By now, the benefits of increasing student literacy are well understood to be a key factor in student success across a broad spectrum of subjects, from science to civics.

At a time when math and STEM concepts are finding their way into an increasing number of curricular subjects and career paths, math literacy in particular has assumed a vital importance in the 21st century.

The same cannot be said of math class technology. While language arts classes have benefited from the positive effects of technology in the classroom, including increased engagement, individualized learning, and more robust collaboration, math and other STEM subjects have been left behind.

For students that struggle with math, or simply dislike the subject, this lack of technology can further sink engagement and inhibit progress and interest in STEM disciplines. Frustrated students often end up adopting a fixed mindset, believing they’re just “not a math person.”

This technology gap is in part because modern tech tools such as Chromebooks, tablets and laptops often don’t have the necessary tools to help students translate their thoughts and ideas into screen-friendly math language. Digital programs have difficulty with simple notation symbols such as square root (√) or pi (π), not to mention the more complex formulas like the quadratic equation. And most equation editors require a high level of knowledge of math syntax to create these symbols and formulas.

Enter EquatIO™, a Google Chrome extension* from Texthelp® that is compatible with Google’s near ubiquitous suite of collaboration tools, including Docs, Forms, Slides Sheets, and Drawings. EquatIO makes it easier for students of all learning levels and styles to make math digital and benefit from the use of technology.

The extension features a robust equation editor, which enables students to input math in the form they prefer. Students can speak into a device and watch as it translates their words into equations before their eyes. A predictive text feature suggests possible formulas and equations the student might be working toward. And on touchscreen laptops, such as the new generation of Chromebooks, a special tool digitizes handwritten math. Students can even use EquatIO to have problems accurately read back to them through Read&Write integration.

When students can focus their attention on concepts, not syntax, it opens a whole new world of excitement in the problems math can help solve in their everyday lives. Finally, every student can confidently, and accurately, say they are a math person, too.

Additional Resources:

Whitepaper: Giving Students a New Lease on Math
Despite the great strides education technology has made during the past decade, its impact on the math classroom has been limited. With a recent push toward advancing deeper learning, math experts look at how emerging technology is improving student engagement, allowing teachers to focus less on memorizing formulas and more on real-world applications for math that will serve them the rest of their lives.

*Availability of EquatIO within the Microsoft Windows environment is coming this Fall.

Ensuring the promise of connected learning and the opportunities of instant information in the classroom doesn’t begin with a swipe of a tablet—it begins in the server room.

As technology becomes indispensable in the classroom, having the proper infrastructure in place to harness wireless and mobile devices has never been more important. This has created a need for educators to address the health of the systems that support education technology across their campuses.

According to a study by the Federal Communications Commission, more than half of teachers surveyed reported that slow or unreliable internet access prevents effective use of technology in their classrooms. In order for students to access digital learning tools, the FCC recommended schools extend high-speed internet access to every classroom and instructional space.

But before educators can fully address digital learning tools like broadband internet access and the tablets, Chromebooks and cloud services that connect their classrooms to the world, they must first upgrade their technical infrastructure, beginning with the heart of the system.

Critical server-room components such as an uninterruptible power supply, or UPS—which provides emergency power to keep critical systems running during a power failure and protects against damaging electrical surges—along with power distribution, data center and routers are key to keeping technology humming in the classroom.

APC by Schneider Electric is helping schools advance digital learning by getting a handle on their technology infrastructure. Now, the company is giving away a $10,000 server-room makeover opportunity to one lucky school.

Does your school’s server room need a makeover? Submit a pic or video for a chance to win a grand prize containing IT equipment of your school’s choosing, from power protection, servers and routers to Chromebooks, tablets, touch-screen monitors and more. The contest ends at midnight on June 30, 2017.

3 Tips for Streamlining Your Server Room

Want to keep saving money on your server room? Consider these helpful tips and get the most for your school district’s money.

1. Consolidate Underused Servers
   Instead of running separate servers for each application, take advantage of your servers’ full potential by tapping unused portions for consolidation.
2. Get More Efficient
   Your uninterrupted power supply should be replaced about every ten years to maintain system reliability and efficiency. Is it time to upgrade to a new model?
3. Clear the Clutter
   Your server room components require cool air circulation that prevents overheating. Extend the life of your UPS, routers and more by minding air flow.

As an essential aspect of K-12 instruction, assessment impacts everything from district level decisions about resources and training to classroom level decisions that differentiate instruction and personalize learning. From the district perspective, it affects instructional needs, curriculum, and school funding while helping to answer the following critical questions: Are our students learning what they need to learn and at the right pace? And if not, what can we be doing better to create a roadmap for student success?

“Of course, great teaching and strong support for students matter most in how well students are learning,” NMC/CoSN write in their 2016 Horizon Report, “but clear standards and useful assessments that actually measure the standards provide the needed foundation for success. They signal what’s important and how well students are doing.”

More specifically, high quality assessment empowers educators to be more effective by optimizing assessment use to boost student achievement, and:

1. Allow for students to use assessment data to make choices about their areas of concentration and focus. This creates and environment of “choice” and helps to spur student motivation. It also provides complete visibility into individual student knowledge and readiness and leverages assessment to understand precisely what each student does (and doesn’t) know.
2. Produce valid and reliable results. Assessment data is 85%-95% reliable when it’s created by content experts within an assessment organization, (add source if we are quoting directly)
3. Offer connections to standards-based instructional resources. These assets should include learning objects, including vetted OER, that are interactive and responsive.
4. Provide structured assessments as well as flexible classroom assessment capabilites. Fixed formats provide a high-level view of student knowledge and facilitate comparative analysis. Classroom assessment creation tools should be robust, and allow for the creation of tech-enhanced item types
5. Generates meaningful and actionable insights. High quality assessment takes the massive quantities of performance data and translates that into meaningful, actionable reports that pinpoint current student progress, predict future achievement, and inform instruction. Administrators use the data to run various levels of reports, detect patterns at all of those levels, and uncover academic areas that require additional resources.

4 Steps to Optimizing Assessment and Boosting Student Achievement
The McGraw-Hill Education (MHE) Assessment Optimization Process guides you through assessment optimization in four easy steps.

5 Key Considerations When Evaluating an Assessment System
Today, sophisticated assessment systems bring complete visibility into individual student knowledge and readiness. This infographic spells out the five critical components to consider when evaluating an assessment system.

Uncovering Exactly What Each Student Knows and is Ready to Learn Next
The right assessment system can work in any size classroom, school or district. This paper reviews five critical components that every school district should consider when evaluating assessment systems.

• Best Free Formative Assessment Tools and Apps
• Assessing Students in Online and Virtual Classrooms
• How It’s Done: Assessing and Teaching SEL Competencies

See for yourself with a free trial!

In part because of their success with LANGUAGE! Live, Knox County is the first large, metropolitan district in Tennessee to be recognized as an “exemplary” district.

Many of the district’s struggling adolescent readers believed that they would never be able to learn how to read—that they were “too dumb” to learn as they had repeatedly failed. After the district implemented LANGUAGE! Live for middle- and high-school readers who were struggling, teachers reported that it was tremendous to see students realize that they are smart and can learn to read successfully.

Teachers say that LANGUAGE! Live bridges the gap between where students actually are and where they need to be. While all teachers successfully implemented LANGUAGE! Live, the teachers who were the most successful were those who participated in the Year Long Reading Course based on the LETRS program—both programs by Voyager Sopris Learning. One program director describes it as a master’s level course in teaching students how to read.

All struggling readers experienced Lexile growth, but students of the teachers who participated in the professional development program experienced the greatest growth.

Northwest Middle School principal Karen Loy reports that 60 percent of her incoming sixth graders were reading at a second-grade level. Because they implemented LANGUAGE! Live with great fidelity, after three years of LANGUAGE! Live intervention, her students “leave the school as literate adult readers.”

How LANGUAGE! Live closes the gap in adolescent reading skills faster

Teacher Antavia Hamilton-Ochs at Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Alaska, says that students with reading deficiencies are constantly reminded in every class and subject that they have low reading skills. Adolescents who haven’t experienced academic achievement can be very dispirited.

After implementing LANGUAGE! Live with her students, Hamilton-Ochs was surprised to see how much of a difference the blended solution made for them. She has a mixed class in both Level 1 and Level 2, so she rotates the students between teacher-led instruction and the online component. She says the students were immediately engaged because of the avatars, peer videos, and the fact that the program was designed specifically for secondary students.

LANGUAGE! Live supports both teachers and students with instructional and learning strategies. For example, Hamilton-Ochs provides students with immediate feedback after listening to their voice recordings. These recordings allow her to see who needs additional help and who is doing well enough to move to the next level. Some Bartlett students have shown significant growth of up to two to three years of progress in one school year—up to 300 Lexile points of growth.

“LANGUAGE! Live is life changing,” Hamilton-Ochs says, “and can help break the cycle of poverty, so that these kids can have they life they deserve.”

Charleston County (SC) Schools was looking for a program for struggling adolescent readers to fill in the gaps of the reading instruction they missed in elementary school. The district chose LANGUAGE! Live to use with 812 students in 23 schools.

School leaders wanted an age-appropriate reading program with multiple components that would engage their struggling readers. With LANGUAGE! Live, they found a comprehensive, blended reading solution that focuses on both foundational and advanced literacy skills.

Teachers report that students are able to work at their own pace, and on different levels than what their peers are on. LANGUAGE! Live’s avatars and peer videos resulted in high levels of student engagement and buy-in.

The blended learning format allows for both online and teacher-led instruction. Writing skill development is also integrated in LANGUAGE! Live, providing teachers and students with a comprehensive ELA program.

Repeating the reading strategies over and over has resulted not only in reading success, but students are also taking those learning strategies into their other classes, so their success is extending to other parts of the curriculum as well.

Burke Middle School executive principal Maurice D. Cannon, Sr. says, “One hundred percent of students participating in LANGUAGE! Live have seen significant growth.” In many cases, the growth has been between 200 and 500 Lexile points in one year.

When Principal Mario Acosta arrived at Hernandez Middle School in Round Rock (TX) Independent School District, he brought LANGUAGE! Live with him from his previous school. Based on his prior experience with the program, Acosta says that “closing the literacy gap will allow us to close the achievement gap.”

Using LANGUAGE! Live has been a life-changing experience for Hernandez students who have struggled to meet grade-level benchmarks in reading. The program individualizes instruction for every student.

“Students find success immediately,” says Acosta, “because the program is meeting them at their individual level. We’ve seen years of Lexile gaps closed in a semester.”

Not only are students achieving proficiency in reading, but they’re also gaining confidence so their success spreads to other subjects. In addition, teachers have seen a correlated increase in STAR achievement test scores.

About LANGUAGE! Live

LANGUAGE! Live redefines literacy intervention. Struggling readers in grades 5–12 excel with two times the literacy gains to close gaps faster than they can with any other literacy product. LANGUAGE! Live is a comprehensive literacy solution that focuses on foundational and advanced learning skills with digital and teacher-led intervention to significantly improve reading and writing skills. It meets students where they are and gets them where they need to be. LANGUAGE! Live inspires new levels of confidence and drive in students at all levels who are struggling to become successful readers. This award-winning, blended literacy program accelerates literacy growth so students can meet grade-level expectations and participate in core instruction. With LANGUAGE! Live, students discover the impossible is possible.

LANGUAGE! Live is a blended model that combines the power of teacher instruction with online practice and instruction. Teacher-led Text Training helps students advance in their knowledge and understanding of vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension, and—unlike other programs—LANGUAGE! Live also provides extensive writing practice. Online Word Training addresses foundational skills including phonics, spelling, sentence structure, and fluency.

Students love the avatars, peer videos, and relevant content. As students progress in reading increasingly difficult texts, their vocabulary grows and they learn grammar and syntax in context so that their comprehension and writing improve as well. All students are successful because LANGUAGE! Live was designed specifically for them.

In a blended classroom with students at different levels, a solution that’s easy to learn and implement is needed. LANGUAGE! Live simplifies it all with expert support, comprehensive teacher training, and on-demand coaching to successfully prepare teachers.

LANGUAGE! Live is successful because it is:
• Effective—fostering both foundational and advanced learning
• Innovative—with student-driven technology, age-appropriate programming, and a captivating social media platform
• Flexible—able to be implemented in any classroom.

Find out more about how LANGUAGE! Live closes gaps in students reading skills faster than any other literacy program. See for yourself with a free trial!

The more students read, the more likely they are to think critically, learn independently and develop a lifelong love of reading. Research shows that using a variety of texts helps students develop strategies to understand, analyze and synthesize information.

Schools are increasing access to digital resources with 21st century school libraries that provide novels, non-fiction on every topic and other materials on demand.

With the growing use of 1:1 solutions, districts leverage the value of their investment with 24/7 access to digital materials. Using the OverDrive digital reading platformwhich is customized for each school or district, students can find eBooks and audiobooks that are aligned with curriculum, develop a love of reading and improve performance in all content areas.

Digital content is customizable, convenient, and engaging. It enables teachers to personalize instruction, encourages students to read independently and holds student attention. In addition, digital resources can be updated quickly, may be adapted to address students’ learning differences and styles and can offer interactive functions that pique student interests. The result is that students improve reading proficiency, frequency and achievement.

Learn more:

Napa Valley eBook integration
In Napa Valley California, students’ reading scores and reading enjoyment have increased as a result of their digital program. What makes the difference is anytime access to resources. Teachers select materials by grade level, lexile scores, or topic. Watch the video.

Aligning Digital Reading Resources to Curriculum Objectives
Districts are leveraging their investments in technology to use eBooks and other digital resources to improve students’ reading proficiency, frequency, and achievement. Students benefit from an easy-to-use solution that offers 24/7 access so that learning can happen anytime and anywhere.

Sharing digital books across districts
Utah’s Southwest Educational Development Center employs a shared collection of digital materials that enables two or more schools or districts to provide equal access to reading resources with a single, easy-to-use website. Read the case study.

School library evolves, expands with eBooks
Texas’ Mesquite ISD embraces digital technology to promote 21st century learning and create lifelong readers by providing access to digital materials in every format. Read the case study.

Blended learning is driving student success in schools across the U.S., and education leaders in school districts far and wide are taking notice of the results.

Blended learning combines online learning with traditional classroom methods and gives students a measure of control over the time, place, path and pace of their learning. This technique has improved performance by increasing student engagement and one-on-one and small-group time, resulting in enhanced differentiation of instruction and higher levels of student and peer achievement.

More than half of school principals have observed positive learning outcomes resulting from implementing digital and online content in the classroom, according to Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up research. Teachers are starting to view themselves as having blended classrooms—one in three teachers described their classrooms as blended in the past two years.

These educators have learned that reaching digital natives, the current generation of students who were born into mobile technology such as tablets and smart phones, through digital learning techniques meets them on their home turf. Ninety percent of middle and high school students and nearly 40 percent of elementary students have access to smart devices at home. They learn by search engine and expect to learn that way whether schools take advantage or not. But when they do, all stakeholders win.

Additional Resources

Blackboard Classroom, a digital learning environment for K-12, erases barriers to learning by setting students, teachers, district leaders and parents on a digital learning path that positively impacts student achievement. Read on to learn how to implement a blended learning program in your classroom and school district.

Infographic: Student Success through Personalized Learning
Education leaders are seeing the value and need to personalize learning for students by leveraging digital learning tools. Explore this infographic to uncover ways to help students succeed in your classrooms.

Five Ways to Embrace Blending Learning in Elementary Education
Collaboration leads to engagement in the classroom, and that leads to student success. We asked Paula Barr, a second grade blended learning teacher in Lawrence, Kan., to share her tips on how to create a collaborative learning environment within the classroom.

Download: Project Tomorrow Digital Trends Report
The idea of personalized learning has been a long-standing goal of K-12 education. The digital tools needed to support this goal have finally caught up to the ideal. This report details the experiences and insights of innovative school and district administrators across the U.S. who are scaling the use of digital content, resources and tools to empower new learner-centric, highly differentiated classroom environments.

eBook: Learn How to Blend with Blackboard Classroom
Blended learning makes it possible for all students to succeed. Download this eBook to learn what it is, what it looks like in the classroom and how it can benefit students and teachers. Then, read five ways to incorporate blended learning in your school and get started on your pathway to student success.

As the entire field of education continues to evolve - from curriculum and standards to accountability – teachers and administrators are expected to achieve ever-increasing degrees of success with ever-decreasing levels of resources. The reality, however, is that all the knowledge, experience, and dedication in the world can’t add hours to the day. Fortunately, educators don’t need to work harder. They just need the tools to work smarter.

Professional Learning Communities are literally changing the way the education process is viewed, understood, and accomplished. Collaboration is building bridges and closing gaps. Flexibility is driving curriculum modifications and meaningful interventions. And technology is helping deliver on the promise of efficiency and effectiveness. The challenge is to bring all these components together in a way that is both manageable and affordable within existing educational systems.

Educators Need the Tools to Work Smarter

GradeCam offers a comprehensive solution to this dilemma by streamlining processes, reducing costs, connecting stakeholders, and providing actionable data in a timely manner. Teachers are able to customize assessments, get immediate feedback, share information, and address needs as they arise. And GradeCam can facilitate all of these functions without requiring any special forms or equipment – just plain paper and a computer, tablet, smartphone, or document camera. But perhaps the best part is that GradeCam can also automatically transfer and record scores with the touch of a button.

Teachers are able to create unique forms specific to their needs, regardless of grade or subject area, comprised of multiple choice, true/false, number grids, rubrics, credit assignments, and more. And they can use them however they choose, from adding form code identifiers to regular assessments, or embedding them into existing worksheets, to laminating them for re-use, or printing multiples on a page to save paper.

Not only does GradeCam then make scoring instantaneous, but it also generates individual and cumulative data that can be viewed by question, score, student, class, teacher, school, and existing or custom standards. It even produces reports and enables direct sharing between educators and/or administrators.

By combining all the best elements of a successful PLC model with state-of-the-art technology developed by teachers, for teachers, GradeCam is already delivering proven results at schools and districts across the nation.

See the results of one school’s PLC breakthrough with GradeCam.

View Case Study

As the entire field of education continues to evolve - from curriculum and standards to accountability – teachers and administrators are expected to achieve ever-increasing degrees of success with ever-decreasing levels of resources. The reality, however, is that all the knowledge, experience, and dedication in the world can’t add hours to the day. Fortunately, educators don’t need to work harder. They just need the tools to work smarter.

Professional Learning Communities are literally changing the way the education process is viewed, understood, and accomplished. Collaboration is building bridges and closing gaps. Flexibility is driving curriculum modifications and meaningful interventions. And technology is helping deliver on the promise of efficiency and effectiveness. The challenge is to bring all these components together in a way that is both manageable and affordable within existing educational systems.

Educators Need the Tools to Work Smarter

GradeCam offers a comprehensive solution to this dilemma by streamlining processes, reducing costs, connecting stakeholders, and providing actionable data in a timely manner. Teachers are able to customize assessments, get immediate feedback, share information, and address needs as they arise. And GradeCam can facilitate all of these functions without requiring any special forms or equipment – just plain paper and a computer, tablet, smartphone, or document camera. But perhaps the best part is that GradeCam can also automatically transfer and record scores with the touch of a button.

Teachers are able to create unique forms specific to their needs, regardless of grade or subject area, comprised of multiple choice, true/false, number grids, rubrics, credit assignments, and more. And they can use them however they choose, from adding form code identifiers to regular assessments, or embedding them into existing worksheets, to laminating them for re-use, or printing multiples on a page to save paper.

Not only does GradeCam then make scoring instantaneous, but it also generates individual and cumulative data that can be viewed by question, score, student, class, teacher, school, and existing or custom standards. It even produces reports and enables direct sharing between educators and/or administrators.

By combining all the best elements of a successful PLC model with state-of-the-art technology developed by teachers, for teachers, GradeCam is already delivering proven results at schools and districts across the nation.

See the results of one school’s PLC breakthrough with GradeCam.

View Case Study

What’s the biggest complaint about classroom projectors? In a recent poll, 64% of projector users say it’s the Lamps. The lamps lose brightness and need to be replaced, or they stop working and need to be replaced. Not only do you lose productivity without your classroom projector (how many teachers can teach without a projector these days?), the cost of a replacement lamp is expensive, as well as the cost of someone getting up on a ladder and replacing that lamp.

Maintenance for lamp projectors is also an issue. Not only do lamp projectors require costly replacement lamps every year or two, they also needed frequent air filter changes and cleaning. Since projection lamps run very hot, the LCD or DLP elements, power supplies and other internal components tend to deteriorate rapidly, further limiting the useful life of the projector.

Some schools were so aggravated with lamps and the constant maintenance for their lamp projectors that they switched to flat panel displays, sacrificing screen size for reliability. But even though flat panels are getting larger (84 inches and up now); they are still nowhere near the 20 foot widths you can normally get from a projector. While the 84” screen size may work fine in smaller rooms, students can have difficulty reading text on the smaller flat panels from the back of a larger classroom. As LampFree projector pricing has decreased over the last few years some of the schools that switched to flat panels are now switching back to projectors.

For other schools going LampFree was a better solution right from the start. Having a LampFree projector means no more lamps to replace, no more filters to replace, less down time, lower maintenance costs (less ladder climbing…) and now they are smaller, lighter, and brighter than ever. While lamps on traditional lamp projectors lose brightness between 1,000 and 3,000 hours, the light sources for many LampFree projectors are rated for up to 20,000 hours with minimal degradation in brightness. That means your LampFree projector could last over 10 years, based on an average six hours of use a day during a 180-day school year, without ever having to get out the ladder and change a lamp.

Another advantage of going LampFree is no harmful Mercury. Mercury is a highly toxic element that is hazardous to human health and to the environment. The adverse effects of mercury poisoning cannot be understated. Although the use of mercury is widely prohibited worldwide today, this hazardous substance continues to be employed as a light source for conventional projector lamps. LampFree projectors have no Mercury and are better for the environment.

Casio, a company ahead of the times, has already completely eliminated the use of mercury in its projectors, starting with the world’s first “Green Slim” LampFree projectors in 2010 and now their entire projector assortment is LampFree. In addition, Casio LampFree projectors consume less energy, up to 50% less electricity when compared to conventional lamp projectors, have no expensive replacement lamps or filters to replace, and since they require minimal maintenance, they require minimal labor costs to maintain. When you add up the original purchase price, the cost of replacement lamps, replacement filters, labor costs, and higher energy usage, LampFree projectors cost much less over the 20,000 hour life of your projector.

So it’s not a big surprise that more and more schools are choosing LampFree projectors. According to PMA data, there is a growing trend away from lamp projectors and last year more than 23% of all projectors sold were LampFree. PMA is predicting that by the year 2020 38% of all projectors sold in the US will be LampFree.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

LampFree Case Study

LampFree Full Line Catalog

The shift to digital curriculum has begun, and if it hasn’t yet reached your school or district, it’s just a matter of time.

According to the Consortium for School Networking’s 2015 IT Leadership Survey, 84 percent of school technology officials expect that at least half of their instructional materials will be digitally based within three short years.

And with this move to digital, educators who continue to use yesterday’s ways of managing their curriculum will soon find themselves behind the curve.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Educators at Houston ISD (Texas), Forsyth County (Georgia), Harford County (Maryland) and Bartholomew CSC (Indiana) have found ways to successfully manage this digital transition, each using a distinct model aligning with their school system’s visions, goals and philosophies.

In this article we’ll explore the importance of effective curriculum management, some common curriculum challenges educators just like you are facing, as well as uncover four different ways you can make curriculum management in the digital classroom successful.

Why Is Curriculum Management Important?

By implementing a consistent framework for teaching across the school district, leaders can assess student and teacher performance against common standards, making it easier to spot issues that may need immediate attention, as well as discover best practices that may otherwise be hidden.

However, none of this is possible unless the district has put practices in place to effectively manage their curriculum. To put this in perspective, because of its very nature, digital content is constantly changing, and districts already have a hard time making sense of the mountains of student data that seem to multiply daily.

When these forces come together, threats such as content gaps, inefficiencies in developing and adapting curriculum – or worse, missed opportunities for student intervention, become magnified.

Outcomes of Effective Curriculum Management

Talk to any district leader about some of the biggest challenges they face, and you’re likely to find that many educators grapple with the same types of issues: difficulty in tracking and comparing student progress; too many systems in place; inefficient processes for curriculum changes; and how to handle previous investment in other resources.

The solution for many educators? A system to effectively manage their digital curriculum.

To understand how this works in practice, let’s look at some examples of how different school systems have built curriculum management systems that allow them to more effectively track student progress; drive efficiency by providing easy access to courses and student progress data; and help them make the most of the investments they’ve already made to support their curriculum.

Four Strategies for Successful Curriculum Management

Because your district’s vision, goals and philosophies are unique, chances are your approach to curriculum management also differs from other districts around you.

That’s why it’s important to weigh a variety of options when it comes to deciding the best way to manage your digital curriculum.

Following are four successful curriculum management strategies used by school districts across the country – all made possible with the help of their learning management system (LMS).

1. Align units, lessons and assessments

Create a system that lets you connect your content to district, state or national standards, as well as established learning outcomes and your own learning objectives.

2. Make it a one-stop solution

Save time with a solution that gives teachers, curriculum managers and parents quick, easy access to courses, resources and student progress – all from one user interface, with one login

3. Adopt a dynamic solution

Drive efficiency by ensuring that all changes are automatically reflected throughout your district, in every school and for every teacher

4. Build in best practices

Encourage best practices by building them into your course design and pedagogy, as well as providing online spaces for resource sharing and teacher collaboration

5. Maximize your curriculum investment

Make your investment in existing resources go further by making sure all of your resources are easily accessible to teachers, including free content

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Going Digital: A Curriculum Management Playbook

Challenges of Digital Curriculum Management: By the Numbers

8 Essentials for Digital Curriculum Management

Join Tech & Learning content director Kevin Hogan, Superintendent Henry Thiele, Tech Director Scott Harris, and Division Director Chris Prekopa from Comcast Business for a webinar on this same topic. Register here.

While virtually every school in the U.S. is connected to the internet thanks to the federal E-rate program, that standard alone doesn't add up to success in the 21st century.

Educators and administrators today face a host of complexities around the issue of digital equity, including capacity planning, affordability and keeping pace with devices and platforms. It is without question the biggest challenge facing educators today

The rapid evolution of technology toward ever-advancing and interconnected devices is widening the digital equity gap in education, even as schools prepare students to participate in the digital economy by learning coding and media production instead of passively using modules.

Where once this technology could be considered a luxury, it is now a necessity—and communities agree that success in education shouldn't depend on a child's zip code. Providing access to technology is the sure path to achieving digital equity and giving students the best chance at success.

But school districts facing limited resources simply cannot meet these challenges alone. Solving this complex problem requires a community-wide effort built around partnerships in business and beyond that make it easier for educators to provide access to crucial technologies such as broadband internet and mobile devices, in order to truly prepare students for the future.

Businesses, not for profits, parents and leaders in communities nationwide are guiding the way to tearing down the silos that house access to resources. These types of partnerships—with participation from state and federal education officials—are key to finding scalable solutions that can be applied to school districts large and small.

Ideas such as helping identify free wifi sources, or providing wifi hot spot checkout opportunities at school libraries, are helping uncover ways to create digital access for all students outside of the classroom. Identifying and leveraging state and federal resources are also areas in which a community-partnership approach can lead to digital equity.

Webinar: Solving the Digital Equity Puzzle

Through a partnership approach, Comcast Business is helping schools, universities and libraries bridge the equity gap in the classroom and beyond.

Listen in on a webinar as Tech & Learning content director Kevin Hogan will lead a panel discussion on how to solve the digital equity puzzle. Joining him on this challenging topic are panel members Henry Thiele, superintendent of a large suburban district, and Scott Harris, tech director of a rural district, as well as Chris Prekopa from Comcast Business.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Ethernet: Paving a Path to Higher Learning

http://cbcommunity.comcast.com/browse-all/details/ethernet-paving-a-path-to-higher-learning

Stay Connected in the Digital Classroom (Infographic)

http://cbcommunity.comcast.com/browse-all/details/infographic-stay-connected-in-the-digital-classroom

The power to harness and visualize current, contrasting data across a school district is altering the way administrators and superintendents plan and communicate change.

More data than ever before is being generated by internal resources as well as external sources. The key to using this information is having a tool to pull them together for analysis. By connecting the dots between student characteristics and performance, property records and other data sets with physical addresses, geovisual analytics organize and bring patterns to vivid life. (see also: http://guidek12.com/category/resources/)

Visualization is crucial when tackling issues like boundary change, demographic shifts, referendum planning, open enrollment analysis and program placement. With the majority of the population categorized as visual learners, visual analytics make it easy for decision makers to clearly see answers as well as explain the causes behind changes in policy, and to communicate in ways more people will easily understand.

Geovisual analytics are providing actionable information in easy-to-understand bites that match the visual learning habits of the majority of people, allowing school districts to make informed decisions. Administrators are now able to find patterns, such as analyzing open enrollment trends to visualize where a student lives and where they attend, helping them avoid potential capacity challenges by identifying trends early.

When administrators can see how resource allocation aligns with student dispersion and patterns, programs for special needs populations can be located in the areas of greatest need, and diversity policies such as free and reduced lunch can be properly planned. Creating scenarios for growth or consolidation can be done by those closest to the issues and at a very granular level for impact analysis.

GuideK12 is helping administrators visualize their school districts’ complete stories and show stakeholders the data behind their decisions in a platform that virtually anyone can use. Learn just how easily this tool can improve your decision making and communication.

GuideK12 helps districts find quick answers:

•What is the impact of these boundary changes? Where is the boundary best located?
•Where are the voters in the community and do they have students?
•Where do the students live and where do they attend? Where are you losing capacity or getting too close on capacity?
•Are the specialized programs placed in the building closest to where the students with the need reside?
•Are there any patterns to understand regarding students not performing well on standardized test and any other factor? What could be done to support those students?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Why Analytics Are Key to Solving Budget Woes
When the Sunnyside Unified School District in Arizona faced a budget shortfall, administrators used geovisual analysis to address the issue strategically and create a solution that benefitted its stakeholders.

How Data Can Influence a Capital Campaign
Bond requests to replace aging infrastructure and provide 21st century learning environments can present challenges in today’s tax tolerance climate. See how data visualization can help target the right people with the right messaging.

See also: www.GuideK12.com

The digital revolution has helped level the playing field in learning, giving millions access to information and opportunities through internet access. But one giant hurdle is keeping this generation from taking full advantage of those benefits.

A wide gulf still separates many schools and their students from their constantly growing connectivity needs. Shoring up the digital divide to bridge the equity gap is one of the greatest challenges for today’s educators.

While most administrators and IT representatives agree that the future of K-12 education hinges on ubiquitous connectivity, the number of those with plans mapping out long-term network capacity needs falls well short.

Added to that is the large number of students who arrive at school early or visit fast-food restaurants to access the internet. Federal programs such as E-Rate help address these issues and allow schools to create fully connected, high-bandwidth environments that can make the difference in learning.

Comcast Business helps schools, universities and libraries bridge the equity gap in the classroom and beyond. Learn how you can leverage their expertise and advanced technology to increase opportunities for student success.

Additional Resources

Webinar: Breaking Through Barriers for Digital Equity

Join Tech & Learning’s Content Director, Kevin Hogan, on 9/14 as he leads a lively conversation with education leaders including Adam Phyall, Director of Technology & Media Services, Newton County Schools, Aleigha Henderson-Rosser, Executive Director, Instructional Technology, Atlanta Public Schools, and Chris Prekopa, Director, Comcast Business, about the challenges challenges many schools still face and proven strategies to conquer the obstacles creatively and successfully.

Ambitious Digital Learning Plans Push Schools to Pursue Greater Network Reach

Schools today typically need 100 Mbps for every 1,000 Internet users, and the need for bandwidth will continue to rise to support enhanced learning and online assessment advances. A scalable, large-capacity native network can deliver level performance over all locations on campus.

Staying Connected in the Digital Classroom

Schools faced with tightening budgets can get their students connected for collaborative and distance learning, multimedia curriculums, and much more through the power of high speed networks. Scroll through this infographic to learn more.

White Paper: Paving a Path to Higher Learning

Common Core, the White House ConnectED initiative, and the U.S. Department of Education’s Future Ready initiative are helping drive the digital pace of education—and a majority of classrooms are already using streaming video and supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)initiatives for students. Learn how to make these essential learning tools work for your school.

Students in the U.S. today show a high interest in attending college after graduating from high school, but getting them there is proving to be a challenge for educators.

The disparity in expectations between students’ goals and outcomes is wide and growing. Although their overall desire to attend college has increased over the past two decades—93 percent of middle school students now say that is their goal—less than half actually enroll in college and only 26 percent graduate within six years of enrolling.

Meanwhile, researchers predict that within the next decade, 63 percent of all jobs in the U.S. and nearly all high-wage jobs in growing industries will require some college education. What happens when these trends eventually intersect?

Given that 20 percent of incoming freshmen at four-year institutions, and half of those at two-year colleges, are enrolling in some type of remedial coursework, preparedness is a forefront issue. K−12 educators can help reduce the gap between expectations and outcomes by addressing the need for ongoing assessments throughout the students’ educational careers.

Assessments provide actionable data that educators can use to understand strengths and weaknesses among individual students, and then create improvement and intervention plans that help them achieve their goals. By ensuring that students are learning the necessary skills as they advance through elementary, middle, and secondary schooling, educators can prepare students for life beyond K−12.

Acuity® from McGraw Hill Education can help you measure how students are achieving in alignment with their goals and the Career- and College-Readiness Standards (CCRS) from the U.S. Department of Education.

Using Data to Inform District Planning

Data is playing an increasingly large role in helping school districts across the U.S. adequately plan for learning needs, and Acuity is giving educators the tools to merge the art and science of education.

Learn the Benefits of Acuity From Educators

Don’t let data intimidate you. See how educators like you are using Acuity to benefit their students and school districts.

Boosting Student Achievement with Personalized Instruction

Through Acuity, acting on data from interim educational assessments can be fun for students. Read how Acuity’s resources can help students increase their progress.

Learning is a multi-sensory experience. Educators understand that classroom set-ups need to optimize sight lines for students, and provide consistently high levels of access to teachers’ spoken presentations and the audio components of multimedia learning. There’s even more to the story, when teachers, technology specialists, and administrators factor in the multiple learning styles that students bring to class. Some are visual. Some are kinesthetic. Others learn best by hearing information and speaking to reinforce their knowledge. And of course, today’s wealth of technology-enhanced learning resources and the drive for personalized learning also underscore the need for high quality audio delivery as a required part of instruction.

Choosing the Right Headphone Solutions

Some learners are distracted by noise around them and that makes it difficult to focus and stay on task. For these learners, many educators are recognizing the advantage of noise cancelling headphones, to limit noisy distractions and interruptions. Other learners improve comprehension and retention by listening to instructional content and/or reading and listening simultaneously. Here, clear, crisp audio is critical so students can engage fully in the concepts and content being presented. And in reading and foreign language classes, students need to speak aloud and hear themselves accurately, to develop fluency, expression, and reading confidence. Headsets that include built-in microphones and are designed to reproduce the student voice accurately and without distortion are critical to student progress.

Durability and Reliability Are Part of the Equation

From a practical standpoint, headphones and headsets for school use are in a class by themselves. They need to be designed for constant, rugged use and be priced affordably for whole class, small group, and individual users. Warranties that work in the education setting are critical as well, to protect schools’ investment in this kind of equipment.

A Headphone is a Headphone…Isn’t It?

Headphones have become a standard consumer product but savvy school technology leaders and teachers have come to realize that many “consumer” models simply are not designed or engineered for the rigors of constant educational uses. Further, consumer warranties typically don’t cover school uses. It’s an important distinction and one that can save schools time and money over the longer term.

Califone Specializes in Audio for Education

In 2016, Califone is celebrating its 70th anniversary and the company has been designing and delivering audio equipment for education throughout its long history. Case studies that provide educators’ own stories in using Califone headphones and headsets can be found at www.califone.com/casestudies and the company’s catalog, videos, and other educator resources are available online at www.califone.com/community.php. The company has recently introduced a new gaming headset, for use in instructional games and other game-based learning environments. Information about this latest Califone innovation is available at www.califone.com/products/gh507.php.

Resources

Watch the Listening First Video:

Watch the 3068 Series Video:

High-Quality Headphones Help Boost English Literacy Skills in Young Learners – Read the Case Study

Browse our Teacher Reports Here