Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Strengthening accountability to protect students and taxpayers

brookings | April 10, 2019

Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.While federal loans and grants play a central role in financing valuable investments in education, especially for low- and middle-income families, not all institutions or programs lead to success. Lending money to someone to attend an educational program with a demonstrated record of failure only harms the student. Unpayable loan burdens not only cost taxpayers, but they haunt borrowers for years. Poor student outcomes are caused by low-quality institutions and programs. At any given college, students from low- and high- income families have similar earnings and repayment outcomes. As a result, colleges level the playing field across students with different socioeconomic backgrounds—often lifting all boats, but sometimes sinking them. While disadvantaged students are concentrated in programs with poor outcomes, the research is clear about the direction of causality. The problem is the schools, not the students.

Spotlight

Globibo's e-Learning Interactivity Levels enhance the learning experience with varying degrees of engagement.
Level 1 offers basic navigation and content display, while Level 2 includes quizzes and assessments. Level 3 incorporates interactive elements like drag-and-drop exercises, simulations, and branching scenarios. Level 4 brings gamification elements for increased motivation. Finally, Level 5 features immersive experiences with virtual reality and augmented reality.
With these diverse options, learners can interact and participate actively, ensuring effective and engaging learning journeys.

Spotlight

Globibo's e-Learning Interactivity Levels enhance the learning experience with varying degrees of engagement.
Level 1 offers basic navigation and content display, while Level 2 includes quizzes and assessments. Level 3 incorporates interactive elements like drag-and-drop exercises, simulations, and branching scenarios. Level 4 brings gamification elements for increased motivation. Finally, Level 5 features immersive experiences with virtual reality and augmented reality.
With these diverse options, learners can interact and participate actively, ensuring effective and engaging learning journeys.

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Talent Development

WuKong Education Awarded "Language Learning Innovation of the Year" By EdTech Breakthrough

PRnewswire | July 24, 2023

WuKong Education, a leading online education technology company with over 300,000 students worldwide, today announced that it has been selected as the winner of the "Language Learning Innovation of the Year" award in the 5th annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by EdTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global educational technology market. WuKong Education's technological empowerment through game-like interactive homework functions provides students with a fun and engaging way to reinforce their learning. WuKong's scientific teaching method is based on New Zealand's Inquiry-Based Learning methodology and the 5C Core Competence Model, aimed at providing quality education in a more efficient manner. WuKong Chinese formed and followed a Chinese curriculum framework with four core programs: Pre-K Chinese, International Chinese, Advanced Chinese and Basic Chinese, with specialized sessions covering Chinese pinyin, idioms and readings, allowing students from different age groups to learn Chinese in an efficient manner. The company's rigorous teacher selection process ensures excellence, with more than 4,000 certified teachers graduating from top universities such as Harvard and Peking University. In addition, over 76% of WuKong's teachers have at least a master's degree, and most teach bilingually. WuKong is also comprised of a multicultural and multinational team, with employees from 11 countries and regions worldwide. "WuKong Education demonstrates a commitment to quality education, technological innovation, and multiculturalism. Their rigorous teacher selection process along with their scientific teaching method and commitment to empowering students through technology make them our choice for the 'Language Learning Innovation of the Year' award," said James Johnson, managing director, EdTech Breakthrough. "Exposing students to languages results in improved empathy by the introduction of customs and values belonging to a different society. Language learning is not just a means to communicate but helps develop a disposition to explore different perspectives." The mission of the EdTech Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize the innovation, hard work and success in a range of educational technology categories, including Student Engagement, School Administration, Adaptive Learning, STEM Education, Remote Learning, Career Preparation and many more. This year's program attracted more than 2,400 nominations from over 16 different countries throughout the world. "Thank you to the EdTech Breakthrough Awards for recognizing the quality of our courses, innovative teaching methods, and accomplished teachers," said WuKong Education's founder and CEO, Vicky Wang. "We ground our courses in evidence-based, child-friendly approaches that instill an initiative for learning, spark interest in the subject matter, and establish a strong foundation for future academic performance. Following the tremendous success of our Chinese courses, we're excited to expand our offerings to provide English courses as well. With our proven technology and expert teachers, we look forward to supporting students across the globe with inquiry-based online education." About WuKong Education</p> Headquartered in Silicon Valley, WuKong Education is the premier online education provider for students 3- to 18-years old. Since 2016, WuKong Education has been the first choice for families who want to provide their children with language and mathematics skills for future success in the 21st century. With more than 4,000 teachers around the globe and a dedicated curriculum team developing original courses for the platform, WuKong Education brings the best of online live classes and self-paced learning together in a single, interactive, engaging platform that is available anytime, anywhere. About EdTech Breakthrough Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the EdTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in educational technology products, companies and people. The EdTech Breakthrough Awards provide a platform for public recognition around the achievements of breakthrough educational technology in categories including e-learning, student engagement, school administration, career preparation, language learning, STEM and more.

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Corporate Learning Systems

PowerSchool and Samart Telcoms Partner to Expand Personalized Learning Technology in Thailand

Businesswire | July 25, 2023

PowerSchool ,the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced a partnership with Samart Telcoms Public Company Limited (PCL) as part of the continued expansion of PowerSchool’s PowerPartner Program. The partnership with Samart Telcoms PCL will support the global expansion of PowerSchool’s channel partner program and deliver PowerSchool Schoology Learning, PowerSchool SIS, and PowerSchool Enrollment to educational institutions in Thailand. “We’re thrilled to partner with Samart Telcoms PCL to extend PowerSchool’s mission-critical education technology solutions throughout Thailand,” said Tony Kender, Chief Revenue Officer at PowerSchool. “We share an aligned mission of providing educators and students with technology that empowers them to realize their full potential and we are pleased to partner with Samart Telcoms to continue enabling digital transformation in education.” The Samart Telcoms PCL partnership will focus on supporting educators and the over 10 million students enrolled throughout Thailand with plans to serve more than 100,000 students across Thailand in the next year. Through the partnership educators across the country can access mission-critical tools that are part of PowerSchool’s international localization framework including PowerSchool’s leading learning management system (LMS), Schoology Learning, PowerSchool SIS, and PowerSchool Enrollment to support even more educators, students, and families and help them realize the promise of personalized education. “At Samart Telcoms we work to deliver differentiated, industry-leading technologies that advance industries,” said Miss Chotika Kamloonwesaruch, Executive Vice President of Samart Telcoms PCL. “We’re proud to partner with PowerSchool to continue expanding innovative education technology solutions in Thailand.” The PowerPartner Program, a global channel partner initiative, leverages PowerSchool’s regional channel partners to support localized marketing, sales, and customer deployment efforts. Currently, PowerSchool channel partners serve customers in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Sub-Saharan Africa, Thailand, India, the Philippines, and Uruguay, with plans to rapidly expand the program this year. 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. About Samart Telcoms Group Samart Telcoms Group is committed to offering intelligent digital technology of international standards to support the management in both public and private organizations as well as to upgrade the quality of their services, readily taking part in driving society towards sustainability. Samart Telcoms PCL classifies its business structure into three distinct Business Groups. The Network Solutions Business Group provides both wireless and wireline technologies. The Enhanced Technology Business Group integrates various information and specialized technologies. Lastly, the Business Application Business Group delivers solutions and services related to advanced software applications to enhance customer efficiency. The company upholds the ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 standard for information technology service management, as well as the ISO 9001 standard for service quality control. Moreover, it maintains 30 service centers nationwide to cater to its customers' needs.

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Entrepreneurs and Leaders

Epilepsy Foundation Partners with Vector Solutions to Offer Seizure First Aid Trainings to Educators

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. 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