Are early school start times impacting students’ academic performance?

Study International | October 22, 2019

California’s governor Gavin Newsom has just signed a new law that bans middle schools in the state from starting earlier than 8.30am. This comes after a growing movement and a US public health campaign that advocates for older students to get more sleep. According to the Sacramento Bee, “State Sen. Anthony Portantino, the La Cañada Flintridge Democrat who wrote the law, said Senate Bill 328 is based on “indisputable” science that shows that students are healthier and happier when get to sleep in a little later.” Portantino said, “This is a public health bill that has a positive academic outcome. The overwhelming benefit to the health and welfare of children demands that we make those changes.” School typically starts at 8am in the US, while in countries in Asia, it can start as early as 7.30am. In the UK, lessons start at 9 am – but even that is seen as too early by some. According to Yahoo UK, “Earlier this year in the UK MPs considered calls for the school day to start at 10am to help tired teenagers. “The debate came after a petition urging the Government to consider the plea gained more than 183,000 signatures – a petition that gains more than 100,000 signatures is considered for debate in parliament.”The petition calls for school start times to begin at 10am as teenagers are too tired from having to wake up so early to head to school.

Spotlight

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is an advanced large language model developed by OpenAI. This generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot was trained on massive amounts of text data from the internet using machine learning algorithms. ChatGPT is capable of answering prompts and invites users to interact in a conversational way—it can even answer follow-up questions.

Spotlight

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is an advanced large language model developed by OpenAI. This generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot was trained on massive amounts of text data from the internet using machine learning algorithms. ChatGPT is capable of answering prompts and invites users to interact in a conversational way—it can even answer follow-up questions.

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CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS

StrongMind Announces Next Generation of K-5 Digital Courses

PRnewswire | May 05, 2023

StrongMind announced a new generation of digital courses for K-5 students today. StrongMind responded to the increased demand for digital courses for the youngest students during the pandemic by releasing a complete suite of K-5 courses in summer 2021, completing their K-12 digital solution. After listening to course users and careful analysis of feedback, StrongMind determined enhancements were needed to keep up with the still increasing need for high-quality digital courses in the early grades. The new version of digital courses includes robust enhancements for even higher-quality English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies courses and a user experience designed to delight young learners. Enhancements include: • Deeper alignment to state standards, including state specific content for select courses and states • An enhanced approach to phonics instruction for K-2 • Expanded rich media and interactivity throughout each course • New grading supports for teachers, including grading notes and rubrics "At StrongMind, we firmly believe that a standards-aligned K-5 curriculum that follows the science of reading is crucial for setting our students up for academic success. By providing engaging and rigorous instruction in the early years, we can inspire a love of learning and empower our students with the skills they need to thrive in all aspects of their lives," said Mori Creamer, Chief Academic Officer. The newest K-5 digital courses will be available for back-to-school fall 2023 for existing and new customers who have a need for flexible digital courses that will meet the needs for online and blended learning throughout different programs in a school or district. More information about the courses is available at strongmind.com/K-5/, and details about other StrongMind products, including courses for grades 6-12 and social emotional learning (SEL) is available at strongmind.com. About StrongMind: StrongMind partners with schools and districts to develop forward-thinking solutions that address unique school challenges. With a consultative approach, engaging digital curriculum, a suite of edtech tools, a range of services, and clear insights, we maximize student achievement and help schools thrive. A recent recipient of multiple Digital Promise Research-Design certifications and winner of more than 60 awards, StrongMind innovates into the future of education.

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TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Northpass Launches First of a Kind Resources to Help Companies Scale Customer Success Through Digital Customer Education

PRnewswire | April 11, 2023

Northpass, the leading platform for digital customer education, announced the launch of two essential resources, The Business Case for Digital Customer Education and the Digital Customer Education Impact Calculator, both created for customer success leaders looking to elevate their customer experience and optimize operational efficiency through digital learning. The customer education industry is experiencing strong growth as macroeconomic pressures have forced B2B companies to rethink how they facilitate their customer success practice more cost-efficiently. The Business Case for Digital Customer Education is the first and only resource that provides insights on how teams can quantify the return on investment (ROI) and impact of digital customer education. It helps leaders understand the benefits of investing in digital customer education, such as reduced expenses and costs, improved productivity for customer success and training teams, and elevated customer experiences, as well as the costs of delaying adoption; namely missed revenue opportunities. "The Business Case for Digital Education is long overdue," said Sumeru Chatterjee, founder of CustomerEducation.Org, a 4000+ member community of customer education professionals. "Our industry has needed a resource that lays out a clear rationale, ROI and roadmap for customer education, and why it's imperative to invest in it. The Business Case definitely delivers this insight." The Digital Customer Education Impact Calculator is an interactive tool that can benefit every customer education and customer success leader, whether they are just starting out with digital education or still relying on traditional methods like live training, webinars, and emails. It allows them to evaluate the effectiveness of their current training program and explore the potential impact of incorporating digital strategies. The Calculator delivers specific findings, such as the number of hours a customer success manager could be using more efficiently and the potential cost savings that could be realized; data points to help facilitate decisions on how to allocate resources more effectively. "Digital customer education is one of the most effective methods for maximizing the efficiency and productivity of forward-thinking customer success teams," said Northpass CEO, Steve Cornwell. "Our new resources help chief customer officers and customer education leaders quantify the direct impact it can have on their business and jumpstart their transition from outdated customer training to modern digital customer education." Digital customer education has become a go-to option for many innovative companies like Northpass customer, Bonfire Interactive. According to Vy-Vy Nyguen, manager of client enablement at Bonfire, the company saved over 2,000 hours per year by moving its outdated customer education program to Northass and eliminating the need for one-to-one customer training. About Northpass Northpass is a market-leading digital customer education platform that empowers businesses to elevate their customer experience and optimize operational efficiency through digital learning. Iconic brands, including Walmart and Johnson & Johnson, in addition to hundreds of growth businesses, like Pipedrive and Freshworks, choose Northpass to power their digital customer academies. Our award-winning platform and expert services give companies a surefire path to transform outdated customer training methods into modern digital education programs that match how customers want to learn today and improve training efficiency, effectiveness, and reach.

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CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS

Carnegie Learning Adds Multilingual Math and Literacy Tutors in Gadsden ISD

Businesswire | April 18, 2023

Carnegie Learning, a leader in K-12 education innovation, high-quality products and services, and AI, announced today that the company has added new multilingual and bilingual certified math and literacy instructors to the high-dosage tutoring team in Gadsden County, New Mexico, to meet the needs of students in the state’s fourth-largest school district. “It’s gratifying to see improvements in student proficiency and attendance as well as increasing parent participation in the Gadsden Independent School District (ISD),” said Courtney Lewis, Vice President of Tutoring Services at Carnegie Learning. “The results are impressive. We have been able to fulfill 100% of the requests from students and families in Gadsden ISD who requested a bilingual tutor. We’ve also appointed a bilingual tutor as a liaison to answer questions from families in their native language. Families have a direct dial number to call the liaison directly for support.” Lewis recently presented a webinar on how to partner with a high-dosage tutoring provider to launch an effective summer school program, which can be accessed here. Demand for high-dosage tutoring is growing among students in all grades at Gadsden ISD, led by elementary-age students, who are reaping the benefits of one-on-one and small-group tutoring. To meet the needs of the district, Carnegie Learning is expanding their offerings in Gadsden ISD with new K-12 math and literacy, SAT and PSAT preparation to their portfolio of services. Students and their families are already feeling the impact of tutoring. A third-grade student expressed delight about their tutor, who is a certified teacher like all Carnegie Learning tutors: “I have the best teacher ever!” A kindergarten parent commented that a tutor demonstrated dedication consistently: “She did awesome with our son!” Personalizing tutoring services to meet the needs of Gadsden ISD reflects Carnegie Learning's commitment to partnering with districts and ability to flexibly develop solutions for emerging challenges. In fact, their national high-dosage tutoring services originated when Maryland district Prince George's County Public Schools approached Carnegie Learning with a need for remote tutoring in 2020 during school closures, and Carnegie Learning built a tutoring team from scratch. Carnegie Learning has the largest certified tutoring team in the U.S., with an ever-increasing portfolio of new curriculum offerings being added as district needs arise. Carnegie Learning's high-dosage tutoring services include: • Live tutors who are all certified teachers with deep content and pedagogical knowledge. • Bilingual and multilingual tutors are available. • Instruction that aligns with districts’ standards, scope, and sequence. • Standards-aligned, high-quality instructional materials to support grade-level learning. • Robust pre- and post-assessments to regularly track student growth and performance. Carnegie Learning believes that students can reach far beyond their perceived potential, academically as well as socially and emotionally. To help students achieve this, they strive to bridge the gap between access to high-quality instructors, award-winning AI software, and high-quality instructional resources. About Carnegie Learning, Inc. Carnegie Learning is the leading provider of K-12 education technology, curriculum, and professional learning solutions. With award-winning offerings for K-12 math, literacy, world languages, professional learning, high-dosage tutoring, and more, Carnegie Learning is delivering real and lasting results for teachers and students. Born from more than 30 years of learning science research at Carnegie Mellon University, we are known for using the power of data to improve student performance. Our range of products allows us to support more than 2 million students and educators in all 50 states and Canada. Named a Top Place to Work for six years in a row, our 700+ employees across North America are passionate about partnering with educators in the classroom

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