EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Businesswire | April 03, 2023
“We’re honored to be recognized by The EdTech Awards for our Unified Classroom® solution, which unites the critical teaching and learning tools that educators and students need in one place,” said Marcy Daniel, Chief Product Officer at PowerSchool. “We understand the needs of educators today and are proud to provide innovative solutions that support every student.”
PowerSchool was also recognized as a finalist in the following Cool Tool award categories:
• Administrative Solution for PowerSchool Unified Administration™
• Career Planning Solution for Naviance by PowerSchool
• Classroom Management Solution for Unified Classroom® • Curriculum and Instruction Solution for Unified Classroom®
• District Data Solution for PowerSchool Unified Insights™
• E-Learning, Blended, Flipped Solution or Remote Solution for Unified Classroom®
• Enrollment & Admissions Solution for PowerSchool Enrollment
• Higher Education Solution for PeopleAdmin’s Faculty Solutions
• New Product or Service (releases in 2020 or later) for Unified Classroom® and PeopleAdmin’s Course Evaluations
Celebrating its 13th year, the US-based program is the world’s largest recognition program for education technology, recognizing the biggest names in edtech – and those who soon will be. Featuring edtech’s best and brightest, the annual program shines a spotlight on cool tools, inspiring leaders and innovative trendsetters across the K-12, Higher Education, and Skills and Workforce sectors.
“A very big congratulations to all The EdTech Awards 2023 finalists and winners—and congratulations to all who endured the upheavals of the last few years only to come through stronger, more experienced, resilient, and resolute in laying out the future of learning,” said Victor Rivero, Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest. “To the innovators, leaders, and trendsetters of education technology, you are the way forward. Your future-focused mindset is welcomed, encouraged, and needed now more than ever—and we salute you!”
This year’s finalists and winners were narrowed from the larger field and judged based on various criteria, including pedagogical workability, efficacy and results, support, clarity, value, and potential.
About PowerSchool
PowerSchoolis 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 Edtech Digest and The Edtech Awards
EdTech Digest, a leading source of cool tools, interviews, and trends showcasing the future of learning — annually honors the best and brightest people, products and groups working in edtech with The EdTech Awards. Cool Tool, Leadership, and Trendsetter honorees span the K-12, Higher Ed, and Skills & Workforce sectors.
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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
PRnewswire | March 23, 2023
Procare Solutions is pleased to offer a new way for child care centers to bolster their educational offerings by including integrated assessments within Procare's classroom management capability.
With the release of Vine Assessments™, Procare Solutions has become the only provider of child care management software to offer integrated proprietary early childhood assessments for children from birth to 5 years old at no additional cost.
Vine Assessments is an integrated framework that gives early childhood educators and staff a way to clearly articulate the growth and development of children in their care. It includes clear and easy childhood assessments that align with all 50 state standards and provides developmental continuums with 21 goals that apply to children from birth to age 5 as they prepare for kindergarten.
"When early childhood educators can provide a robust assessment to their children and families, it elevates the learning and development of the children in their care and helps transform their businesses into true early childhood education programs," said Jon Pollock, chief product officer of Procare Solutions.
With 91% agreement rate among child care professionals, Vine Assessments are easy to use and understand.
Child care centers are leading providers of early childhood education and are at the forefront of addressing delays to help young learners recover from setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Children born during the pandemic are scoring lower on average on tests of gross motor, fine motor, social and problem-solving skills compared with those born before COVID-19, studies have shown.
In addition to learning delays, many of these children are talking, walking and interacting later and less frequently.
"Children need age-appropriate assessments well before entering kindergarten, as well as assessments that teachers of all experience levels can conduct accurately and without additional stress during their already busy days," said JoAnn Kintzel, CEO of Procare Solutions. "We are continually looking for ways to help centers foster the growth of children in their care, which is something Vine Assessments can help achieve."
"The list of 21 goals is a solid list that providers will find familiar and useful. The numbering system is very intuitive and helpful for navigating the instrument," said Dr. Kristen Burmester, director of administration and operations of the early childhood education program at the University of California at Berkeley.
Teachers using Procare will be able to tie their lessons and observations directly to the appropriate Vine Assessment indicator from the web-based software and Procare child care mobile app.
The simplicity of the Vine Assessments for teachers is what won over Melissa L. Hood, director of early childhood education at the Calvert School in Baltimore.
Her center uses Vine Assessments for all 150 kids at their two centers.
"Assessments provided by the state were too cumbersome and more suited to elementary school-aged children," she said. "They sometimes were 15 pages long and too difficult for parents to decipher."
A childhood assessment conducted through Vine Assessments offered a better alternative.
"It's to the point, it's accurate, it relates to age-appropriateness," she said. "Our teachers like Vine Assessments much better than the state-provided assessments."
About Procare Solutions
For more than 30 years, Procare Solutions has been the leading provider of child care management software, family engagement, integrated payment processing, technology and services. Procare is used by two out of three child care businesses that use child care management software. The company supports more than 37,000 child care centers, preschools, daycares, after school programs, camps and related facilities with comprehensive software that has the power to manage every aspect of their business, enrich classroom and family interactions, and automate the payment process. Procare offers web-based, on-premises and cloud-hosting solutions and supports customers of all sizes from single-center operations to complex multinational enterprises.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | April 06, 2023
Apogee, the trusted strategic managed technology services partner to higher education, is pleased to announce the expansion of its Executive Advisory Services to meet the evolving needs of higher education clients. Apogee Executive Advisory Services embeds former campus leaders within college and university cabinet-level teams to lead the assessment, modernization, and transformation of campus IT services.
Apogee’s recognized team of experts can serve as full-time or fractional leaders for long-term engagements or during high demand periods due to vacant or nascent IT leadership. Led by higher education and technology veteran David Hinson, Apogee executive advisors are seasoned chief technology officers (CTO), chief information officers (CIO), chief information security officers (CISO), and chief operation officers (COO) or vice presidents of administration who have years of cabinet-level experience at colleges and state systems.
Fifteen disciplines now round out the offering, including IT infrastructure, networking, cybersecurity, and compliance assessments and strategies. Advisory services are provided over weeks of remote and on-premises observations. Every engagement is tailored for the institution, and insights are codified into actionable strategic and tactical technology plans for campus leadership.
“I am excited about our enhanced advisory services practice, the world-class experts on our team, and the opportunities ahead to meet colleges and universities where they are as they navigate the post-pandemic world and confront the looming enrollment cliff,” said Hinson. “Whether an institution is facing vacant IT leadership, new IT leadership trying to quickly get its arms around pressing issues and priorities, or mature leadership looking to take campus technology service delivery to the next level, we craft engagements that enable clients to understand the current state of IT, remediate urgent issues, measure meaningful progress on long-term projects, and inculcate best practices for effective and strategic technology management.”
Situated in Winston-Salem, N.C., Salem Academy and College traces its history to 1772 and is the oldest educational institution for girls and women in America. Today, the institution is an intimate learning community of 1,100 women from all over the world and is one of the country's most distinguished private liberal arts colleges.
“Like many small colleges in the U.S., Salem Academy and College experienced shortages and gaps in IT leadership, staff, and expertise coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Summer McGee, Salem Academy and College president. “David Hinson assessed our IT organization, infrastructure, and abilities and put us on a path to not only get back to business as usual, but also to set up a roadmap for us to align our technology investments to our institutional mission. Our engagement with Apogee has helped ensure that we are better prepared technologically to deliver on our promise to develop the full potential of our students and prepare them to change the world.”
With nearly a quarter century of experience exclusively in managed technology services to higher education, Apogee has built the expertise to deliver advisory services in the following disciplines:
• Strategic Planning and Documentation
• Business and Information Technology Resilience Planning
• Cybersecurity Controls and Audit
• Cybersecurity Program Management and Operations
• Vendor Management
• Financial Capacities Discovery
• Staffing and Organization Sizing Needs Analysis
• Coaching and Professional Development Pathways
• Governance, Compliance, and Internal Policy Development, including compliance with federal, state, and contractual cybersecurity obligations such a Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), as well as privacy policies and compliance such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), and Consumer Data Protection Regulation (CDPR)
• Infrastructure Analysis and Planning
• Technology and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment and Management
• Budget Analysis and Preparation
• Leadership Succession Planning
• Cabinet Leadership Strategies and Methodologies
• Formal Technology Plan and Accreditation Support
About Apogee
Established in Austin in 1999, Apogee is a leading provider of managed technology services that enable colleges and universities to innovate to enrich the campus experience and foster student vitality. Uniquely positioned to serve higher education, Apogee supports a community of more than 1 million students and administrators at nearly 400 colleges and universities nationwide. The company’s comprehensive portfolio includes Managed Campus (networks and managed IT and cloud services), ResNet (residential networks), campus engagement and digital signage, and video services.
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