TALENT DEVELOPMENT
YouScience | August 24, 2021
While educators have worked to battle student learning loss for years, the COVID-19 pandemic and virtual learning have brought this issue to the forefront. According to CNBC, "Nearly all — more than 97% — of educators reported seeing some learning loss in their students over the past year when compared with children in previous years."
In March 2020, YouScience merged with Precision Exams to establish a revolutionary education technology company offering an innovative solution for career discovery, exploration, preparation, and connection. The company uses science-based brain games to identify innate abilities (a.k.a. aptitudes) and connect them with real-world careers and offers over 200 certification exams that span across the 16 National Career Clusters.
Pretesting from YouScience provides a method to overcome learning loss for secondary educators. Each exam is written by subject-matter experts that align the content therein to the academic standards. When used at the beginning of a course, pretesting provides teachers with a calculated measure of students' previous knowledge of a particular topic. It helps to measure the learning that did take place while identifying where gaps may have formed because of a break from school, virtual learning, or any number of things. Using the report data, teachers can plan their curriculum accordingly.
Secondary school teachers across the country are already taking advantage of the pretesting option with YouScience and have the success to show for it. Robert Kovi, a district CTE Director in Connecticut, said, "Precision Exams were a natural fit as they are already aligned to national standards and many of the textbooks and curriculum we already use."
Kovi reported the teachers in his school were able to have more informed discussions using the data provided to guide conversations and instructional decisions. Many are also using the pretesting feature to set yearly learning goals for their students and using single exams for benchmarking throughout the year.
"Coming out of remote learning, we're realizing just how important benchmark testing is in guiding the educational experience," said Edson Barton, CEO of YouScience and cofounder of Precision Exams. "Educators can use pretesting to make data-driven decisions to best serve their students and prepare them for the future. Each year, they can learn more and optimize their lesson structure to improve knowledge retention and curriculum efficacy."
About YouScience
YouScience empowers intentional individual success by aligning talent, education, and industry. With revolutionary career guidance and industry-recognized certifications, we empower individuals to uncover their natural talent, validate their skills and knowledge, and pursue their best-fit educational pathways.
Read More
EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
LearnPlatform | February 11, 2022
Today, LearnPlatform announces the release of Evidence-as-a-Service, a subscription model to support all edtech solution providers and their partners with the necessary evidence to meet market demands, demonstrate compliance with Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and efficiently serve all students and educators.
LearnPlatform, known for its innovative edtech effectiveness system trusted by districts, state agencies and their partners serving millions of students, worked closely with partners for over a year to test different service offerings to help edtech providers quickly and cost effectively develop the necessary evidence base to inform their product plans and comply with Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA requires federal funding and stimulus dollars to be used for "evidence-based interventions."
"The adoption of technology is here to stay. Districts manage an average of over 1,400 edtech products, and the numbers are not dropping this year," said Mary Styers, Ph.D., LearnPlatform's Director of Research. "Knowing how these tools are working, in which situations, and for which students and teachers is a critical question every district leader is asking."
LearnPlatform offers three subscription packages to support any size and type of education solution provider and their partners. The packages are curated to help all providers meet ESSA compliance and build evidence-based interventions that empower districts and states to buy and use their products to drive student outcomes.
Furthermore, given the influx of stimulus funds for nearly two years, this type of evaluation will provide districts with valuable evidence about the effectiveness of their education technology investments. Administrators can apply this evidence to inform their decisions and establish a solid foundation for sustainable, long-range financial planning.
"As the country modernizes learning during and after the pandemic, everyone needs rigorous, practical evaluation to provide evidence at the speed of decision-making," said Karl Rectanus, CEO and Co-founder of LearnPlarform. "Our technology, team and model equips providers to work with their state and district partners quickly, safely, cost-effectively and, most importantly, towards the shared goals of better outcomes for students and teachers, no matter their size, solution, or context."
In the face of massive change for schools, Evidence-as-a-Service offers providers at any stage – early, growth and established – to build an evidence base for their product(s) to better partner with districts and states to equip them with the ability to modernize their learning environments with ESSA-aligned evidence. Each subscription aligns with one or more of the four levels of evidence outlined in ESSA to demonstrate rationale and identify and show promising, moderate, or strong evidence that their product positively impacts student outcomes.
Age of Learning®, creator of the ABCmouse® online learning program, leveraged LearnPlatform's services to validate and evaluate research for My Math Academy™, the company's personalized, adaptive math program that helps young learners master essential math concepts and skills.
"We developed My Math Academy and My Reading Academy™ to support educators in providing equitable instruction and addressing the varying needs of young learners in order to ensure all students achieve proficiency in math and reading," said Sunil Gunderia, Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Mastery & Adaptive Products, Age of Learning. "We are partnering with LearnPlatform to develop a modernized approach to gathering evidence as it is an important element in validating the learning gains that our programs are designed to help students achieve. This evidence is essential to assisting schools and districts in identifying solutions that will work in their specific contexts to deliver learning outcomes."
Whether a solution is for core curriculum, tutoring, learning loss, or another educational purpose, the Evidence-as-a-Service model provides a path to ESSA compliance in weeks, at a fraction of the cost of traditional models.
"We work every day to fundamentally change outcomes for students through reimagining the role of assessments in the learning process. As soon as we spoke to LearnPlatform's team, we knew they were the right partner to run an independent study to examine just that," said Craig Jones, CEO and Co-founder of Formative, a web app for classrooms that allow teachers to give live assignments to students, enabling instant feedback and long-term student growth tracking. "The results found promising evidence and also confirms what we already know: the more visibility educators have into student learning, the stronger the learning outcomes can be."
Nepris, an edtech platform that virtually connects working professionals to students, is another early adopter using this offering to work with district and state partners.
"We have always known our platform increases student engagement in school and prepares students for the future of work, but outside third-party research was too expensive and no one read it. With LearnPlatform, we found a fast, practical approach that helps our state and district partners have confidence in what we do – and what we will do together – to reach their goals."
Sabari Raja, CEO and Co-founder of Nepris
About LearnPlatform
LearnPlatform is a comprehensive edtech effectiveness system used by educators, leaders, and their partners to modernize their learning environments and ensure academic and financial return on their investments. The research-driven technology, central office automation, data-rich insights, and evidence services equip school districts, states, and providers to organize, streamline and analyze their edtech interventions to ensure they are safe, equitable, cost-efficient, and effective for all students.
Read More
CONTINUING EDUCATION
University of Phoenix | December 21, 2021
The University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies offers practitioner doctorate degree programs in healthcare, education, and business, and supports a philosophy of lifelong career learning guided by its internally developed Scholar-Practitioner-LeaderSM learning model. The College has seen an approximately 10% increase in retention rates since January 2020. In the same time period, student sentiment scores with dissertation experience were 81% positive, mixed or neutral.
“The College of Doctoral Studies uses the SPL model to guide our curriculum and student experience. We serve working adults who are already practitioners in their fields, and the SPL model empowers our students by helping them think critically about how they can contribute in their workplace and to their career path.”
Hinrich Eylers, Ph.D., P.E., vice provost and dean of College of Doctoral Studies
While a more traditional Ph.D. degree program focuses on development of new primary knowledge, the College’s practitioner doctorate focuses on the practical application of that knowledge in one’s career and community of practice. The Scholar-Practitioner-LeaderSM framework combines classical cognitive conceptions of doctoral scholarship – including high rigor of inquiry, academic study, and practical application – with the affective domains of learning.
This learning model supports working adult students in the opportunity to develop a deeper awareness of who they are, how their learning is changing them, and to apply existing knowledge toward solving real-world problems in their field and community.
“The doctoral program at the University of Phoenix caught my attention due to the rigor of the curriculum and the Scholar, Leader, Practitioner Model which guides the learning journey, as well as the highly engaging online learning solution allowing me to work and learn anywhere at any time,” shares Susanne Thompson, Ed.D., who completed her doctor of education with the University. “Doctoral level research is a challenging endeavor. The College [of Doctoral Studies] scaffolds this process to ensure alignment with the best practices in scientific research while also making the process clear to ensure students can master scientific research and apply these practices to their work environment.”
Formerly known as School of Advanced Studies, the College of Doctoral Studies first developed the Scholar-Practitioner-LeaderSM model as part of its mission to develop a graduate mindset focused on career and community of practice. A successful graduate of College of Doctoral Studies programs and the Scholar-Practitioner-LeaderSM learning model is a scholar, a curious, reflective thinker; a practitioner in their field, capable of responding quickly to emerging opportunities and diagnosing and addressing immediate and local problems; and a leader, driving innovation and creating new products and processes, ultimately advancing their community of practice.
“Success is all about consistent practice and grit, and that practice is something our SPL [learning model] embraces with dedication,” shares Gina Rhodes, DHA, MBA. Rhodes completed her Doctor of Health Administration (DHA) at University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies. “It has taken grit and tenacity to survive the challenges of doctoral studies while working in the healthcare industry and developing the personal and academic potential of five children. Now as an empty nester, I have been able to make a positive impact in my community by helping to restructure a free-health care clinic. I am also a lifelong learner currently completing a doctoral level course on Strategic Formula and Strategic Thinking in Business.”
Additionally, the three College research centers extend the development available in the classroom by establishing an active, research-oriented forum for students and faculty, and provide an avenue for faculty and students to work collaboratively on practical, real world research. The three research centers are Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research, Center for Leadership Studies and Educational Research, and Center for Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Research.
About the College of Doctoral Studies
University of Phoenix’s College of Doctoral Studies focuses on today’s challenging business and organizational needs, from addressing critical social issues to developing solutions to accelerate community building and industry growth. The College’s research program puts students in the center of an effective ecosystem of experts, resources and tools to help prepare them to be a leader in their organization, industry and community. Through this program, students and researchers work with organizations to conduct research that can be applied in the workplace in real time.
About University of Phoenix
University of Phoenix is continually innovating to help working adults enhance their careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, and Career Services for Life® help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives.
Read More