districts and the full school community,” ParentSquare President and Founder Anupama Vaid said. “Together, we can advance both companies’ mission of increasing student success through improved communications and achieve more together than we could have individually.” 

    Remind Chat, Remind’s two-way text messaging for the classroom, will continue to be available free of charge. The app allows teachers to easily connect with students and families in their preferred language, all while keeping their personal phone number private.

    In addition, Remind Hub, Remind’s paid communications platform for schools and districts, will remain available to existing customers. Remind Tutoring will be discontinued so that the newly-combined company can focus solely on family and community engagement through communication. 

    “Strong relationships are at the heart of student success — and communication is an essential part of that,” Remind CEO Quenton Cook said. “By focusing on communication and our combined strengths, we will be even more effective champions for teachers, parents and the broader school community.”

    The acquisition closed in November. ParentSquare received legal advice from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Remind received legal advice from Gunderson Dettmer LLP and financial advice from Macquarie Capital. Financial details of the merger were not released.

    About ParentSquare™

    ParentSquare is the leading provider of modern family and community engagement solutions for K12 schools. Millions of educators and families in 49 states rely on the multipurpose unified platform that includes mass notifications, classroom communications, school websites, and other communication-based services, all supported by visual dashboards. ParentSquare’s technology platform features comprehensive integrations with school administrative systems, translation to more than 100 languages, and app, email, text, voice, and web portal access for equitable communication. Founded in 2011, the company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA. Learn more at  https://www.parentsquare.com.

    eSchool News Staff
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  • Incident IQ Rolls Out an Array of User-Centric Enhancements and a Comprehensive Certification Program for K-12 Districts

    Incident IQ Rolls Out an Array of User-Centric Enhancements and a Comprehensive Certification Program for K-12 Districts

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    Incident IQ introduces new platform enhancements for better user experience.


    ATLANTA, November 29, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Building upon its commitment to innovation in K-12 workflow management, Incident IQ has introduced a powerful series of platform enhancements that bring new value to school districts. These enhancements build on Incident IQ’s strong reputation by offering a higher level of usability, user-friendly efficiencies, and unwavering data security.

    The highly anticipated release of global search delivers on customer feedback and Incident IQ’s vision to put essential information at the fingertips of users. This release marks a significant advancement for Incident IQ, further enriching the user experience and echoing the ease of use of leading global search engines. Enhanced global search ensures users can swiftly and intuitively locate the exact information they need, precisely when they need it. This new feature isn’t just about saving time; it’s about ensuring every search within the platform leads to rapid, accurate results and ultimately, more informed decision-making. 

    In another significant advancement of its platform capabilities, Incident IQ has enhanced its Quick Tickets feature, aligning with its commitment to a more user-friendly experience for faculty and staff. The enhanced Quick Tickets functionality expands the efficiency of ticket submissions, allowing users to submit detailed requests with minimal effort — often in just one or two clicks. Despite the streamlined submission process, this enhancement preserves the detail and depth of ticket data, crucial for rules routing, analytics, and organizing help requests.

    Additionally, enhanced Quick Tickets offer administrators unprecedented flexibility in configuring and deploying workflows tailored to their user base. A notable feature of this upgrade is the ability for administrators to create and distribute Quick Ticket links directly to users. This functionality allows for precise targeting down to specific issue categories or ticket types, ensuring the right Quick Tickets are easily accessible on the dashboards of designated users.

    On a mission to increase value for customers, Incident IQ is launching its Customer Certification Program, curated to ensure districts have access to the best training materials to help them maximize their investment in Incident IQ. A natural evolution of its popular iiQ Academy, this program is specifically tailored to equip K-12 IT professionals with ongoing skills and personalized learning in an ever-evolving technological landscape, acknowledging the importance of professional growth and development.

    The integration with Munis and new fee scheduling capabilities highlight Incident IQ’s responsiveness to improving administrative and operational practices within school districts. The Munis integration ensures seamless employee data synchronization, while new fee scheduling features automate the calculation of event-related fees, adding a layer of convenience, precision, and reliability to school event management.

    As previously recognized earlier this year, Incident IQ announced that it has achieved SOC2 Type 2 compliance without qualifications following the conclusion of a rigorous audit process covering security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. This acknowledgment of Incident IQ’s considerable investments in its own internal controls and commitment to security bolsters its position as the trusted platform for K-12.

    Jason Martin, CTO of Incident IQ, comments, “Our latest enhancements are a natural progression of our journey to empower K-12 districts with sophisticated yet accessible workflow management solutions. We are constantly looking ahead, anticipating the needs of our users, and forging the path for the future of educational IT management.”

    This suite of enhancements represents much more than incremental updates; it is an expression of Incident IQ’s ongoing commitment to improving the experience of its users by delivering finely tuned, intuitive, and secure solutions that cater to the unique challenges of K-12 districts. 

    For a deeper dive into all of the new enhancements coming to Incident IQ, please visit www.IncidentIQ.com

    Enhancements at a Glance:

    • Incident IQ platform advancements improve upon K-12 workflow management, offering an intuitive experience that enriches education technology ecosystems. These enhancements raise the bar for usability, operational efficiency, and data security in education technology.
    • The latest features, including the recently released Quick Tickets enhancements showcase Incident IQ’s commitment to delivering on customer enhancement requests and improving operational efficiency, user experience, and compliance.
    • Incident IQ’s integration with Munis, scheduled to go live December 2023, followed by the launch of a Customer Certification Program, reflects a commitment to comprehensive, tailored solutions for school districts.
    • Incident IQ is releasing Fee Management on December 9th, 2023.

    About Incident IQ:

    Incident IQ is the workflow management platform built exclusively for K-12 schools, featuring asset management, help ticketing, facilities maintenance solutions, and more. More than nine million students and teachers in over 1,500 districts rely on the Incident IQ platform to manage and deliver mission-critical services.

    Source: Incident IQ

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  • PROOF POINTS: The myth of the quick learner

    PROOF POINTS: The myth of the quick learner

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    Some kids appear to learn faster than others. A few years ago, a group of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University decided to study these rapid learners to see what they are doing differently and if their strategies could help the rest of us.

    But as the scientists began their study, they stumbled upon a fundamental problem:  they could not find faster learners. After analyzing the learning rates of 7,000 children and adults using instructional software or playing educational games, the researchers could find no evidence that some students were progressing faster than others. All needed practice to learn something new, and they learned about the same amount from each practice attempt. On average, it was taking both high and low achievers about seven to eight practice exercises to learn a new concept, a rather tiny increment of learning that the researchers call a “knowledge component.”

    “Students are starting in different places and ending in different places,” said Ken Koedinger, a cognitive psychologist and director of Carnegie Mellon’s LearnLab, where this research was conducted. “But they’re making progress at the same rates.” 

    Koedinger and his team’s data analysis was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences, in March 2023. The study offers the hope that “anyone can learn anything they want” if they get well-designed practice exercises and put some effort into it.  Raw talent, like having a “knack for math” or a “gift for language,” isn’t required.

    Koedinger and his colleagues wrote that they were initially “surprised” by the “astonishing amount of regularity in students’ learning rate.” The discovery contradicts our everyday experiences. Some students earn As algebra, an example mentioned in the paper, and they appear to have learned faster than peers who get Cs.

    But as the scientists confirmed their numerical results across 27 datasets, they began to understand that we commonly misinterpret prior knowledge for learning. Some kids already know a lot about a subject before a teacher begins a lesson. They may have already had exposure to fractions by making pancakes at home using measuring cups. The fact that they mastered a fractions unit faster than their peers doesn’t mean they learned faster; they had a head start. 

    Like watching a marathon

    Koedinger likens watching children learn to watching a marathon from the finish line. The first people to cross the finish line aren’t necessarily the fastest when there are staggered starts. A runner who finished sooner might have taken five hours, while another runner who finished later might have taken only four hours. You need to know each runner’s start time to measure the pace.

    Koedinger and his colleagues measured each student’s baseline achievement and their incremental gains from that initial mark. This would be very difficult to measure in ordinary classrooms, but with educational software, researchers can sort practice exercises by the knowledge components required to do them, see how many problems students get right initially and track how their accuracy improves over time.  

    In the LearnLab datasets, students typically used software after some initial instruction in their classrooms, such as a lesson by a teacher or a college reading assignment. The software guided students through practice problems and exercises. Initially, students in the same classrooms had wildly different accuracy rates on the same concepts. The top quarter of students were getting 75 percent of the questions correct, while the bottom quarter of students were getting only 55 percent correct. It’s a gigantic 20 percentage point difference in the starting lines. 

    However, as students progressed through the computerized practice work, there was barely even one percentage point difference in learning rates. The fastest quarter of students improved their accuracy on each concept (or knowledge component) by about 2.6 percentage points after each practice attempt, while the slowest quarter of students improved by about 1.7 percentage points. It took seven to eight attempts for nearly all students to go from 65 percent accuracy, the average starting place, to 80 percent accuracy, which is what the researchers defined as mastery.

    The advantage of a head start

    The head start for the high achievers matters.  Above average students, who begin above 65 percent accuracy take fewer than four practice attempts to hit the 80 percent threshold. Below average students tend to require more than 13 attempts to hit the same 80 percent threshold. That difference – four versus 13 – can make it seem like students are learning at different paces. But they’re not. Each student, whether high or low, is learning about the same amount from each practice attempt. (The researchers didn’t study children with disabilities, and it’s unknown if their learning rates are different.)

    The student data that Koedinger studied comes from educational software that is designed to be interactive and gives students multiple attempts to try things, make mistakes, get feedback and try again. Students learn by doing. Some of the feedback was very basic, like an answer key, alerting students if they got the problem right or wrong. But some of the feedback was sophisticated. Intelligent tutoring systems in math provided hints when students got stuck, offered complete explanations and displayed step-by-step examples. 

    The conclusion that everyone’s learning rate is similar might apply only to well-designed versions of computerized learning. Koedinger thinks students probably learn at different paces in the analog world of paper and pencil, without the same guided practice and feedback. When students are learning more independently, he says, some might be better at checking their own work and seeking guidance.  

    Struggling students might be getting fewer “opportunities” to learn in the analog world, Koedinger speculated. That doesn’t necessarily mean that schools and parents should be putting low-achieving students on computers more often. Many students quickly lose motivation to learn on screens and need more human interaction.

    Memory ability varies

    Learning rates were especially steady in math and science – the subjects that most of the educational software in this study focused on. But researchers noticed more divergence in learning rates in the six datasets that involved the teaching of English and other languages. One was a program that taught the use of the article “the,” which can be arbitrary. (Here’s an example: I’m swimming in the Atlantic Ocean today but in Lake Ontario tomorrow. There’s no “the” before lakes.) Another program taught Chinese vocabulary. Both relied on students’ memory and individual memory processing speeds differ. Memory is important in learning math and science too, but Koedinger said students might be able to compensate with other learning strategies, such as pattern recognition, deduction and induction. 

    To understand that we all learn at a similar rate is one of the best arguments I’ve seen not to give up on ourselves when we’re failing and falling behind our peers. Koedinger hopes it will inspire teachers to change their attitudes about low achievers in their classrooms, and instead think of them as students who haven’t had the same number of practice opportunities and exposure to ideas that other kids have had. With the right exercises and feedback, and a bit of effort, they can learn too. Perhaps it’s time to revise the old saw about how to get to Carnegie Hall. Instead of practice, practice, practice, I’m going to start saying practice, listen to feedback and practice again (repeat seven times).

    This story was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    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.

    Join us today.

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  • PROOF POINTS: Professors say high school math doesn’t prepare most students for their college majors

    PROOF POINTS: Professors say high school math doesn’t prepare most students for their college majors

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    A survey of college professors indicates that most fields of study don’t require many of the math topics that high school students learn in high school. Credit: Kevin Wolf/ Associated Press

    The typical ambitious high school student takes advanced algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus. None of that math may be necessary for the vast majority of undergraduates who don’t intend to major in science or another STEM field. 

    But those same students don’t have many of the math skills that professors think they actually do need. In a survey, humanities, arts and social science professors say they really want their students to be able to analyze data, create charts and spreadsheets and reason mathematically – skills that high school math courses often skip or rush through.

    “We still need the traditional algebra-to-calculus curriculum for students who are intending a STEM major,” said Gary Martin, a professor of mathematics education at Auburn University in Alabama who led the team that conducted this survey of college professors. “But that’s maybe 20 percent. The other 80 percent, what about them?” 

    Martin said that the survey showed that high schools should stress “reasoning and critical thinking skills, decrease the emphasis on specific mathematical topics, and increase the focus on data analysis and statistics.”

    This damning assessment of the content of high school math comes from a survey of about 300 Alabama college professors who oversee majors and undergraduate degree programs at both two-year and four-year public colleges in the humanities, arts, social sciences and some natural sciences. Majors that require calculus were excluded. 

    The 2021 survey prompted Alabama’s public colleges and universities to allow more students to meet their math requirements by taking a statistics course instead of a traditional math class, such as college algebra or calculus. 

    Martin and his colleagues later realized that the survey had implications for high school math too, and presented these results at an Oct. 26, 2023 session of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference in Washington D.C.  Full survey results are slated to be published in the winter 2024 issue of the MathAMATYC Educator, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges.

    In the survey, professors were asked detailed questions about which mathematical concepts and skills students need in their programs. Many high school math topics were unimportant to college professors. For example, most professors said they wanted students to understand functions, particularly linear and exponential functions, which are used to model trends, population changes or compound interest. But Martin said that non-STEM students didn’t really need to learn trigonometric functions, which are used in satellite navigation or mechanical engineering. 

    College professors were more keen on an assortment of what was described as mathematical “practices,” including the ability to “interpret quantitative information,” “strategically infer, evaluate and reason,” “apply the mathematics they know to solve everyday life, society and the workplace,” and to “look for patterns and relationships and make generalizations.”

    “Teachers are so focused on covering all the topics that they don’t have time to do the practices when the practices are what really matters,” said Martin.

    Understanding statistics was high on the list. An overwhelming majority of college professors said students in their programs needed to be familiar with statistics and data analysis, including concepts like correlation, causation and the importance of sample size. They wanted students to be able to “interpret displays of data and statistical analyses to understand the reasonableness of the claims being presented.” Professors say students need to be able to produce bar charts, histograms and line charts. Facility with spreadsheets, such as Excel, is useful too.

    “Statistics is what you need,” said Martin. “Yet, in many K-12 classrooms, statistics is the proverbial end-of-the-year unit that you may or may not get to. And if you do, you rush through it, just to say you did it. But there’s not this sense of urgency to get through the statistics, as there is to get through the math topics.”

    Though the survey took place only in Alabama and professors in other states might have different thoughts on the math that students need, Martin suspects that there are more similarities than differences.

    The mismatch between what students learn in high school and what they need in college isn’t easy to fix. Teachers generally don’t have time for longer statistics units, or the ability to go deeper into math concepts so that students can develop their reasoning skills, because high school math courses have become bloated with too many topics. However, there is no consensus on which algebra topics to jettison.

    Encouraging high school students to take statistics classes during their junior and senior years is also fraught. College admissions officers value calculus, almost as a proxy for intelligence. And college admissions tests tend to emphasize math skills that students will practice more on the algebra-to-calculus track. A diversion to data analysis risks putting students at a disadvantage. 

    The thorniest problem is that revamping high school math could force students to make big choices in school before they know what they want to study in college. Students who want to enter STEM fields still need calculus and the country needs more people to pursue STEM careers. Taking more students off of the calculus track could close doors to many students and ultimately weaken the U.S. economy.

    Martin said it’s also important to remember that vocational training is not the only purpose of math education.  “We don’t have students read Shakespeare because they need it to be effective in whatever they’re going to do later,” he said. “It adds something to your life. I felt that it really gave me breadth as a human being.”  He wants high school students to study some math concepts they will never need because there’s a beauty to them. “Appreciating mathematics is a really intriguing way of looking at the world,” he said.

    Martin and his colleagues don’t have any definitive solutions, but their survey is a helpful data point in demonstrating how too few students are getting the mathematical foundations they need for the future. 

    This story about high school math was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    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.

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  • PROOF POINTS: With dental care, shelter and adult ed, the pandemic prompted a shift in schools’ mission

    PROOF POINTS: With dental care, shelter and adult ed, the pandemic prompted a shift in schools’ mission

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    The Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco opened its gymnasium to homeless students and their families as part of its Stay Over Program in 2022. It is one example of the many community services that a majority of public schools are now providing, according to a federal survey. Credit: Marissa Leshnov for The Hechinger Report

    Much attention in the post-pandemic era has been on what students have lost – days of school, psychological health, knowledge and skills. But now we have evidence that they may also have gained something: schools that address more of their needs. A majority of public schools have begun providing services that are far afield from traditional academics, including healthcare, housing assistance, childcare and food aid. 

    In a Department of Education survey released in October 2023 of more than 1,300 public schools, 60 percent said they were partnering with community organizations to provide non-educational services. That’s up from 45 percent a year earlier in 2022, the first time the department surveyed schools about their involvement in these services. They include access to medical, dental, and mental health providers as well as social workers. Adult education is also often part of the package; the extras are not just for kids. 

    “It is a shift,” said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, where she tracks school spending. “We’ve seen partnering with the YMCA and with health groups for medical services and psychological evaluations.”

    Deeper involvement in the community started as an emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic. As schools shuttered their classrooms, many became hubs where families obtained food or internet access. Months later, many schools opened their doors to become vaccine centers. 

    New community alliances were further fueled by more than $200 billion in federal pandemic recovery funds that have flowed to schools. “Schools have a lot of money now and they’re trying to spend it down,” said Roza. Federal regulations encourage schools to spend recovery funds on nonprofit community services, and unspent funds will eventually be forfeited.

    The term “community school” generally refers to schools that provide a cluster of wraparound services under one roof. The hope is that students living in poverty will learn more if their basic needs are met. Schools that provide only one or two services are likely among the 60 percent of schools that said they were using a community school or wraparound services model, but they aren’t necessarily full-fledged community schools, Department of Education officials said.

    The wording of the question on the federal School Pulse Panel survey administered in August 2023 allowed for a broad interpretation of what it means to be a community school. The question posed to a sample of schools across all 50 states was this: “Does your school use a “community school” or “wraparound services” model? A community school or wraparound services model is when a school partners with other government agencies and/or local nonprofits to support and engage with the local community (e.g., providing mental and physical health care, nutrition, housing assistance, etc.).” 

    The most common service provided was mental health (66 percent of schools) followed by food assistance (55 percent). Less common were medical clinics and adult education, but many more schools said they were providing these services than in the past.

    A national survey of more than 1,300 public schools conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that a majority are providing a range of non-educational wraparound services to the community. Source: PowerPoint slide from an online briefing in October 2023 by the National Center for Education Statistics.

    The number of full-fledged community schools is also believed to be growing, according to education officials and researchers. Federal funding for community schools tripled during the pandemic to $75 million in 2021-22 from $25 million in 2019-20. According to the  education department, the federal community schools program now serves more than 700,000 students in about 250 school districts, but there are additional state and private funding sources too. 

    Whether it’s a good idea for most schools to expand their mission and adopt aspects of the community school model depends on one’s view of the purpose of school. Some argue that schools are taking on too many functions and should not attempt to create outposts for outside services. Others argue that strong community engagement is an important aspect of education and can improve daily attendance and learning. Research studies conducted before the pandemic have found that academic benefits from full-fledged community schools can take several years to materialize. It’s a big investment without an instant payoff.

    Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether schools will continue to embrace their expanded mission after federal pandemic funds expire in March 2026. That’s when the last payments to contractors and outside organizations for services rendered can be made. Contracts must be signed by September 2024.

    Edunomics’s Roza thinks many of these community services will be the first to go as schools face future budget cuts. But she also predicts that some will endure as schools raise money from state governments and philanthropies to continue popular programs.

    If that happens, it will be an example of another unexpected consequence of the pandemic. Even as pundits decry how the pandemic has eroded support for public education, it may have profoundly transformed the role of schools and made them even more vital.

    This story about wraparound services was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    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.

    Join us today.

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  • PROOF POINTS: Flashcards prevail over repetition in memorizing multiplication tables

    PROOF POINTS: Flashcards prevail over repetition in memorizing multiplication tables

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    A study published in 2023 in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology documented that second graders memorized more multiplication facts when they practiced using flashcards rather than by repeating their times tables aloud. Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Young students around the world struggle to memorize multiplication tables, but the effort pays off. Cognitive scientists say that learning 6 x 7 and 8 x 9 by heart frees up the brain’s working memory so that students can focus on the more demanding aspects of problem solving. 

    Math teachers debate the best way to make multiplication automatic. Some educators argue against drills and say fluency will develop with everyday usage. Others insist that schools should devote time to helping children memorize times tables. 

    Even among proponents of memorization, it’s unclear which methods are the most effective. Should kids draw their own color-coded tables and study them, or copy their multiplication facts out dozens of times? Should they play multiplication songs and videos? Should they learn mnemonic tricks, like how the digits of the multiples of nine add up to nine (1+8, 2+7, 3+6, etc.)?  My daughter’s gym teacher used to make students shout “7 x 5 is 35” and “6 x 8 is 48” as they did jumping jacks. (It was certainly a way to make jumping less monotonous.) 

    To help advise teachers, a team of learning scientists compared two common methods: chanting and flashcards. 

    The 2022 experiment took place in four second grade classrooms in the Netherlands. The teachers began by delivering a lesson on multiplying by three. Using the same scripted lesson, they explained multiplication concepts, such as: “If I grab three apples, and I do this only one time, how many apples do I have?” 

    After the lesson, half the classrooms practiced by reciting equations displayed on a whiteboard:  “One times three is three, two times three is six…” through to 10. The other half practiced with flashcards. Students had their own personal sets with answers on the reverse side. Both groups spent five minutes practicing three times during the week for a total of 15 minutes. (More details on the experiment’s design here.)

    When the teachers moved on to multiplication by fours, the groups switched. The chanters quizzed themselves with flashcards, and the flashcard kids started chanting. All the students practiced memorizing both ways. 

    The results added up to a clear winner. 

    On a pre-test before the lesson, the second graders got an average of three math facts right. Afterwards, the chanters tended to double their accuracy, answering six facts correctly. But the flashcard users averaged eight correct. Students were tested again a full week later without any additional practice sessions, and the strong advantage for flashcard users didn’t fade. It was a sign that flashcard practice not only produces better short-term memories, but also better long-term ones –  the ultimate goal.

    Students scored higher on a multiplication test after practicing through flashcards (retrieval practice) than by chanting aloud (restudy). Source: Figure 1 of “The effect of retrieval practice on fluently retrieving multiplication facts in an authentic elementary school setting,” (2023) Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

    The study, “The effect of retrieval practice on fluently retrieving multiplication facts in an authentic elementary school setting,” was published online in October 2023 in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology.  Though a small study of 48 students, this classroom experiment is a good example of the power of what cognitive scientists call “spaced retrieval practice,” in which the act of remembering consolidates information and helps the brain form long-term memories.  

    Retrieval practice can seem counterintuitive. One might think that students should study before being assessed or quizzing themselves. But there’s a growing body of evidence that trying to recall something is itself a powerful tool for learning, particularly when you are given the correct answer immediately after making a stab at it and then get a chance to try again. Testing your memory – even when you draw a blank – is a way to build new memories. 

    Many experiments have shown that retrieval practice produces better long-term memories than studying. Flashcards are one way to try retrieval practice. Quizzes are another option because they also require students to retrieve new information from memory. Indeed, many teachers opt for speed drills, asking students to race through a page of multiplication problems in a minute. 

    Flashcards can be less anxiety provoking, provide students immediate feedback with answers on the reverse side and allow students to repeat the retrieval practice immediately, running through the deck more than once. Still, kids are kids and they easily drift off task during independent practice time. With a timed quiz, the teacher can be more confident that everyone has benefited from a round of retrieval practice. I’d be curious to see flashcards and quizzes pitted against each other in a future classroom experiment. 

    As charming as multiplication songs are – I have a soft spot for School House Rock and my editor fondly recalls her Billy Leach multiplication records – they are unlikely to be as effective as flashcards because they don’t involve retrieval practice, according to Gino Camp, a professor of learning sciences at Open University in the Netherlands and one of the researchers on the study.

    That doesn’t mean we should jettison the songs or all the other memorization methods just because some aren’t as effective as others. Researchers may eventually find that a combination of techniques is even more powerful. Still, there are limited minutes in the school day, and knowing which learning methods are the most effective can help everyone – teachers, parents and students – use their time wisely.

    This story about multiplication flashcards was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    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.

    Join us today.

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  • Skyepack Named School Improvement Technical Assistance Partner by the Indiana Department of Education

    Skyepack Named School Improvement Technical Assistance Partner by the Indiana Department of Education

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    WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., March 15, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Skyepack, leading provider of career-connected educational technology and digital content solutions, has been named a School Improvement Technical Assistance Partner by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). This partnership will enable Skyepack to support schools in Indiana with Career and Postsecondary Readiness and Sustainable Innovation, two of the three priority areas outlined in the Request for Information (RFI) issued by IDOE.

    IDOE’s RFI aims to identify technical assistance partners who can provide highly effective, evidence-based supports to schools and districts in Indiana. Skyepack’s selection as a technical assistance partner is a testament to its expertise and proven track record in providing innovative solutions to improve student outcomes.

    “We are honored to be named a School Improvement Technical Assistance Partner by the Indiana Department of Education,” said Eric Davis, CEO of Skyepack. “Career-connected learning has proven to improve student engagement, graduation rates, and college-going rates. We are excited to work with Indiana schools to support Career and Postsecondary Readiness and Sustainable Innovation, and to help create meaningful change that will benefit students for years to come.”

    Skyepack’s expertise in building career-connected learning communities between educators, students, and industry will enable it to collaborate with district and school leaders to support the design and implementation of comprehensive support and improvement plans. By aligning its services and support to IDOE’s priority areas, Skyepack aims to help Indiana schools create sustainable systems for career exploration and engagement, and make strategic investments for sustainable innovation.

    As a registered entity in good standing with SAM.gov, Skyepack meets all eligibility requirements set forth by IDOE to become an approved technical assistance partner. The company’s services and details will be listed on the Indiana Department of Education’s website and will be made available to district and school leaders identified for Comprehensive Support & Improvement.

    About Skyepack

    Skyepack is a leading provider of career-connected educational technology and digital content solutions. Its mission is to create transformative learning experiences that engage, empower, and inspire students throughout their educational and career journey. Skyepack partners with educators, institutions and employers to design and deliver customized digital content and tools that improve student outcomes and on-ramps to career pathways. For more information, please visit www.skyepack.com and https://careerpluspathways.org/greaterlafayette/overview/ 

    Source: Skyepack, Inc.

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  • Transeo Names EdTech Industry Leader Cecilia Retelle Zywicki as CEO

    Transeo Names EdTech Industry Leader Cecilia Retelle Zywicki as CEO

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    Press Release
    –

    Feb 6, 2023 08:55 EST


    DENVER, February 6, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Transeo, the leading platform for connecting work-based learning opportunities to K-12 schools, named Cecilia Retelle Zywicki as CEO. Zywicki was most recently COO of PresenceLearning and SRC, respectively. Prior to that, she co-founded and was the COO at Ranku. Both PresenceLearning and Ranku were acquired for undisclosed amounts. 

    Zywicki has more than a decade of experience leading, scaling, and building education companies. As COO of PresenceLearning, she built a scaled organization that leveraged technology to deliver high-quality online therapy solutions for children with diverse needs. Before that, Zywicki co-founded the software company Ranku in 2013, which built two-sided marketplaces for state systems to increase student enrollment. It also included recruitment and predictive analytics software before being acquired by John Wiley & Sons in 2016.

    Zywicki has spent her career focused on upskilling the workforce after starting at the Chamber of Commerce and receiving her Juris Doctor from the University of Denver and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Education from the University of Minnesota – where she played ice hockey, twice appearing in the Frozen Four. 

    “On behalf of the Transeo team, I want to thank Don Fraynd and David Schuler for their many years of leadership. They helped us go from an idea to a mission-critical tool for school districts that continues to enable student experiences across the country,” said Jimmy McDermott, CTO and Co-Founder of Transeo. “Cecilia has a vast array of experiences that make her a perfect fit for Transeo’s next stage, including the successful sale of an EdTech startup and policy work at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I am confident she will take us to the next level and help Transeo pursue its mission of building the operating system of work-based learning so that all students have the opportunity to illuminate their post-secondary pathway.”

    “Transeo has a powerful mission to unlock work-based learning opportunities for students. I’m excited to lead the company through its upcoming stage of expansion, allowing us to impact even more students and enhance our unparalleled platform to accommodate large-scale growth,” said Zywicki. “I am equally motivated by the school district leaders who have provided these pathways and opportunities for students through spreadsheets to leverage the software and give them time back. Simultaneously, by leveling the opportunity gap, we will help to address the skills gap that employers throughout the country are feeling daily.”

    About Transeo

    Transeo is transforming student readiness and opportunities with a first-of-its-kind work-based learning operating system that empowers students and supports educators. The world-class platform is quickly becoming a household requirement for innovative K-12 districts. Transeo plans to continue to invest in and expand its technology platform to meet the needs of schools and corporations as the platform of choice for work-based learning.

    Investors in the company include Osage Venture Partners, Wintrust Ventures, and SSC Venture Partners.

    For more information, visit https://gotranseo.com/.

    Source: Transeo

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  • Startup Phenomena Launches a New Destination for Experiential Learning

    Startup Phenomena Launches a New Destination for Experiential Learning

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    MIT alums create an engaging digital space where students learn by seeing and doing.

    Press Release
    –

    Sep 14, 2022


    SEATTLE, September 14, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Phenomena, an early-stage edtech startup founded by three MIT graduates, announced the launch of its new creator-driven platform for experiential STEM learning. 

    Founder & CEO Jared Schiffman said, “This is the first edtech platform for digital natives by digital natives,” referring to Phenomena’s unique creator-driven approach. “It’s a space where the mind’s eye meets the creator’s hand – where students learn by exploring and experimenting with dynamic interactive experiences.”

    To engage today’s students, Schiffman believes you need to meet them where they are. Visual communication is the baseline for digitally native students who consume gigabytes of visual media every day. “Our visual, interactive approach serves two learning goals – it engages a wide range of students and it successfully conveys concepts that otherwise seem out of reach.”

    Phenomena is realizing this solution with its collection of bite-sized STEM learning experiences designed by creators and ready for use by students and teachers. Teachers can use the experiences as a “do now” to start class, as a demonstration or to bring textbook readings to life. Presently the collection contains nearly 100 experiences across math, physics, chemistry, biology and even music. As more creators join Phenomena, the collection’s depth and breadth will continue to grow.

    “Phenomena is a marketplace for digital learning experiences. Ultimately, for each concept, there will be a plethora of experiences made by different creators with distinct perspectives, and the best ones will rise to the top,” says Schiffman. “And unlike iOS or Android apps, which take weeks or months to build, these experiences can be created in a day or two with the Phenomena Creator Tool.”

    The Phenomena Creator Tool is an intuitive, browser-based design and coding space that enables anyone to quickly and easily create engaging, interactive experiences. Publishing is done with a single click after experiences are thoroughly vetted by Phenomena. The Creator Tool opens the gates to a broad range of creators, enabling a diversity of STEM experiences for the diversity of STEM learners.

    See all of Phenomena’s experiences launching today at phenomena.app. Educators can share experiences with students by creating a free teacher account. Those interested in becoming creators can contact Phenomena through the website.

    ——-

    About Phenomena

    Founded in 2021, Phenomena is a destination for digital learning experiences built by a diverse community of creators. We believe dynamic STEM concepts are best conveyed through dynamic digital experiences. Phenomena experiences build intuition, simplify complex ideas, and nurture hands-on, interactive learning. At Phenomena, our mission is to make STEM engaging and accessible for all students. We aim to foster achievement for all students, because every student is deserving of success.

    Visit phenomena.app, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter @PhenomenaLearn, Instagram @phenomena.learning, LinkedIn or Medium to learn more.

    ——-

    Media Inquiries

    Jared Schiffman: People@phenomenalearning.com

    Source: Phenomena

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  • LiveSchool Publishes Major Survey of School Culture in US K12

    LiveSchool Publishes Major Survey of School Culture in US K12

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    LiveSchool surveyed over 1,000 educators across the US to understand the state of school culture

    Press Release
    –

    Apr 14, 2022


    NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 14, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    LiveSchool today announced the release of The School Culture Report, a comprehensive look at school culture trends across the United States based on a March survey of U.S. educators.

    Survey respondents represented 48 states and Washington, D.C., and included Principals, Assistant Principals, Deans of Students, Teachers, and Paraprofessionals. The survey explored educator perceptions of student behavior, school culture, and staff morale.

    “Our survey indicates how dire the cultural challenge is for schools. Educators are loud and clear that they need help addressing the underlying conditions in which students are learning,” says Matt Rubinstein, CEO and founder of LiveSchool, a school culture platform.

    Key findings include:

    • 68% of respondents cited student behavior as the top challenge facing their school.
    • Over 71% of teachers cited “disrespectful conduct” as the top behavior challenge. Another 61% cited social-emotional skills.
    • 57% of respondents expect behavior referrals to increase or significantly increase this year.
    • Teacher morale is at an all-time low: 99% of teachers ranked teacher morale as low. 72% of administrators ranked teacher morale low.
    • 80% of administrators cited school culture as their number one priority next school year.

    According to an Assistant Principal in Tennessee, “This year, we saw unprecedented behaviors which have given us insight into the goals we need to set for school culture next year.”

    The School Culture Report is available to access for free as of April 13, 2021. To read the full report, visit www.whyliveschool.com/school-culture-report.

    About LiveSchool

    LiveSchool is an education technology company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. LiveSchool’s culture platform enables schools to reinforce their values, build positive relationships, and make school more fun for students and staff. The company serves over 1,000 K-12 schools in 48 states and 10 countries.

    Press Contact:
    Anna Murphy
    LiveSchool
    (503) 713-3917
    anna@liveschoolinc.com

    Source: LiveSchool

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  • Transeo Announces Appointment of Stephen Smith, CEO of Intellispark, to Board of Directors

    Transeo Announces Appointment of Stephen Smith, CEO of Intellispark, to Board of Directors

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Dec 10, 2021


    KANSAS CITY, Mo., December 9, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Transeo, an industry leader in education technology, today announced the appointment of Stephen Smith to the Transeo Board of Directors. 

    “We are pleased to welcome Stephen Smith to the Transeo Board,” said Don Fraynd, Transeo’s Chief Executive Officer. “Stephen’s intricate experience in education technology is an invaluable asset. He has a deep, historic understanding of our market— his counsel and expertise will provide a sophisticated perspective as we continue to grow and expand our impact.” 

    Smith is CEO of Intellispark, software that helps PreK-12 schools measure critical social-emotional and resiliency skills while making it easier for schools and communities to deliver holistic student support services. He is also the chair of the national board at College Possible—one of the largest nonprofit college access organizations in the U.S.— and the co-author of Who Do You Think You Are: Three Critical Conversations for Coaching Teens to College & Career Success, published by John Wiley & Sons.

    Previously, Smith was President and Chief Product Officer at Hobsons, where he led global product strategy, corporate development, student data privacy, and research and development. He joined Hobsons through the acquisition of Naviance, a leading college and career readiness technology platform used in 12,000 schools in more than 100 countries, where he was Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

    “If we’re serious about helping every student succeed, we need to be more intentional about helping students visualize what they’re doing in school and how it connects to their goals for the future,” said Smith. “It’s exciting to see what Transeo is already doing and to be a part of guiding future development.”

    For the last 30 years, education has been largely focused on grades and test scores with the sole goal of sending all students to a four-year institution. With administrators and legislators shifting their focus to achieve a more student-centered, equity-focused education climate, schools and districts need tools to not only create meaningful, equitable opportunities for students but to also manage and track career and college readiness beyond grades and test scores.  Transeo, a solution built by educators, understands these gaps in the market. The platform was born with a vision to offer schools and districts a suite of readiness tools that help educators create meaningful, equitable opportunities for students. In a very short period, Transeo has proven itself a trusted life readiness solution for hundreds of districts in over 22 states. 

    Visit GoTranseo.com to learn more about Transeo’s suite of student readiness tools.

    About Transeo

    Transeo is a suite of fully configurable student readiness tools. Built by educators for educators, the software creates a streamlined approach to reduce manual processes, empower student pathways, manage funding requirements, and more. Through robust and configurable software, educators gain the bandwidth to address equity issues, support economic mobility, build meaningful business partnerships, and transform education.

    Press Contact:

    Hannah Gerstner
    Director of Marketing
    Hannah.gerstner@gotranseo.com

    Source: Transeo

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  • Tux Paint 0.9.27 Released for Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux

    Tux Paint 0.9.27 Released for Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux

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    Press Release
    –

    Nov 28, 2021


    OLYMPIA, Wash., November 28, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    The Tux Paint development team is proud to announce version 0.9.27 of Tux Paint, which adds many new features to the popular children’s drawing program.

    Six new Magic tools have been added to Tux Paint. “Panels” shrinks and duplicates the drawing into a 2-by-2 grid, which is useful for making four-panel comics. “Opposite” produces complementary colors. “Lightning” interactively draws a lightning bolt. “Reflection” creates a lake-like reflection on the drawing. “Stretch” stretches and squashes the picture like a fun-house mirror. Lastly, “Smooth Rainbow” provides a more gradual variation of Tux Paint’s classic “Rainbow” tool.

    A number of existing Magic tools have been updated, as well. Improvements were made to “Halftone,” which simulates photographs on newsprint; “Cartoon,” which makes an image look like a cartoon drawing; and “TV,” which simulates a television screen. Additionally, “Cartoon” and “Halftone,” along with “Blocks,” “Chalk,” and “Emboss,” now offer the ability to alter the entire image at once. Finally, Magic tools are now grouped into collections of similar effects — painting, distorts, color filters, picture warps, pattern painting, artistic, and picture decorations — making it easier to find the tool you need.

    Tux Paint’s Paint and Line tools now support brushes that rotate based on the angle of the stroke. This new rotation feature, as well as the older directional and animated brush features, are now visually indicated by the brush shape selector. Additionally, the Fill tool now offers a freehand painting mode for interactively coloring within a confined area.

    Tux Paint Config., the separate program that ships with Tux Paint to provide a user-friendly method of altering the program’s settings, has been updated to better support larger, high-resolution displays. Also, this version introduces support for the Recycle Bin on Windows — images deleted from Tux Paint’s “Open” dialog will now be placed in the Recycle Bin rather than deleted immediately.

    The Tux Paint website now hosts a new gallery showcasing fantastic artwork created by Tux Paint artists of all ages. The gallery features over 200 drawings by artists from all around the world.

    Tux Paint is available for download, free of charge, from the project’s website: http://www.tuxpaint.org. Version 0.9.27 is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, Android, Red Hat Linux, various other Linux distributions (via Flatpak), and as source code. Tux Paint is open source software and does not contain in-app advertising.

    Source: Tux Paint

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  • Innovative Learner-Driven Private School Opening in Columbia, Maryland

    Innovative Learner-Driven Private School Opening in Columbia, Maryland

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    Every child has a gift that can change the world; Spartek Academy: An Acton Academy develops those gifts in 1st-8th grade students.

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Aug 10, 2021


    COLUMBIA, Md., August 10, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Spartek Academy: An Acton Academy [Spartek] is opening its doors in Columbia, Maryland. Spartek is a learner-driven private school where 75% of our curriculum is hands-on and students are in charge of their learning. There are no teachers, only guides, no homework, and no tests. How do our students learn? With a mastery-based approach. It’s simple: every student works at their own pace and shows mastery in that area before advancing. 

    Spartek Academy is an affiliate school of Acton Academy, based in Austin, Texas. Acton Academy has 300+ Affiliate schools worldwide and has been endorsed by Sal Khan, Founder of Khan Academy; Seth Godin, Author; and Sugata Mitra, Founder of School in the Clouds.

    Acton’s disruptive educational model focuses on three things: learning to learn, learning to be, and learning to do. Students participate in Socratic discussions and self-paced challenges, which equips them to be independent lifelong learners. In addition, Hands-on Quests for Science, Entrepreneurship, and the Arts prepare children for apprenticeships and real-world challenges.

    About the Founder:
    Janear Garrus, the Founder of Spartek Academy, is an entrepreneur and educator. She has founded several other organizations and programs serving the Baltimore-Washington area: Chesapeake Educational Alliance, Launch Business Camp, Greater Purpose Christian Homeschoolers, and the Baltimore Children’s Business Fair (which is hosting its fifth annual event this fall). In addition, she and her husband have homeschooled their children for their entire education. Garrus found that Acton Academy aligned with her desires for her children’s education and felt compelled to start one in Howard County. “I chose to start an Acton Academy in Howard County because I truly believe in the model. It takes the best elements of homeschooling and combines them with innovation and collaboration amongst students. Spartek is an environment where there are no limits to students’ learning and discovery. What students are good at, they can focus on now, and that’s powerful.”

    Spartek is enrolling in grades 1-8 for the 2021-2022 school year. The school will add a grade-level each following school year. For more information about Spartek Academy: An Acton Academy, contact Janear Garrus at 410-343-9780 or hello@spartekacton.org.

    Source: Spartek Academy

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  • Science Curriculum Links Top-Performing Schools

    Science Curriculum Links Top-Performing Schools

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Oct 22, 2018


    SALEM, Mass., October 22, 2018 (Newswire.com)
    –
     Two KnowAtom schools lead Massachusetts in science scoring on the 2018 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), according to the most recent data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). 

    The J. T. Hood Elementary School and L.D. Batchelder Elementary School were two of only four schools in Massachusetts with more than 90 percent of its students scoring “Advanced” or “Proficient” on the most recent statewide science standards-based assessment.

    Our users are among the most discerning and forward-thinking public educators in the world. North Reading’s strong teacher leadership adopted KnowAtom to push elementary science and engineering to the top. We celebrate NRPS success as a sustainable milestone in what it means to teach and learn elementary science in Massachusetts.

    Francis Vigeant, KnowAtom CEO and founder

    This is nearly double the state average, with just 48 percent of students across Massachusetts scoring proficient or greater.

    Out of 847 schools in Massachusetts, J.T. Hood ranked No. 1 in the state for Grade 5 students scoring ”Advanced,” with 68 percent of students reaching this category. Across Massachusetts, only 18 percent of fifth-grade students scored “Advanced.”

    J.T. Hood is also tied for No. 3 for students scoring proficient or greater, at 91 percent.

    L. D. Batchelder Elementary School is tied for No. 2 for Grade 5 students scoring “Advanced,” and No. 2 in the state for students scoring proficient or greater.

    “Our users are among the most discerning and forward-thinking public educators in the world,” said KnowAtom CEO and founder Francis Vigeant. “North Reading’s strong teacher leadership adopted KnowAtom to push elementary science and engineering to the top. We celebrate NRPS success as a sustainable milestone in what it means to teach and learn elementary science in Massachusetts.”

    North Reading Public Schools has been using KnowAtom’s comprehensive, grade-specific science curriculum designed for the new Massachusetts science standards since 2010.

    The core of KnowAtom’s next generation inquiry process is students investigating phenomena and designing solutions to problems hands-on. This approach ensures that all students are engaged every day as scientists and engineers in the classroom.

    Whitney Cleary, the fifth-grade science teacher at J. T. Hood, has been teaching using the KnowAtom curriculum for nine years and credits her school’s focus on making science a core subject, equal to ELA and math, for the gains in scoring and students’ overall enthusiasm for science learning.

    “We get science throughout our day,” Cleary said. “With that extra time, I’m allowed more opportunities to do hands-on activities, so we do a lot of maker space ideas and problem-solving. The hands-on experiments are the fun part. That’s where students at this age really shine. They get to see how the knowledge they’ve learned really connects to the world around them.”

    About KnowAtom

    KnowAtom makes real science possible in every K-8 classroom. We provide a complete K-8 solution designed for mastery of the Next Generation Science Standards: fully aligned curriculum, integrated hands-on materials and targeted professional development. Our research-based, classroom-tested tools and techniques bring students’ own ideas to life with hands-on materials and technology.

    To learn more, visit www.knowatom.com or call 617-475-3475.

    Media Contact:

    Sara Goodman
    617-475-3475 ext. 2005
    sgoodman@knowatom.com

    Source: KnowAtom

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