Talent Development
PR Newswire | August 29, 2023
Teaching Strategies, the country's leading developer of early childhood education solutions, has unveiled a first-of-its-kind curriculum tailored specifically to California's expanding universal transitional kindergarten program (TK). The program aims to build a bridge from preschool to kindergarten for close to 3 million children under the age of 5.
The new curriculum, which was built in close partnership with California educators, builds on the company's widely-recognized Creative Curriculum® but is aligned to California's early learning guidelines. The Creative Curriculum® for Transitional Kindergarten: California is paired with observational assessments that measure how well children are mastering academic and social skills, professional development for educators, and tools to keep families engaged in their child's learning–all in one, easy-to-use digital platform.
"With 90% of brain development occurring before kindergarten, TK is a critical stepping stone for many children. California is leading the way to ensure all learners have an age and developmentally appropriate learning environment, and we're proud to be helping more schools deliver on that vision," said Breeyn Mack, a former preschool teacher and Senior Vice President of Education at Teaching Strategies. "Building on our 45 year legacy of translating play-based learning research into practice, we've designed a comprehensive ecosystem of solutions— including curriculum, assessment, family engagement, and professional development—to help California educators meet each child's unique needs and prepare them with the skills needed for kindergarten."
California began expanding its free, optional, universal TK program last year by extending its cutoff date for eligibility. The state will continue to extend the date range until all 4-year-old children are eligible statewide.
The Creative Curriculum® for Transitional Kindergarten: California prepares children for kindergarten by balancing direct instruction with project-based learning that is critical to whole-child development. It provides progressions of learning and development that span the entirety of early childhood in order to individualize learning for each child, and it focuses time each day on building foundational reading, mathematics, and STEM skills.
In addition, the curriculum includes guidance and support tools for teachers to access in real time, including a suite of videos that model for teachers how to teach activities in their classrooms. It also connects families to their child's learning seamlessly through automated playlists of activities directly tied to daily classroom instruction.
Oakland Unified School District is among the growing number of school districts that have invested in the new curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year. Educators in Oakland also provided valuable feedback on the curriculum as it was being created.
"Transitional kindergarten is this magical time for children, so selecting a curriculum was important for our team," said Dr. Bernadette Pilar Zermeño, a PreK/TK English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement specialist for the Oakland Unified School District. "We created a very detailed rubric for evaluating a TK curriculum, and we decided it should be whole-child focused, honor the needs of teachers, engage their families, and provide equitable and inclusive experiences for both children and families. After evaluating four different early childhood curriculums, we selected The Creative Curriculum®."
About Teaching Strategies
Driven by research that shows a child's first eight years form a critical foundation for success in school and in life, Teaching Strategies has been an advocate for the early education community for over 40 years. Today, Teaching Strategies connects teachers, children and families to inspired teaching and learning experiences, informative data, stronger family partnerships, and professional learning through the leading early learning platform and resources. Its products, including the most widely-used curriculum and assessment solutions The Creative Curriculum® and GOLD®, are found in over 250,000 classrooms and more than 80 countries around the world and reach over 4 million children each year.
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Corporate Education and Training
Send2Press News wire | July 11, 2023
Edupoint® Educational Systems announced today that Bethlehem Area School District (BASD) has selected the company’s industry-leading Synergy® Student Education Platform for its K 12 student data management needs. The district’s solution will include Synergy Student Information System, Synergy Online Registration, Synergy MTSS, and Synergy Special Education, and will be hosted in the Synergy AWS Cloud environment. BASD serves over 13,300 students across 22 schools in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.
Bethlehem district leadership assembled a team to explore current industry offerings and evaluate their ability to offer improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. Over a period of six months, 67 participants representing a wide variety of roles at all levels of the organization – including secretaries, teachers, principals, assistant principals, and applications specialists, in addition to the district technology team – contributed feedback on the solutions under consideration.
After extensive evaluation, including hosting week-long software demonstrations with three finalists, the team selected Synergy based on a number of key factors, including the following:
• Integrated student information, special education, and MTSS management
• Streamlining of special education and MTSS processes
• Robust query, reporting, and decision support tools
• Timely, reliable data • Federal and state reporting capabilities
• An established and growing presence in Pennsylvania
The district also sought a vendor with a long-term commitment to building and supporting its solutions in-house – a criterion that only Edupoint was able to meet.
“We didn’t want multiple separate systems,” said Marie Bachman, Chief Technology Officer at BASD. “We wanted to give our teachers an improved user experience, greater access to students’ special education information, and a better system for MTSS – all of which will enhance their ability to support students. Teachers are excited about these modules, which work together and are built right into the interface that they will already be using for everyday tasks.”
With Synergy, Bethlehem Area School District is getting a student data management system that will aid in eliminating unnecessary data-entry and integration busywork so stakeholders can focus their time on higher priorities, including supporting students and improving learning outcomes,” said Rob Wilson, Edupoint’s President and Chief Innovation Officer. “The seamless integration built into Synergy Education Platform will make a significant contribution, as well, to the district’s efforts to improve data governance. We are pleased to welcome BASD aboard as an Edupoint partner.
About Edupoint Educational Systems
For over 35 years, the leadership of Edupoint Educational Systems has provided well-designed, technologically advanced student data management systems that empower K-12 stakeholders to improve student achievement. Synergy Education Platform by Edupoint is an industry-leading student data management ecosystem built to fit the way educators already work. Synergy is unique among K-12 student data management solutions in providing an array of role-based mobile apps designed to give all stakeholders access to the tools they need when and where they need them. More than 5.5 million students use Synergy in 22 states.
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Talent Development
Businesswire | July 21, 2023
Age of Learning, leading education technology innovator and creator of the widely popular ABCmouse® Early Learning Academy, and AASA, The School Superintendents Association, today announced a strategic partnership to support district superintendents in identifying and implementing evidence-based solutions that early childhood educators can use to effectively personalize learning in the classroom.
The partnership reflects the commitment of both organizations to prioritize early childhood education initiatives and promote change within districts by facilitating access to best practices and emerging research.
AASA’s Leadership Network, the largest and most diverse network of school district leaders in America, is committed to supporting a pipeline of diverse superintendents and educational leaders as they refine the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for highly effective leadership. To forward this purpose, AASA has established several cohorts, each comprised of current and aspiring superintendents, as platforms for leaders to engage in collaborative professional learning.
Through this new partnership, Age of Learning will work with multiple cohort leaders to recommend research and case studies for possible use in professional learning activities. The company is partnering on AASA’s Early Learning Cohort, Aspiring Superintendents Academy®, and Aspiring Superintendents Academy® for Female Leaders.
“The need for evidence-based solutions for early learners has never been greater,” said Sunil Gunderia, Chief Innovation Officer at Age of Learning. “Through our partnership with AASA, we will work with district leaders to advance evidence-based solutions that support educators with actionable data, and together we will help school leaders and teachers deliver transformative results.”
“Early childhood education is a key driver in ensuring students have long term academic success,” said David R. Schuler, Executive Director, AASA. “Age of Learning’s investment in effective early learning solutions makes it great partner for AASA as we work with district leaders to develop the most effective experiences for young learners.”
This partnership builds on Age of Learning’s ongoing support for schools via its personalized and adaptive programs, My Math Academy® and My Reading Academy™, solutions that are based on well-established principles of learning science research and are supported by a body of ESSA-aligned research demonstrating their effectiveness. To date, the company has received 10 ESSA-aligned validations for My Math Academy and My Reading Academy.
About Age of Learning
Age of Learning® is the leading education technology innovator, creating engaging and effective learning resources to help children build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love of learning. The company’s research-based digital education programs have been developed by an experienced team of education experts and have proven efficacy in increasing children’s learning gains. Age of Learning’s flagship product, ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy, is an award-winning comprehensive curriculum for children. The company’s school solutions programs include My Math Academy®, an adaptive, personalized program proven to significantly accelerate math learning outcomes, and My Reading Academy™, an adaptive program designed to help young learners build a foundation for reading comprehension and literacy and become fluent readers. With over 10 billion learning activities completed by more than 50 million children worldwide, Age of Learning is a global leader in efforts to advance equity, access, and opportunity for all children.
About AASA
AASA, The School Superintendents Association, founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders in the United States and throughout the world. AASA’s mission is to support and develop effective school system leaders who are dedicated to equitable access for all students to the highest quality public education.
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Talent Development
Businesswire | August 21, 2023
Age of Learning, leading education technology innovator and creator of the widely popular ABCmouse® Early Learning Academy, today announced the launch of Homeschool+™, a new program that provides home educators with resources and tools to guide their child’s education and inspire a lifelong love of learning. Developed for children ages 4-8, Homeschool+ offers a comprehensive curriculum, adaptive math and reading learning programs, and robust home educator tools for planning lessons and tracking progress, customizable to meet each family’s unique homeschooling needs.
The Homeschool+ curriculum features Age of Learning’s research-validated digital learning solutions My Math Academy®, and My Reading Academy™. Based on well-established principles of learning science research, these programs enable young children to master essential math concepts and build foundational literacy skills. They help accelerate learning by identifying each child’s strengths and growth opportunities, then dynamically adapting the selection and sequence of learning experiences to meet each child’s needs.
In addition to math and reading, Homeschool+ offers art, science, social studies, language arts, music, and Spanish. These additional courses, all designed by education experts, feature content from ABCmouse’s award-winning, research-validated curriculum, augmented by lesson plans that take full advantage of the learning opportunities of the home environment. Home educators can select from a broad variety of lessons to address their children’s interests, each one offering online and offline learning activities.
“Age of Learning spent more than a decade developing research-based programs that engage children and accelerate learning,” said Cailin Sandvig, Vice President of Marketing, Homeschool Division, Age of Learning. “Designing a platform that meets the specific needs of home educators is an important next step in addressing the educational needs of all children. Homeschool+ brings together Age of Learning’s proven programs to deliver effective and engaging homeschool experiences for every family.”
In addition to its curriculum, Homeschool+ supports home educators with tools that enable them to effectively manage their child's learning journey while providing insights into their child's progress. This includes a Lesson Planner that gives educators complete control of their child’s program, with options to create custom lessons to complement their child's interests and needs, to reassign incomplete lessons, and to repeat lessons for extra review.
Homeschool+ also features a Progress Tracker with individualized dashboards that include detailed information about each student’s progress. The math and reading dashboards provide insights on each child's progress, including time spent, skill mastery, and areas of struggle. The Arts, Sciences & General Knowledge Dashboard tracks lesson progress and completed activities.
Prior to release, Homeschool+ was extensively tested with veteran homeschooling families, earning very positive reviews. As one parent put it, “It was just so simple. It didn't just fit in our day, it made our day easier. And there is so much there that he's learning that I want to teach him.”
About Age of Learning
Age of Learningis the leading education technology innovator, creating engaging and effective learning resources to help children build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love of learning. The company’s research-based digital education programs have been developed by an experienced team of education experts and have proven efficacy in increasing children’s learning gains. Age of Learning’s flagship product, ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy, is an award-winning comprehensive curriculum for children. The company’s school solutions programs include My Math Academy®, an adaptive, personalized program proven to significantly accelerate math learning outcomes, and My Reading Academy™, an adaptive program designed to help young learners build a foundation for reading comprehension and literacy and become fluent readers. With over 11 billion learning activities completed by more than 50 million children worldwide, Age of Learning is a global leader in efforts to advance equity, access, and opportunity for all children.
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