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.
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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.
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Talent Development
PRnewswire | August 09, 2023
The Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) is delighted to announce its collaboration with Hatch Early Learning, a leading provider of educational technology solutions. This strategic partnership aims to advance the mission of BBCF and bring transformative educational opportunities to the Black Belt Head Start program in underserved communities.
BBCF is a non-profit organization committed to creating positive change in the Black Belt region of Alabama. Their mission is to improve the quality of life and foster opportunities for growth and development for the residents of the Black Belt community. In 2017, BBCF began administrating six separate Head Start schools in four counties of the Alabama Black Belt (Choctaw, Dallas, Marengo, and Wilcox).
The Black Belt Head Start program has recently implemented broadband access in their facilities as part of their ongoing commitment to enhancing education. This significant step will bridge the digital divide and provide students and teachers with unprecedented access to resources and information.
To complement this broadband initiative, the Black Belt Head Start program has invested in twenty cutting-edge IgniteTables from Hatch Early Learning. The IgniteTable is an innovative educational tool designed to engage young learners through interactive and immersive experiences. BBCF Head Start schools will be the first schools in Alabama to adopt this new learning tool.
The introduction of the IgniteTables, combined with the implementation of broadband, is expected to be game-changing for the students and educators in the Black Belt community. Students will be better equipped to develop critical skills and knowledge essential for their future success with enhanced access to educational content and interactive learning materials.
"Hatch Early Learning is thrilled to be partnering with the Black Belt Community Foundation to support their mission of providing quality education and opportunities in underserved communities," said Sam Bonfante, President of Hatch Early Learning. "We believe that every child deserves access to a high-quality education, and through this collaboration, we are proud to contribute to the positive impact on the lives of young learners in the Black Belt community."
According to BBCF President, Felecia Lucky, "Head Start focuses on the whole child with an emphasis on education, health, nutrition, and social-emotional well-being, while preparing them to enter elementary school. In addition, we provide family support and promote family involvement. Being able to equip our schools with the latest, state of the art learning tools helps us to ensure that our Head Start students have every advantage we can make available for them. Being the first schools in Alabama to adopt this technology is doubly exciting!"
Taquila Monroe, Director of the Black Belt Community Foundation Head Start Program, expressed her enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, "This collaboration with Hatch Early Learning represents a major milestone for our community. The introduction of broadband and the implementation of the IgniteTable solution will revolutionize the way our students learn and provide our educators with powerful tools to inspire and engage young minds. We are grateful for Hatch's support in advancing our educational initiatives and making a lasting difference in the lives of our children."
To mark the beginning of this transformative partnership, Hatch Early Learning will be coordinating a press event on August 11th in Selma, AL, in collaboration with the Black Belt Community Foundation. The event will include on-site training sessions and provide an opportunity for guests to meet with Sam Bonfante, the President of Hatch Early Learning, Taquila Monroe, the Director of the Black Belt Community Foundation Head Start program, and leaders of the Black Belt Community Foundation board of directors.
This momentous occasion signifies a step forward in educational innovation, equipping young minds in underserved communities with the tools they need to succeed in an increasingly digital world.
About Hatch Early Learning
Hatch Early Learning is a leading provider of educational technology solutions designed to foster interactive and engaging learning experiences for young children. With a commitment to transforming education, Hatch offers a range of innovative products tailored to enhance early childhood education.
About Black Belt Community Foundation
The Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in Alabama's Black Belt region. BBCF provides support to community efforts in education, health and wellness, economic development, and cultural heritage preservation.
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