Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Preparing for ransomware attacks begins with education

Key points:

  • Ransomware attacks can be devastating to a school or district, with costly ransoms and leaked sensitive information
  • The most effective security is layered; humans are only part of the equation

The biggest threat to K-12 schools’ cybersecurity is, ironically, education. It’s an expensive deficit. But there are funds and tools to help.

Ransomware – where hackers encrypt and lock victims’ data and try to sell the decryption key back to the victim for a ransom – delays education and hurts already-stretched budgets: A GAO report says a ransomware attack can cause K-12 students learning loss up to three weeks and cost from $50,000 to $1 million in expenses.…Read More

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As ESSER spending increases, digital learning is a priority

After a slow start in allocating federal ESSER funds, most states have found ways to spend their COVID relief dollars. In Montana, the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is directing its ESSER money to digital learning resources.

OPI Superintendent Elsie Arntzen announced a new partnership with Discovery Education, a provider of state-of-the-art digital resources that support instruction wherever it takes place. Through this multi-year partnership, OPI is providing all 496 public school districts statewide access to a curated collection of high-quality, grade level appropriate, digital content aligned to Montana’s rigorous K-12 Content Standards.

The partnership–which is funded through ESSER–supports core instruction across Montana. In addition, the collaboration supports the state’s workforce readiness, rural education, Native American tribal history and culture, and parent and family engagement initiatives. Montana School Superintendents can activate their school district’s Discovery Education account by visiting this website.…Read More

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Paycom Donated Nearly $300,000 To Local Public School Districts

OKLAHOMA CITY – Paycom Software Inc. (NYSE:PAYC), a leading provider of HR software, celebrates the end of the 2023 school year by awarding grants to four local public school foundations. These two-year commitments will provide Edmond, Millwood, Oklahoma City and Putnam City with funds needed to support ongoing and new educational programming specific to each district.

“Partnering with the public schools in the area is an important way Paycom supports our communities,” said Tiffany Gamblin, director of human resources business services at Paycom. “We know the power these programs can have on children and young adults. We’re grateful to play a part in helping tomorrow’s leaders shine.”

Each school district has a unique plan for the donations they received from Paycom.…Read More

Federal COVID relief funding will dry up soon. Are districts ready?

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

For the past couple of years, the Detroit Public Schools Community District has been able to tap its share of federal COVID relief aid to fund after-school enrichment programs that help students recover from learning lost during the pandemic.

But those funds will soon run out, and Detroit and other districts face some tough decisions about which programs and employees they can afford to keep once federal support is gone. …Read More

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Balancing sustainability and innovation in education

As recipients of public funding and taxpayer dollars, K-12 school budgets and spending expenditures are under a microscope. Relief funds stemming from the pandemic have only sharpened the focus, particularly on infrastructure and technology investments. In my role as Chief Technology Officer at one of the nation’s largest school districts, Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS), being accountable and ensuring we are making prudent financial decisions is a top priority for my team.

Striking a balance between innovation and sustainability is a challenge most school districts are facing. At HCPS, we have adopted three guiding principles that serve as the driving force and framework behind every IT decision—equity, efficiency, and excellence.

Equity…Read More

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3 ways to make inflation interesting for students

Inflation hit a four-decade high in the United States during September, with the consumer price index up 8.2 percent from a year earlier. While most adults are painfully aware of higher prices for everything from food to fuel, teens may be blissfully ignorant.

There are a few reasons inflation may not feel relevant to teens. If teens aren’t yet working and earning their own money, they’re buying things with their parent’s funds. The cure for inflation is simply to ask mom or dad for more money. Working teens will definitely be feeling the burn of increased prices, but their time horizon tends to be focused on today versus how inflation will impact them decades down the road.

Storytelling can be an effective way for teachers to make topics like inflation relevant to students. Storytelling makes abstract concepts come to life and can help students envision themselves in the story.…Read More

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3 ways the E-rate program helps level up learning

The federal E-rate program continues to provide expanded access to technology, including edtech tools, digital learning resources, and high-speed internet access, to schools, according to an annual report that takes stock of the program’s progress.

The findings come from E-rate compliance services firm Funds For Learning‘s 12th annual E-rate Trends Report. The report is designed to understand how the program can best serve schools and libraries. Stakeholder input is compiled and delivered directly to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to inform program administration.

Key findings from the 2022 report include:…Read More

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District leaders outline top 3 COVID relief funding priorities

School districts continue to prioritize expanding summer learning and enrichment offerings, adding specialist staff such as mental health personnel and reading specialists, and investing in high-quality instructional materials and curriculum, according to a survey administered by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

The School District Spending of American Rescue Plan report is part of a multi-series survey focused on how district leaders across the country are utilizing American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, address student learning recovery.

This survey also sought information about what issues districts are experiencing in spending ARP funding and how they would change their spending decisions if they had more time to drawdown federal COVID-relief funds.…Read More

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It’s time to permanently increase education funding–ESSER spending proves it

In the last two years, an unprecedented increase in funding has flooded into schools around the country courtesy of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) package. While ESSER’s primary intent was to help mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on schools and students, it may also be illuminating a much bigger truth.

What if the lesson we are supposed to learn from ESSER isn’t about the power of one-time relief or struggles to spend it, but instead about the necessity of an increased, recurring investment in our schools that educate those who have been historically underserved?

The first two rounds of federal ESSER funds are posing challenges for the 6,988 school leaders who must allocate the dollars, a recent report from the Association of School Business Officials finds. The reasons aren’t as simple as one might think. These challenges are directly connected to the chronic underfunding of our schools across the country — especially those in underserved communities — which is an issue with implications far beyond ESSER funding, according to a July 2022 report from the Economic Policy Institute. …Read More

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