TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Melmark | March 10, 2023
On March 09, 2023, Melmark, a non-profit human service organization, started a new school facility for special education and recreational environment in Stoughton, Massachusetts. It selected Maggiore Construction Corporation with Roth and Seelen, Inc. to design and build this facility.
It conducted the groundbreaking ceremony on January 24, 2023. This facility will offer a state-of-the-art and accessible special education learning and recreational surrounding, opening in May. Its New England division presently enrolled about 132 students at its Andover school, and this new facility will educate up to 84 students. It will provide new opportunities for school districts, students, and families deprived of clinically sophisticated educational services. In addition, it would also offer job opportunities with skilled special education leaders.
This facility has a license from DESE and helps students aged 3 to 22 with an intensive individualized education approach. This approach and a behavioral framework create the learning environment needed for education. Its students are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual and developmental disabilities, having secondary to complex behavioral profiles. Melmark New England is also the Massachusetts Association of 766 Approved Private Schools (MAAPS) member.
President and CEO of Melmark, Rita M. Gardner said, "This is a poignant time in the history of Melmark, this is a project that was slated to start during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are thrilled to stay focused on the needs of families in our communities. We are collaborating with school professionals, families, and other stakeholders to share information about the opportunities our new school will make available, as we are keenly aware of the critical, growing need for the evidence-based services we offer. The new school building will support spacious, intentionally designed classroom environments with innovative tools for learning and skills building. This growth in MA reflects our mission and strategic goal to serve children in diverse and inclusive communities who need and deserve Melmark's specialized special education services to reach their best outcomes."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
About Melmark
Headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Melmark, an individual and family services provider, specializes in applied behavior analysis, special needs, intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, autism, education, healthcare, approved private school autism and intellectual disabilities, charity and non-profit, and volunteers. It is a multi-state human service provider with special education schools, training, research centers and professional development. It has transformed the lives of individuals with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities and supporting their families since 1966. It provides evidence-based and behavior-analytic services to them daily.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
PRnewswire | April 27, 2023
Clever, the platform powering digital learning for more than 75% of U.S. K-12 schools, today announced its new service, Clever MFA+. Designed to help districts facing a growing number of cybersecurity incidents in schools, Clever's new offering protects sensitive data by providing a dual layer of authentication that's easy for administrators and educators to use.
"With the growing sophistication of hackers, we designed this tool to support the realities of schools today, offering busy teachers and staff peace of mind," said Mohit Gupta, Group Product Manager at Clever. "Clever MFA+ helps districts prevent malicious account access, meet insurance requirements, and ensure a safe and secure learning environment."
In a recent Clever survey, one in four administrators said their district had experienced a hack, phishing incident, data breach, or other cyber attack in the past year. The impact, including cost and learning time lost to get systems running again, is high for K-12 education – on average costing schools $1.6M per ransomware incident.
Clever MFA+ serves as a holistic, all-in-one solution that helps districts easily secure access to critical applications:
• Staff-and teacher-friendly factors: Clever MFA+ offers a variety of authentication options, including app tokens (TOTP), SMS codes, voice calls and hardware tokens, as well as biometric.
• Clever MFA+ into familiar devices and apps: The solution covers Chromebooks and Windows devices, while integrating with Google Workspace, Azure, AD and ADFS and any additional apps available with SAML, OpenIDConnect, or OAuth2.
• One, secure Clever login: This new offering means sensitive applications and devices can be protected behind one secure login and with one familiar, trusted single-sign on partner.
"Our instructional programs all filter through Clever — and some of our most sensitive information is rostered into those programs. Having a second layer of protection is paramount," said Dylan Jones, Instructional Technology and Data Coordinator at Sunflower County Consolidated School District. "Clever MFA+ provides seamless protection for an app that all teachers and staff are used to and familiar with! We already do identity management, rostering, and the single sign-on Portal with Clever — so MFA just made sense."
Clever MFA+ is now available with a low price per staff user per year, and schools benefit from free set-up and support to make adoption seamless and quick. To learn more about Clever MFA+, visit here.
The Clever SSO portal for students remains free of charge. Districts can take advantage of built-in MFA functionality to secure the Clever Portal for users with admin access and the existing Clever Badges + Pin functionality to protect students' accounts today.
About Clever
Clever is on a mission to connect every student to a world of learning. More than 75% of U.S. K-12 schools now use Clever to power secure digital learning experiences. With our platform for schools and a network of leading application providers, we're committed to advance education with technology that works for students everywhere.
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ONLINE EDUCATION
Businessiwire | May 26, 2023
Battelle has funded a new portfolio of 14 out-of-classroom education programs that build science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills through the latest awards with its Central Ohio STEM Grants. As a nonprofit philanthropic trust, Battelle directs the majority of its giving to STEM-related programming to provide opportunities for students to develop skills to become the next generation of innovators.
"Through this program, Battelle is committing more resources toward empowering our local partners’ ideas to expand access to STEM opportunities for students across Central Ohio,” said Wes Hall, Vice President of Philanthropy and Education. "STEM programs that integrate music, agriculture, entrepreneurship and environmental science will ignite sparks of inspiration for thousands of young minds in our community."
This is the tenth year for these competitive awards with the largest ever total funding awarded: $772,000. Investment in the grant program now totals more than $5.6 million.
Following are descriptions of the winning programs:
Continued Programs
Capital University
Capital University will host 100 middle school females for a day of science experimentation and STEM career and education exploration.
Columbus Fashion Alliance
Columbus Fashion Alliance's High School Fashion Club builds upon the principles of STEM to bolster the academic and career skills of participants through the lens of fashion.
Ohio Soybean Council Foundation
The Ohio Soybean Council will reach 400 students in Central Ohio afterschool/summer programs with agriculture-related entrepreneurship lessons, delivered by trained pre-service educators from Ohio State University.
New Programs
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Ohio
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Ohio will host a Youth Empowerment Institute to provide middle and high school students with the opportunity to participate in eight STEM-focused weekend-based sessions throughout the school year.
Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden
Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden will deliver week-long summer STEM camps and daylong pop-up STEM camps for 115 elementary and middle school students in Northeast Columbus around food injustice.
Clintonville-Beechwood Community Resources Center
The Clintonville-Beechwood Community Resources Center will engage K-5 students with weekly lessons on design, illustration and publishing as children each create a comic book to be shared at a family reading event.
Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA)
CAPA will offer Bite-Size Science: The Singing Zoologist to students in grades 1-5 from Columbus City Schools and other districts to teach life cycles, habitats and how these interact with larger ecosystems.
Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services
Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services will expand educational opportunities for New American students in the community to include programming, coding, using electronics and computers. The program will also and create a miniature working city for the local smart city initiative.
Form5 Prosthetics Inc
Form5 will leverage the organization’s PRE-FAB Workshop to inspire 9-12 graders. Students will explore engineering, design and medical-oriented careers through a team-based program as participants build prosthetic devices for mock recipients.
Friends of the Conservatory
Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will expand a STEM program to reach thousands of students in underserved communities, where they will learn STEM principles using the conservatory's resources.
Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council
Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council will launch the Interactive Ecosystem Exploration Project to develop and implement a series of environmental monitoring and tracking systems for girls and to build a better understanding of the natural resources at Camp Ken-Jockety.
Highland Youth Garden
Highland Youth Garden will offer rising 1st-7th grade students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the daily life of a garden, strengthen their STEM learning, deepen their cooking and nutrition skills and participate in healthy play outdoors.
Pyramid Community Development Corporation
Pyramid Community Development’s Ctrl-R program will provide online, in-person and at-home STEAM education to underserved minority students in Linden and its surrounding communities.
TECH CORPS
Unplugged kits from TECH CORPS will excite and empower students on a range of STEM topics ranging from algorithms to virtual reality.
About Battelle
Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries.Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries.
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