Author: Hope

Pitsco Educator Grant

Posted on | by Hope

Teachers, you make things happen. Pitsco is so appreciative of all you do to positively impact learners. They are here to cheer you on and assist with funding more opportunities for your students.

  • The Pitsco Educator Grant is open to preK-college educators in traditional classrooms, out-of-school settings, and homeschool.
    Applications are accepted from the first day of each month to the last day of the month (for example, the January grant application period is January 1-31).
  • One $350 grant will be awarded each month at the discretion of Pitsco Education in the form of a Pitsco voucher, not redeemable for cash.
  • The selected educator will be contacted via email and/or phone to confirm acceptance of the grant.
  • The $350 value can be applied across multiple transactions until the total is depleted to $0.
  • An educator may be awarded only one $350 grant during a 12-month period.
  • At a later date, Pitsco will ask each winner to share their experience using the products purchased with the grant.
APPLY TODAY

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Erica Lopez-Negrete Smith
Illinois Sales
800-835-0686
elopez@pitsco.com

Learn More About Pitsco Education

 

Newsela Acquires Formative, Bringing Together Best in Classroom Content and Assessment

Posted on | by Hope

New York, NY – Newsela, the leading K-12 instructional content platform, announced today that it has acquired Formative, the leading real-time instruction and assessment platform. This acquisition brings together two beloved classroom products to provide a comprehensive instructional solution that engages students and accelerates learning.

“Newsela has led the transition away from static classroom instructional materials to become the digital platform of choice for teachers seeking to accelerate student growth with accessible, real-world content and scaffolding activities that support all learners,” said Pep Carrera, Chief Executive Officer at Newsela. “Combining Newsela’s best-in-class, accessible content with Formative’s data-rich assessment activities will give students and teachers the complete, meaningful learning experience they want, while providing the deep insights that teachers and administrators need to effectively impact student outcomes.”

Craig Jones and Kevin McFarland founded Formative as graduate students at UCLA in 2013. Today, Formative is used by educators and administrators globally and has a presence in the majority of U.S. school districts. In the past year alone, more than four million students have engaged with the platform.

“All teachers know the importance of being responsive to their students, but that individual attention requires a lot of time and resources. As a teacher, I saw greater improvements when I had the time to provide daily formative assessments, targeted intervention, and quicker feedback loops. Formative was created to apply this approach at scale, so teachers can do it better, faster, and take swift action with real-time data,” said Craig Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Formative. “Our goal was to give teachers the most effective tool for assessment and analysis. Now, the most effective assessment tool can be used with the best content.”

As school districts look for the best pathways to improve student outcomes following the disruption of the pandemic, the role of formative assessments in concert with authentic, engaging content could not be more critical in the effort to accelerate learning. Teachers will soon be able to apply Formative’s powerful technology to Newsela’s 15,000+ content library to gauge learning immediately, provide even more powerful scaffolds and support while course-correcting in real time to meet academic goals throughout the year.

“We’ve learned that schools can have the best assessments and the best content, but that won’t matter if teachers don’t have the resources to make actionable changes based on data. Formative’s success to date has been giving teachers real-time data that helps make informed decisions,” said Kevin McFarland, Co-Founder and COO of Formative. “Now, with Newsela, teachers will have all the resources—the best content and the best assessments—to help students achieve their goals.”’

The partnership between Newsela and Formative is effective immediately. Customers who have any questions can contact Newsela or Formative, respectively.

 

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

General inquiries: iltpp@newsela.com

New Newsela Schools or Districts
Jenny Pearl
Illinois Partnerships
847-691-1019
Jenny.Pearl@newsela.com

Current Newsela Partners
Nicky Dunlap
Illinois Partnerships
773-495-0703
Nicky.Dunlap@newsela.com

Learn More About Newsela

Otus Talks: How Personalized Learning is Enacted in a Top Rated School | Otus

Posted on | by Hope

How One of the Nation’s Top-Performing Schools Uses Personalized Learning to Drive Student Success: An Interview with Dr. Paul O’Malley, Superintendent of Butler School District 53

How Personalized Learning is Enacted in a Top Rated School | Otus

A Conversation with Dr. Paul O’Malley

We sat down with Dr. Paul O’Malley, superintendent of Butler School District 53, to learn about how he and his colleagues are using Otus to harness powerful student data to drive personalized student learning plans, and how he has helped his district to become one of the highest-performing in the nation. In 2022, Brook Forest Elementary School was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education – marking the fourth time a school in the Butler district has received the prestigious accolade, which is awarded to less than 1% of schools nationwide. Butler was also awarded the Whole Child Award by the Illinois ASCD in 2018. In a recent issue of ILASCD Quarterly Journal, Dr. O’Malley shared the success his district has found through individualized learning plans and how Otus helped make it happen.

Three key takeaways from our conversation with Dr. Paul O’Malley

  1. The importance of data-driven personalized learning plans

Dr. O’Malley highlights the value of using data to drive personalized student learning and the success his district has found through this approach. By leveraging data for decision-making and promoting data literacy among stakeholders, Butler has enhanced student engagement, fostered communication and collaboration, and promoted educational equity. This data-centric approach has boosted student outcomes and propelled the district to the pinnacle of performance rankings.

Otus Plans on an iPad

  1. Embrace a slow, methodical approach, and rely on support

To ensure educators become more data-wise and comfortable with new systems, Dr. O’Malley recommends a slow and methodical approach, including training and professional development, as well as partnering with companies like Otus to create comprehensive calendars and training programs and provide ongoing support long after the initial onboarding phase. Dr. O’Malley also emphasizes both the challenges and benefits of getting staff to buy into new data-driven initiatives. Implementing a new system like Otus often encounters resistance. However, by involving stakeholders with diverse viewpoints, there’s an assurance of collective agreement, confirming that the new product is appropriate and truly fulfills its intended role.

  1. Balance technology with other aspects of education

While technology like Otus can be a valuable tool for supporting student growth, Dr. O’Malley stresses the importance of balancing technology use with other activities, such as field trips and hands-on learning experiences, to maintain a well-rounded educational experience. Technology is just one tool in an educator’s toolbelt, and will never replace the meaningful experiences that are essential to a well-rounded educational journey.

See the full transcript and learn more by visiting Otus.com

Looking to place an order? Contact your dedicated Account Manager and mention ILTPP:

Paul Kaskovich 
Account Executive
paul@otus.com
773-789-5444 x110

Learn More About Otus

Three ways to build social- emotional learning into classroom culture

Posted on | by Hope

Social-emotional learning (SEL) has gained wide attention in today’s classrooms, and several schools have devoted as much as 10% of their time toward teaching these skills. Fortunately, relationship-building is a key component in SEL instruction—and there are certain things educators can do to maximize this advantage and use SEL time to get to know their learners.

Administrators can support their teachers by making sure they have access to appropriate resources (e.g., texts that are culturally relevant and include SEL themes) and training in student-centered SEL instruction. Even if you don’t have access to Newsela’s SEL Collection, your teachers can still use Newsela content to support social-emotional learning.

READ MORE

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

General inquiries: iltpp@newsela.com 

New Newsela Schools or Districts
Jenny Pearl
Illinois Partnerships
847-691-1019
Jenny.Pearl@newsela.com

Current Newsela Partners
Nicky Dunlap
Illinois Partnerships
773-495-0703
Nicky.Dunlap@newsela.com

Learn More About Newsela

Meet the Lightspeed Classroom Management New User Experience

Posted on | by Hope

Lightspeed’s cloud-based Lightspeed Classroom Management software has a fresh new look and improved functionality designed to save teachers time and place increased focus on instruction.

The refreshed User Experience is clean and intuitive, making it easier to find and access features. There is also a larger focus on student screen monitoring with enhanced functionality for increasing or decreasing screen size and navigating into a full-screen mode to see all student screens in the classroom.

Get Organized with the New “My Classes Homepage”

Teachers can manage all of their classes in the cloud with the new modern, intuitive, and customizable “My Classes” homepage, designed for easy navigation. Easily add and hide classes with the click of a button.

cloud-based classroom management homepage

Classroom Management with Scalable Screens

Teachers love using Lightspeed’s cloud-based classroom management software for its online activity and student screen monitoring features, so this capability has been significantly upgraded and enhanced in the new User Experience.

Students’ screens can now be scaled up or down to a teacher’s liking using the sizing slider in the top navigation menu. An individual screen can be zoomed into full size, which also allows for the projection of that student’s screen to the entire class using the Share Screen functionality.

cloud-based classroom management scalable screens

Manage the Classroom Experience with Ease

Classroom management controls have also improved to make them easier to use and provide increased functionality. Teachers can now color code web rule lists for easier management, pause internet browsing for the whole class for instant eyes-up focus, and see students who are active in another class and add them to their own with a simple click.

classroom management web rules

 

READ MORE

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Lightspeed Systems
Mark Merluzzi
Sales Director
737-206-7931
mmerluzzi@lighspeedsystems.com

sales@lightspeedsystems.com

Learn More About Lightspeed Systems

EdTech Funding on the Move

Posted on | by Hope

Since the onset of the pandemic, we have seen a swell in federal funding allocated for education technology and digital equity initiatives. Through multiple rounds of the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) and other emergency relief efforts, billions of dollars have been allocated to safely connect students to the Internet off-campus.

Spring 2023 has brought a number of updates to some of the most valuable sources of EdTech funding, including the ECF program and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program. These have a wide range of implications, from impacting service delivery deadlines and providing new opportunities to adjust your funding allocations to jeopardizing unobligated funds.

Here’s what you need to know.

Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF): Service Delivery Deadline Extension

Since the inception of the $7.171 billion ECF program, under the umbrella of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Congress has allocated billions to schools, districts, and libraries looking to support their students and patrons with devices and/or Internet connectivity.

On May 12th, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted the Request for Waiver jointly filed by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) and Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) requesting an extension to the ECF service delivery deadline. Instead of December 31, 2023, most applicants will now have until June 30, 2024, to use services purchased with ECF dollars.

READ MORE

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Kris O’Connor
EDU Sales Executive, Kajeet
815-260-7960
koconnor@kajeet.com

Ryan Frohle
Account Manager (Install Accounts)
240-482-3499
rfrohle@kajeet.com 

Learn More About Kajeet

Kajeet Expands K-12 eduroam Access with New Integration

Posted on | by Hope

SmartBus™, Connect Suite, and Smart Transit customers now have access to eduroam integration

MCLEAN, Va., May 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Kajeet®, the leading wireless connectivity and device management provider for education, government, and commercial markets, today announced the immediate availability of the eduroam (education roaming) global network access service for SmartBus, Connect Suite, and Smart Transit customers. As a federated authentication service, eduroam allows participating institutions to provide access to their wireless networks to users from other participating eduroam institutions. It is the global standard for secure authentication and authorization developed for and by the research and education community.

As one of the first leading K-12 network service providers to offer eduroam integration, Kajeet offers its customers who want to become eduroam subscribers or hotspot providers a zero-touch model to authorize educational users and provide secure authentication for their own students, faculty, and staff to Kajeet-powered networks. The integration will allow users to access the school bus WiFi network using their home institution logins on school-provided or personal devices. Authentication of each user is processed automatically through the Internet2-operated eduroam infrastructure. The same process can enable access at a community center, public park, school parking lot, or on local mass transit, such as buses, shuttles, trains, or ferries.

“Kajeet’s eduroam integration offers a significant advancement in secure WiFi access for educational users,” said Michael Flood, senior vice president, Public Sector at Kajeet. “With this integration, our customers can provide safe and easy WiFi access for their students, faculty, and staff, without having to worry about unauthorized use and with a significant reduction in security threats. We are excited to work with Internet2 to expand our educational network and better serve our customers.”

Visiting students, faculty, staff, or researchers from qualifying educational institutions can use the eduroam network with no additional setup or login processes. Institutions can join eduroam to allow their users access to eduroam globally whenever and wherever they travel. Both host and home institutions have access to secure reporting to understand the benefits of their participation for their own users and educational roaming guests.

Existing Kajeet customers may contact their Account Manager to inquire about enabling eduroam. Any entity with compatible 4G and 5G routers can connect with Kajeet to learn how its solutions support secure educational access in their community and join the Kajeet network to offer eduroam access.

For more information about eduroam, please visit:  https://get.kajeet.net/free-eduroam-enablement

About Kajeet

Kajeet provides optimized IoT connectivity, software and hardware solutions that deliver safe, reliable, and controlled internet connectivity to nearly 3,000 businesses, schools and districts, state, and local governments, and IoT solution providers. Kajeet’s private network solutions simplify private wireless to allow customers to design, install and manage their own private wireless networks, while also offering a scalable IoT management platform, Sentinel®, that includes visibility into real-time data usage, policy control management, custom content filters for added security, and multi-network flexibility. Since 2003, Kajeet has helped thousands of organizations connect over a million devices around the world. To learn more, visit kajeet.com

About eduroam

eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming wireless service developed for and by the international research and education community. Internet2 is the operator of eduroam in the U.S., with more than 1,000 eduroam-subscribing organizations. eduroam allows students, researchers, and staff to roam and find connectivity at more than 3,000 locations in the U.S. and more than 33,000 worldwide. To learn more, visit incommon.org/eduroam.

Request free eduroam enablement

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Kris O’Connor
EDU Sales Executive, Kajeet
815-260-7960
koconnor@kajeet.com

Ryan Frohle
Account Manager (Install Accounts)
240-482-3499
rfrohle@kajeet.com 

Learn More About Kajeet

K-12 Cybersecurity Starts Here

Posted on | by Hope

As there has been increased focus and need surrounding EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), JourneyEd and Malwarebytes have teamed up to provide ILTPP members with affordable pricing/benefits without sacrificing quality and security. Malwarebytes provides an EDU-specific solution to help you choose which solutions are right for your school and district, including:

  • Protection and remediation capabilities with EDR
  • Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
  • Mobile device protection (Chromebooks included!)
  • Vulnerability and Patch Management
  • DNS/Content Filtering

Please contact Christine at JourneyEd for your own personal demo and tailored pricing.

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Christine McConnell
Senior Account Manager
636-349-7058
cmcconnell@journeyed.com

Learn More About JourneyEd

The Right to Read: Rebuilding Early Literacy Programs

Posted on | by Hope

Just Right Reader decodables empower students to experience equitable learning through culturally relevant, engaging texts, which induce a love of reading and an authentic sense of belonging in a global society. Additionally, our robust set of titles offers inclusive learning opportunities to students through fictional and informational text, proven to be the best way for students to learn to read. We have more than 450 titles in our library. We’ve partnered with literacy experts Dr. Ray Reutzel, Ph.D., and Dr. Heidi Anne Mesmer, who have endorsed our decodables, helped develop classroom routines for teachers, and ensured our decodables meet the criteria to support student success in reading! Just Right Reader decodables are used by school districts in 48 states in the U.S. and Canada.

Education is a constitutional right, but several students felt it was not being fulfilled after falling behind on reading assessments. In 2017, this led to 10 young readers filing and winning a class action lawsuit against their state for failing to provide adequate literacy instruction.

The Problem

Teachers, especially in underserved and minority communities, require more resources and support. Often, they’re handed materials that don’t align with research or are provided evidence-based materials and not told how to use them.

This gap resulted in students scoring in the <1 percentile on reading assessments for years with minimal intervention. Goldberg, the founder of the Right to Read project, monitored the reading scores of a fifth grader named Clark and found they improved with extra help. However, Clark’s teacher lacked the resources to offer the additional systematic instruction needed for Clark to read proficiently.

The phonics program Clark’s teacher was given included “loose mini-lessons, practice with leveled books, and reading aloud,” which wasn’t enough to help Clark read comfortably. In contrast, Clark’s first-grade teacher had incorporated explicit phonics instruction, one-on-one help, and practice with decodables. With extra practice and science-backed reading lessons, Clark’s reading improved. Unfortunately, not all the teachers in his school had the resources to provide this.

The Solution 

Stories like Clark’s are why the money from the lawsuit didn’t go to the plaintiffs. The 53 million dollar settlement went directly to the 75 lowest performing schools in the state to rework early reading education programs and professional development. Each school developed a unique plan for improving literacy rates and reading assessment scores.

These plans were generally structured in these steps: 

  1. Screen for struggling readers early
  2. Look at the data to learn where improvements need to be made
  3. Disaggregate the data so you can see what’s working for each student
  4. Carry out a curriculum audit to find areas for improvement
  5. Come up with an action plan
  6. Explain to others what you are doing and why

The plans also focused on providing science-backed reading tools such as a phonics scope and sequence, explicit lesson plans, and teacher training on implementing these lesson plans.

Just Right Reader’s decodables align to all phonics programs, making it easy for districts to add supplemental phonics into their core curriculum! Teacher resources, including robust lesson plans, quick start guides, and curriculum alignment charts, make this transition as smooth as possible. Each decodable follows a rigorous phonics progression backed by the latest Science of Reading research, helping students as they progress from phonemic awareness to reading multisyllabic words. 

Are you interested in adding our Science of Reading decodables into your school’s reading programs? Email us at Schools@JustRightReader.com or purchase our Science of Reading decodables here!

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

Julianne DeMartino
Business Development
julianne@justrightreader.com
415-209-5869

Learn More About Just Right Reader

Request Sample Materials

The K-12 Guide To Multi-Layered Cybersecurity

Posted on | by Hope

Putting together a cybersecurity strategy is a lot like growing onions. If it doesn’t have layers, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Of course, we’re talking about multi-layered cybersecurity. With more school districts taking a renewed interest in data protection, many are looking high and low for new ways to keep student privacy safe. Luckily, that’s exactly what a layered approach to cybersecurity is all about.

In this blog, we’ll explain the basics of multi-layered protection and why your school district stands to gain from an additional layer of cloud security.

WHAT IS MULTI-LAYERED CYBERSECURITY?

A multi-layered cybersecurity strategy uses multiple layers of defense to protect sensitive data from potential threats, such as malware, ransomware, or a phishing attack.

Each layer provides a different level of protection, fulfilling its own specific data security function. These multiple layers work in combination to create a comprehensive and effective cybersecurity posture.

By taking a layered approach, you can protect the entire attack surface from unauthorized access or exposure. In simpler terms, it allows you to cover all the bases simultaneously.

HOW DOES MULTI-LAYERED SECURITY WORK?

If you want to understand the value of multi-layered threat protection, it’s best to put it into context.

According to Forbes, a traditional security strategy generally involves designing a defensive perimeter around your most sensitive data. Preventative tactics like this are crucial to safeguarding assets from conventional attack vectors, but tend not to account for internal threats like an accidental leak.

A layered approach works more proactively. It implements various types of data security controls at different levels of your IT infrastructure. For example, multi-layered cybersecurity could include firewalls, data loss prevention tools, endpoint security, or access controls. Because each layer is designed to detect and prevent different types of threats, they work together to create a holistic security framework.

Notably, this multi-layered approach is similar to “defense in depth,” a strategy that also uses multiple layers of controls to mitigate cyber threats. However, a defense-in-depth strategy typically focuses security operations on a single layer of the infrastructure (e.g., the device or network), whereas multi-layered security focuses on the entire technology stack.

READ MORE

Contact your dedicated Account Manager:

David Waugh
Sales and Marketing Vice President
303-415-3643
dwaugh@managedmethods.com

Learn More About ManagedMethods