Nearly half of all superintendents say STEM will receive new or additional attention this year in classrooms, according to a DA survey of K12 leaders. Unlike last year, which showed that more readers would implement new reading and language arts programs (at least in elementary schools), nearly half of all readers say they will focus […]
Just a few years ago, CIOs—if they were involved in data analytics at all—would run a report, export it into an Excel document and create a chart or a graph to share with teachers and district leaders once a week, or at the end of each semester. Now it's all about creating systems that aggregate […]
It's no surprise that students suffer when their teacher is absent. Substitutes often lack familiarity with the curriculum and class dynamics. What is surprising to learn is how often it happens. Twenty-seven percent of teachers missed 10 or more school days in the 2013-14 year for reasons unrelated to school activities, according to the U.S. […]
Cloud usage is on the rise. In 2014, schools delivered only 42 percent of their IT solutions fully or partially via cloud. In just two years, that number jumped to 67 percent and in three years, K-12 IT pros expect that number to reach 74 percent, according to CDW-G's K-12 Cloud Possibilities infographic. Those numbers […]
A focus on teaching social-emotional skills—persistence, resilience, communication and other non-cognitive abilities—has led to an obvious jump in reading and math scores in Nevada's Washoe County School District. Washoe's students are now "less likely to be suspended, more likely to attend school, and they graduate at a much higher rate than students who didn't have […]
Simplification and integration are the main focus for student information systems (SIS). SIS users are looking for a single sign-on that gives them access to all information they are seeking and also provides a connection to other enterprise software, such as Microsoft or Google products. Users also want to be able to use SIS on […]
A quarter of California students have never seen a dentist by the time they complete fifth grade, according to a recently completed six-year study by the University of the Pacific. Paul Glassman, the director of Pacific Center for Special Care, a program of the university's dentistry, established dental care in various high-needs schools in 2010. […]
A third-grader studying the Spanish settlement of California found a virtual tour online and shared the trip with her classmates by slipping a smartphone into a Google Cardboard viewing device. Such limitless online resources represent a big, blended leap beyond the essays students in Coalinga-Huron USD in Central California used to write. Blended learning for […]
I am not a big advocate of movies. I tend to think of them as a 100 plus minute escape from reality. Moreover, movies tend to condition some minds for the oddness that will likely occur in the future. Despite my general disdain of movies, I was recently compelled to watch in its entirety, Bennett […]
More than 6 million students—representing 13 percent of the K12 population—missed at least 15 days of school in 2013-14, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis from the U.S. Department of Education. "Every district has attendance data, but most haven't been calculating chronic absence" says Hedy Nai-Lin Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, a national initiative to […]
