Talent Development
Businesswire | August 08, 2023
PowerSchool the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced it is joining the K-12 Education Technology Secure by Design Pledge, a voluntary pledge for K-12 education technology software manufacturers, developed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the U.S. Department of Education. PowerSchool also announced new commitments to further secure the education technology ecosystem by offering free and subsidized security-as-a-service resources to all U.S. schools and districts.
“Our primary mission is to personalize education for every student and that journey starts with our responsibility to protect and safeguard the over 45 million students we serve today in the U.S.,” said Hardeep Gulati, CEO of PowerSchool. “That is why we have made significant investments in cybersecurity and successfully defend our districts against over 1 billion cyber-attacks each year. We are honored to sign this pledge and even provide additional free and subsidized security-as-a-service trainings, tools, and resources to support and enable all U.S. school districts to fight against cybersecurity threats.”
As part of First Lady Jill Biden’s Back to School Safely: Cybersecurity Summit for K-12 Schools event on August 7th, 2023, PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati will highlight PowerSchool’s cybersecurity leadership and initiatives including cloud infrastructure security, cyber defense, and governance risk and compliance, that secure over 80% of the school districts across all U.S. states, including 90 of the top 100 districts by student population.
“Let’s face it: in today’s digital age, our students and their teachers will increasingly use technology in the classroom. Schools have access to more devices and connectivity than ever before, and this technology in education has incredible potential to help students better connect with their learning and achieve, and teachers better engage with their students,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “But to make the most of these benefits, we must effectively manage the risks.
Just as we expect everyone in a school system to plan and prepare for physical risks, we must now also ensure everyone helps plan and prepare for digital risks in our schools and classrooms. The Department of Education has listened to the field about the importance of K-12 cybersecurity, and today we are coming together to recognize this and indicate our next steps.”
PowerSchool already adheres to several commitments outlined in the pledge, including offering single sign-on for free to customers, providing audit logs to any customer upon request, maintaining a published vulnerability disclosure policy administered by an independent third party, and embracing vulnerability transparency by openly engaging with customers on vulnerabilities, threats, and risks the company identifies.
PowerSchool is also taking additional steps to provide industry-leading cybersecurity support to educational institutions. This includes offering free and subsidized security-as-a-service resources, including on-demand webinars, toolkits, and trainings to U.S. schools and districts, as well as offerings from partners including Abnormal Security, Amazon Web Services, and KnowBe4. These resources will be available to any U.S. school or district, regardless of their customer status.
“Keeping our students and our schools safe from cyberattacks comes down to equipping schools with three things – knowledge, resources, and people,” said Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies. “This week, the White House worked to do just that – mobilizing funding, cybersecurity fact guides tailored for schools, and cybersecurity teams to visit schools and help them fight ransomware. We appreciate the innovative and meaningful private sector commitments in this ransomware fight, as we work together to keep kids cyber-safe online and in schools.”
PowerSchool’s significant investment in advanced security technologies, including static and dynamic code scanning, best-of-breed Web Application Firewalls, and more than 30 annual penetration tests, reinforces its unwavering commitment to providing unparalleled protection and trust to districts and schools. As a signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge 2020, PowerSchool adheres to all applicable state, province, and federal regulations and goes beyond those by independently verifying its security management system annually to third-party audited, internationally recognized standards for security management systems, achieving the ISO:27001 certification and SOC2 Type 2 – the gold standard data security certification for business service providers. PowerSchool is also partnered with the Consortium for School Networking (COSN) on their recently rolled-out K-12 Community Vendor Assessment Tool (K-12CVAT) and is an active partner of 1EdTech, focusing on industry standards, interoperability, and data privacy and security best practices. PowerSchool products have been vetted and certified as TrustEd Apps by 1Edtech, based on the organization's rigorous data and privacy rubric.
About PowerSchool
PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments, and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in more than 90 countries.
Read More
Online Education
PRnewswire | July 28, 2023
Instructure and Khan Academy announced a partnership that brings together Instructure's market-leading learning management system, Canvas, the anchor of the Instructure Learning Platform, and Khan Academy's AI-powered student tutor and teaching assistant, Khanmigo. This integrated solution will put the transformative power of generative AI into the hands of students and educators using the Canvas learning environment.
Generative AI represents an opportunity to enhance the role of technology in supporting educators and creating efficiencies in their day-to-day instruction. This new solution will harness this transformative moment by enabling educators with an integrated Khanmigo experience that supports human-driven, technology-enhanced essay feedback and grading, lesson planning and rubric creation. This solution is a large step forward in delivering personalization for each student while allowing busy educators to scale their excellence and impact in ways unimaginable a few short months ago.
For students, the use of generative AI presents significant opportunities and challenges. In a world filled with intelligent agents and easily-accessed answers, the need for tools that guide, enhance and support active learning is critical. Initially focusing on student writing, Instructure and Khan Academy aim to support students and their learning through Khanmigo's tutoring capabilities. By helping students use generative AI ethically, equitably, and with integrity, demonstrating an authentic work product becomes easy and clear.
"Generative AI, and tools like ChatGPT, have been a part of every conversation I have had this year with leaders, learners and instructors across our global education community," said Instructure CEO Steve Daly. "This partnership with Khan Academy and its deep expertise in generative AI will deliver a powerful solution for one of the world's largest education communities – delivering an intentional, secure and equitable experience that promotes impactful learning experiences for all."
Instructure's Learn Platform independent research team, along with Khan Academy's educational research team, will jointly design research for early adopters, to measure the impact of these tools on student outcomes - delivering insight into the efficacy of the tools and the utilization of AI to assist teachers and students in achieving their learning outcomes.
"Every educator we talk to is seeking ways to address students using ChatGPT to write school essays and do homework," said Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy. "How can classrooms use AI tools, while ensuring students develop critical thinking skills? We're teaming up with Instructure to solve this. We're using AI to show teachers not just the final essay, but how the student got there. So students will be supported in developing critical writing and thinking skills, while getting the benefit of AI designed for education. Khanmigo can also help with rubric creation and grading, saving teachers time. Students won't get answers, but they will get appropriate levels of support."
Instructure and Khan Academy will bring Canvas and Khanmigo together for a cohort of K-12 and Higher Ed design partners and early adopters during the 2024-2025 school year. Institutions interested in piloting this solution can sign up in the Emerging AI Marketplace.
ABOUT INSTRUCTURE
Instructure is an education technology company dedicated to elevating student success, amplifying the power of teaching, and inspiring everyone to learn together. Today the Instructure Learning Platform, comprised of its flagship product Canvas LMS and several products serving K-12 and higher education, supports tens of millions of educators and learners in over 100 countries worldwide. Learn more at www.instructure.com.
ABOUT KHAN ACADEMY
Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Our platforms include more than 70,000 practice problems, videos and articles that cover a range of preK-14 subjects. Khan Academy's mastery-based learning system allows students to learn key concepts at a pace that's right for them before moving on to more challenging content. Our award-winning free app for young children ages two to eight is Khan Academy Kids. We partner with more than 500 schools and districts across the country that serve students who are historically under-resourced. Districts use Khan Academy Districts and MAP Accelerator to help teachers differentiate instruction. Worldwide, more than 140 million registered learners have used Khan Academy in 190 countries and 51 languages.
Read More
Entrepreneurs and Leaders
PRnewswire | August 01, 2023
The Epilepsy Foundation today announced a five-year collaboration with Vector Solutions, the leading provider of training and software solutions for K-12 and higher education institutions, to offer the Epilepsy Foundation's Seizure Recognition & First Aid Certification training in the Vector Safety and Compliance Course Library. This agreement will provide an easy and convenient way for educators and school personnel, who are already contracted with Vector, to take the seizure first aid training to better serve their students.
There are 470,000 children living with epilepsy in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the opportunity for academic success is increased when students with chronic health conditions have a safe and supportive learning environment.
"Our collaboration with Vector will give school personnel — who are required by state laws to take seizure first aid training — a place to do so easily and effectively through a familiar learning portal," said Brandy Fureman, Ph.D., chief outcomes officer, Epilepsy Foundation. "In addition, it will expand access to our seizure first aid training to school systems around the country using Vector's platform. Our end goal is to have a seizure safe nation where everyone who has a seizure feels safe, no matter where they are. This partnership is a stepstone toward that goal."
In 2018, Kentucky led the charge to pass the nation's first-ever law requiring school personnel to complete seizure recognition and first aid training. Since then, the Epilepsy Foundation, family advocates and partner organizations have been working to pass similar Seizure Safe Schools legislation nationwide. The model Seizure Safe Schools legislation has five components, one of which requires all school personnel, including school nurses and teachers, to complete training so that they can recognize and respond appropriately and efficiently to students experiencing seizures. To date, almost half of the states have passed some form of Seizure Safe Schools legislation.
For years, the Epilepsy Foundation has partnered with the CDC to build nationwide programs to ensure school personnel, first responders, seniors, caregivers, and the public are better trained to recognize seizures and administer first aid. The Epilepsy Foundation's seizure first aid trainings provide information to increase knowledge, skills, and confidence in recognizing seizures and safely administering seizure first aid.
"We are excited to collaborate with the Epilepsy Foundation to deliver its trainings through our online learning management system," said, Rob Buelow, General Manager of Education at Vector Solutions. "The safety and well-being of students is paramount and educators must be properly equipped to address the unique needs of all students. Through this partnership, K-12 and higher education staff across the nation will be empowered to serve their students and ensure their health and safety."
About the Epilepsy Foundation
With a network of partners throughout the United States, the Epilepsy Foundation is leading the fight to overcome the challenges of living with epilepsy. The Foundation connects people to treatment, support, and resources; leads advocacy efforts; funds innovative research and the training of specialists; and educates the public about epilepsy and seizure first aid. For more than five decades, the Epilepsy Foundation has shone a light on epilepsy to promote awareness and understanding, and to advocate for laws that matter to people with epilepsy, while also funding epilepsy research and supporting epilepsy investigators and specialists in their early careers. In partnership with the CDC, the Epilepsy Foundation has helped to improve access to care for people with epilepsy, expanded its digital reach and online resources in homes across the country, and trained more than 600,000 people in seizure recognition and first aid. The Epilepsy Foundation continues to focus on serving the epilepsy community through advocacy, education, direct services and research for new therapies. The trainings will be available in the Vector platform later this summer and school administrators who have a current subscription will receive notification when the trainings are live.
About Epilepsy
According to the World Health Organization, epilepsy is the most common serious brain disorder worldwide with no age, racial, social class, national or geographic boundaries. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention estimates that 3.4 million people in the United States are affected by epilepsy. Epilepsy is the underlying tendency of the brain to produce seizures which are sudden abnormal bursts of electrical energy that disrupt brain functions.
About Vector Solutions for K-12 Education
Vector Solutions for K-12 Education is a leading provider of training, software and professional development solutions committed to creating safer, smarter and better school environments. Trusted by more than 5,000 K-12 districts in the United States, Vector's award-winning suite of products save administrators time, improve compliance, and streamline administrative processes. Vector trainings on imperative topics like safety and compliance; inclusive instruction; mental health and well-being; diversity, equity and inclusion; and cybersecurity enable students and teachers alike to make schools safer, more inclusive, and more effective places to work and learn.
Read More