Once Thanksgiving is over, leftovers are the gifts that keep on giving. But before you reach for another plate, it’s important to know how long it’s actually safe to enjoy your turkey, mashed potatoes and pies. The 2-hour ruleAccording to FoodSafety.gov, perishable food needs to be refrigerated two hours after coming out of the fridge or oven. After that time period, bacteria begins to multiply quickly, especially when food sits out at room temperature during family gatherings. Monday is your cutoff day If you’ve been enjoying Thanksgiving dinner all weekend, that’s great, but Monday is your last day. Experts recommend that after refrigerating food for four days, it should either be thrown out or frozen for a later time. How long should you freeze it? Over time, frozen food tends to lose quality and flavor, but here are some general recommendations from health experts about how long you can keep something frozen:Cooked turkey: 2-3 monthsGravy: 2-3 months Pies and Cakes: 2-3 months Cooked stuffing and mashed potatoes: 1-2 monthsLabeling containers with the date can help you keep track of expiration dates. Reheating leftovers safely Cover your food when reheating not only because it keeps the microwave clean, but also because it helps your food heat evenly. Make sure your food reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit before digging in to stay safe.
Once Thanksgiving is over, leftovers are the gifts that keep on giving. But before you reach for another plate, it’s important to know how long it’s actually safe to enjoy your turkey, mashed potatoes and pies.
The 2-hour rule
According to FoodSafety.gov, perishable food needs to be refrigerated two hours after coming out of the fridge or oven. After that time period, bacteria begins to multiply quickly, especially when food sits out at room temperature during family gatherings.
Monday is your cutoff day
If you’ve been enjoying Thanksgiving dinner all weekend, that’s great, but Monday is your last day. Experts recommend that after refrigerating food for four days, it should either be thrown out or frozen for a later time.
How long should you freeze it?
Over time, frozen food tends to lose quality and flavor, but here are some general recommendations from health experts about how long you can keep something frozen:
Cooked turkey: 2-3 months Gravy: 2-3 months Pies and Cakes: 2-3 months Cooked stuffing and mashed potatoes: 1-2 months
Labeling containers with the date can help you keep track of expiration dates.
Reheating leftovers safely
Cover your food when reheating not only because it keeps the microwave clean, but also because it helps your food heat evenly. Make sure your food reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit before digging in to stay safe.
Once Thanksgiving is over, leftovers are the gifts that keep on giving. But before you reach for another plate, it’s important to know how long it’s actually safe to enjoy your turkey, mashed potatoes and pies. The 2-hour ruleAccording to FoodSafety.gov, perishable food needs to be refrigerated two hours after coming out of the fridge or oven. After that time period, bacteria begins to multiply quickly, especially when food sits out at room temperature during family gatherings. Monday is your cutoff day If you’ve been enjoying Thanksgiving dinner all weekend, that’s great, but Monday is your last day. Experts recommend that after refrigerating food for four days, it should either be thrown out or frozen for a later time. How long should you freeze it? Over time, frozen food tends to lose quality and flavor, but here are some general recommendations from health experts about how long you can keep something frozen:Cooked turkey: 2-3 monthsGravy: 2-3 months Pies and Cakes: 2-3 months Cooked stuffing and mashed potatoes: 1-2 monthsLabeling containers with the date can help you keep track of expiration dates. Reheating leftovers safely Cover your food when reheating not only because it keeps the microwave clean, but also because it helps your food heat evenly. Make sure your food reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit before digging in to stay safe.
Once Thanksgiving is over, leftovers are the gifts that keep on giving. But before you reach for another plate, it’s important to know how long it’s actually safe to enjoy your turkey, mashed potatoes and pies.
The 2-hour rule
According to FoodSafety.gov, perishable food needs to be refrigerated two hours after coming out of the fridge or oven. After that time period, bacteria begins to multiply quickly, especially when food sits out at room temperature during family gatherings.
Monday is your cutoff day
If you’ve been enjoying Thanksgiving dinner all weekend, that’s great, but Monday is your last day. Experts recommend that after refrigerating food for four days, it should either be thrown out or frozen for a later time.
How long should you freeze it?
Over time, frozen food tends to lose quality and flavor, but here are some general recommendations from health experts about how long you can keep something frozen:
Cooked turkey: 2-3 months Gravy: 2-3 months Pies and Cakes: 2-3 months Cooked stuffing and mashed potatoes: 1-2 months
Labeling containers with the date can help you keep track of expiration dates.
Reheating leftovers safely
Cover your food when reheating not only because it keeps the microwave clean, but also because it helps your food heat evenly. Make sure your food reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit before digging in to stay safe.
New diets come and go often, but every now and then, some stick around. The latest: protein. Everyone seems to be looking for more ways to add it to their diet.From coffee shops to grocery stores, you couldn’t miss the promotion of protein even if you tried. But how much do you need? Doctors and nutritionists say it’s less than what social media might lead consumers to believe. Prioritizing protein isn’t new, but the number of people doing so is.”Things tend to go to an extreme at first,” said Kim Flannery, director of nutrition at the Wisconsin Athletic Club. “And I think that’s kind of where we are right now.”It’s everywhere, from social media influencers and now in coffee shops.For the first time, Starbucks added protein to its menu of drinks, even allowing customers to add it to their cold foam on top of their coffee.The trend has continued at the grocery store, too.Emilie Williamson with Metro Market said she’s seen a substantial increase in protein-filled snacks. “A big goal of ours is to meet shoppers where they’re at,” Williamson said.Walking down the aisle of your local grocery store, you will quickly find protein in many everyday snacks, like muffins, cereal, pretzels, chips, and even protein pastries.Dr. Lisa Morselli, assistant professor in the division of endocrinology at Froedtert Hospital in Wisconsin, said this is where she gets worried about the quality of the product.”These are all foods that are pretty processed,” Morselli said. “The protein snack marketing probably gives people license to snack without really paying attention to what they put in their mouth.”Morselli believes the trend has been influenced by social media.Morselli said those on GLP-1 weight loss medications need more protein in their diet for muscle gain.Separately, those looking to lose weight can find success in protein, too, according to Dr. Morselli.”Protein is involved in the control of hunger,” Morselli said.Morselli explains that protein-rich foods can make you feel full longer.Protein can also be great for balancing blood sugar levels. But for muscle gain or weight loss, protein isn’t a magic pill, either.”It’s not that if you take a higher protein, or if you have a higher protein intake, it will magically protect your muscles; you still need to exercise them,” Morselli said.Flannery said when talking to nutrition clients, she hopes to emphasize that protein is just one piece of the pie. “People tend to focus so much on the protein that they tend to lose the balance,” Flannery said.Flannery worries the trend of sharing personal protein goals could be going too far.”One number does not by any means apply to everyone,” Flannery said.Flannery said personal protein goals are different for everyone, with age, sex and activity levels all taken into consideration.According to the recommended dietary allowance, when calculating protein goals, the person should take .36 grams of protein per pound of body weight.For example, if the person weighs 150 pounds, a modest protein goal would be around 54 grams of protein.Arguably more importantly than any goal is the quality of protein the person is consuming.”A lot of the health problems that we have are due to the, all the processed foods,” Flannery reminds.A New York Times investigation in October found many popular protein powders and shakes contain dangerous levels of lead.Flannery said this is what worries her about the rise in protein snacks.”We’re just adding protein to junk food,” Flannery said.Flannery recommends getting protein from real foods like beans, tofu, meat, fish, and in some cases, pasta that can be healthy, too.”My opinion is that it’s better to eat real food and get your protein from real food,” Morselli agreed.
New diets come and go often, but every now and then, some stick around. The latest: protein. Everyone seems to be looking for more ways to add it to their diet.
From coffee shops to grocery stores, you couldn’t miss the promotion of protein even if you tried. But how much do you need?
Doctors and nutritionists say it’s less than what social media might lead consumers to believe.
Prioritizing protein isn’t new, but the number of people doing so is.
“Things tend to go to an extreme at first,” said Kim Flannery, director of nutrition at the Wisconsin Athletic Club. “And I think that’s kind of where we are right now.”
It’s everywhere, from social media influencers and now in coffee shops.
For the first time, Starbucks added protein to its menu of drinks, even allowing customers to add it to their cold foam on top of their coffee.
The trend has continued at the grocery store, too.
Emilie Williamson with Metro Market said she’s seen a substantial increase in protein-filled snacks.
“A big goal of ours is to meet shoppers where they’re at,” Williamson said.
Walking down the aisle of your local grocery store, you will quickly find protein in many everyday snacks, like muffins, cereal, pretzels, chips, and even protein pastries.
Dr. Lisa Morselli, assistant professor in the division of endocrinology at Froedtert Hospital in Wisconsin, said this is where she gets worried about the quality of the product.
“These are all foods that are pretty processed,” Morselli said. “The protein snack marketing probably gives people license to snack without really paying attention to what they put in their mouth.”
Morselli believes the trend has been influenced by social media.
Morselli said those on GLP-1 weight loss medications need more protein in their diet for muscle gain.
Separately, those looking to lose weight can find success in protein, too, according to Dr. Morselli.
“Protein is involved in the control of hunger,” Morselli said.
Morselli explains that protein-rich foods can make you feel full longer.
Protein can also be great for balancing blood sugar levels. But for muscle gain or weight loss, protein isn’t a magic pill, either.
“It’s not that if you take a higher protein, or if you have a higher protein intake, it will magically protect your muscles; you still need to exercise them,” Morselli said.
Flannery said when talking to nutrition clients, she hopes to emphasize that protein is just one piece of the pie.
“People tend to focus so much on the protein that they tend to lose the balance,” Flannery said.
Flannery worries the trend of sharing personal protein goals could be going too far.
“One number does not by any means apply to everyone,” Flannery said.
Flannery said personal protein goals are different for everyone, with age, sex and activity levels all taken into consideration.
According to the recommended dietary allowance, when calculating protein goals, the person should take .36 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
For example, if the person weighs 150 pounds, a modest protein goal would be around 54 grams of protein.
Arguably more importantly than any goal is the quality of protein the person is consuming.
“A lot of the health problems that we have are due to the, all the processed foods,” Flannery reminds.
A New York Times investigation in October found many popular protein powders and shakes contain dangerous levels of lead.
Flannery said this is what worries her about the rise in protein snacks.
“We’re just adding protein to junk food,” Flannery said.
Flannery recommends getting protein from real foods like beans, tofu, meat, fish, and in some cases, pasta that can be healthy, too.
“My opinion is that it’s better to eat real food and get your protein from real food,” Morselli agreed.
In the growing conversation around AI in education, speed and efficiency often take center stage, but that focus can tempt busy educators to use what’s fast rather than what’s best. To truly serve teachers–and above all, students–AI must be built with intention and clear constraints that prioritize instructional quality, ensuring efficiency never comes at the expense of what learners need most.
AI doesn’t inherently understand fairness, instructional nuance, or educational standards. It mirrors its training and guidance, usually as a capable generalist rather than a specialist. Without deliberate design, AI can produce content that’s misaligned or confusing. In education, fairness means an assessment measures only the intended skill and does so comparably for students from different backgrounds, languages, and abilities–without hidden barriers unrelated to what’s being assessed. Effective AI systems in schools need embedded controls to avoid construct‑irrelevant content: elements that distract from what’s actually being measured.
For example, a math question shouldn’t hinge on dense prose, niche sports knowledge, or culturally-specific idioms unless those are part of the goal; visuals shouldn’t rely on low-contrast colors that are hard to see; audio shouldn’t assume a single accent; and timing shouldn’t penalize students if speed isn’t the construct.
To improve fairness and accuracy in assessments:
Avoid construct-irrelevant content: Ensure test questions focus only on the skills and knowledge being assessed.
Use AI tools with built-in fairness controls: Generic AI models may not inherently understand fairness; choose tools designed specifically for educational contexts.
Train AI on expert-authored content: AI is only as fair and accurate as the data and expertise it’s trained on. Use models built with input from experienced educators and psychometricians.
These subtleties matter. General-purpose AI tools, left untuned, often miss them.
The risk of relying on convenience
Educators face immense time pressures. It’s tempting to use AI to quickly generate assessments or learning materials. But speed can obscure deeper issues. A question might look fine on the surface but fail to meet cognitive complexity standards or align with curriculum goals. These aren’t always easy problems to spot, but they can impact student learning.
To choose the right AI tools:
Select domain-specific AI over general models: Tools tailored for education are more likely to produce pedagogically-sound and standards-aligned content that empowers students to succeed. In a 2024 University of Pennsylvania study, students using a customized AI tutor scored 127 percent higher on practice problems than those without.
Be cautious with out-of-the-box AI: Without expertise, educators may struggle to critique or validate AI-generated content, risking poor-quality assessments.
Understand the limitations of general AI: While capable of generating content, general models may lack depth in educational theory and assessment design.
General AI tools can get you 60 percent of the way there. But that last 40 percent is the part that ensures quality, fairness, and educational value. This requires expertise to get right. That’s where structured, guided AI becomes essential.
Building AI that thinks like an educator
Developing AI for education requires close collaboration with psychometricians and subject matter experts to shape how the system behaves. This helps ensure it produces content that’s not just technically correct, but pedagogically sound.
To ensure quality in AI-generated content:
Involve experts in the development process: Psychometricians and educators should review AI outputs to ensure alignment with learning goals and standards.
Use manual review cycles: Unlike benchmark-driven models, educational AI requires human evaluation to validate quality and relevance.
Focus on cognitive complexity: Design assessments with varied difficulty levels and ensure they measure intended constructs.
This process is iterative and manual. It’s grounded in real-world educational standards, not just benchmark scores.
Personalization needs structure
AI’s ability to personalize learning is promising. But without structure, personalization can lead students off track. AI might guide learners toward content that’s irrelevant or misaligned with their goals. That’s why personalization must be paired with oversight and intentional design.
To harness personalization responsibly:
Let experts set goals and guardrails: Define standards, scope and sequence, and success criteria; AI adapts within those boundaries.
Use AI for diagnostics and drafting, not decisions: Have it flag gaps, suggest resources, and generate practice, while educators curate and approve.
Preserve curricular coherence: Keep prerequisites, spacing, and transfer in view so learners don’t drift into content that’s engaging but misaligned.
Support educator literacy in AI: Professional development is key to helping teachers use AI effectively and responsibly.
It’s not enough to adapt–the adaptation must be meaningful and educationally coherent.
AI can accelerate content creation and internal workflows. But speed alone isn’t a virtue. Without scrutiny, fast outputs can compromise quality.
To maintain efficiency and innovation:
Use AI to streamline internal processes: Beyond student-facing tools, AI can help educators and institutions build resources faster and more efficiently.
Maintain high standards despite automation: Even as AI accelerates content creation, human oversight is essential to uphold educational quality.
Responsible use of AI requires processes that ensure every AI-generated item is part of a system designed to uphold educational integrity.
An effective approach to AI in education is driven by concern–not fear, but responsibility. Educators are doing their best under challenging conditions, and the goal should be building AI tools that support their work.
When frameworks and safeguards are built-in, what reaches students is more likely to be accurate, fair, and aligned with learning goals.
In education, trust is foundational. And trust in AI starts with thoughtful design, expert oversight, and a deep respect for the work educators do every day.
Nick Koprowicz, Prometric
Nick Koprowicz is an applied AI scientist at Prometric, a global leader in credentialing and skills development.
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TCU September Lightning Complex: Lightning-sparked fires force evacuations, destroy structures
WE BEGIN WITH BREAKING NEWS. AND THAT BREAKING NEWS IS OUT OF CALAVERAS AND TUOLUMNE COUNTY. RESIDENTS ARE EVACUATED AS FIRE CREWS BATTLE THE TCU SEPTEMBER LIGHTNING COMPLEX. WE SEE SOME OF THE VIDEO HERE BEHIND US RIGHT NOW. NOW THE COMPLEX IS MADE UP OF AT LEAST NINE FIRES THAT HAVE BURNED MORE THAN 12,000 ACRES IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY. EVACUATION ORDERS STRETCHED FROM THE DON PEDRO RESERVOIR UP THROUGH CHINESE CAMP TO MONTEZUMA AND YOSEMITE JUNCTION. WARNINGS SHOWN THERE IN YELLOW INCLUDE QUARTZ SOUTH OF JAMESTOWN. NOW ANOTHER PORTION OF THE LIGHTNING COMPLEX IS BURNING IN CALAVERAS COUNTY, JUST NORTH OF ANGELS CAMP. HERE’S A LOOK AT THE EVACUATION AREA RIGHT HERE. ORDERS RIGHT NOW. MARKED IN RED. THEY RUN FROM VALLECITO TO MURPHYS, WHILE AREAS IN YELLOW. THOSE ARE WARNINGS, MEANING RESIDENTS SHOULD BE READY TO LEAVE AT A MOMENT’S NOTICE. WE DO HAVE TEAM COVERAGE THIS MORNING. MELANIE WINGO GATHERING INFORMATION ABOUT THE AIR RESOURCES THAT FIRE CREWS ARE USING. CHIEF METEOROLOGIST OPHELIA YOUNG KEEPING AN EYE ON AIR QUALITY AS SMOKE DRIFTS FROM THOSE FIRES AS WELL. MIKE TESELLE IS IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY. THAT’S WHERE FLAMES HAVE RAVAGED A HISTORIC TOWN. WHILE TRAFFIC BRIAN HICKEY IS MONITORING THOSE ROAD CLOSURES THROUGHOUT BOTH COUNTY BUT COUNTIES. BUT LET’S BEGIN WITH THE VERY LATEST WEATHER CONDITIONS AND HOW THEY’RE IMPACTING CONTAINMENT EFFORTS WITH METEOROLOGIST TAMARA BERG, ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER CONDITIONS IS TO DO A LITTLE SHOW AND TELL. I’M GOING TO TAKE YOU THROUGH A REWIND HERE OVER THE LAST 30 MINUTES. THIS IS COMING IN FROM. SONORA WEST, AND IT’S ACTUALLY LOOKING DOWN THE HIGHWAY 108 CORRIDOR AND OFF TO THE WESTERLY DIRECTION. AND THIS IS AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 2400FT. SO THE SONORA WEST CAMERA SHOWS YOU NOT ONLY JUST A BEAUTIFUL SUNRISE, BUT THESE SMOKY SKIES HERE AROUND SONORA. AND AT LEAST YOU AREN’T SEEING FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT ANY MAJOR HOTSPOTS CONDITIONS RIGHT NOW AROUND THE TCU LIGHTNING COMPLEX INCLUDE WIND SPEEDS OUT OF THE NORTHEAST 5 TO 10MPH, SO THEY’VE BEEN PRETTY LIGHT IN THESE OVERNIGHT HOURS. TEMPERATURES CURRENTLY IN THE LOWER 70. SO IT’S BEEN QUITE MILD. HUMIDITY HAS BEEN ABOUT 50%. AND THE AIR QUALITY SO FAR WE’RE GOING TO HEAR MORE ON THAT HAS BEEN DEEMED UNHEALTHY IN SEVERAL LOCATIONS. THERE ARE PARTS OF CALAVERAS AND TUOLUMNE COUNTIES. SO THE WIND FORECAST FOR THE MORNING AGAIN, PRETTY LIGHT, PRIMARILY EAST TO NORTHEAST. BUT NOW THAT THE SUN IS COMING UP, THOSE WIND CONDITIONS ARE GOING TO CHANGE. MOVING TO MORE OF A SOUTH TO SOUTHWESTERLY DIRECTION DURING THE DAYLIGHT AND CHARGE UP A LITTLE BIT IN THAT 10 TO 15MPH RANGE IN ANGELS CAMP CHINESE CAMP AREA AND IN THROUGH COLUMBIA. SO THAT WILL MEAN SOME CHANGEABLE AIR QUALITY AS WELL, ESPECIALLY AS WE HEAD THROUGH THE NEXT COUPLE OF HOURS ACROSS THE REGION. TODAY, TEMPERATURES DOWN. THAT’S GOOD NEWS. ALONG THE FIRE LINES, WE’RE LOOKING AT MID 70S WITH STORMS STAYING TO THE SOUTHERN SIERRA TODAY, ESPECIALLY SOUTH OF TAHOE. SMOKY SKIES, LOW 90S IN THE FOOTHILLS WITH HIGHS IN THE MID 90S ACROSS THE VALLEY. COMING UP IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES, I’LL WALK YOU THROUGH THE EXTENDED FORECAST, NEIGHBORHOOD BY NEIGHBORHOOD. IT IS 703 RIGHT NOW. LET’S GET A CHECK OF THE HIGHWAY CONDITIONS WITH BRIAN. THANKS, TAMARA. START HERE ALONG HIGHWAY 50, COMING IN THROUGH WHITE ROCK ROAD. YOU CAN SEE THERE TRAFFIC IS CRUISING. WE’RE REALLY NO TROUBLE HERE IN THE 50 CORRIDOR. 80 COMING IN. JUST SOME MINOR DELAYS THROUGH GREENBACK. BUT OTHERWISE OVER THE TOP. ALL CLEAR AND JUST A MINOR SLOWDOWN. GETTING ON TO THE CAUSEWAY AS YOU’RE MAKING YOUR WAY NORTHBOUND ON 99. SEEING SOME HEAVIER TRAFFIC HERE AT FLORIN ROAD. AND THAT ALL STARTS A LITTLE BIT FURTHER BACK TOWARDS MACK. YOU START TO SEE A LITTLE BIT OF SLOWING, BUT RIGHT AT FLORIN YOU CAN SEE SOME RED ON THE SPEED SENSORS THERE, BUT THAT’S IT. NO INCIDENTS. AND IN STOCKTON WE’RE ALL CLEAR AS YOU HEAD EAST THOUGH, UP INTO THE COMPLEX FIRES THERE. THEY’VE GOT 120 AND 49 CLOSED JUST OFF OF 108 TOWARDS CHINESE CAMP WITH FIRE ACTIVITY IN THAT AREA. SO AGAIN AVOID THAT FOR NOW. 80 A 12 MINUTE RIDE OUT OF ROSEVILLE, 50 OUT OF FOLSOM LOOKING AT 16 MINUTES, 99 TO 12 MINUTE RIDE FROM ELK GROVE I5 11 MINUTES BACK TO YOU, BRIAN. THANK YOU. AS RESIDENTS DO LEAVE THEIR HOMES, OFFICIALS ARE NOW OPENING EVACUATION POINTS IN CALAVERAS COUNTY. A SHELTER HAS BEEN SET UP AT BRET HARTE HIGH SCHOOL THAT’S IN ANGELS CAMP ON MURPHYS GRADE ROAD. THEY’RE ACCEPTING PETS. THEIR LIVESTOCK CAN BE TAKEN TO THE CALAVERAS COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS ON FROGTOWN ROAD IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY. RESIDENTS CAN GO TO THE SONORA SENIOR CENTER THAT’S ON GREELEY ROAD. THEY’RE ACCEPTING PETS AS WELL. LIVESTOCK AND OTHER LARGE ANIMALS CAN BE TAKEN TO THE MOTHERLODE FAIRGROUNDS ON SOUTH GATE DRIVE. KCRA 3’S MIKE TESELLE JOINS US NOW LIVE WITH AN UPDATE FROM WHERE HE IS. MIKE. OF COURSE, WE KNOW THE SUN IS UP NOW AND THAT DOES GIVE A BETTER IDEA AND A BETTER LOOK AT WHAT HAS HAPPENED OVERNIGHT. YEAH, AND WITH THE SUN UP OVER THE HORIZON, WE ARE GETTING THAT BETTER LOOK OF THE DAMAGE. HERE WE ARE STANDING ON RED HILL ROAD JUST TO THE WEST OF HIGHWAY 120, AND THE SCENE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. JUST EVERY DIRECTION YOU LOOK ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT, YOU CAN SEE A LOT OF DESTRUCTION, A LOT OF DESTROYED HOMES. THIS AGAIN, A LOOK FROM RED HILL ROAD. IF YOU’RE FAMILIAR WITH CHINESE CAMP ALONG RED HILL ROAD, MAIDEN CURRY, WASHINGTON, MAINE, THOSE ARE ALL THE CROSS STREETS WHERE WE’RE SEEING DAMAGE LIKE THIS THIS MORNING AS WE’RE GETTING THIS FIRST DAYLIGHT VIEW. NOW, I CAN TELL YOU JUST UP THE ROAD, A HOME AT THE 13 500 RED HILL, UNTOUCHED BY FLAMES. SO THAT HOME SAVED. AND THEN A LITTLE FURTHER UP THE ROAD, THE CHINESE CAMP SCHOOL, THAT ONE ALSO SPARED FROM ANY DAMAGE. BUT IT IS JUST OFF OF 120 UP TO THAT POINT OF 13 500. RED HILL, WHERE THIS IS THE SCENE, MANY STRUCTURES LOST. WE DON’T HAVE A FIRM COUNT AS OF NOW, BUT CLEARLY DOZENS OF STRUCTURES BURNED IN THIS FIRE. NOW, THIS IS YOUR DAYLIGHT. LOOK, LET ME GIVE YOU A QUICK LOOK OF WHAT OUR CREWS SAW WHEN THEY WERE HERE LAST NIGHT. A MUCH MORE ACTIVE SCENE AS FAR AS FIRE ACTIVITY. AND THAT FIRE ACTIVITY. UNFORTUNATELY, BURNING HOMES AND DOWNING POWER LINES. WE’VE SEEN MULTIPLE POWER LINES DOWN ALONG THIS ROAD AS WELL. NO HOMEOWNERS IN THIS AREA RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THIS IS AN EVACUATED AREA. SO AGAIN, IF WE CAN COME BACK OUT HERE, LIVE OUR FIRST DAYLIGHT, LOOK AT SOME OF THE ONE OF THE HARDEST HIT AREAS OF THIS SIX FIVE FIRE HERE ALONG RED HILL ROAD. AND THEN AGAIN, AS WE REPORTED EARLIER THIS MORNING, COMING IN ON 120, WE SAW A COUPLE OF HOMES AND STRUCTURES ALONG 120 THAT WERE BURNED COMING IN FROM THE NORTH. SO CLEARLY A LOT OF DAMAGE DONE IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. THIS SPECIFICALLY IS THE SIX FIVE FIRE OF THAT COMPLEX. WE WERE ALSO IN THE TWO THREE DROVE PAST THE TWO THREE COMPLEX. THAT’S WHERE WE SAW SOME ACTIVE FLAMES ON THE HILLSIDE THIS MORNING. BUT AGAIN, THOSE RELATIVELY WERE CONTAINED, JUST KIND OF MOVING SLOWLY DOWN THE HILLSIDE. AS FOR THIS AREA, WE HAVEN’T REALLY SEEN A WHOLE LOT OF ACTIVE FIRE HERE THIS MORNING. JUST A WHOLE LOT OF DAMAGE DONE BY THAT ACTIVITY YESTERDAY INTO THE EARLY HOURS OF THIS MORNING. LIVE IN CHINESE CAMP, TUOLUMNE MIKE TESELLE KCRA THREE NEWS. AND OF COURSE, MIKE, YOU KNOW, WE HAVE WATCHED THESE KIND OF INCIDENTS HAPPEN BEFORE AND YOUR HEART JUST BREAKS WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THE DEVASTATION FOR THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THOSE AREAS. AND JUST THE RECOVERY IS GOING TO TAKE WEEKS, MONTHS, MAYBE EVEN YEARS AS WELL. WE’RE GOING TO CHECK BACK IN WITH YOU THROUGHOUT THIS HOUR AND KEEP US UPDATED, OF COURSE, ON WHAT YOU’RE SEEING OUT THERE. MEANTIME, IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY, THE BLACK OAK CASINO IS WORKING TO HELP THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN FORCED TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES. THEY SAY ANYONE WHO IS UNDER A MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDER CAN STAY WITH THEM FOR FREE. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SHOW YOUR CALIFORNIA ID IT DOES HAVE TO LIST. YOUR ADDRESS IS IN THE EVACUATION ZONE. THE SEPTEMBER LIGHTNING COMPLEX, ALSO IMPACTING AIR QUALITY IN THE MOTHERLODE KCRA 3 METEOROLOGIST OPHELIA YOUNG. JOINING US NOW WITH THE LATEST ON THIS. AND OPHELIA, WE KNOW THAT AS THE WINDS SHIFT, PEOPLE WITH ALLERGIES WILL DEFINITELY BE AFFECTED BY THIS. YES. IF YOU HAVE RESPIRATORY ISSUES, DEFINITELY A GOOD DAY TO STAY INDOORS. WE ARE TRACKING THE RETURN OF SOME ONSHORE WINDS, WHICH IS BOTH GOOD AND BAD. IT IS GOOD BECAUSE IT DOES BRING IN SOME COOLER AIR WHICH WILL HELP OUT FIRE CONDITIONS AND FIREFIGHTERS. BUT IT’S BAD BECAUSE THE VARYING AND SHIFTING WINDS WILL POSE SOME CHALLENGES AND WILL EVENTUALLY DRIVE UP SOME AIR FROM THE SOUTH, WHICH DOES INCLUDE SMOKE FROM NOT JUST ONE, BUT SEVERAL FIRES THAT ARE BURNING AND ALSO SOME FIRES IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. HERE’S A PHOTO OF THOSE SMOKY SKIES SHARED YESTERDAY FROM TIFFANY OF, IN HER WORDS, THE DRAMATIC FIRE SKIES OVER MURPHYS, ANOTHER ONE OF THE SUN GLOWING THROUGH THE SMOKE AS A PLANE PASSES OVERHEAD BY JAMIE LANE. FOOTHILL RESIDENTS CAN EXPECT TO WALK OUT TODAY TO MORE OF THE SAME UNHEALTHY AIR, WHICH IS CURRENTLY WORSE. AS YOU CAN SEE IN TUOLUMNE AND CALAVERAS COUNTIES. THOSE AREAS ARE NOT ONLY BEING DEALT SMOKE FROM LIGHTNING FIRES THAT BROKE OUT YESTERDAY, BUT THE ONGOING GARNETT FIRE FURTHER DOWN SOUTH IN THE FOOTHILLS OF FRESNO COUNTY. SMOKE DRIFTING NORTH, COMBINING WITH THE SMOKE FROM THE SEVERAL VEGETATION FIRES THAT SPARKED YESTERDAY. THOSE WINDS OUT OF THE SOUTH WILL DRIVE ALL OF THAT SMOKE NORTH, WHILE THE DELTA BREEZE WILL BE LIGHT BUT STILL PUSHING IT FROM THE VALLEY, BUNCHING IT UP IN THE FOOTHILLS. ESPECIALLY TONIGHT, MORE SMOKE WILL WAFT BACK AND FORTH FROM THE VALLEY TO THE FOOTHILLS TOMORROW, DEPENDING ON FIREFIGHTING EFFORTS. OF COURSE, THE SMOKE FORECAST MODEL THEN THINKING THE SMOKE WILL MOVE UP INTO THE SIERRA, WILL BE MORE CONCENTRATED THERE ON FRIDAY. SO HEADS UP FOR FOLKS WHO ARE HEADED TO OR ARE IN THE MOUNTAIN. OF COURSE, THIS FORECAST CAN CHANGE VERY QUICKLY WITH A FEW MORE STORMS FORECAST FOR THE SIERRA LATER TODAY. TAMARA BERG WILL HAVE MORE ON THAT LATER ON IN THE SHOW. FOR NOW, WE’RE GOING TO GO BACK TO THE DESK. MIKE AND BRANDI, THANKS SO MUCH FOR THAT. AND OF COURSE, DURING FIRE SEASON, HAVING A GO BAG READY CAN REALLY MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE WHEN DISASTER STRIKES. OFFICIALS RECOMMEND HAVING ESSENTIALS READY LIKE THE FOLLOWING YEAR. PRESCRIPTIONS OR MEDICATIONS, A CHANGE OF CLOTHES, EXTRA EYE GLASSES OR CONTACT LENSES, A FIRST AID KIT, A FLASHLIGHT, A BATTERY POWERED RADIO WITH EXTRA BATTERIES, AS WELL AS CHARGERS FOR ANY ELECTRONICS. NOW, PET OWNERS SHOULD ALSO HAVE LEAS
TCU September Lightning Complex: Lightning-sparked fires force evacuations, destroy structures
Evacuations remain in effect after a series of fires sparked by lightning started in two Northern California counties.While Cal Fire, the state’s fire management agency, has not reported structure damage, KCRA 3 was able to visually confirm several structures either destroyed or damaged in the historic Tuolumne County gold mining community of Chinese Camp.TCU September Lightning Complex acreage, containmentThe series of fires, grouped together by Cal Fire as the TCU September Lightning Complex, has collectively burned at least 11,977 acres as of 7:42 a.m., up from the 9,383 acres reported at 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.Earlier Wednesday morning, Cal Fire listed the acreage at 12,473, but numbers can change with better surveying and mapping of the burn area. At least nine fires comprise this complex. Of the nine, the two largest ones are the so-called 6-5 Fire in Tuolumne County that sparked near the Don Pedro Reservoir and the 2-7 Fire that started near Highway 4 and Milton Road in Stanislaus County. Cal Fire listed the cause of both fires as lightning.Both of those fires are among many given similar names after thousands of lightning strikes hit parts of the Central Valley, Sacramento Valley, and the Foothills. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Tuesday afternoon said that in the first two days of September, California had recorded 9,619 lightning strikes.On Wednesday, the governor’s press office said it announced the state secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The state plans to use that funding to ensure enough resources are being put toward the 2-7 Fire.The KCRA 3 weather team anticipates more thunderstorm activity in the Sierra, especially south of Tahoe, on Wednesday.As of Wednesday, there is no known containment around the fire. Containment measures how much of a perimeter crews have established around a burn area to help prevent flames from continuing to spread. It does not actually measure how much of a fire has been extinguished.Wildfire conditionsOn Wednesday morning during the 6 a.m. newscast, KCRA 3’s Mike TeSelle was at Chinese Camp and noted that fire activity had moderated in comparison to conditions on Tuesday. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in extinguishing the flames.TeSelle also noted that among the buildings destroyed is the town’s historic post office, which has been standing since 1854. See when TeSelle featured Chinese Camp in his Explore Outdoors series in the video below.TCU September Lightning Complex evacuations, shelter informationEvacuation orders and warnings are in place for both the 2-7 and 6-5 portions of the complex. With evacuation orders, you are lawfully required to immediately leave. You are not required to leave under a warning but are recommended to be ready to do so in case conditions become dangerous.See an interactive map below for evacuation orders and warnings in Calaveras County for 2-7.Find a map of evacuations in Tuolumne County for 6-5 here. We also have them listed below.6-5 evacuation ordersChinese Camp TownSix Bit Ranch RoadSix Bit Gulch RoadRed Hill RoadDon Pedrro Dam RoadOld Don Pedro Dam RoadMenkee Hess RoadAll roads East of Highway 108 from Junction 59 to Highway 49Both sides of highway 120 from Chinese Camp to Highway 120 BridgeRojo Shawmut Road6-5 evacuation warningsAll Areas from Bell Mooney & Jacksonville RoadWest to Highway 49 and Highway 108 South to Old Jacksonville RoadShelter informationEvacuees seeking shelter or looking for a place to take their animals can go to the following locations based on county.Calaveras CountyBret Harte High School: 323 South Main Street, Altaville, CA 95221Calaveras County Fairgrounds Livestock Evacuation Center (Livestock only): 101 Frogtown Road, Angels Camp, CA 95222Small, domestic pets can also be taken to Bret Harte High SchoolTuolumne CountySonora Senior Center: 540 Greenley Road, Sonora, CA 95370Pets are allowed at the Sonora Senior Center, and animal control is on scene assistingAir quality in parts of Northern California is also experiencing unhealthier levels. Check air quality in your area with the interactive map below.This is a developing story. Stay with KCRA 3 as we work to gather more details.| MORE | A 2025 guide for how to prepare for wildfires in California | Northern California wildfire resources by county: Find evacuation info, sign up for alertsCal Fire wildfire incidents: Cal Fire tracks its wildfire incidents here. You can sign up to receive text messages for Cal Fire updates on wildfires happening near your ZIP code here.Wildfires on federal land: Federal wildfire incidents are tracked here.Preparing for power outages: Ready.gov explains how to prepare for a power outage and what to do when returning from one here. Here is how to track and report PG&E power outages.Keeping informed when you’ve lost power and cellphone service: How to find a National Weather Service radio station near you.Be prepared for road closures: Download Caltrans’ QuickMap app or check the latest QuickMap road conditions here.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
ANGELS CAMP, Calif. —
Evacuations remain in effect after a series of fires sparked by lightning started in two Northern California counties.
While Cal Fire, the state’s fire management agency, has not reported structure damage, KCRA 3 was able to visually confirm several structures either destroyed or damaged in the historic Tuolumne County gold mining community of Chinese Camp.
TCU September Lightning Complex acreage, containment
The series of fires, grouped together by Cal Fire as the TCU September Lightning Complex, has collectively burned at least 11,977 acres as of 7:42 a.m., up from the 9,383 acres reported at 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Earlier Wednesday morning, Cal Fire listed the acreage at 12,473, but numbers can change with better surveying and mapping of the burn area.
At least nine fires comprise this complex. Of the nine, the two largest ones are the so-called 6-5 Fire in Tuolumne County that sparked near the Don Pedro Reservoir and the 2-7 Fire that started near Highway 4 and Milton Road in Stanislaus County. Cal Fire listed the cause of both fires as lightning.
Both of those fires are among many given similar names after thousands of lightning strikes hit parts of the Central Valley, Sacramento Valley, and the Foothills. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Tuesday afternoon said that in the first two days of September, California had recorded 9,619 lightning strikes.
On Wednesday, the governor’s press office said it announced the state secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The state plans to use that funding to ensure enough resources are being put toward the 2-7 Fire.
The KCRA 3 weather team anticipates more thunderstorm activity in the Sierra, especially south of Tahoe, on Wednesday.
As of Wednesday, there is no known containment around the fire. Containment measures how much of a perimeter crews have established around a burn area to help prevent flames from continuing to spread. It does not actually measure how much of a fire has been extinguished.
Wildfire conditions
On Wednesday morning during the 6 a.m. newscast, KCRA 3’s Mike TeSelle was at Chinese Camp and noted that fire activity had moderated in comparison to conditions on Tuesday. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in extinguishing the flames.
TeSelle also noted that among the buildings destroyed is the town’s historic post office, which has been standing since 1854. See when TeSelle featured Chinese Camp in his Explore Outdoors series in the video below.
TCU September Lightning Complex evacuations, shelter information
Evacuation orders and warnings are in place for both the 2-7 and 6-5 portions of the complex. With evacuation orders, you are lawfully required to immediately leave. You are not required to leave under a warning but are recommended to be ready to do so in case conditions become dangerous.
See an interactive map below for evacuation orders and warnings in Calaveras County for 2-7.
Organization recognized for excellence in high-impact tutoring design and student achievement gains
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 25, 2025 –Catapult Learning, a division of FullBloom that provides academic intervention programs for students and professional development solutions for teachers in K-12 schools, today announced it earned the Tutoring Program Design Badge from the National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) at Stanford University. The designation, valid for three years, recognizes tutoring providers that demonstrate high-quality, research-aligned program design.
The recognition comes at a time when the need for high-impact tutoring (HIT) has never been greater. As schools nationwide work to close learning gaps that widened during the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerate recovery, Catapult Learning stands out for its nearly 50-year legacy of delivering effective academic support to students who need it most.
“Catapult Learning is honored to receive this prestigious national recognition from the NSSA at Stanford University,” said Rob Klapper, president at Catapult Learning. “We are excited to be recognized for our high-impact tutoring program design and will continue to uphold the highest standards of excellence as we support learners across the country.”
Each year, Catapult Learning’s programs support more than 150,000+ students with nearly four million in-person tutoring sessions, in partnership with 2,100 schools and districts nationwide. Its tutors, many of whom hold four-year degrees, are highly trained professionals who are supported with ongoing coaching and professional development.
Recent data from Catapult Learning’s HIT programs show strong academic gains across both math and reading subject areas:
8 out of every 10 math students increased their pre/post score
9 out of every 10 reading students increased their pre/post score
These results come from programs that have also earned a Tier 2 evidence designation under the Every Student Succeeds Act, affirming their alignment with rigorous research standards.
The Badge was awarded following a rigorous, evidence-based review conducted by an independent panel of education experts. The NSSA evaluated multiple components of Catapult Learning’s program – including instructional design, tutor training and support, and the use of data to inform instruction – against its Tutoring Quality Standards.
“This designation underscores the strength and intentionality behind our high-impact tutoring model,” said Devon Wible, vice president of teaching and learning at Catapult Learning. “This achievement reflects our deep commitment to providing high-quality, research-based tutoring that drives meaningful outcomes for learners.”
Tutoring is available in person, virtually, or in hybrid formats, and can be scheduled before, during, or after school, including weekends. Sessions are held a minimum of three times per week, with flexible options tailored to the needs of each school or district. Catapult Learning provides all necessary materials for both students and tutors.
Catapult Learning, a division of FullBloom, provides academic intervention programs for students and professional development solutions for teachers in K-12 schools, executed by a team of experienced coaches. Our professional development services strengthen the capacity of teachers and leaders to raise and sustain student achievement. Our academic intervention programs support struggling learners with instruction tailored to the unique needs of each student. Across the country, Catapult Learning partners with 500+ school districts to produce positive outcomes that promote academic and professional growth. Catapult Learning is accredited by Cognia and has earned its 2022 System of Distinction honor.
If you’re trying to produce more in the same period of time with the same resources, there are chances that the quality of the product may deteriorate. Here are some tips and tweaks that you can implement at your factory to increase the manufacturing efficiency while making sure you do not compromise on the quality of the products. ~ Ed.
The manufacturing process itself takes time to manufacture if you really think about it. Every element is as complex as the moving parts in any machine, and while all systems can use improvement, messing with a certain element and failing to consider the wider context it operates in can cause problems. We can’t just take the fan belt out of a car or replace it with an inappropriate substitute and expect the same performance from such a vehicle.
The same logic can apply to your approach to optimizing your efficiency. “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” can sometimes leave out the possibility for repairs that genuinely work, but the principle isn’t a bad one.
In this post, we hope to help those struggling with this balancing act. After all, passing on the cost of savings in production can help, but if you’re unable to sustain the same quality as before, the process isn’t worth it. We hope the advice we give can reverse that direction.
7 Ways to Increase Manufacturing Efficiency Retaining Quality Standards
Here are the tips and tweaks from the experienced and the experts to help you make more money.
Perfect Your Storage Cycle
It may seem that storage is part of the process that comes well after you’ve manufactured something, and that raw materials need little in the way of sophisticated planning outside of being safely present, easy to access, and secure. But of course, that’s not always the case.
That’s because storage layout directly impacts every aspect of production time and quality. For example, materials that sit in the wrong conditions or stay on shelves too long can degrade quite easily, which eats into the discount of your bulk purchase.
It’s also pretty obvious that poor organization will make you suffer unnecessary delays. Investing all you can in a well-planned storage system is wise, because it keeps materials close to their point of use, rotates stock effectively, and also ensures proper environmental conditions for sensitive items.
You might benefit from implementing a more thoughtful reorganization of your storage areas and as such limit hours of wasted movement and searching time. So perhaps it’s not your factory line that needs the upgrade, it’s your warehouse, your storing facilities, and your loading bays. A new indexed or barcode scanning system might be best, or investing in new storage movements facilities like a new fleet of forklifts or conveyors could help. Perhaps you just need to hire a warehouse manager, who could pay for their own salary tenfold each year in improved efficiency.
Frequent, Scheduled Maintenance
Maintenance goes far beyond routine cleaning and basic upkeep. Each piece of equipment needs specific attention, such as monitoring belt tensions and gear alignments. Machine operators, if you train them well, become skilled at noticing subtle changes in equipment performance through sound and vibration.
This awareness, combined with regular professional maintenance, keeps production running smoothly and equipment lasting longer. It’s essential that you implement a healthy documentation of maintenance activities to give the entire management team data about equipment performance.
Maximum Capacity Measures
Ultimately, every production outfit, no matter how large or sprawling or impressive, will have production capacities. This is especially strained during seasonal periods of course, but still worth keeping in mind.
It’s important for managers and business owners to understand that while machines might technically handle higher volumes, human operators and material storage limitations often set the real maximum capacity, and it’s important not to push these constraints but invest in a wider operation if you hope to achieve more.
After all, running equipment at its absolute limit will almost certainly cause increased downtime and quality issues. Production targets based on actual operational capacity, rather than theoretical maximums, even if you have to renegotiate deadlines with your clients, will help with consistent output and better product quality. A good investment is to have regular analysis of capacity usage patterns, because then you can see where additions or alterations to your production timeline are possible.
It also means avoiding overbooking yourself and struggling to meet the demands of multiple clients, which will almost always cause disappointment if you’re not careful and disciplined enough to avoid it.
Offloading Waste/Scrap
Good waste management is usually a worthwhile practice to invest in for obvious reasons. But if your business deals with valuable materials or those that may hold value or purpose beyond your own uses, optimized or sustainable waste management alters what could be a pure cost center into a potential value stream. To start with, you’ll have to integrate proper sorting and handling of recyclable materials, which opens up additional revenue if you can find a worthwhile sale. This isn’t as difficult as you may imagine give creative reuse of manufacturing byproducts.
For example, unused biofuel and scrap metal could provide two options. At the very least you might work with sustainable partners to help reduce the impact of your wastage, which could possibly help you make use of more recycled output once again.
Private Safety Audits
Instead of bringing in outside consultants who might not understand your specific setup, running your own regular safety reviews makes a lot of sense, as long as they can be conducted by another part of your department who will be utterly stringent.
Walking through your facility with fresh eyes every month or so will spot issues you might normally avoid. Of course, it is worth investing in a private auditor too if you think that you may be too biased, or if you have huge inspections coming up and you want to meet even more stringent standards before they come.
A great approach is to include your floor workers in these reviews because they’re the ones who know exactly where things could be safer or work better. Moreover, when such staff see their suggestions being taken seriously, they’re much more likely to speak up about other improvements in the future and not sweep their difficulties under the rug at all.
Custom Machinery
A manufacturing line might have been curated thus far with standard machines purchased from catalogs and integrated as part of a logical line. That’s perfectly normal of course, as every manufacturing setup is different and some modularity is important. It’s not like you’re going to invent every machine you need yourself to begin with either, as most practical purposes have already been made available and sold at scale, allowing you to enjoy some of those savings.
However, a simple adjustment to a conveyor system or a modified attachment might solve your problem without requiring a fully custom unit. A high-quality set of precision bearings could be a worthwhile investment for custom machinery, allowing you to gain further functionality over time. Incremental improvements like that can add up to a setup that’s perfectly fitting to your needs.
Supplier Alternatives
Nobody likes to think about their suppliers letting them down, but it happens. Sometimes it happens often if there are shortages or if a strange little quasi-trade war is taking place (and unfortunately, in today’s political reality, this is unlikely to be that infrequent).
Having a backup plan doesn’t mean you don’t trust your main suppliers, of course, as it’s just good business sense. Building relationships with two or three reliable suppliers for your essential materials can save you massive troubles down the line where you scramble to put those in at the time. You may pay touch more sometimes, but that’s better than having your whole production line grind to a halt because of a delayed delivery. If you host frequent chats with your suppliers for reviews it can also help you spot potential issues early and often lead to better service overall.
Wrapping Up
Perfecting your storage cycle, scheduling frequent maintenance, measuring the maximum capacity, offloading the waste, conducting private safety audits, customizing your machinery, and building relationships with alternative suppliers.
With this advice, we’re certain you’ll be able to continue improving manufacturing efficiency without laying off staff or replacing with ineffective material replacements.
Over to you
If you have a manufacturing facility, what measures do you take to produce more in the same duration keeping the quality standards? Share your tips and experiences in the comments below.
Disclaimer: Though the views expressed are of the author’s own, this article has been checked for its authenticity of information and resource links provided for a better and deeper understanding of the subject matter. However, you’re suggested to make your diligent research and consult subject experts to decide what is best for you. If you spot any factual errors, spelling, or grammatical mistakes in the article, please report at [email protected]. Thanks.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. /PRNewswire/ —IXL, the award-winning personalized learning platform used by 16 million students, has been named a High Quality Evidence-Based Instructional Material for Early Literacy by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Adding IXL Language Arts to the list ensures that eligible local education agencies across the state can request reimbursement for purchasing the platform to enhance early literacy instruction. IXL is currently used by 20 percent of students in Missouri, accounting for more than 210,000 students.
Cover every concept with effective literacy instruction Literacy rates among the nation’s youngest learners remain below pre-pandemic levels, and limited instructional time and larger class sizes make it difficult for educators to boost achievement. To close knowledge gaps and support every student, IXL equips Missouri educators with its award-winning PK-5 ELA curriculum, which personalizes learning and is grounded in the Science of Reading methodology.
IXL covers all the areas needed to teach language arts, containing more than 2,400 skills spanning reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary and more. The platform’s curriculum for grades PK-2 is designed according to research-based best practices for effective early literacy instruction and focuses on systematic, structured phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. It guides students from simple to complex skills, adapting to individual student needs and offering explicit instruction with real-time feedback. Schools can also leverage IXL’s Learn to Read and Reading Intervention skill plans that align perfectly to popular textbooks so educators can steadily and methodically narrow reading gaps.
Build student confidence with embedded supports A wealth of instructional resources supports students and encourages them to self-remediate during independent or small-group practice. More than 2,800 video tutorials match one-to-one with each IXL skill, guiding learners through the building blocks of reading, writing and grammar. These videos make it easy to incorporate the Science of Reading’s methodology into instruction so children learn the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Additionally, students receive immediate corrective feedback after every missed question, enabling them to quickly understand their mistakes and progress.
Get reliable data to meet reading goals Early elementary school years are crucial for building foundational skills that shape a child’s education. To support this development, teachers need insights to see exactly where learning gaps exist, targeted resources to close them and tools to help students tackle new challenges. Supported by years of validity research, the nationally-normed IXL Diagnostic is a precise indicator of student achievement and a strong predictor of performance on standardized assessments. The adaptive assessment pinpoints each learner’s proficiency to the nearest tenth of a grade along the entire ELA spectrum, showing educators exactly what students know and what they can do to improve. It then generates personalized action plans that help students eliminate their trouble spots, and grow their reading and writing skills. Action plans link to specific language arts and reading skills, and give teachers a simple way to differentiate instruction and fill knowledge gaps.
An award-winning platform backed by evidence Educators deserve the gold-standard of educational technology that is proven by research and data to enable the highest performance from every student. Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Tier 1 and Tier 2 research shows undisputed favorable outcomes for schools implementing IXL. Additionally, studies across 70,000 schools in 49 states show that IXL leads to higher test scores, with schools scoring as much as 17 percentile points higher on language arts on state assessments.
Recognized for its quality and rigor, IXL holds the Digital Promise Research-Based Design Product Certification and has twice been honored by the SIIA CODiE Awards as the Best Solution for Foundational (K-8) English Language Arts.
About IXL Currently used by 16 million students and in 96 of the top 100 U.S. school districts, IXL is an all-inclusive educational platform that provides a comprehensive PK-12 curriculum and instructional resources, actionable analytics and a state-of-the-art assessment suite. Available in 57 languages, IXL’s end-to-end teaching and learning solution supports personalized instruction in math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish. With more than 150 billion questions asked and answered around the world, IXL is helping schools and parents successfully boost student achievement. The IXL Learning family of products also includes Rosetta Stone, Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, TPT, SpanishDictionary.com, inglés.com, FrenchDictionary.com, Wyzant, Vocabulary.com, ABCya, Education.com and Carson Dellosa Education. To learn more about IXL, visit www.ixl.com, facebook.com/IXL and x.com/IXLLearning.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
A new interactive resource from the National Council on Teacher Quality calls into question the efficacy of the traditional classroom model, underscoring how it isn’t structured to help teachers succeed.
The resource, Reimagining the Teaching Role: How Strategic Staffing Can Attract and Retain Effective Teachers, illustrates how more modern teacher staffing strategies like team teaching, paying an expert teacher more to take on larger classes, and creating new teacher-leadership roles, can improve teacher retention, alleviate hiring challenges, and ultimately give more students access to high-quality teachers.
Today, in any given classroom, students arrive with varying degrees of knowledge and skill. Teachers are often unrealistically expected to meet the individual academic needs for each child all by themselves, with little support. They largely work alone and without opportunity to advance their careers. In fact, only 26 percent of teachers agree that the teaching profession is dynamic, meaning that it has role flexibility and opportunities for growth and leadership. (Sources: Learning Policy Institute & Educators for Excellence.)
As a result, teachers experience high levels of work-related stress, which leads to declining job satisfaction and higher turnover rates. During the 2022–23 school year, just over 40 percent of public schools in low-income areas and those with mostly students of color were fully staffed. Additionally, teachers don’t stay in the profession as long as they used to. If you polled teachers on their years of experience in 1988, you would have found “15 years” to be the most common response. By 2016, the most common response was “one to three” years of experience. (Source: Ingersoll, R. M., Merrill, E., Stuckey, D., & Collins, G. (2018). Seven trends: The transformation of the teaching force)
Reimagining the teaching role offers a bold solution through innovative strategic staffing structures that make the profession more attractive and sustainable for teachers–and can ultimately boost student learning outcomes.
“Just as the Ford Model T doesn’t serve today’s transportation needs, the traditional model of teaching from the same era isn’t working well for many students and teachers,” said NCTQ President Heather Peske. “States need to take action to catalyze innovative staffing models and districts must capitalize on these opportunities to attract and retain teachers who are going to help our students succeed.”
The new NCTQ resource highlights how state policies have the potential to either help or hinder a district’s ability to implement a better approach to staffing classrooms. While the analysis found that state policy is not a barrier in many cases, there are four key policy areas where states can do more to support innovations:
Class size
Class size and student-teacher ratio laws can stymie strategic staffing models by not allowing more than one adult in the same classroom to be assigned to support students, or they may prohibit a highly effective teacher from taking on additional students, even with additional support and pay.
Five states do not allow districts to request a waiver on class-size or student-teacher ratio restrictions, 25 states allow waivers, and 20 states and the District of Columbia do not address class-size or student-teacher ratio in policy.
Teachers as observers
When policy restricts the ability of teachers to be formal observers, it limits career pathways for teachers who do not want to be administrators yet want to serve in a leadership capacity. It also limits districts’ ability to think creatively about reconfiguring roles to deliver more support to help teachers grow.
Thirteen states block teachers from formally observing other teachers, 28 states allow teachers to observe other teachers, and nine states and D.C. are silent on the issue.
Team outcomes
Districts need flexibility to create team-based accountability, where teachers are held accountable for team outcomes. At present, 30 states include student growth as one measure in teacher evaluation.
Eleven states do not allow districts to attribute team outcomes to teacher evaluations, 21 states do allow it, and 18 states and D.C. do not address the issue in state policy.
Restrictions on the use of support staff and time
Restricting the roles of paraprofessionals, residents, and other support staff too harshly limits how schools can think creatively about tapping into all the adults in the building to best meet student needs. When state policy limits the time teachers have to collaborate, it can impede team-based approaches to instruction.
Fourteen states have policies that restrict the use of support staff or teachers’ time, which may restrict new models or collaboration, and 36 states and DC do not restrict teachers’ time or how support staff are used.
Additionally, only eight states provide some type of supplemental pay for teacher leadership roles beyond mentoring novice or aspiring teachers, meaning even if policy were to allow for these innovative staffing models, many states are not structured to compensate teachers for the additional leadership responsibilities they would assume.
State leaders are uniquely positioned to create opportunities for school districts to reimagine the teaching role by helping districts pilot new staffing models; leading them to evaluate the outcomes of the models and share what works; offering waivers from restrictive policies (like class size), if they have a plan and commit to tracking outcomes; and funding the design, development and evaluation of the models.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
Last week, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), in partnership with SAS, launched the Missouri Data Visualization Tool (MO DVT), a web-based application that offers easy-to-use reports and analysis on academic performance, including achievement and growth data aggregated by subject, year, and grade. MO DVT was created in response to stakeholder questions about interpreting and using Missouri Growth Model data.
I was able to get into the weeds with Missouri Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven & Dr. John White, VP of SAS Education Visualization and Analytics Solutions (EVAAS) to discuss the genesis and strategic goals of the MO DVT, the integration with Missouri’s broader educational strategies, and how quality data is improving decision-making in Missouri schools.
According to both Margie and John, the tool allows educators to access longitudinal data on student performance, track progress over time, and identify areas for improvement. It provides insights at both individual student and group levels, enabling teachers to tailor instruction to meet diverse student needs. Additionally, it supports decision-making at the policy level by analyzing academic impacts, such as the effectiveness of a four-day school week.
By actually using the wealth of available data, the emphasis is now on translating it into meaningful insights to drive improvements in teaching and learning. The goal is to foster a culture of continuous improvement and empower educators with the tools needed to support student success.
Some highlights of the conversation:
Actionable Data for Teachers: The program aims to make growth data actionable for teachers, moving beyond using it solely for accountability purposes to inform classroom instruction and support individual student needs effectively.
Privacy and Security: Measures are in place to ensure data privacy and security, with access restricted to authorized personnel and adherence to regulations like FERPA.
Longitudinal Tracking: Educators can track student progress over time, analyze historical data, and make projections for future performance, enabling targeted interventions and support.
Group-Level Insights: The tool provides insights at both individual student and group levels, allowing educators to identify trends, disparities, and best practices among different student populations.
Policy-Level Decision Making: The program supports policy-level decision-making by analyzing academic impacts, such as the effectiveness of initiatives like the four-day school week, to inform future strategies and interventions.
Promotion of Data Literacy: Educators are encouraged to engage with the data to understand student performance trends, measure growth, and identify areas for improvement, fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making in education.
Continuous Improvement: The overarching goal is to foster a culture of continuous improvement in education, leveraging data insights to drive positive outcomes for students and empower educators with the tools and knowledge needed for success.
Below is a machine-generated transcript of the recording:
Transcript
00:00:04 Speaker 1
OK, great. Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate your time. I know you’re busy. Lots of news. Let’s jump right into it. Doctor, maybe you can start by just talking about the program where it began. How long has it been in process to where we’ve gotten to the point now that it’s an active tool for your users?
00:00:23 Speaker 2
So in the state of Missouri, we have a history of of using growth data to inform our accountability decisions. But what we’re doing now is moving to a step further to to not just let it inform accountability policy decision making at the state level, but really making the data actionable for our teachers in the classroom.
00:00:45 Speaker 2
And that’s really where it’s at. We know that’s that’s what helps improve and performance for our students is when we can actually take data and make it an A usable, actionable place for our teachers.
00:00:59 Speaker 1
Yeah. And John, I know you’ve been working in this field for a long time. It used to be, at least when it came to our readers and listeners over the years that sometimes data would be seen as a dirty word, a little bit of a boogeyman, especially when you would get down to the teacher level, many of whom consider themselves.
00:01:19 Speaker 1
Artists, not necessarily scientists when it comes to their kids and how to teach their kids. I think a lot of that has changed, but I think there’s still some remnants of it. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how you see.
00:01:32 Speaker 1
The these tools and I think would support when when Doctor mentioned that it is for the teachers, not necessarily for the the Superintendent or the principal, right.
00:01:42 Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right. So what this tool really allows is for people to see longitudinal data over time at the student level, track the progress of students through all the way starting from 3rd grade all the way through whatever grade they may be sitting in in that year with what, what teacher that.
00:02:02 Speaker 3
Maybe teaching them at that time?
00:02:05 Speaker 3
So allowing a teacher to have access to how much growth a student made in previous years and in the most recent year can be really helpful in trying to understand what may be best for an individual student. Now the data not only is available at the student by student level, but also aggregated.
00:02:24 Speaker 3
At the group level, maybe for schools and for Elias, so schools and Elias can reflect on trends in growth data to see if they implemented different strategies in previous years. What may have worked best to help make the most growth possible with the different groups of students.
00:02:42
Yeah.
00:02:43 Speaker 1
So and I I mentioned the cut of the data is a dirty word and sometimes seen as a boogeyman and one of the big reasons for that over the years has been the the worry about student privacy, right. And data privacy and the use of that. Maybe you could talk about how this solution is able to kind of distinguish between you’re talking about getting that at the granular level with a particular.
00:03:05 Speaker 1
Student. I’ll assume that there is protections in there in terms of that data when it comes to not only test scores, but maybe ISP’s or behavioral sort of data.
00:03:17
Yes.
00:03:17 Speaker 3
That’s absolutely right. So what the system is, is there is a public site access, but that available that data is only available in the aggregate level at the school in LA kind of aggregated level. But you have to have login credentials for any individual access to get into the system and see individual student level.
00:03:38 Speaker 3
You can.
00:03:39 Speaker 3
Then you know it would be dependent upon the school in which a an educator is at, for what individual students that they are able to access and see data for. So we certainly follow all the security standards and requirements as well as legislation like FERPA to make sure that only the.
00:03:59 Speaker 3
Appropriate individual educators have access to the appropriate student level.
00:04:05 Speaker 2
Yeah. And I’ll just, I’ll just piggyback on that. I think that’s probably the very first thing we.
00:04:09 Speaker 2
Need to assure.
00:04:10 Speaker 2
Everyone of is that this is always protected data to the highest level that we can ensure that our our parents are counting on that. We certainly make sure that all those protocols are in place.
00:04:22 Speaker 1
Yeah. Can you paint me?
00:04:24 Speaker 1
A little bit of kind of a.
00:04:25 Speaker 1
Day in the life.
00:04:26 Speaker 1
When it comes to the use of this, especially when you’re talking about maybe a teacher, I mean just kind of walk through the day is this, is this still intended to be used on a daily basis or on something maybe at the end of the quarter when they’re compiling grades? Can you give me some real world examples of of how you intend it to be?
00:04:46 Speaker 2
Well, I’ll, I’ll speak from the day in the life of of us at a policy level and then try to bring it down to the, to the teacher level. So again these the the particular model that we are currently using is is still dependent upon that end of the year State assessment data that we get that.
00:05:04 Speaker 2
Has historically been important, but sometimes falling a little flat, and here’s what I.
00:05:09 Speaker 2
Mean by that, if we.
00:05:10 Speaker 2
Focus solely on the proficient score. Like if we just look at where a child scores on the proficient level, then that becomes the target for teachers or for parents or for the students even. And what we’ve learned over I think over since the implementation, particularly of NCLB.
00:05:30 Speaker 2
Over a decade ago is, if you focus just on proficiency, you can lose sight of kids on both ends of of that spectrum there. So those kids that are really scoring.
00:05:40 Speaker 2
Well, sometimes can be that they’re going to score proficient no matter what this is. This is a value added model that says for all kids, even those highest performing, how do we make sure that we are driving improvement at every level. So all those kids get get paid very close attention to and all teachers pay attention to every kid.
00:06:01 Speaker 2
Don’t get me wrong, they certainly do. But I’m talking about from the.
00:06:04 Speaker 2
State level when?
00:06:05 Speaker 2
We used to hear a term that.
00:06:10 Speaker 2
Sometimes teachers or school districts would refer to as our bubble kids, like kids who are just about to get over one level into proficiency, and what the growth model does, it says, hey, let’s pay attention to every single child on that roster and let’s see how far whether they’re well below proficiency. And we’re going to move them towards that or whether they’re.
00:06:30 Speaker 2
Well above proficiency, and we’re going to continue to make sure that we’re pushing those highest.
00:06:36 Speaker 2
Achievers, even higher. So for us at the state level, that’s how I like to look at that data and say we are paying attention to every single child. Now how does the teacher take that data then? There, I’m going to let John speak to that a little bit more too. But as a teacher, you want to know who am I most effective with in the classroom? I really moving performance.
00:06:56 Speaker 2
For all kids? Or am I able to step back and say, gosh, I wonder what was?
00:07:00 Speaker 2
Happening with with this group of students that I that I as a teacher, didn’t have as much value. Add to that learning opportunity for those kids because we want to be successful with with all students. And then you add a few more tools to that toolbox. But I I wouldn’t say that that the initial results are a day-to-day operational piece because.
00:07:21 Speaker 2
We are still we we depend on that state state assessment that we get annually to to talk about what’s happening gives us great power at the.
00:07:33 Speaker 2
State Board of Education level or others when we can say which schools really are serving various populations of students and still showing tremendous growth and that’s that. Then you can say what are they doing because we have a like population over here who we’d like to see those kinds of results to. Can we connect those two?
00:07:53 Speaker 2
Schools can we connect those two districts to say, what’s happening at all in the spirit of of improvement and serving our kids better?
00:08:04 Speaker 3
Yeah. So, so I’ll just add a.
00:08:05 Speaker 3
Couple of thoughts here.
00:08:09 Speaker 3
As an educator goes into the system at the individual student level, they would be able to see all of the prior student testing history of that student. So as the Commissioner said, each and every year with new state assessment data, that data would be up loaded into the system and so there would be new assessments.
00:08:26 Speaker 3
Available annually in that system, but to your earlier point point Kevin about security and access throughout the year, students may move from one building to another, and so the system has to be updated to make sure that as students move around the state and move into different buildings, that the permissions and security are updated so that.
00:08:47 Speaker 3
And educator can gain access to the student level data for students sitting in their classroom at that moment. So that’s something that.
00:08:55 Speaker 3
Because get updated throughout the year now within the system, as the Commissioner was saying, so an individual educator can see all of the testing history and math and reading and and all the various subjects on the state assessment system, they can look at how much growth is being made by that student in years past.
00:09:15 Speaker 3
They can also look forward.
00:09:18 Speaker 3
More proactively to get a likelihood of success on a future assessment, so they may be seeing a student in their classroom and we may be saying something like based on all the prior testing data of that individual student and the average experience that you may see, this student has a 70%.
00:09:38 Speaker 3
Chance of being proficient, let’s say, on.
00:09:41 Speaker 3
On their next grade level assessment, they haven’t taken. So as they are administering kind of interim assessments throughout the year to gauge where that student is, they can reflect back on that projection probability to see if that student seems to be on track throughout the year.
00:09:58 Speaker 3
Also, when you aggregate this data up a level, you can see the amount of growth that students were making. Let’s say that were in the lowest achievement group or the highest achievement group. You can disaggregate the student level data into different types of student groups such as.
00:10:15 Speaker 3
Your higher poverty student groups versus lower poverty or English learners versus non-english learners, just to see if.
00:10:24 Speaker 3
An individual group or a certain subject in grade you are making more growth with certain types of students. For example, one group of teachers within fifth grade math might be doing really well with their highest achieving students, but not as well with their lowest achieving students. Or maybe vice versa, so they can reflect on those practices and see.
00:10:44 Speaker 3
You know what can we do a little bit differently with our lowest achieving students to make sure that they’re able to make as much growth and progress as we’re making with some of the other students. And then there’s a lot of comparative features too, that allow a school to see the amount of growth that another school may be making. That’s of a similar.
00:11:05 Speaker 3
On a student group, so they may have similar groups of students within their building or a similar makeup of students within their building their achievement level so they can find another school and locate them to maybe again just share best practices or try to understand a little better of what they may be doing differently that’s having more or less success.
00:11:25 Speaker 3
With their students.
00:11:27 Speaker 1
Yeah, that seems that the idea of sharing best practices is something that is is really strong and when you have the numbers to back it up, it just it makes it that much more powerful. I know that there’s been other at the state level, you know, initiatives such as the, the, the four day school week that has has gone back and forth. Can you talk a little bit about how this sort of data?
00:11:47 Speaker 1
Was able to kind of reinforce some of those ideas.
00:11:53 Speaker 2
Well, I’m going to start off with just talking about what we were trying to garner from the study itself and then I’ll let John speak to how they were able to to do that for us. And so for us in the state of Missouri, again, we have had the option of a four day school week for quite some time now for probably just over a decade that legislation.
00:12:13 Speaker 2
Changed back in a time when it was, it was really to try to address fuel, fuel charges and you know, busting issues and that sort of thing it was. Can we save money?
00:12:26 Speaker 2
And well, that really didn’t come to great fruition. We found out that it wasn’t really a great cost saving metric for it. So a lot of districts did not go to the four day school week. What what we’re seeing now is that a number of our districts are finding it to be what they see as an effective teacher recruitment and retention.
00:12:46 Speaker 2
Strategy. So we had a large number of our districts sort of what what I call the domino effect you you have one district start here and then the neighboring districts start to to follow suit because they’re trying to pull from the same pool pool of teachers.
00:13:02 Speaker 2
And so the statute does give the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education the authority to really look at what is the academic impact of that four day school week.
00:13:11 Speaker 2
And should they?
00:13:11 Speaker 2
Keep that option in place, so that was.
00:13:14 Speaker 2
Our very, very.
00:13:15 Speaker 2
First question is to look at again, going back to the sort of value add concept, does it add value to go to a four day or does the five day?
00:13:23 Speaker 2
And how do?
00:13:24 Speaker 2
We measure that. So that’s when we called upon Sass to say, could we look at the growth data to help inform that academic?
00:13:31 Speaker 2
Side I’ll let John speak to that, but just as a data person, you’ll you’ll know and understand that that only became the the first layer of the onion peel. Once we started talking about academics, then people want to know, well, did it impact attendance? Does it really successfully recruit and doesn’t help retain your teachers?
00:13:48 Speaker 2
What are the?
00:13:49 Speaker 2
How do the families feel about it? What is the social implication? Who’s feeding the kids?
00:13:53 Speaker 2
And there’s a million questions that follow. So I like to be very specific that our request to Sass was to really help us to understand academic impact. And John, I’ll toss it to you now to talk about how that study was done.
00:14:09 Speaker 3
Yeah. So all of our work with the state of Missouri has been around using longitudinal student level data.
00:14:15 Speaker 3
And so we have a lot of information over time at the student level for all of the students in the state on these statewide assessments. And So what that allowed us to do with this particular research question is follow the achievement levels of school districts over time then to.
00:14:35 Speaker 3
Identify where that school district may have made a change to a four day.
00:14:39 Speaker 3
Full week and to see if using their own prior data as kind of a control. Did they have some type of significant impact when they moved to a four day school week on their achievement information and we were able to look at that for all the school districts given they moved at maybe a different point in time to that.
00:14:59 Speaker 3
Four day school week, not only did we look at just kind of generally how high achieving.
00:15:05 Speaker 3
Were they, and how much did that change when they moved to a?
00:15:08 Speaker 3
Four day school.
00:15:08 Speaker 3
Week.
00:15:10 Speaker 3
But we also looked at their growth data, so growth data being a little bit different. You know how much growth are they making with students given all of the prior achievement levels of their students? And did the amount of growth that those school districts did that?
00:15:25 Speaker 3
Amount changed from the point prior to after them moving to that four day school week, and the answer was there was there was really no significant up or down movement in both the achievement or growth data when school districts moved over to that four day school week.
00:15:43 Speaker 3
So we have we didn’t.
00:15:45 Speaker 3
Find anything in terms of a a significant change in those academic indicators.
00:15:50 Speaker 3
As the Commissioner was mentioning.
00:15:52 Speaker 1
Interesting. Well, so now that UM, this tool is launched and is in use, what’s next I.
00:16:00 Speaker 1
Mean what are are there?
00:16:01 Speaker 1
Hopes and goals that maybe some.
00:16:05 Speaker 1
Not some surprises, but some. Some new ideas on which you guys can use this data to further improve the student experience.
00:16:16 Speaker 2
Well for me.
00:16:17 Speaker 2
For me again at the state level, I’m just really happy to hear the feedback from the school districts who are understanding and using the tool for so long.
00:16:25 Speaker 2
They’ve been giving them a score and a score without information is a score, right? Like it doesn’t really. And we understand that and recognize that it doesn’t help inform the next steps.
00:16:39 Speaker 2
Or the school district or the teacher. We think this putting this tool in the hands of our school districts allows them again to to move beyond. Just looking at a report card and saying, OK, how do I, how do I transform some of the work that needs to take place here? And again that.
00:16:59 Speaker 2
Can’t always happen on one year. You want to look at multiple trend data. You want to look at what’s happening in your school, in your environment.
00:17:05 Speaker 2
And and what the data are telling you, but that’s that’s how I see it is is again that it was coming from the the school districts who were really asking us for assistance. How do I get better? How do I how do I move the needle here. And so how you do that is by making sure we’re reaching every single child in the best way that we can.
00:17:26 Speaker 2
Right. So to me, that’s exciting. I’m. I’m excited to see what we’ll be able to do.
00:17:31 Speaker 2
And and and garner from more information we I’ll just wrap up with this statement. You’ve heard it a million times. If you’re in the data world, but it is just true when you’re data rich and information poor, that’s a challenge, right? We have a ton of data. So what are we doing with it and how do we use that information?
00:17:51 Speaker 2
For the betterment of our kids.
00:17:54 Speaker 1
Yeah. And John, any last thoughts?
00:17:56 Speaker 3
Yeah, we’re. I’m just really excited. I’m we’re. We’re really proud to be working with the state of Missouri on making this information more accessible and being able to put it into the hands of educators. I think that, you know, when they can actually see this information, they can find it very they they will find it very intuitive.
00:18:15 Speaker 3
They will be able to.
00:18:16 Speaker 3
Look at the data at the individual student level.
00:18:19 Speaker 3
You will.
00:18:20 Speaker 3
Start to help them seek and why measuring growth is so useful and valuable.
00:18:25 Speaker 3
And just we’re really excited to just help promote the usage of this and see where it goes.
00:18:30 Speaker 1
Well, congratulations on your work and know it’s going to have a huge impact for the the students in the state of Missouri and hopefully sharing these insights will help inspire some of our readers and listeners to maybe put a little pressure on their own state governments to get their their data house in order. So thanks again for your time. I really appreciate it.
00:18:49 Speaker 2
Thank you.
00:18:50 Speaker 3
Thank you so much.
Kevin is a forward-thinking media executive with more than 25 years of experience building brands and audiences online, in print, and face to face. He is an acclaimed writer, editor, and commentator covering the intersection of society and technology, especially education technology. You can reach Kevin at KevinHogan@eschoolnews.com
Phenix City, Ala.— Phenix City Schools have marked a significant achievement at the Alabama State JR/SR Beta Convention, with students securing 51 top placements, a testament to the district’s quality of education and student dedication. The Beta Club, emphasizing leadership and service, saw over 100 members from Phenix City compete and succeed in one of the nation’s largest junior conventions and a highly competitive senior convention.
This accomplishment comes when educational excellence and community service are more important than ever. “Our students have worked tirelessly, and their success at the state convention clearly indicates their hard work, talent, and the strong support system provided by our schools,” Dr. Weber remarked.
The achievement of Phenix City Schools at the Beta Convention is not just a win for the district but a shining example of educational excellence in Alabama. As these students prepare for the national convention, they carry with them the pride and support of the entire state.
The state is encouraged to rally behind these young leaders, who are achieving academically and actively involved in serving and improving their communities. This story is a beacon of hope and a showcase of the potential within our educational institutions to foster future leaders.
Through this achievement, Phoenix City Schools underscores the importance of supporting educational programs that cultivate leadership, character, and service among students, preparing them for successful futures.
About PCS Phenix City Schools offers a complete, one-of-a-kind education for all students, preschool through 12th grade. Its goal is to prepare all students for a career and/or college through inquiry-based pedagogy, innovative resources, and a learning environment with immediate and future societal impact.
1212 9th Ave, Phenix City, AL 36868 PO Box 460 | 334-298-0534 | www.pcboe.net
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) has re-endorsed Classworks® for an additional three years. The CASE Executive Committee designated the award-winning platform as a CASE-endorsed product that delivers high-quality assessment and instructional resources to special education teachers and students.
CASE has recognized Classworks as a tool that “successfully addresses the inherent challenges of special education,” since 2010. This month, CASE re-endorsed Classworks as a top-tier special education resource through 2027. Every three years, the platform undergoes a rigorous evaluation by the CASE Executive Committee. As part of the review process, CASE considers the impact on achievement for special education students as well as any new enhancements. In addition to the tremendous impact Classworks has on special education students, two significant product changes were made:
Classworks released a new student experience focused on student ownership over their learning and growth
Dyslexia and Dyscalculia indicators were added to the screener assessments
These and several other new Classworks enhancements answer the imminent need in the marketplace for comprehensive, valid and reliable programs that simplify processes for special education teachers, and provide a more engaging and motivating experience for students.
“Our special education teachers are dedicated to creating high-quality IEPs customized to each student’s areas of need. However, that process can be cumbersome without the right data and tools. Classworks data is easy to understand and gives us exactly what we need to create meaningful goals,” states Katrina Jackson, director of special education, Montgomery Public Schools, Alabama. “Teachers are thrilled that they have reliable data and documentation. Classworks has cut their IEP writing time in half!”
With Classworks, educators have access to assessments to identify present levels of performance and develop ambitious annual goals, progress monitoring to measure and document progress toward goals, and evidence-based, individualized, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) to help students achieve their IEP goals. Classworks screener and progress monitoring assessments are validated by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII). Learn more.
About Classworks
Classworks leverages technology and evidence-based learning practices to transform how school districts support students’ academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs. Our CASE-endorsed, comprehensive Special Education and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) solution includes academic screeners, math and reading interventions, specially designed instruction, progress monitoring, and powerful data. Classworks Universal Screener and Progress Monitoring Assessments are validated by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII).
About The Council Of Administrators Of Special Education
The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) is an international professional educational organization affiliated with the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). Members are dedicated to enhancing the worth, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of each individual in society. The mission of CASE is to provide leadership and support to members by shaping policies and practices that impact the quality of education. For more information, visit www.casecec.org.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
Boston – Although reports reveal that U.S. students’ general academic performance still trails behind pre-pandemic rates, students taking VHS Learning’s high-quality, teacher-led online classes have maintained a consistent high level of achievement before, during, and after the pandemic. During the 2022-23 academic year, 91% of students who completed their VHS Learning’s online course did so with a passing grade. This is the fourth consecutive year that VHS Learning students have attained an average pass rate of 91%.
Students who took VHS Learning courses in the summer for credit recovery surpassed last year’s performance. In 2023, those students who previously failed a course and retook it in the summer with VHS Learning had an average pass rate of 80%, up from 75% in 2022. Students must achieve a final grade of 60 or higher to pass their courses.
In the 27 years that VHS Learning has been providing supplemental online high school classes, it has earned a reputation for its high standard of educational quality that keeps schools and students coming back. In the 2022-2023 academic year, VHS Learning had 16,927 course enrollments by students from more than 520 partner schools. Last year, 92% of schools previously utilizing the program continued their participation into the 2022-2023 school year. Further,90% of administrators and 90% of site coordinators who manage the VHS Learning program at their schoolsaid they were satisfied or very satisfied with their school’s VHS Learning experience.
“Our pass rates and retention and satisfaction rates reflect the quality of our program and our high standards for teaching. All VHS Learning teachers must successfully complete our graduate-level Online Teaching Methodologies (OTM) training program prior to teaching a VHS Learning online course. This comprehensive training helps teachers learn the best practices for online teaching and learning,” said Carol DeFuria, President & CEO of VHS Learning. “Our teachers are also high school certified in their subject areas, with 81% possessing a master’s degree or higher. Our teachers and staff are dedicated to helping students succeed and have opportunities that would otherwise be unable to them.”
VHS Learning partners with schools and districts to help them expand their course offerings, and also works directly with families who want to enroll students in classes individually. With more than 200 unique online courses, including 29 Advanced Placement® (AP) courses, the helps schools give students additional course and scheduling choices.
About VHS Learning
VHS Learning is a nonprofit organization with almost 30 years of experience providing world-class online programs to students and schools everywhere. More than 500 schools around the world take advantage of VHS Learning’s 200+ online high school courses — including 29 AP® courses, credit recovery, and enrichment courses — to expand their programs of study. VHS Learning is accredited by Middle States Association Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS) and the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACS WASC). Courses are approved for initial eligibility by NCAA. For more information about VHS Learning please visit https://www.vhslearning.org/ and follow on Twitter at @VHSLearning.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
Paddle for Puppies is back on May 15th and better than ever! Paddle for Puppies, an annual event presented by Austin Subaru, provides incredible support for our Parvo Puppy ICU Program at Austin Pets Alive!.
Our Parvo Puppy ICU cares for puppies that contract canine parvovirus, a highly contagious and life-threatening virus that increases their risk for euthanasia in certain shelters. In 2021 alone, a record-breaking 963 lives were saved from the Parvo Puppy ICU. That’s 400 more puppies than we saved in 2020 – this program is expanding by the minute!
One of the puppies saved so far in 2022 was named Rover. Rover is a very special puppy. Apart from being a parvo survivor and having precious droopy ears that stole everyone’s hearts, Rover was the 100,000th life saved at APA!.
Needless to say, Rover’s adoption was quick. He really did steal everyone’s hearts, including Timothy and Katherine Shook’s. The Shooks were Rover’s perfect match for a couple of reasons. First, they’re great pet parents. Second, Timothy just so happens to be APA!’s main point of contact with Austin Subaru who puts on Paddle for Puppies. They are one of the largest supporters of the very same program that saved Rover’s life.
Today, months later, Rover Shook is happy at home and, from what we hear, has been a great addition to their family. Just take a look at some of what they had to say:
What is your favorite quality about Rover?
“Our favorite quality of Rover’s is his playfulness; he loves chewing on hands, blankets, pillows – anything he can get his teeth on. He chases us as we walk and bites at our shoes, and he has enjoyed a few games of ‘Attack the Swiffer.’”
How does it feel knowing you had a part in saving Rover’s life?
“Having a puppy whose life would’ve been cut short without the APA! parvo facility keeps us very grounded. We are so grateful that Rover was able to receive treatment, and we were able to help support the parvo ICU and the staff that keep the unit running.”
What do you want people to know about APA!?
“We would love for people to know that APA! has saved over 100,000 lives and is working on a national initiative to increase the number of lives they’re able to save.
Thank you Austin Subaru, for supporting our Parvo Puppy ICU that helps save pets like Rover. Thank you Shook family, for giving Rover a home. Thank you to our APA! community for all of your support that helps make stories like Rover’s possible. And lastly, thank you Rover for being so darn cute, and for being the face of this year’s Paddle for Puppies!
This year’s Paddle for Puppies is taking place on May 15 from 6:45-10:00 AM at the Rowing Dock. We hope to see you there! You’ll also receive a special t-shirt featuring Rover when you sign up. Register today to paddle and save a puppy’s life: https://www.paddleforpuppies.com/
Mold can strike any home in any climate. It’s important for homeowners and renters to know the dangers of mold, how to test for mold, and how to safely remove it from a home according to Healthful Home Products.
Press Release –
updated: Mar 23, 2017
Wheeling, Illinois, March 23, 2017 (Newswire.com)
– Mold problems can strike any home in any climate. Household mold poses a serious health hazard, especially for children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. That’s why it’s important for renters and homeowners to be aware of mold risks, how to test for mold, and how to safely remove mold once it’s found.
Why Worry about Mold?
According to a National Center for Healthy Housing study, 35 million homes in the U.S. have mold and other indoor air quality issues. To be safe, everyone should test for mold at least once a year with the 5-minute Mold Mold Test.
Ron Herrmann, National Sales Manager, Healthful Home Products
Mold is a broad term for certain kinds of fungi that grow in damp places. In closed, humid environments, mold thrives and quickly spreads. As it grows, mold releases millions of tiny spores into the air, and these spores can be harmful if breathed in. While no mold is deemed safe, over 30 identified species of indoor mold are identified as toxic, wreaking havoc on the body’s cells—particularly in the lungs, throat and sinuses.
Mold exposure has been linked to asthma, allergic reactions, nervous-system disorders, and chronic sinusitis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mold exposure can also lead to skin, throat and eye irritation, and it can interfere with the body’s ability to fight off diseases. For sensitive individuals, even small amounts of mold exposure can trigger serious health problems, sometimes requiring hospitalization.
“A National Center for Healthy Housing study revealed that 35 million homes in the U.S. have mold and other indoor air quality issues,” said Ron Herrmann, National Sales Manager for Healthful Home Products. “To be safe, everyone should test for mold at least once a year with the 5-minute Mold Mold Test.”
Causes and Signs of Mold
Widespread mold problems make headlines in hurricane-prone areas, but they can strike in drier regions, too. Common causes of mold include sewage backup, cracked or broken water pipes, flood damage, water damage from a leaky roof, and poor ventilation in bathrooms, laundry rooms and basements
Sometimes mold is easy to spot. Usually, however, mold lurks in hard-to-see places such as behind drywall, in the seams of cabinets, or under the fridge. Common signs of mold in the home include:
The appearance of dark green, blue or black spots, especially around vents, on walls, in cabinets and on curtains
Sudden unexplained onset of asthma or other respiratory distress symptoms
A damp, musty smell in the home
Obvious signs of water damage, especially on the walls and floors
A mold test is required to determine if toxic mold is present in a home. Until recently, do-it-yourself mold test kits needed to be sent to a lab (often requiring an extra fee), and results were not available for weeks. Fortunately, a new mold test called 5-Minute Mold Test Kit from Healthful Home displays results in minutes.
Using a small sample of household dust from the floor, cabinet or other surface, this test kit can detect the presence of over 32 different types of harmful mold spores including black molds (while ignoring harmless molds like mildew). The 5-Minute Mold Test Kit is the only fast-acting DIY mold test kit on the market, and it has been licensed by the CDC. The kit lists for $44.99.
How to Treat Mold
After harmful mold has been detected, it’s possible to clean up many mold problems without the help of a professional. For localized mold issues, Healthful Home’s eco-friendly Mold and Bacteria Cleaner starts killing mold right away, and the mold-fighting effects can last for up to 6 months. It’s odorless, safe to use around children and pets, and 100% biodegradable. The product lists for $21.99.
For a more widespread mold problem, Fog-U Mold is a fast and extremely effective way to treat an entire room. Like the Mold and Bacteria Cleaner, it contains the same all-natural ingredients and keeps working for months. It’s ideal for hard-to-reach places like crawl spaces and ventilation systems, and it even treats carpets and upholstery. The product lists for $21.99. All Healthful Home products can be found exclusively at Ace Hardware. For more information, visit www.myhealthfulhome.com.
Once mold is identified, don’t forget that it is important to fix the source of the problem–whether it’s a poorly ventilated laundry room or bad water damage. Once the problem is fixed, improve air circulation and reduce indoor humidity to make sure the mold doesn’t have a chance to come back.
NEED PHOTOS?
Editors, writers and bloggers are invited to visit www.homegardenandhomestead.com for additional information and photos.
