ReportWire

Tag: Students

  • 4 tips to create an engaging digital syllabus

    [ad_1]

    Key points:

    Back-to-school season arrives every year with a mixed bag of emotions for most educators, including anticipation and excitement, but also anxiety. The opportunity to catch up with friendly colleagues and the reward of helping students connect with material also comes with concern about how best to present and communicate that material in a way that resonates with a new classroom.

    An annual challenge for K-12 educators is creating a syllabus that engages students and will be used throughout the year to mutual benefit rather than tucked in a folder and forgotten about. Today’s digital transformation can be a means for educators to create a more dynamic and engaging syllabus that meets students’ and parents’ needs.

    While it can be overwhelming to think about learning any new education technology, the good news about a digital syllabi is that anyone who’s sent a digital calendar invite has already done most of the technical-learning legwork. The more prescient task will be learning the best practices that engage students and enable deeper learning throughout the year. 

    Step one: Ditch the PDFs and print-outs

    Creating a syllabus that works begins with educators stepping into the shoes of their students. K-12 classrooms are full of students who are oriented around the digital world. Where textbooks and binders were once the tools of the trade for students, laptops and iPads have largely taken over. This creates an opportunity for teachers to create more dynamic syllabi via digital calendars, rather than printed off or static PDFs with lists of dates, deadlines, and relevant details that will surely change as the year progresses. In fact, many learning management systems (LMS) already have useful calendar features for this reason. Again, teachers need only know the best way to use them. The digital format offers flexibility and connectivity that old-school syllabi simply can’t hold a candle to.

    Tips for creating an effective digital syllabus

    Classroom settings and imperatives can vary wildly, and so can the preferences of individual educators. Optimization in this case is in the eye of the beholder, but consider a few ideas that may wind up on your personal best practices list for building out your digital syllabus every year around this time:

    Make accessing the most up-to-date version of the syllabus as frictionless as possible for students and parents. Don’t attach your syllabus as a static PDF buried in an LMS. Instead, opt-in to the calendar most LMS platforms offer for the mutual benefit of educators, students, and parents. To maximize engagement and efficiency, teachers can create a subscription calendar in addition or as an alternative to the LMS calendar. Subscription calendars create a live link between the course syllabus and students’ and/or parents’ own digital calendar ecosystem, such as Google Calendar or Outlook. Instead of logging into the LMS to check upcoming dates, assignments, or project deadlines, the information becomes more accessible as it integrates into their monthly, weekly, and daily schedules, mitigating the chance of a missed assignment or even parent-teacher conference. Students and parents only have to opt-in to these calendars once at the beginning of the academic year, but any of the inevitable changes and updates to the syllabus throughout the year are reflected immediately in their personal calendar, making it simpler and easier for educators to ensure no important date is ever missed. While few LMS offer this option within the platform, subscription calendar links are like any hyperlink–easy to share in emails, LMS message notifications, and more.

    Leverage the calendar description feature. Virtually every digital calendar provides an option to include a description. This is where educators should include assignment details, such as which textbook pages to read, links to videos or course material, grading rubrics, or more. 

    Color-code calendar invitations for visual information processors. Support different types of information processors in the classroom by taking the time to color-code the syllabus. For example, purple for project deadlines, red for big exams, yellow for homework assignment due dates. Consistency and routine are key, especially for younger students and busy parents. Color-coding, or even the consistent naming and formatting of events and deadlines, can make a large impact on students meeting deadlines.

    Encourage further classroom engagement by integrating digital syllabus “Easter eggs.” Analog syllabi often contain Easter eggs that reward students who read it all the way through. Digital syllabi can include similar engaging surprises, but they’re easy to add throughout the year. Hide extra-credit opportunities in the description of an assignment deadline or add an invitation for last-minute office hours ahead of a big quiz or exam. It could be as simple as a prompt for students to draw their favorite animal at the bottom of an assignment for an extra credit point. If students are aware that these opportunities could creep up in the calendar, it keeps them engaged and perhaps strengthens the habit of checking their classroom syllabus.

    While the start of the new school year is the perfect time to introduce a digital syllabus into the classroom, it’s important for educators to keep their own bandwidth and comfortability in mind. Commit to one semester with a digital syllabus and spend time learning the basic features and note how the classroom responds. From there, layer in more advanced features or functionality that helps students without being cumbersome to manage. Over time, educators will learn what works best for them, their students and parents, and the digital syllabus will be a classroom tool that simplifies classroom management and drives more engagement year-round. 

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Joep Leussink, AddEvent

    Source link

  • How to protect US students from heat in schools – and is it time to rethink summer break?

    [ad_1]

    As schools are returning to session following one of the hottest summers ever recorded, districts are faced with a new problem: how to handle increasingly extreme heatwaves, both in and outside the classroom.

    Unbearably hot days are no longer just a summer problem. In the US districts from the north-east to the mountain west to the deep south are shortening days, delaying openings, and reworking calendars as temperatures spike during August and September, the typical back-to-school months.

    A handful of potential methods for protecting students from extreme temperatures have been put forward, including modernizing HVAC systems, creating more shade on playgrounds, swapping their blacktop surfaces for grass and, perhaps most provocatively, reworking school calendars. There’s even some talk of replacing summer vacation with a spring or fall break, if schools can be kept cool enough, when homes for some students may be hotter.

    School schedules are already beginning to shift. New York City recently urged schools to move end-of-year activities indoors during a June 2025 heatwave. Philadelphia dismissed students early at more than 60 campuses during late August 2024 because buildings lacked adequate cooling.

    Related: ‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona

    Detroit also cut days short in the first week of the 2024–25 school year as heat indices climbed. In Colorado’s Poudre school district, most schools announced two-hour early releases for 14 and 15 August due to high temperatures. In June, the notoriously cold state of Alaska had their first statewide heat advisory.

    As the climate crisis is already shaping the way we discuss the future of education in the US, rearranging the calendar has become one tactic for school districts to tackle the issue.

    “It’s definitely one technique that you could take to address the extreme temperature events, and especially since we’re already seeing school get postponed and the days canceled or moved around,” said Grace Wickerson, the senior manager of the climate and health team at the Federation of American Scientists.

    “But even with some of the major legislation of the last administration, the climate risk to schools is still a major gap in our strategy around climate action,” said Wickerson. “And so I think this definitely needs to be a part of the conversation of what things we need to do differently in the age of extreme heat.”

    Last summer, 22 organizations, including the Federation of American Scientists, sent a letter to the US Department of Education urging them to take swift action to protect students from the increasingly hot weather.

    The Center for Green Schools at the US Green Building Council is another name on the letter. The center is a non-profit known for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) rating system, a framework for designing climate-ready buildings that has so far been adopted by more than 5,000 US schools.

    The average number of days hitting 87 degrees is increasing every year, and we estimate it will reach 120 days a year sometime in the 2030s

    Andra Yeghoian, Ten Strands

    Though Leed has become a popular strategy for schools to prepare against hotter temperatures, the policy aspect can be difficult to navigate due to a lack of governmental guidelines.

    “The main issue is we have very little data about school buildings across the country because they’re all managed locally,” said Anisa Heming, the director of the Center for Green Schools. “There’s no data collection on the federal level, and in most states actually there’s no data collection, so we have very little data on the buildings themselves.

    “And then there’s no real threshold established for when a school has actually done a good job on being heat-resilient,” she added. “So we have a bunch of strategies that schools can adopt, but we don’t have a real sense of if we’ve done enough because there’s no standard to follow.”

    Most American schools were built for a cooler climate that no longer exists. A Government Accountability Office survey from 2020 estimated that 41% of districts needed to update or replace HVAC systems in at least half of their schools, about 36,000 buildings.

    Despite a need and emphasis on air conditioning, it’s not the only thing a school would need to be heat-resilient. Decreasing black pavement on playgrounds and increasing shade through planting trees are also common requirements.

    Green Schoolyards America, a non-profit aiming to create greener schoolyards, and Ten Strands, a California-based non-profit working to increase environmental literacy, recently collaborated on a tree canopy project to measure the amount of trees across the state’s schools.

    Related: How the US lets hot school days sabotage learning

    Climate experts recommend that urban areas, including school districts, have at least 30% tree canopy coverage. The study found that California schools had only a median of 6.4% tree canopy coverage, with less than half of the existing amount being accessible to children during their school day.

    “The average number of days hitting 87 degrees is increasing every year, and we estimate it will reach 120 days a year sometime in the 2030s,” said Andra Yeghoian, chief information officer of Ten Strands.

    “Some people look at that and they’re like: ‘87, that’s just a nice day.’ And well, it’s a nice day if you are in air conditioning. But if you’re in a community that doesn’t have air conditioning, and you’re in a building trying to learn, that’s not a nice day,” Yeghoian added. “And if you’re going out to the playground and you have no shade and it’s just a blacktop, 87 degrees is actually more like 100 degrees.”

    The health stakes of rising temperatures are real, with children being especially vulnerable during heatwaves. Federal heat guidance lists children among the demographics at highest risk during extreme heat, and public health agencies advise schools to limit exertion, ensure hydration and adjust activities as temperatures rise.

    Data collected by UndauntedK12, another non-profit advocating for more heat-resistant facilities and a cosigner of the letter, suggests that more than 1,000 schools were affected by extreme heat during the 2024-2025 school year.

    “We see these headlines all the time now. It feels like every summer and even in the fall, schools are closing early,” said Kristen Hengtgen, the program director at UndauntedK12. “After-school activities are being canceled. We can see that so many of our schools are underprepared for extreme heat.”

    The hotter temperatures also contribute to higher rates of school absences, particularly for Black, Hispanic and lower-income students. Because children from low-income households are more likely to be enrolled in schools with inadequate air conditioning, these children often opt to stay home during the hottest days rather than take the risk of being stuck in a sweltering classroom.

    “One of my biggest concerns is that many kids who lack AC in their schools also don’t have it at home,” said Hengtgen. “I’m especially thinking of kids who may attend schools that are in low-income communities. We wouldn’t want them to be spending more of the hottest days in a hot home.”

    You can’t satisfactorily, in any way, shape or form, actually teach if it’s above 90 degrees in a classroom, never mind learn

    James Skoufis, New York state senator

    But just a year prior, it wasn’t only local non-profits spearheading ways to combat the increasing heat. The National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) was a collaboration of 29 federal health agencies established during the Obama administration to consolidate heat expertise.

    In early summer 2025, the Trump administration purged many of these experts, leaving the NIHHS severely understaffed.

    But there has been some progress on the state level. New York recently became the first state to pass legislation establishing guidelines for extreme heat conditions in school buildings. The law, which takes effect on 1 September, sets 88F (31C) as the maximum temperature for occupied spaces in school buildings. It also requires that schools take action, such as relocating students, when temperatures reach 82F.

    “For as long as people could remember here in New York, we had a minimum classroom and school building temperature of 65 degrees,” state senator James Skoufis, who championed the legislation, said in a recent presentation with the Center for American Progress. “But until this bill passed, we did not have a maximum temperature.”

    He added: “You can’t satisfactorily, in any way, shape or form, actually teach if it’s above 90 degrees in a classroom, never mind learn.”

    But one glaring problem still persists; even if schools across the country are successfully modified to be heat-resilient, most children are not in classrooms during the summer months. And summer vacation, the prime time for children to play outside without the stress of academia, is quickly becoming intolerable for outdoor play.

    Related: The ‘silent killer’: what you need to know about heatwaves

    So it raises the question: is it safer to keep kids in adequately cooled schools during extreme heat, or let them stay home to mitigate risk of heat exposure? And, as blasphemous as it might be to suggest, could there be a future where summer vacation becomes fall or spring vacation as a way to keep kids in air-conditioned classrooms during summer?

    “It’s definitely a needed conversation,” said Wickerson. “I’m not quite sure right now that we’re ready to have school in July, just because they’re not built for that operationally. But if there was a concerted effort to increase the cooling capabilities of these buildings, they probably would be some of the safer places for kids to go in the summer months.”

    Yeghoian also agrees that she could picture that future, but adds that simply moving the summer break wouldn’t do much to change the reality of kids needing year-round outdoor play.

    “What would be most ideal is children should have a balance of learning inside and learning outside, playing indoors and playing outdoors,” said Yeghoian, emphasizing the need for greener educational institutions.

    “If people are making the assumption that kids should only play outside during the summer, then yes, you’d have to really readjust the school calendar,” she said. “But our goal for the future should be that kids will have access to outdoor play every single day.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • One-third of U.S. public schools screen students for mental health

    [ad_1]

    This press release originally appeared on the RAND site.

    Key points:

    Nearly one-third of the nation’s K-12 U.S. public schools mandate mental health screening for students, with most offering in-person treatment or referral to a community mental health professional if a student is identified as having depression or anxiety, according to a new study.

    About 40 percent of principals surveyed said it was very hard or somewhat hard to ensure that students receive appropriate care, while 38 percent said it was easy or very easy to find adequate care for students. The findings are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

    “Our results suggest that there are multiple barriers to mental health screening in schools, including a lack of resources and knowledge of screening mechanics, as well as concerns about increased workload of identifying students,” said Jonathan Cantor, the study’s lead author and a policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

    In 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General declared a youth mental health emergency. Researchers say that public schools are strategic resources for screening, treatment, and referral for mental health services for young people who face barriers in other settings.

    Researchers wanted to understand screening for mental health at U.S. public schools, given increased concerns about youth mental health following the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    In October 2024, the RAND study surveyed 1,019 principals who participate in the RAND American School Leader panel, a nationally representative sample of K–12 public school principals.

    They were asked whether their school mandated screening for mental health issues, what steps are taken if a student is identified as having depression or anxiety, and how easy or difficult it is to ensure that such students received adequate services.

    Researchers found that 30.5 percent of responding principals said their school required screening of students with mental health problems, with nearly 80 percent reporting that parents typically are notified if students screen positive for depression or anxiety.

    More than 70 percent of principals reported that their school offers in-person treatment for students who screen positive, while 53 percent of principals said they may refer a student to a community mental health care professional.

    The study found higher rates of mental health screenings in schools with 450 or more students and in districts with mostly racial and ethnic minority groups as the student populations.

    “Policies that promote federal and state funding for school mental health, reimbursement for school-based mental health screening, and adequate school mental health staff ratios may increase screening rates and increase the likelihood of successfully connecting the student to treatment,” Cantor said.

    Support for the study was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health.

    Other authors of the study are Ryan K. McBain, Aaron Kofner, Joshua Breslau, and Bradley D. Stein, all of RAND; Jacquelin Rankine of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Fang Zhang, Hao Yu, and Alyssa Burnett, all of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute; and Ateev Mehrotra of the Brown University School of Public Health.

    RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries.

    eSchool News Staff
    Latest posts by eSchool News Staff (see all)

    [ad_2]

    ESchool News Staff

    Source link

  • MCA scores flat for MN students, St. Paul Public Schools sees slight improvements

    [ad_1]

    Student proficiency levels in math and reading stayed relatively flat since last year, according to results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests.

    Statewide, 45.2% of students met or exceeded standards in math and 49.6% met or exceeded standards in reading, both slightly down from the previous year.

    Last year’s test results showed 45.5% of Minnesota students reached grade-level standards in math, while 49.9% tested as proficient in reading.

    Science test results will be released in the fall, after the first year of instruction following newly revised academic standards, according to officials with the state Department of Education.

    Consistent attendance rates improved this year and have been trending up since 2022. Statewide, 75.5% of students attended at least 90% of the time in the 2023-2024 school year compared to 74.5% in the 2022-23 school year.

    St. Paul Public Schools

    In St. Paul Public Schools, students’ overall scores improved slightly from those of last year. About 26.6% of students scored proficient in math and 34.8% were proficient in reading. Last year about 26% scored proficient in math while 34.1% were proficient in reading.

    Those percentages are based only on students who take the test and receive a valid score. Students who don’t receive a valid score are those who don’t take the test, including those who opt-out or are absent.

    For SPPS, 90% of eligible students tested in math and 92% tested in reading.

    “We have seen a slight increase in our reading scores and a slight increase in our math scores,” said Andrew Collins, SPPS executive chief of schools. “It’s also kind of very apparent and clear to us that our focus needs to continue to be on, again, our student outcomes and ensuring that each and every one of our students has a strong academic performance and experience in St. Paul Public Schools and that continues to be our focus and our priority.”

    Effort to improve attendance

    Meanwhile, in the past school year 12 districts participated in a pilot program to improve attendance and state officials are working with those districts to identify which efforts have been most effective, said Michael Diedrich, an education policy specialist with the state Department of Education.

    In addition to increased attendance rates, state officials also saw some small decreases in proficiency gaps between different student demographics.

    “We’re seeing faster increases for most of our populations of color, for English learners, for students in special education, students eligible for free and reduced price meals,” Diedrich said. “Similarly, when we look at testing data for many of those groups, we are seeing faster rates of growth for students of color and other groups than we are seeing for the state overall. So we are seeing signs that we’re seeing some small closure of gaps over time.”

    Other initiatives

    Other ongoing education initiatives include the READ Act, signed into law in 2023, teacher recruitment and retention programs and COMPASS, a statewide system to support schools in areas such special education and English language learning.

    The READ Act aims to have all Minnesota children reading at or above grade level every year and to support multilingual learners and students receiving special education services in their individualized reading goals.

    Teachers and instructional support staff began receiving reading instruction training in July 2024, with districts requesting training for more than 30,000 teachers as of January.

    Third graders included in Friday’s data entered kindergarten prior to the passage of the READ Act, according to state officials.

    Students take the reading and math MCA tests in third through eighth grades and once in high school. Science testing is done in fifth and eighth grades and once in high school.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Brevard Schools fast-track students into careers with hands-on programs

    [ad_1]

    Brevard Public Schools showcased several programs at local schools meant to get students on a faster path to a career in medicine, engineering, culinary arts and even space.WESH 2 got an exclusive look at the career-centered programs giving these students hands-on experience to do crucial jobs.“I love this program, I wish my parents would have had this growing up,” senior Madison Fostvedt said.Her parents are both in the medical field. She’s part of the nursing program at Melbourne High School. It recently partnered with Health First to streamline students directly to jobs at their hospitals.“I’m gonna apply at Holmes Regional to start as a CNA,” Fostvedt said. “Then I’m gonna go to Eastern Florida or Keiser to start getting my nursing degree.”Over in the kitchen, the culinary program at Melbourne High has students catering local events. They whipped up some chocolate chip cookies and bananas Foster on Thursday.We then went to Palm Bay Magnet High School. Students in their fire academy practice search and rescue, and later this year, students like Bryce Medina will have an opportunity to complete a live burn for the first time.”This gives you a jumpstart more than anyone just joining,” Medina said. “It’s a great opportunity.”The school also has an engineering program that partners with NASA. It’s called the HUNCH program: High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware. It was one of NASA’s first engineering programs in Brevard County.”You see the big companies like SpaceX. You see big companies like Blue Origin– not just NASA jobs but commercial jobs because we are changing the way information moves right here in Brevard County,” Congressman Mike Haridopolos said. “These students are gonna have a bright future because high-paying jobs are waiting for them.”Congressman Haridopolos toured the programs on Thursday to see the impact of public dollars going toward our students.”To have this hands-on training, learning firsthand from the professionals who actually do it, really remarkable thing,” Haridopolos said.VyStar Credit Union is also partnering with the district to bring a business program to Melbourne High School.

    BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. —

    Brevard Public Schools showcased several programs at local schools meant to get students on a faster path to a career in medicine, engineering, culinary arts and even space.

    WESH 2 got an exclusive look at the career-centered programs giving these students hands-on experience to do crucial jobs.

    “I love this program, I wish my parents would have had this growing up,” senior Madison Fostvedt said.

    Her parents are both in the medical field. She’s part of the nursing program at Melbourne High School. It recently partnered with Health First to streamline students directly to jobs at their hospitals.

    “I’m gonna apply at Holmes Regional to start as a CNA,” Fostvedt said. “Then I’m gonna go to Eastern Florida or Keiser to start getting my nursing degree.”

    Over in the kitchen, the culinary program at Melbourne High has students catering local events. They whipped up some chocolate chip cookies and bananas Foster on Thursday.

    We then went to Palm Bay Magnet High School. Students in their fire academy practice search and rescue, and later this year, students like Bryce Medina will have an opportunity to complete a live burn for the first time.

    “This gives you a jumpstart more than anyone just joining,” Medina said. “It’s a great opportunity.”

    The school also has an engineering program that partners with NASA. It’s called the HUNCH program: High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware. It was one of NASA’s first engineering programs in Brevard County.

    “You see the big companies like SpaceX. You see big companies like Blue Origin– not just NASA jobs but commercial jobs because we are changing the way information moves right here in Brevard County,” Congressman Mike Haridopolos said. “These students are gonna have a bright future because high-paying jobs are waiting for them.”

    Congressman Haridopolos toured the programs on Thursday to see the impact of public dollars going toward our students.

    “To have this hands-on training, learning firsthand from the professionals who actually do it, really remarkable thing,” Haridopolos said.

    VyStar Credit Union is also partnering with the district to bring a business program to Melbourne High School.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Youth unemployment at recessionary levels, CIBC report finds – MoneySense

    [ad_1]

    CIBC analyst Andrew Grantham says the rise in unemployment among those aged 15 to 24 has gone above and beyond what the current economic backdrop would suggest.

    He says the youth jobless rate typically rises about four percentage points during periods of weakness, which is higher than the two-percentage-point gain among prime age workers when the economy pulls back.

    But since 2022, the youth unemployment rate has risen more than average, with a 5.5 percentage point gain. That’s at the same time core-aged workers have seen a lower-than-usual rise in joblessness.

    How to pay for school and have a life—a guide for students and parents

    Businesses implementing more tech tools, including AI

    Grantham suspects the rise of artificial intelligence is a factor on the demand side, because the jobs typically undertaken by young people are also the ones most at risk from technological changes.

    He says the jobless trend is also due in part to an uptick in non-permanent residents from 2022-24 adding to the labour force, but he notes that the higher supply of workers doesn’t account for weakness across the entire market.

    “With population growth decelerating rapidly recently, in large part because of a curbing of student numbers, that supply factor is unlikely to explain the renewed weakening in youth employment witnessed this year,” Grantham wrote in his analysis published Tuesday.

    Statistics Canada reported youth unemployment in July rose to 14.6%, the highest rate since September 2010.

    Grantham said early data points to the role of AI and other labour-substituting technologies that will likely disproportionately affect younger Canadians looking for jobs. For example, the report suggested the retail sector is partly responsible for high unemployment, as retailers increasingly roll out self-checkouts, while business and support services are increasingly turning to AI. But the factors contributing to the weakening job market aren’t going to last forever, Grantham said.

    Article Continues Below Advertisement


    “Population growth, particularly among (non-permanent residents), is already slowing, meaning less incremental supply needing to be absorbed into the labour market,” he said.

    Other periods of technical advancement that led to upheaval in the job market, including the rise of the personal computer and the internet, had those losses offset in the long term with new jobs in other areas, he said.

    The report didn’t indicate how soon the trend might begin to shift.

    Get free MoneySense financial tips, news & advice in your inbox.

    Read more about employment:



    About The Canadian Press


    About The Canadian Press

    The Canadian Press is Canada’s trusted news source and leader in providing real-time stories. We give Canadians an authentic, unbiased source, driven by truth, accuracy and timeliness.

    [ad_2]

    The Canadian Press

    Source link

  • 3 steps to build belonging in the classroom

    [ad_1]

    Key points:

    The first few weeks of school are more than a fresh start–they’re a powerful opportunity to lay the foundation for the relationships, habits, and learning that will define the rest of the year. During this time, students begin to decide whether they feel safe, valued, and connected in your classroom.

    The stakes are high. According to the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, only 55 percent of students reported feeling connected to their school. That gap matters: Research consistently shows that a lack of belonging can harm grades, attendance, and classroom behavior. Conversely, a strong sense of belonging not only boosts academic self-efficacy but also supports physical and mental well-being.

    In my work helping hundreds of districts and schools implement character development and future-ready skills programs, I’ve seen how intentionally fostering belonging from day one sets students–and educators–up for success. Patterns from schools that do this well have emerged, and these practices are worth replicating.

    Here are three proven steps to build belonging right from the start.

    1. Break the ice with purpose

    Icebreakers might sound like old news, but the reality is that they work. Research shows these activities can significantly increase engagement and participation while fostering a greater sense of community. Students often describe improved classroom atmosphere, more willingness to speak up, and deeper peer connections after just a few sessions.

    Some educators may worry that playful activities detract from a serious academic tone. In practice, they do the opposite. By helping students break down communication barriers, icebreakers pave the way for risk-taking, collaboration, and honest reflection–skills essential for deep learning.

    Consider starting with activities that combine movement, play, and social awareness:

    • Quick-think challenges: Build energy and self-awareness by rewarding quick and accurate responses.
    • Collaborative missions: Engage students working toward a shared goal that demands communication and teamwork.
    • Listen + act games: Help students develop adaptability through lighthearted games that involve following changing instructions in real time.

    These activities are more than “fun warm-ups.” They set a tone that learning here will be active, cooperative, and inclusive.

    2. Strengthen executive functioning for individual and collective success

    When we talk about belonging, executive functioning skills–like planning, prioritizing, and self-monitoring–may not be the first thing we think of. Yet they’re deeply connected. Students who can organize their work, set goals, and regulate their emotions are better prepared to contribute positively to the class community.

    Research backs this up. In a study of sixth graders, explicit instruction in executive functioning improved academics, social competence, and self-regulation. For educators, building these skills benefits both the individual and the group.

    Here are a few ways to embed executive functioning into the early weeks:

    • Task prioritization exercise: Help students identify and rank their tasks, building awareness of time and focus.
    • Strengths + goals mapping: Guide students to recognize their strengths and set values-aligned goals, fostering agency.
    • Mindful check-ins: Support holistic well-being by teaching students to name their emotions and practice stress-relief strategies.

    One especially powerful approach is co-creating class norms. When students help define what a supportive, productive classroom looks like, they feel ownership over the space. They’re more invested in maintaining it, more likely to hold each other accountable, and better able to self-regulate toward the group’s shared vision.

    3. Go beyond the first week to build deeper connections

    Icebreakers are a great start, but true belonging comes from sustained, meaningful connection. It’s tempting to think that once names are learned and routines are set, the work is done–but the deeper benefits come from keeping this focus alive alongside academics.

    The payoff is significant. School connectedness has been shown to reduce violence, protect against risky behaviors, and support long-term health and success. In other words, connection is not a “nice to have”–it’s a protective factor with lasting impact.

    Here are some deeper connection strategies:

    • Shared values agreement: Similar to creating class norms, identify the behaviors that promote safety, kindness, and understanding.
    • Story swap: Have students share an experience or interest with a partner, then introduce each other to the class.
    • Promote empathy in action: Teach students to articulate needs, seek clarification, and advocate for themselves and others.

    These activities help students see one another as whole people, capable of compassion and understanding across differences. That human connection creates an environment where everyone can learn more effectively.

    Take it campus-wide

    These strategies aren’t limited to students. Adults on campus benefit from them, too. Professional development can start with icebreakers adapted for adults. Department or PLC meetings can incorporate goal-setting and reflective check-ins. Activities that build empathy and connection among staff help create a healthy, supportive adult culture that models the belonging we want students to experience.

    When teachers feel connected and supported, they are more able to foster the same in their classrooms. That ripple effect–staff to students, students to peers–creates a stronger, more resilient school community.

    Belonging isn’t a single event; it’s a practice. Start the year with purpose, keep connection alive alongside academic goals, and watch how it transforms your classroom and your campus culture. In doing so, you’ll give students more than a positive school year. You’ll give them tools and relationships they can carry for life.

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Brandy Arnold, Wayfinder 

    Source link

  • In training educators to use AI, we must not outsource the foundational work of teaching

    [ad_1]

    This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

    I was conferencing with a group of students when I heard the excitement building across my third grade classroom. A boy at the back table had been working on his catapult project for over an hour through our science lesson, into recess, and now during personalized learning time. I watched him adjust the wooden arm for what felt like the 20th time, measure another launch distance, and scribble numbers on his increasingly messy data sheet.

    “The longer arm launches farther!” he announced to no one in particular, his voice carrying the matter-of-fact tone of someone who had just uncovered a truth about the universe. I felt that familiar teacher thrill, not because I had successfully delivered a physics lesson, but because I hadn’t taught him anything at all.

    Last year, all of my students chose a topic they wanted to explore and pursued a personal learning project about it. This particular student had discovered the relationship between lever arm length and projectile distance entirely through his own experiments, which involved mathematics, physics, history, and data visualization.

    Other students drifted over to try his longer-armed design, and soon, a cluster of 8-year-olds were debating trajectory angles and comparing medieval siege engines to ancient Chinese catapults.

    They were doing exactly what I dream of as an educator: learning because they wanted to know, not because they had to perform.

    Then, just recently, I read about the American Federation of Teachers’ new $23 million partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic to train educators how to use AI “wisely, safely and ethically.” The training sessions would teach them how to generate lesson plans and “microwave” routine communications with artificial intelligence.

    My heart sank.

    As an elementary teacher who also conducts independent research on the intersection of AI and education, and writes the ‘Algorithmic Mind’ column about it for Psychology Today, I live in the uncomfortable space between what technology promises and what children actually need. Yes, I use AI, but only for administrative work like drafting parent newsletters, organizing student data, and filling out required curriculum planning documents. It saves me hours on repetitive tasks that have nothing to do with teaching.

    I’m all for showing educators how to use AI to cut down on rote work. But I fear the AFT’s $23 million initiative isn’t about administrative efficiency. According to their press release, they’re training teachers to use AI for “instructional planning” and as a “thought partner” for teaching decisions. One featured teacher describes using AI tools to help her communicate “in the right voice” when she’s burned out. Another says AI can assist with “late-night lesson planning.”

    That sounds more like outsourcing the foundational work of teaching.

    Watching my student discover physics principles through intrinsic curiosity reminded me why this matters so much. When we start relying on AI to plan our lessons and find our teaching voice, we’re replacing human judgment with algorithmic thinking at the very moment students need us most. We’re prioritizing the product of teaching over the process of learning.

    Most teachers I talk to share similar concerns about AI. They focus on cheating and plagiarism. They worry about students outsourcing their thinking and how to assess learning when they can’t tell if students actually understand anything. The uncomfortable truth is that students have always found ways to avoid genuine thinking when we value products over process. I used SparkNotes. Others used Google. Now, students use ChatGPT.

    The problem is not technology; it’s that we continue prioritizing finished products over messy learning processes. And as long as education rewards predetermined answers over curiosity, students will find shortcuts.

    That’s why teachers need professional development that moves in the opposite direction. They need PD that helps them facilitate genuine inquiry and human connection; foster classrooms where confusion is valued as a precursor to understanding; and develop in students an intrinsic motivation.

    When I think about that boy measuring launch distances with handmade tools, I realize he was demonstrating the distinctly human capacity to ask questions that only he wanted to address. He didn’t need me to structure his investigation or discovery. He needed the freedom to explore, materials to experiment with, and time to pursue his curiosity wherever it led.

    The learning happened not because I efficiently delivered content, but because I stepped back and trusted his natural drive to understand.

    Children don’t need teachers who can generate lesson plans faster or give AI-generated feedback, but educators who can inspire questions, model intellectual courage, and create communities where wonder thrives and real-world problems are solved.

    The future belongs to those who can combine computational tools with human wisdom, ethics, and creativity. But this requires us to maintain the cognitive independence to guide AI systems rather than becoming dependent on them.

    Every time I watch my students make unexpected connections, I’m reminded that the most important learning happens in the spaces between subjects, in the questions that emerge from genuine curiosity, in the collaborative thinking that builds knowledge through relationships. We can’t microwave that. And we shouldn’t try.

    Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

    For more news on AI in education, visit eSN’s Digital Learning hub.

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Timothy Cook, Chalkbeat

    Source link

  • Sauk Valley-area students participate in Augustana College commencement ceremony

    [ad_1]

    Aug. 24—Augustana College recently recognized 555 students during its 165th commencement ceremony.

    The commencement address was presented by U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Rockford. The college’s featured student speaker was psychology student Ocean Keola Akau.

    Local students who participated in the commencement ceremony include:

    * Fulton: Kylie Collachia, elementary education; Jakob North, kinesiology

    * Morrison: Charley Williams, biology

    * Mount Morris: Isabella Olalde, business administration, marketing and communication studies; Adam Thorsen, business administration, finance and accounting

    * Oregon: Adam Glendenning, business administration, management and business administration, finance

    * Prophetstown: Dawson Haggard, business administration, management

    * Rochelle: Afi Gati, biochemistry and public health

    * Rock Falls: Antonio Gassman, music performance, piano; Emma Watts, theater performance and film

    * Sterling: Evan Adami, business administration, finance and accounting; Jaycee Bythewood, geology; Carter Kenney, public health; Olivia Schwingle, psychology; Amy Zeigler, mathematics and English

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • ICE director says agents won’t be at DC schools as classes start

    [ad_1]

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are not expected to be at schools in the nation’s capital when classes kick off on Monday, acting director Todd Lyons recently told NBC News.

    Newsweek has reached out to ICE for comment via email on Saturday.

    Why It Matters

    President Donald Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. The initiative has seen an intensification of ICE raids across the country, with thousands of people having been swept up, arrested, and detained. Shortly after taking office, Trump threw out Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies to limit where ICE arrests can take place, granting it the right to conduct raids in places of worship, schools, and hospitals.

    The nation’s capital has been in the limelight over the past few weeks after Trump said on August 11 that the city had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.” He has deployed federal troops, officers and agents to Washington, D.C., as part of a crackdown on crime and homelessness.

    What To Know

    As the school year is kicking off across the U.S., the first day of class for D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) is on Monday, August 25. Lyons told NBC News in an interview earlier this week that “day one, you’re not going to see us,” but noted that there might be circumstances when ICE officers may need to come to schools in the future.

    Lyons said one of those circumstances might be to conduct safety and wellness checks on students, stating, “We want to use our special agents and our officers to go ahead and locate these individuals. And if [there are] some we haven’t, and the last known address was at a school, we just want to make sure that child is safe. If we have the opportunity to reunite that parent with that child, that’s what we want to do.”

    Lyons noted that under “exigent” circumstances would officers arrive at school, including “something violent going on.” Nationwide, there have been several ICE arrests of parents at school property, including one at an Oregon preschool. In addition, some students, including a teenage boy in Los Angeles, have also been detained.

    A Stanford University researcher reported in June that ICE “raids increased student absences from schools because parents fear being separated from their children,” finding “recent raids coincided with a 22 percent increase in daily student absences with particularly large increases among the youngest student.”

    ICE has repeatedly maintained that it’s targeting people without proper documentation and criminal histories, and is working to expand its force with an addition 10,000 agents. The agency received billions in funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill.

    Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) speaks to the press on the agility course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Brunswick, Georgia, on August 21.

    AP Photo/Fran Ruchalski

    What People Are Saying

    Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel said at a press conference this week: “I think people who have that concern for themselves personally and for all of us who are concerned for them and their safety are making adjustments.”

    Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a previous statement shared with Newsweek: “Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make America safe. Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst and carry out the largest deportation operation of criminal aliens in American history.”

    What Happens Next?

    ICE is looking to significantly increase its force, offering signing bonuses up to $50,000, student loan payments, tuition reimbursement and starting salaries that can approach $90,000.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Over an hour after Villanova ordered a lockdown, the president says reports of shooting was ‘cruel hoax’

    [ad_1]

    Villanova University went on lockdown Thursday afternoon following reports of an active shooter on campus, only for the president to send an email over an hour later describing the situation as a “cruel hoax.” 

    Around 4:30 p.m., the school sent an alert for students and staff on campus to stay clear of the Charles Widger School of Law, lock or barricade doors and move to a secure location. The Radnor Township Police Department said it was on location and asked anyone on campus to shelter in place. 

    MORE: Justice Department subpoenas CHOP for info on transgender patients under 19

    Freshman orientation at the Delaware County school started Wednesday, with events scheduled through Sunday. On Thursday, an opening mass for students was scheduled for 4:15-5:15 p.m. on the Rowan Campus Green. 

    “Today, as we are celebrating Orientation Mass to welcome our newest Villanovans and their families to our community, panic and terror ensued with the news of a possible shooter at the Law School,” Villanova President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue said in an email to students and their families that was sent at 6 p.m. “Mercifully, no one was injured, and we now know that it was a cruel hoax — there was no active shooter, no injuries and no evidence of firearms present on campus. While that is a blessing and relief, I know today’s events have shaken our entire community.”

    Earlier Thursday, a similar incident unfolded at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Authorities there received a call about an active shooter on the school’s campus around 12:30 p.m. Investigators placed the university on lockdown, but later reported there was “no longer a threat.” 

    The incident in Tennessee is being investigated as a possible case of swatting, a term used when prank calls are made to emergency services to prompt a large police response. The FBI is assisting with the investigation in Chattanooga.

    Shortly after 5:30 p.m., Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer arrived at Villanova’s campus and told 6ABC that investigators were actively searching for an armed suspect. 

    “We believe there is a shooter who’s in one of these buildings,” he said. “We have law enforcement from the entire tri-state area here, and we are going door to door, room to room if we have to, to make this situation under control and to make this campus safe.” 

    Just after 6:15 p.m., Stollsteimer confirmed the report of a shooting was a hoax. He said the 911 call came in around 4:30 p.m. and a person claimed there was an active shooter in a building that’s part of Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law. The caller falsely told authorities at least one person had been wounded. 

    Villanova Shooter HoaxCourtenay Harris Bond/PhillyVoice

    Law enforcement agencies from throughout the region responded to reports of an active shooter at Villanova University on Thursday. The reports were a hoax, investigators say. The photo above was taken after the lockdown was lifted.

    “We are going to conduct a full investigation. Our federal partners are with us as well,” Stollsteimer said. “… We’re all going to work to try to get to the bottom of who might have done this. If this was indeed a cruel hoax, this is a crime and we will track you down if it’s the last thing we do.”

    Stollsteimer declined to discuss details about how investigators will attempt to trace the 911 call. 

    Gov. Josh Shapiro in a post on X called it “a cruel swatting incident” and said he directed the state police “to use every tool at our disposal to find the person or people who called in this fake threat and hold them accountable.”

    The Widger School of Law is part of Villanova’s main campus, but it’s separated from most of the college’s other academic buildings by SEPTA’s Paoli/Thorndale Regional Rail line. The law school is located on Spring Mill Road across from multiple student residence buildings.

    A PhillyVoice staff member who was on campus Thursday for events to welcome new students and their families said she and others were locked inside the Villanova bookstore, which is located across the law school. The lights were turned off and people were hiding in the store’s clothing racks, she said.

    An X user, who said he was on campus to help move in his sister, an incoming freshman, posted a photo from inside a room that showed furniture piled in front of the door.

    “Barricaded to the best of our ability,” Luke Sullivan wrote.

    This is a developing story and will be updated as information is available. 

    Senior staff writer Kristin Hunt contributed to this report. 

    [ad_2]

    Michaela Althouse and Michael Tanenbaum

    Source link

  • Elementary education, artificial intelligence among new RSU degree programs

    [ad_1]

    Rogers State University’s fall semester began Monday with several new degrees for students to attain.

    RSU now offers bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and artificial intelligence, as well as more options for pursuing emergency teacher certifications. It also added a master’s degree option to its cybersecurity and nursing programs.

    Susan Willis, the university’s vice president for academic affairs, said students who want to teach elementary school have been able to train for this career at RSU for years through its 2+2 partnership with Cameron University. Students earn an associate’s degree in education from RSU and then their bachelor’s from Cameron, all the while staying in Claremore.

    But Willis said the 2+2 model likely prevented students from pursuing an education degree, especially students who rely on scholarships to study.

    “The problem was they had to do the associate’s first, and a lot of scholarships require that they’re enrolled in bachelor’s programs,” Willis said. “None of our athletes could have been an education major because we only had an associate’s. … Honors Program, President’s Leadership Class, some of those scholarships require they’re a bachelor student.”

    Willis said Eileen Richardson and Janet Valencia, the RSU professors who’ve been teaching the associate’s courses, largely developed the curriculum for RSU’s bachelor’s program. She said RSU also plans to add a secondary education degree next year.

    She said the curriculum won’t materially differ from the education curriculum at bigger schools like the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, as RSU has to follow the same accreditation and licensure requirements. But getting the same degree at RSU would likely cost less, Willis said.

    Willis said that when Mark Rasor, RSU’s chief financial officer, was the university’s interim president, he came to her with the idea of equipping RSU to train future educators on its own. She said getting the program approved took a while because it’s been a long time since an Oklahoma college founded an education program.

    “I think it’s very big,” Willis said. “I think there’s a lot of students who would have come to us before, and we couldn’t accommodate them. I think there’s interest, and I think it’s going to help our local schools. … It can really change the trajectory here.”

    The artificial intelligence degree, offered as an option to the existing bachelor’s in information technology degree, is more novel. RSU is the third school in Oklahoma and the first regional school in the state to develop an AI program, said professor Sai Samineni. She will lead the degree program with professors Abhilash Minukuri and Nitindra Chowdary.

    Minukuri developed most of the curriculum with Curtis Sparling, head of the Department of Technology and Justice Studies, after the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education requested RSU look into an AI program.

    Minukuri said the bulk of the AI program is tailored toward students already fluent in programming. They will learn how large language models like ChatGPT function and explore more specialized and powerful systems. Students will also get to build their own artificial intelligences through long-term projects.

    “It’s gonna be a bit challenging,” Minukuri said. “It’s not an easy degree to get in. But every company right now is looking into building some sort of chat bots. They are trying to bring the AI element into a company, even small things, so this degree can help them gain those basic skills.”

    Students who don’t want or need to learn complicated programming may opt to take lower level introduction course and a course on ethics.

    Samineni said it’s unwise for anyone, especially those pursuing a tech career, to turn a blind eye to AI. She said it is no longer a buzzword — as AI technologies become more advanced and commonplace in everyday life, she said, it serves students to at least get a grip on the basic mechanics and ethical implications.

    Before RSU hired Samineni last year, she was building an LLM chat bot for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California. She said her job required her to use AI to process sensitive medical data.

    “I speak a lot about AI ethics because I’ve come from a place seeing it, how it will affect a person, like an actual person, in real time,” Samineni said. “You could lose your job. You could do one mistake, one typing mistake, and you can lose your job. You can’t just send people’s X-rays through GPT and stuff like that.”

    Samineni and Minukuri earned their degrees before AI became a widely-used commercial product.

    Minukuri said that while artificial intelligence is always changing, so is technology at large. Minukuri primarily taught game design courses prior to this school year.

    “Every year, I try to bring something new which is in the industry, so they learn what’s out there, so they’ll have that opportunities when they graduate,” Minukuri said. “That’s the same thing we’re gonna do for AI. We’ll try to update it as much as possible, so that we’ll offer the cutting-edge technology every year.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • From medical training to weapons detectors: How Northern Virginia is changing up the new school year – WTOP News

    [ad_1]

    Summer is officially over for tens of thousands of Northern Virginia students as many are returning to the classroom for the new school year.

    From saving on school supplies to the impact of federal cuts, the WTOP team is studying up on hot-button topics in education across the D.C. region. Follow on air and online in our series, “WTOP Goes Back to School” this August and September.

    Cheerleaders in front of Centreville High School commemorate the first day of the 2025-26 school year on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, in Fairfax County, Virginia. (WTOP/Scott Gelman)

    Summer is officially over for tens of thousands of Northern Virginia students as many are returning to the classroom for the new school year.

    Monday marks the first day of school for both Fairfax and Prince William counties, the state’s two largest school districts.

    Middle and high school teachers in Fairfax will be using a new grading policy, as new cellphone rules will be put in place.

    Instead of early release Mondays for Fairfax elementary school students, those days will fall on Wednesday this year. There will be eight early release days throughout the school year, allowing teachers sufficient planning time.

    The district switched days this year in response to scheduling challenges that resulted from Monday holidays.

    Weapons scanners roll out in Fairfax Co.

    When middle and high school students arrive on campus each morning in Fairfax County, they’ll have to walk through weapons detectors. The division launched a pilot program last spring, putting the technology at different high school campuses on various days.

    Calls for stronger security measures became stronger after a stabbing at West Potomac High School in April. Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid recently told families the software will be in all middle and high schools by this fall.

    She said she’s hoping it becomes “another seamless part of our safety and security procedures.”

    The district studied different software and tools for weapons detection, Reid said, and found OpenGate to be the product that was most mobile and nimble.

    “We had always intended to phase those in over time, over all of our schools,” she told WTOP while at Centreville High School.

    Junior Aidan Kownacki said while it’s a measure that aims to keep students safe, “it is going to be a little bit annoying to have to take out binder, computer every morning. But it could definitely help me feel safer at school.”

    Senior Daniel Ahn, meanwhile, said “nobody wants to be scared of this type of stuff at school. I just hope that it doesn’t make it really hard to get into the school, like everyone funneling through some of the doors.”

    Separately, as part of safety initiatives, Reid said buses have turn-by-turn tablets and there’s going to be a way of carding on and off buses so drivers know who’s on the bus and “who maybe shouldn’t be on the bus.”

    Students react to new cellphone policy

    Fairfax County high school students aren’t allowed to use their cellphones in between classes this year, as part of a change to the division’s cellphone policy.

    Elementary and middle schoolers with phones will have to put them away for the entire school day.

    Senior Sienna Lucas said students will “learn more, hopefully, without having cellphones on themselves.”

    But Senior Madysan Rich said while phones should be restricted during the school day, “I think we can have phones out in the hallway.”

    Meanwhile, senior Brady Conway said while he understands why the new rules are in place, “I can’t agree with it.”

    Junior Devyn Greene said she’s “definitely a little upset about it, and I know most students are, but I can see why they did that.”

    Few staffing vacancies, superintendent says

    Fairfax County has less than 1% of positions to fill, Reid said.

    “We’re pretty much fully staffed, and we’re excited about that,” she said. “Everyone benefits when we’re fully staffed.”

    Reid cited the work of the district’s HR department and word of mouth as contributing factors to having few vacancies.

    “Recruitment and retention is a year-round task anymore,” Reid said. “We start early, and honestly, we’ll continue recruiting throughout the year.”

    New career-based programs for Prince William Co. students

    As for Prince William County Public Schools, it’s opening the 2025-2026 school year with new technology for middle school students, a new cellphone policy, two medical-based career certification programs, and a focus on providing a positive learning environment for students.

    With 100 schools and programs, PWCPS is expecting almost 90,000 students this year, 13,000 full-time employees, and no bus driver vacancies.

    Starting this year, all middle schools have new iPads for students. Occoquan Elementary School is on track to become the county’s first net-zero school, opening this winter.

    The school system said it’s continuing to prioritize a positive climate and culture in schools. Each middle and high school will have a dean of students to support school leaders in maintaining consistency across all schools.

    A division-wide, cellphone-free policy is in place: In elementary school, devices must be off and stored away all day. Dual-purpose watches can be worn, but cellular features must be turned off.

    For middle and high schools, devices must be off and away during the bell-to-bell day but can be used before and after school. Exceptions can be made for students with IEPs, 50 plans, or safety plans.

    New Pharmacy Technician and EMT programs in Prince William Co.

    Starting Monday, as part of its Career and Technical Education curriculum, the school system is offering a pharmacy technician program at Freedom High School and new emergency medical technician programs at Unity Reed and Brentsville District High School.

    “Pharmacy techs are in high demand,” said Jessica Doiron, administrative coordinator for specialty programs at Freedom High School. “It’s a medical-based industry, and we have a lot of students who are very interested in medical fields.”

    The four-year program of study includes Introduction of Health and Medical Sciences, Medical Terminology, Pharmacy Technician 1 and Pharmacy Technician 2.

    “By their senior year, they will have to spend some clinical hours in a pharmacy,” said Doiron. “We have community partners, like CVS, where our students will actually gain hands-on experience.”

    Doiron said students who finish the program can earn a certificate that would allow them to work in a pharmacy. If a student wanted to further their education, they could continue into college and ultimately become a Doctor of Pharmacy.

    Also new this year, 11th and 12th grade students at Unity Reed and Brentsville District High School can get a hands-on introduction to a career as an EMT.

    According to PWCPS, “Students explore and apply the fundamentals of emergency medical services (EMS), anatomy, physiology, and medical terminology while demonstrating skills in assessing and managing patient care, including the understanding of medical emergencies, trauma, shock, and resuscitation.”

    “There are opportunities, careers that exist out there that you can actually start, right out of high school,” said Doiron. “And that’s extremely important to a lot of our students.”

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    [ad_2]

    Neal Augenstein

    Source link

  • Trump has won a second term–here’s what that means for schools

    [ad_1]

    This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

    On the campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education, expand school choice, roll back new protections for LGBTQ students, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

    Now that the former Republican president is headed to a second term, the question becomes how likely Trump is to act on his most extreme or implausible proposals and what effects students, teachers, and parents will see in the classroom.

    Trump won a decisive victory, picking up nearly every swing state and gaining ground among young voters and voters of color who have been essential members of the Democratic coalition.

    Chalkbeat spoke to advocates, experts, and former education department officials about what to expect from the next administration. They widely agreed that President Joe Biden’s Title IX rewrite, which extended new protections for transgender students and is currently tied up in the courts, will be repealed, that civil rights enforcement will look very different, and that future education budgets will be more austere.

    But they disagreed on how likely it is that Trump would actually do away with the U.S. Department of Education and how much progress he might make toward federal support for school choice.

    A lot will depend on who controls Congress. Votes are still being counted in key races, but Republicans will control the Senate. Control of the House remains unclear and may not be known for days. A trifecta could clear the way for a broader Trump agenda. If Democrats take control of the House, Trump would have to rely more on his executive authority. But even on some key conservative priorities, Republicans are not unanimous, and some may balk at proposals they see as expanding the federal role or disadvantaging their constituents.

    Trump’s pick for education secretary — whether he opts for an experienced administrator or a dedicated culture warrior — will also shape his education agenda.

    Calls to abolish the Department of Education have new momentum

    Arguably this has been Trump’s most consistent promise on education policy but also the one that seems most far-fetched to some political observers. Conservatives have talked about getting rid of the department for almost as long as it’s existed, and Trump didn’t make any moves to dismantle it in his first administration.

    Fully dismantling the department would require an act of Congress. But Trump could limit its reach in other ways, such as eliminating or moving programs, removing career bureaucrats, and proposing much tighter budgets.

    But Jim Blew, who served in Trump’s education department in his first administration and went on to found the Defense of Freedom Institute, said Trump has been adamant that he wants to get rid of the department and that alone gives the idea more “heft.” Blew also believes public support for a federal role in education is changing. Many people don’t think the federal investment in COVID recovery yielded much, he said. At the same time, people see initiatives such as student loan forgiveness and protections for transgender students as examples of federal overreach.

    It would take months to take the department apart, Blew said, because every function mandated by Congress would need a new home. But that could be done, he said. Civil rights enforcement could move to the U.S. Department of Justice, for example, and Title I funding for high-poverty schools could become a block grant administered by the U.S. Department of Human Services.

    Trump has been clear that his priorities are economic recovery, immigration, and national defense, Blew said, but that doesn’t mean he won’t follow through on education promises.

    “It doesn’t need a lot of attention,” Blew said. “It needs political capital. And he can expend that while remaining focused on other priorities.”

    Immigration enforcement could ripple through school communities

    Trump made demonization of immigrants the centerpiece of his campaign, highlighting at every turn examples of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers and the impact of immigration on American communities and schools.

    Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. Some experts on immigration policy have said such an effort would be legally and logistically challenging, as well as very expensive. Nonetheless, most observers expect to see an increase in enforcement.

    Previous workplace raids have had widespread impacts on students whose parents were arrested, as well as on the broader community. An estimated 4.4 million American children have at least one undocumented parent, and some former Trump immigration officials have suggested that families be deported together.

    Mike Petrilli, president of the conservative education advocacy organization The Fordham Institute, believes Trump’s education policies won’t make much difference in American classrooms, but his immigration policy may be felt in dramatic ways.

    “It’s what he’s campaigned on, it’s what he’s promised to do, and he’d have a pretty free hand to do it,” said Petrilli, who has argued that American schools have a moral obligation as well as a legal one to educate all children who live here.

    “The chances that it’s a humanitarian disaster are quite high,” Petrilli said. “Is he going to put people in camps? Will that include families? Are there going to be schools in these camps? I don’t see any reason we should believe they won’t give that a try.”

    Even if enforcement is spotty, changes to federal policy have the potential to sow confusion and chaos in local communities, said Janelle Scott, a professor at University of California Berkeley. Some families may keep children home from school out of fear, she said. The messages that local law enforcement and school district officials send to families in this situation could make a difference.

    Transgender students could lose new protections as civil rights enforcement changes

    When the Biden administration issued new Title IX rules that clarified and strengthened protections for transgender students, Republican states and conservative groups, including Blew’s Defense of Freedom Institute, quickly filed lawsuits that led to the rules being blocked in a majority of states.

    Conservatives argued that the new rules eroded protections for cisgender girls because they might have to share bathrooms and locker rooms with transgender classmates and affected the free speech rights of teachers who might be forced to use pronouns and names they disagreed with. They also argued the Biden administration overstepped by defining discrimination on the basis of gender identity as a form of sex discrimination.

    Trump is expected to rescind the Biden rules, a move that would still require a lengthy bureaucratic process. But some observers have larger fears for a Trump administration. He has repeatedly accused schools of performing gender surgeries without parental permission — a false and baseless claim — and attacked the idea of gender-affirming care for youth, as well as participation in sports by transgender athletes.

    “There have been fantastical claims, but undergirding that is a deep hostility to queer kids as well as allegations that schools are engaging in child abuse if they protect the rights of queer kids,” said Scott, the UC Berkeley professor.

    Trump’s first administration also revoked Obama-era guidance on school discipline that aimed to reduce suspensions and expulsions for students of color and emphasized quick resolution of complaints. Some conservative groups have also used civil rights complaints to go after programs that aim to support Black student excellence or mentor teachers of color.

    Rick Hess, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said a Trump education department or justice department could make high-profile examples of a few school districts’ diversity initiatives and bring about more widespread change, similar to how the Obama administration targeted districts over school discipline.

    School choice gets a modest momentum boost

    Expanding taxpayer funding for private schools and home-schooling have topped the conservative education agenda in recent years. A proposed federal tax credit scholarship program backed by Trump’s first education secretary, Betsy DeVos, failed to get any traction. But during Biden’s presidency, Republican-led states have expanded or started private school choice programs, some of which offer money to nearly all interested families.

    On Fox News, Trump promised to sign school choice legislation that passed a House committee, and at a barbershop in the Bronx, he talked about the importance of school choice.

    Blew expects Trump to push for a tax credit scholarship proposal similar to the one drafted during his first presidency.

    Petrilli isn’t convinced that Trump cares that much. “It’s a stretch to say that he’s made it a priority on the campaign trail,” he said. “He has to be reminded to talk about it.”

    Petrilli is also not convinced there would be enough support even in a Republican-controlled Congress to send a bill to Trump’s desk. Some rural Republicans, whose constituents have few private school options, are skeptical. So are small government conservatives who don’t want to expand federal programs.

    Voters in three states — including two that Trump won by large margins — rejected school choice at the ballot on Tuesday, indicating that even many conservatives have qualms about spending public money on private schools.

    But Congress will have to reauthorize Trump’s tax cuts, and a tax credit that allows businesses and individuals to write off donations to private school scholarships could be included there. Observers also expect to see a push to allow families to use money in tax-favored 529 accounts to pay for homeschooling expenses, tutoring, and other educational needs. That money already can be used for private school tuition.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

    Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

    Related:
    The purpose of a K-12 education: Who decides and how do we get there?
    Learn how to modernize your K-12 financial operations
    For more on education policy, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat

    Source link

  • How to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools

    How to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools

    [ad_1]

    Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the rate of students who are chronically absent—defined as missing just under one month of class—has doubled to 26 percent nationally, reaching crisis levels and threatening the educational foundation of our nation’s youth. Chronic absenteeism is estimated to be responsible for up to 27 percent of the overall decline in math test scores and a shocking 45 percent of the drop in reading scores between 2019 and 2022.

    To combat this problem, the company Edia recently unveiled an AI-powered platform aimed at school districts across America. Within minutes of an absence, Edia initiates personalized AI-driven conversations with families in more than 100 languages, enabling school districts to identify and tackle root causes of chronic absenteeism.

    “Today, nearly three-quarters of absences are unexplained, meaning no one called in ahead of time and districts don’t know where those children are,” said Joe Philleo, CEO of Edia. “With so many students missing school, staff don’t have the capacity to reach out to every single family and understand what is happening with their child.”

    “Every situation is different,” Philleo continues. “When staff don’t know the reason students are missing school, they can’t fix the root cause. One student may miss school because they don’t have reliable transportation, and another student may skip Math and English in the morning and just attend Computer and Welding at the end of the day because they find those classes more engaging.”

    By leveraging AI, Edia enables schools to identify and solve the root causes of chronic absenteeism. Its system ensures no absence goes unnoticed, helping to restore accountability, rebuild connections between schools and families, and resolve underlying challenges that keep students from attending class.

    Key features of the Edia AI platform include:

    1. AI Conversations within minutes of Absence: Personalized text message conversations in 100+ languages sent to parents within minutes of an absence, reducing unexplained absences by up to 80 percent.
    2. Analysis to understand why students are missing class: Texts, calls, and notes come together in a single profile to identify why students are missing school and enable teams to take the right set of action.
    3. Purpose-built workflows for MTSS interventions: Ability to launch, track, and coordinate personalized intervention plans for students at risk.

    Edia’s new solution is currently being used in K-12 school districts nationwide, including Raton Public Schools, Farmington Municipal Schools, and Hobbs Municipal Schools.

    “Chronic absenteeism is a significant issue in education and in the Raton Public Schools that can severely impact student achievement and the long-term success of a student,” Kristie Medina, Superintendent at Raton Public Schools. “It refers to students missing a substantial number of school days, typically defined as 10 percent or more of the school year, for any reason, whether excused or unexcused. The challenge of chronic absenteeism lies in its widespread impact, affecting not just individual students but the entire school community. Our district is committed to addressing chronic absenteeism because it is critical to ensuring every student has the opportunity to succeed and thrive in both school and life.

    Medina continued, “I’m genuinely excited for Raton Public Schools to implement Edia’s AI Attendance Solution! The integration of AI into tracking and improving attendance will be a game-changer, especially when tackling chronic absenteeism. By leveraging AI, the district can gain deeper insights into attendance patterns, identify at-risk students earlier, and tailor interventions more effectively.”

    Kevin Hogan
    Latest posts by Kevin Hogan (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Kevin Hogan

    Source link

  • Preparing students for Industry 5.0: Rethinking STEM to shape the future workforce

    Preparing students for Industry 5.0: Rethinking STEM to shape the future workforce

    [ad_1]

    Key points:

    The global workforce is transforming, propelled by the dawn of the Fifth Industrial Revolution–commonly referred to as Industry 5.0. Unlike previous revolutions that focused solely on technological advancement, Industry 5.0 strongly emphasizes collaboration between humans and machines. While AI, robotics, and drones continue to push boundaries, this era also recognizes the importance of human creativity and problem-solving in conjunction with these tools.

    As we prepare the workforce of the future, it becomes clear that we must rethink our approach to STEM education. It’s no longer enough to teach technical skills in isolation. Instead, we must create learning environments that foster creativity and adaptability–key traits that will help students thrive in an increasingly complex and tech-driven world.

    The imperative for Industry 5.0 readiness

    The rise of AI and automation is reshaping industries, creating an urgent need for students to develop technical competencies and think innovatively about how these technologies can be applied. The future workforce must be able to work alongside machines in ways we can’t even fully anticipate yet. Anticipating this demands an education system that evolves to meet future challenges–not just by focusing on coding or data analysis but by cultivating skills that will prove invaluable in navigating new, unforeseen challenges.

    Hands-on STEM learning is key to this evolution. Rather than confining students to theoretical exercises, integrating real-world technologies like drones into the classroom can provide students with the physical experiences they need to better understand the evolving job market. As these young minds engage with advanced tools, they gain the technical know-how and develop the mindset required to succeed in Industry 5.0.

    Why drones? Connecting STEM to real-world applications

    Drones are among the most impactful ways to bring STEM education to life. Unlike traditional teaching methods, drones allow students to interface directly with technology, transforming their learning experiences from passive to active. In classrooms incorporating drones, students can experience real-world problem-solving scenarios that transcend textbook learning.

    For example, drones are already playing a crucial role in industries such as agriculture, logistics, and environmental monitoring. By bringing these applications into the classroom, students are provided the opportunity to understand these technologies and explore their potential in solving pressing challenges across industries. Students can learn about everything from engineering and physics to coding and data analysis, all while working on projects with tangible, real-world implications.

    Take, for instance, schools that leverage partnerships with drone providers to deploy curricula that include practical lesson plans, like surveying local farmland and analyzing soil conditions to help improve crop yields. These projects go beyond theoretical knowledge, teaching students to apply data analytics in meaningful ways. In another example, high school students can design drones to support healthcare initiatives, like delivering medical supplies to remote areas–projects that mirror innovations currently being explored in healthcare logistics. These experiences prepare students for real-world careers and illuminate career pathways that may not have otherwise been obvious or desirable options.

    Bridging the skills gap with experiential learning

    Verticalized skills gaps have become a significant barrier to innovation and economic growth, as many students are graduating without the technical and critical thinking abilities demanded by today’s employers. The gap is particularly evident in data analysis, programming, advanced manufacturing, and cybersecurity–fields that are essential for navigating the complexities of the modern digital economy.

    This gap continues to widen as technological advancements outpace traditional education methods. In a world increasingly driven by data, students need to learn how to collect, analyze, and interpret information to make informed decisions. Introducing project-based learning centered around data analysis–such as interpreting data sets from environmental studies or designing experiments that involve data collection–gives students hands-on experience in this critical skill area.

    As work becomes increasingly global and cross-functional, students must develop the ability to communicate effectively in diverse teams. Experiential learning projects, such as team-based STEM competitions or group technology builds, teach students the importance of working together toward shared goals while honing their communication skills, mirroring the collaborative environments they will encounter in the workforce.

    Incorporating creativity and human ingenuity in Industry 5.0

    Technical skills are essential, but the distinguishing factor of Industry 5.0 is the synergy between human ingenuity and machine precision. Our ability to innovate and collaborate with machines to solve complex problems will mark this era. Schools should focus on fostering creativity alongside technical training, as the future workforce will be called upon to design new solutions, lead teams, and tackle challenges that have yet to emerge.

    Schools can consider integrating design thinking into their curriculum, where students engage in iterative processes to ideate, prototype, and test solutions to complex problems. In a classroom setting, students could use design thinking to create smart home devices that integrate human comfort with AI precision, focusing on user-centric solutions.

    Entrepreneurship courses in schools will empower students to develop tech startups where they identify a societal problem, design a technological solution, and pitch their idea to judges, peers, and even potential investors. This encourages both creativity in coming up with new ideas and collaboration with technology to make ideas a reality.

    The classroom as a catalyst for the future workforce

    As we move deeper into Industry 5.0, the demand for a workforce that can blend technical skills with innovative problem-solving increases. Integrating hands-on technology like drones into educational environments offers a dynamic way to address this need. It allows students to connect with STEM fields practically and inspiringly. Educators have the crucial responsibility to provide students with the necessary tools and perspectives. By incorporating creative, physical, and project-based lessons into the curriculum, we foster the innovation, adaptability, and collaboration essential for the future workforce.

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Rob Harvey, FTW Robotics

    Source link

  • Baked-in bias or sweet equity: AI’s role in motivation and deep learning

    Baked-in bias or sweet equity: AI’s role in motivation and deep learning

    [ad_1]

    Key points:

    In the quickly evolving landscape of AI, education stands at the forefront. New AI tools are emerging daily for educators and students; from AI tutors to curriculum creators, the AI education market is surging.

    However, the long-term impact of AI use on students is unknown. As educational AI research tries to keep up with AI development, questions remain surrounding the impact of AI use on student motivation and overall learning. These questions are particularly significant for students of color, who consistently encounter more systemic barriers than their white peers (Frausto et al., 2024).

    Emerging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and related declines in student learning and motivation, AI refers to a broad range of technologies, including tools such as ChatGPT, that use vast data repositories to make decisions and problem-solve. Because the tool can assist with assignments like generating essays from prompts, students quickly integrated these technologies into the classroom. Although educators and administrators were slower to adopt these technologies, they have started using AI both to manage unregulated student usage and to streamline their work with AI-powered grading tools. While the use of AI in education remains controversial, it is clear that it is here to stay and, if anything, is rapidly evolving. The question remains: Can AI enhance students’ motivation and learning?

    A recent rapid review of research concluded that students’ motivation is impacted by their experiences in and out of the classroom. The review highlights how student motivation is shaped by more than just individual attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, and traits, but it does not comprehensively address the effects of AI on student motivation (Frausto et al., 2024).

    To understand how AI may impact the motivation and learning of students of color, we need to examine the nature of AI itself. AI learns and develops based on preexisting datasets, which often reflect societal biases and racism. This reliance on biased data can lead to skewed and potentially harmful outputs. For example, AI-generated images are prone to perpetuating stereotypes and cliches, such as exclusively generating images of leaders as white men in suits. Similarly, if we were to use AI to generate a leadership curriculum, it would be prone to create content that aligns with this stereotype. Not only does this further enforce the stereotype and subject students to it, but it can create unrelatable content leading students of color to disengage from learning and lose motivation in the course altogether (Frausto et al., 2024).

    This is not to say that AI is a unique potential detractor. Discrimination is a persistent factor in the real world that affects students’ motivational and learning experiences, and similar bias has previously been seen in non-AI learning and motivation tools that have been created based on research centering predominantly white, middle-class students (Frausto et al., 2024). If anything, AI only serves as a reflection of the biases that exist within the broader world and education sphere; AI learns from real data, and the biases it perpetuates reflect societal trends. The biases of AI are not mystical; they are very much a mirror of our own. For example, teachers also demonstrate comparable levels of bias to the world around them.

    When we think about current AI use in education, these baked-in biases can already be cause for concern. On the student use end, AIs have demonstrated subtle racism in the form of a dialect prejudice: students using African American Vernacular English (AAVE) may find that the AIs they communicate with offer them less favorable recommendations than their peers. For teachers, similar bias may impact the grades AI-powered programs assign students, preferring the phrasing and cultural perspectives used in white students’ essays over those of students of color. These are just a few examples of the biases present in current AI use in education, but they already raise alarms. Similar human-to-human instances of discrimination, such as from teachers and peers, have been linked to decreased motivation and learning in students of color (Frausto et al., 2024). In this way, it seems AI and its biases may be situated to serve as another obstacle that students of color are required to face; AI learning tools and supports that have been designed for and tested on white students to a positive effect may negatively affect students of color due to inbuilt biases. 

    For humans, we recommend anti-bias practices to overcome these perceptions. With AI, we may yet have an opportunity to incorporate similar bias awareness and anti-discriminatory practices. Such training for AI has been a prominent point in the conversation around responsible AI creation and use for several years, with companies such as Google releasing AI guidelines with an emphasis on addressing bias in AI systems development. Approaching the issue of AI bias with intentionality can help to circumvent discriminative outputs, such as by intentionally selecting large and diverse datasets to train AI from and rigorously testing them with diverse populations to ensure equitable outcomes. However, even after these efforts, AI systems may remain biased toward certain cultures and contexts. Even good intentions to support student learning and motivation with AI may lead to unintended outcomes for underrepresented groups.

    While AI-education integration is already occurring rapidly, there is an opportunity to address and understand the potential for bias and discrimination from the outset. Although we cannot be certain of AI’s impact on the motivational and educational outcomes for students of color, research sets a precedent for bias as a detractor. By approaching the implementation of AI in education with intentionality and inclusivity of perspectives, as well as awareness of potential harm, we can try to circumvent the inevitable and instead create an AI-powered learning environment that enhances the learning experiences of all students.

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Eliana Whitehouse, EduDream

    Source link

  • How to Empower Students to Navigate Politics and Media Bias in 2024 Election

    How to Empower Students to Navigate Politics and Media Bias in 2024 Election

    [ad_1]

    It’s tough enough for the average American to navigate through the torrents of mis- and disinformation flooding social media platforms. How about having to guide a classroom full of eighth graders? David Raymond and Eric Gimbi somehow seem to enjoy it. Both are middle school teachers in the swing state of Pennsylvania and well as part of the Bobblehead George geek squad. I was able to trade techniques with them along with Tory Van Voorhis, creator of the non-partisan and data-driven platform, Election Edge, and CEO of Second Avenue Learning, to discuss how and why educators must address the 2024 presidential election in the classroom.

    Have a listen:

    Kevin Hogan
    Latest posts by Kevin Hogan (see all)
    [ad_2] Kevin Hogan
    Source link

  • Creating esports programs with managed network services

    Creating esports programs with managed network services

    [ad_1]

    Key points:

    Esports programs are continuing to grow in popularity, as evidenced by the widespread adoption by schools across the country. In fact, the global esports market is projected to grow to $4.8 billion by 2030. While esports programs are more commonly found on college and university campuses, high schools and even middle schools have started launching programs. 

    Participating in esports can help students develop teamwork and leadership skills, and may even lead to scholarship opportunities at certain colleges and universities, according to Scholarships.com. Technology serves as the underlying foundation for any scholastic esports program; however, organizers don’t need to have robust internal IT teams–the expertise of a technology partner can help get students into the esports arena. 

    Bringing an esports program to life 

    A modern digital infrastructure is the critical foundation for a successful esports program. In the world of online gaming, a few milliseconds can make the difference between a win or loss–with school pride, prizes, and potentially scholarships on the line. Latency or lag time in a school’s internet connection can significantly impact the outcome of a competition. Using a dedicated wired connection can provide optimal reliability and minimize latency. It is also helpful to consider service-level agreements (SLAs) from providers that not only guarantee reliability, but also include strong metrics for performance indicators such as latency. As the esports program grows, the digital infrastructure should be able to easily scale. The increased bandwidth required by adding more players and playing increasingly high-resolution games shouldn’t risk affecting other school operations on the network.  

    The Cannon School, a K-12 school in Concord, North Carolina, has created a successful esports program that serves both as a recreational league and a competitive varsity sport. The school opted for a co-managed system where its service partner installed fiber connectivity and manages the security of the network–unified threat management that includes a firewall, advanced malware protection, and intrusion prevention–while Cannon School’s internal IT team manages the content filtering to ensure that students are accessing only age-appropriate websites.  

    Approximately 60 students joined Cannon School’s esports program in its first two years of operating and about half compete on the varsity team. Tram Tran, the school’s Manager of Information Technology, credits its popularity to the simple fact that young people love computer gaming. Tran expects the school’s esports program to see a surge in participants over the next several years, and the implemented IT solution can easily scale to address the greater number of users on the system, as well as the ever-increasing data-intensive video games.  

    “With our esports program, we are building this pathway from high school to college and then from college to the pros,” Tran said. 

    Securing technology as the foundation for esports 

    Understanding and implementing the technology foundation necessary may be daunting for schools with limited internal IT resources, but working with an experienced technology partner can help. Technology partners not only offer the expertise and guidance needed for implementing an esports program, but also can provide ongoing support–through managed network services–to ensure that network operations are continually monitored and that competitions have the bandwidth needed to run smoothly.  

    According to the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) on the 2023 State of EdTech Leadership, nearly half of respondents (45 percent) felt inadequately staffed to plan and implement new technology. Managed network services can offer schools peace of mind by monitoring for network performance and cybersecurity issues 24/7, freeing IT staff from day-to-day troubleshooting. Beyond supplementing staffing resources, managed services also offer the benefit of no upfront hardware ownership costs, and the fixed, regular expense offers predictability for schools’ budgets.  

    Next steps 

    For schools thinking about launching an esports program, a conversation with a potential technology solutions partner is a good place to start. An experienced partner can evaluate a school’s current IT network services, help identify what is required, and determine a realistic plan and timeline to establish a program. Schools equipped with a robust digital infrastructure can offer students unique opportunities to compete, collaborate, and thrive in the realm of esports, and leveraging managed network services for help with the technology performance can make things easier for the employees who are focused on the program’s execution and success.  

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

    [ad_2]

    Mark Kornegay, Spectrum Enterprise

    Source link

  • Haworth & MiEN Announce Partnership

    Haworth & MiEN Announce Partnership

    [ad_1]

    Haworth and  MiEN are announcing a partnership to grow both companies’ presence in the education market. MiEN will join Haworth as a  partner brand, offering specialized solutions that build on Haworth’s comprehensive suite of products for higher education and K-12 learning environments. 

    “Both Haworth and MiEN understand the landscape of innovative education spaces, how to support schools and how to create environments to drive more success for students. At our core, MiEN specializes in K-12 with products that seamlessly transition into higher education. With the Haworth partnership, we now have a stronger trajectory for those higher education environments.” Remco Bergsma, MiEN Founder and CEO.

    “Haworth and our dealership network are already serving the higher education market and having access to MiEN products will allow us to expand our solution set for those clients. We can now provide more robust solutions that meet the needs of the ever-changing K-12 market,” said Jack Cottrell, Haworth’s Vice President of Channel & Dealer Development. “It’s a mutually beneficial relationship based on a similar go-to-market position and organizational cultures.”

    This partnership allows each company, individually and collectively, to provide more complete solutions for students, faculty and staff. As Haworth continues to sharpen its focus on providing great spaces for learning, wherever they may be, expanding its presence especially within the K-12 segment is an obvious next step.

    Haworth and MiEN culturally align through core values – solving customer needs to create more effective spaces. Both partners have a deep desire to study and understand how to create learning environments that make a difference to students and faculty. It is also beneficial that Haworth and MiEN are both located in West Michigan, allowing for joint developments and operational efficiencies.

    About Haworth

    Haworth believes great spaces empower people to thrive and work their best. As a leading global furniture maker, the company partners with customers, dealers and influencers to create spaces that result in effective people and efficient real estate. Haworth’s customer-first approach comes from an entrepreneurial spirit, design-forward thinking and multicultural perspectives. Founded in 1948, Haworth is a privately-owned company operating in more than 150 countries through a global network of 400 dealers and 8,000 employees. Headquartered in Holland, Michigan, U.S.A., the company has sales of $2.57 billion USD.

    About MiEN 

    MiEN is a global company serving the education industry with innovative furniture products and services that promote and support active and interactive learning environments in engaging and functional ways. An American company with a strong European influence, its products and services represent the ideas and collaborative efforts of an expert team of suppliers, designers and engineers. Built strong and durable using eco-friendly, sustainable materials, its products rank high in the industry in meeting the demands of creating dynamic and collaborative learning environments.

    eSchool News Staff
    Latest posts by eSchool News Staff (see all)

    [ad_2]

    ESchool News Staff

    Source link