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.

Time to build an AI library

There’s no avoiding it. Artificial intelligence is here: in your classrooms, in your front office, on your phone. And while the topic can be overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be a burden. One of the best pieces of advice regarding managing AI in schools so far came during a conversation yesterday with Melissa Hortman, a senior industry executive at Microsoft, for our sister publication eCampus news, but her advice applies to all levels of education: First, learn how it works. 

That being said, the amount of information out there can be overwhelming and getting worse by the day. Don’t worry, we’re here for you. The following resources should fill up your weekend reading queue quite nicely. And be sure we’ll be diving in deeper as this phenomenon progresses.

From: eCampus News…Read More

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4 tips for addressing absenteeism in K-12 schools

Key points:

  • Absenteeism is a top predictor of academic success and can have serious consequences
  • Solutions to chronic absenteeism will require long-term, strategic investment of time and resources

Districts across the country are grappling with elevated levels of chronic absenteeism that have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. The Associated Press and Stanford University’s Big Local News Project found that there were approximately 230,000 students in 21 states whose absences could not be accounted for when looking at changes in enrollment between the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 school years.

We also know a lot about the negative consequences of poor attendance: attendance is the number one predictor of academic achievement. Chronic absenteeism can have serious impacts on students, such as the inability to master basic grade-level skills, reduced access to food and counseling resources, and significantly higher rates of dropping out. Students who drop out of school have a far greater chance of entering the criminal justice system.…Read More

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Certell’s Poptential™ Addresses 21st-Century Wars With Free Memorial Day Teaching Resources

INDIANAPOLIS (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Poptential™, a family of free social studies course packages from Certell, provides rich content to teach the importance of Memorial Day, including material on the U.S. involvement in 21st-century wars. Click to tweet.

“While today’s high school students weren’t yet born when the United States was attacked on 9/11, the War on Terror resulting from that day has been in the news for most of their lives,” said Julie Smitherman, a former social studies teacher and director of content at Certell, Inc. “More than 7,000 U.S. service men and women lost their lives during this protracted war, so it’s important to understand how it came about.”

The Memorial Day holiday honors American soldiers who have died in combat and has been observed annually since 1971 on the last Monday of May. Poptential’s American History curriculum features bell ringers, mini-lessons, and multimedia content to engage and teach students about the U.S. involvement in 21st-century wars, including the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the resulting War on Terrorism, the occupation of Afghanistan and the Iraq war. Lessons include:…Read More

Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best: School leadership for emergencies

According to The Washington Post, more than 331,000 children at more than 350 schools have experienced gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. And while school shootings tend to capture news headlines, they are not the only ill plaguing schools today.

According to the CDC, about one in five high school students report being bullied on school property. These numbers do not include the faculty and staff that may have also been affected by these situations. Not to mention the increase in severe weather events – in the first three months of 2023, schools across the nation have scrambled to secure buildings and protect students because of heavy snow, rain, flooding, tornadoes and wildfires.  

The unfortunate reality is that it’s not a matter of if an emergency impacts a school–it’s a matter of when. And when an adverse incident occurs, time is of the essence. Here are three tips to help educational leaders effectively manage safety gaps and mitigate risks in their school community and ensure a swift response.…Read More

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How to support reluctant readers with literacy strategies

Literacy is the foundation upon which all learning is built. Without strong reading skills, students will struggle as they progress through their education. This need is non-negotiable and becomes even more urgent in light of the nation’s latest–and first post-pandemic–reading scores, which have seen their biggest drop since 1990.

Nearly two-thirds of students from grades four through 12 aren’t considered proficient readers for their grade level, and these numbers are trending in the wrong direction. As troubling as this news is, more alarming is the fact that a certain group of students is consistently left out of efforts to support targeted literacy instruction.

Students who have an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP), as well as those from Title I schools, typically receive special attention and services. However, many students from schools that aren’t designated for Title I support and who haven’t been diagnosed with a learning disability struggle with reading as well.…Read More

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As we embrace the ‘science of reading,’ we can’t leave out older students

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free New York newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

The day before my first day of teaching middle school in 2018, I decorated my Brooklyn public school classroom with quotes from famous people reflecting on the importance of reading. Hanging on cream-colored cardstock were the words of Malcolm X, Toni Morrison, C.S. Lewis, Barack Obama, Maya Angelou, and dozens of other writers and thinkers. I hoped to inspire my students to fall in love with reading. I didn’t think to hope that all my students could do the very thing I was asking them to love. I didn’t know that part of my job as a sixth grade Humanities teacher would be to teach students to read in the first place.

There was a round table in the very back of my classroom that a group of five sixth-graders bee-lined to on day one. On day two, I asked one, then another, to read aloud to me. My request was met with silence, guessing, a fist slammed on the table, and a student storming out of the room. When those sixth grade students finally sat down for a reading assessment, their ability to decode print text was at a first or second grade level.…Read More

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News Flash! PRESSTO Sees Exponential Growth Within Early Launch Of Generative Ai Integration

New York, NY — Within a month of its official launch, edtech startup Pressto has seen unprecedented growth. The first-to-market generative AI for teachers is a classroom ready platform that has yielded over 1,300 teachers and 5,000 student sign-ups – totaling an 875% overall user increase – from more than 700 schools across the country.

“Based on our years of research, we know that both the desire to find alternative tools to motivate writing, as well as the need to remain ahead of students when it comes to AI in the classroom is essential, so we are not surprised that teachers are quickly embracing Pressto and our user numbers are growing at such a rapid pace,” says Pressto Founder and CEO, Daniel Stedman. “There hasn’t been a disruptor in writing in decades until now, and Pressto has found a way to implement this new wave of AI technology to help educators with writing instruction.”

Pressto’s unique capabilities and innovative approach resulted in early accolades for the beta version, including an honorable mention in the Education Category of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards. The platform has continued to push the boundaries of innovation and has since transformed into the first platform to put AI in the hands of teachers, empowering them with tools and knowledge needed to utilize AI confidently and effectively in their classrooms. …Read More

What the F? Grading strategies for early career teachers

According to a recent study, grading is one of the least stressful activities early career teachers have to complete. Grading is time consuming, however, and more grading-related questions are popping up in the news these days. For instance, are teachers allowed to reduce grades for late work? Are students allowed to retake tests on which they did not do well? It is essential that teachers have a clear and supportive grading system in place to address the scrutiny of today’s students, parents, and other stakeholders.

Setting up a grading system requires more than a calculator. A philosophical foundation is important to how a teacher grades. Having a philosophical basis for grading helps instructors explain grades, their meaning, and their value to students, who may then see the grade as less arbitrary.Two common approaches to further mitigate this arbitrary nature include normative-based grading and criterion- or standards-based grading. To build a strong, meaningful grading policy, instructors must choose the approach that best fits the course design and student learning outcomes.

Instructors who choose a normative approach will grade based upon relative performance. A teacher’s fallback practice may be to grade on a curve; however, curved grading is philosophically flawed in most course level applications. Effective instructional design models and psychometrics generally anticipate that students can master an end-of-course exam with a 70 to 80 percent score. Exams that do not reflect that criteria may have been poorly designed. Otherwise, instructional challenges or lack of student engagement could be to blame. Some college courses simply provide a curved score for students to lower the failure rate or to stratify student performance. This, however, does not evidence how students understood the content. Curved grades only show how students performed in relation to other students instead of reflecting students’ mastery of the materials.…Read More

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The News Movement Partners With EXPLR Media to Bring News Content into the Classroom

NEW YORK — Social-first media company, The News Movement (TNM) today announced a new partnership with EXPLR Media (EXPLR), an organization which produces and shares educational videos and curriculum for students in the US. The two companies will collaborate on developing educational news content aimed at grade 7-12 children. The partnership will also provide EXPLR and TNM with access to each company’s library of content to share across their audiences. 

With over 1.7 billion views and 1.1 million followers across its network of owned brands, TNM meets Gen Z where they are, providing them with engaging journalism to help them understand and navigate the world around them. As part of the collaboration, TNM will adapt its storytelling techniques to suit a slightly younger audience. TNM will provide EXPLR with both existing and new content to be streamed via EXPLR’s curriculum-aligned service. 

TNM Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief, Kamal Ahmed said: “We know the power digital storytelling has to inspire and engage audiences, and with that power comes the need to ensure younger generations are equipped with the skills and education to identify and seek out fact-based quality journalism and useful content. That’s why the partnership with EXPLR is a significant one for us here at TNM. Through our audience engagement and listening, we have a robust understanding of Gen Z’s media consumption and preferences and we look forward to broadening our focus to Gen Alpha with the help of the team at EXPLR.”…Read More

AI’s promising reality in classrooms

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be an ambiguous word in education circles, evoking images of machines replacing human teachers in the future. The truth, while less fantastic, is that AI is a solid tool that assists educators in the classroom right now.

Join experts during an eSchool News webinar to discuss the real-world ways AI operates and how AI systems enable teachers to better interact with students, simplify everyday classroom tasks, and improve overall efficiency and productivity.

Key takeaways include:…Read More