A Weekly Morale Boost for Teachers

I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard a colleague advise a student to do what makes them happy. Yet I wonder often how many teachers are happy in their jobs. In a 2012 survey, job satisfaction was at a 25-year low, teacher turnover is alarmingly high and costly, and morale is constantly under assault by social and political commentary. But who needs statistics? Just look around during a staff meeting to see the weight educators carry.

Spotlight

American Sentinel University

American Sentinel University is a leading online university accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. We position students for the future of their industries by offering relevant programs, a flexible learning platform, and superior student support.What makes American Sentinel unique is our primary focus: transforming healthcare through education.

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Education Technology

How online learning platforms facilitate NACEP accreditation

Article | July 20, 2022

Now more than ever schools are turning to online learning, so why not utilize online learning platforms to help your program with accreditation? NACEP accreditation recognizes programs that have consistently met or exceeded rigorous, peer-reviewed standards in six areas: Partnership, Curriculum, Faculty, Students, Assessment, and Program Evaluation. These program standards create a quality framework to ensure that students are taking authentic college courses for transcripted college credit while in high school.

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Online Education

Data Analytics for eLearning

Article | July 19, 2022

The rapid shift to eLearning has raised questions regarding the remote usage of online tools by students and teachers and the impact digital instruction is having on student engagement. CatchOn’s detailed trend reports reveal how and when students and teachers across the nation are using their EdTech applications and school devices, both inside and outside the classroom. CatchOn has generated these reports based on actual usage data from districts using CatchOn.

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Education Technology

Creating SEL Awareness Among Parents

Article | October 7, 2022

As social and emotional learning grow in significance, especially as remote learning becomes mainstream, it is now more crucial than ever to get parents on board with your school's SEL policy. Parents don’t always understand the importance of an SEL policy due to the Few individuals beyond the education community are aware of SEL or social and emotional learning, and those who are frequently have questions about how school SEL programs work. This could mean In fact, according to the Hechinger Report, SEL has grown to be an educational hot topic, with the conservative section in some places calling it a liberal policy. Regardless of their political views, people rarely have issues with SEL once they have a basic understanding of it. To ensure that parents are fully aware of what SEL programs entail, here are ways to communicate with them. Create Channels of Communication to Talk About SEL To successfully convey the benefits of the SEL strategy at your school, you must first develop open lines of communication with parents and the wider community. This ensures that any misconceptions, concerns, and challenges are addressed beforehand. Schools must ensure that parents get a forum to air their views about social-emotional learning skills and be on the same page about building a nurturing environment based on relationships and a sense of belonging. Outline the Outcomes of an SEL Program When parents know exactly what the aim of the SEL program is and what the outcomes look like, they are more likely to join the team. Reduce the use of educational acronyms or jargon-based messages as they are more likely to cause a stir. Despite widespread parental support for SEL-oriented skill instruction in schools, the Fordham Institute found that the phrase "social and emotional learning" is not particularly well-liked. However, clearly outlining the skills and what they look like in the real world is a successful approach to convincing parents about SEL. Promote the Significance of SEL in Today’s World As we emerge from the pandemic, SEL is especially important, and parents may need to be reminded of how much regular socialization and face-to-face instruction many children couldn't benefit from. It's crucial for parents to be aware of how schools’ establishing a secure, inclusive, and encouraging setting for children is essential for their success.

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Education Technology

21 Fastest-Growing Edtech Startups (2021)

Article | December 27, 2021

This is a list of growing startups in the education technology space. Overall, VC funding in the edtech space grew by 94% last year, reaching $13 billion. Big names like Udemy, MasterClass and Teachable might get all the attention. (And we will cover many edtech unicorns on this list.) But there are plenty of smaller, fast-growing Edtech startups to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond. Without further ado, let's dive into the list. Teachoo 5-year search growth: 7500% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2014 Location: Pune, India Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Teachoo is an education platform that hosts a variety of online courses designed for English speaking students in India. Current course offering include tax preparation, Microsoft Excel and math. Outschool 5-year search growth: 6300% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $240.2M (Series D) What they do: Outschool has created an educational platform for small live classes designed for homeschooling. Specifically, students and parents can choose from over 1,000 live classes designed for children, including ballet, drawing, STEM skills and anthropology. To date the company has had 500,000 students take at least once class and a total of 140,000 classes. Outschool now has a valuation of $3 billion and teachers have generated a reported $45 million from the platform. Preply 5-year search growth: 3200% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2012 Location: Brookline, Massachusetts Funding: $50.6M (Series B) What they do: Preply is an online marketplace for finding tutors in a variety of different languages. The Preply platform also contains a "structured learning" option for those that want a tutor to help them take a more organized route. In addition to rankings, Preply also ranks tutors based on a machine learning model. The company reports that they have over 100,000 students on their platform. Labster 5-year search growth: 575% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2011 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Funding: $103.5M (Series C) What they do: Labster hosts several "virtual labs" for doing experiments in VR. Specifically, students use VR and AR software to practice lab techniques virtually. The major benefit is that students can practice in a safe environment. And prepare them for real-world lab work. Labster currently has over 150 virtual labs on its platform and boasts over 1,000 University clients. Cambly 5-year search growth: 99X+ Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2012 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: Undisclosed (Series B) What they do: Cambly is an on-demand video platform for finding English language tutors. Includes features for lesson recordings, chat translations, courses and certifications. Cambly has a plan specifically for organizations that want to learn English. Lessonly 5-year search growth: -4% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2012 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana Funding: $29.1M (Series C) What they do: Lessonly is software to help facilitate in-house staff training for companies. In other words, it's a learning platform for the B2B market. Their software comes with plug-and-play modules for training customer service reps and sales staff. Along with interactive tools that help employees practice scenarios they'll face in the real world. Embrace 5-year search growth: 1900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 1999 Location: Highland, Illinois Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Embrace is a tool for helping teachers document student performance in the classroom. The tool is designed to save educator's time when creating lesson plans and documenting results. Embrace reports that their tool cuts down reporting time by about 50% compared to traditional methods. GoPractice 5-year search growth: 0% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2013 Location: Simpsonville, South Carolina Funding: Undisclosed What they do: GoPractice is an online training program for learning how to grow a customer base. Unlike some of the other edtech companies on this list, GoPractice doesn't offer a variety of courses in different areas. Instead, their 12-week course is designed to help startups find product market fit, launch, and scale their product. GoPractice includes lessons on product management, systems thinking, and data analytics. BetterUp 5-year search growth: 600% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2013 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $569.8M (Series E) What they do: BetterUp is a coaching and training platform designed to boost employee engagement and productivity. Focused on enterprise companies, BetterUp is technically SaaS. But also delivers coaching services through its platform. The company is currently valued at $4.7 billion and has raised $600 million. CuriosityStream 5-year search growth: 273% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: Silver Spring, Maryland Funding: $279.7M (Post-IPO Equity) What they do: CuriosityStream is "Netflix for educational content", like documentaries and educational series. Plans range from $2.99/mo for HD video to $9.99 for 4K quality. CuriosityStream's advisory board includes notable names like Glenn Close, Don Henley, and Michio Kaku. In Q3 2021, CuriosityStream posted $18.7 million in revenue and grew their direct subscriber count by 50% over the past year. Udemy 5-year search growth: 223% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2009 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $311.4M (Secondary Market) What they do: Udemy is a platform with 130,00 courses on dozens of different topics, from marketing to singing. In addition to à la carte course offerings, Udemy also has a "Udemy for Business" plan. This a subscription service that allows unlimited access to 5,000 courses. Lingoda 5-year search growth: 900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2013 Location: Berlin, Germany Funding: $79.1M (Private Equity) What they do: Lingoda is an online language school. The startup’s platform offers group or 1-to-1 classes in English, German, French, or Spanish. Also, Lingoda develops its own learning material in-house, which helps standardize the methodology. The company reports that they have 70,000 students and 1,400 teachers. GoStudent 5-year search growth: 4900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2016 Location: Vienna, Austria Funding: $345.4M (Series C) What they do: GoStudent is an online tutoring platform. The website helps find tutors across 14 different school subjects, from math to English. The site claims to have more than 10,000 students. In November 2021, GoStudent became the highest valued K through 12 education technology platform in Europe with a valuation of $1.6 billion. Brainly 5-year search growth: 2000% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2009 Location: Kraków, Poland Funding: $148.5M (Series D) What they do: Brainly is a social learning network. Users can ask questions about a range of different school subjects. And help their peers in order to receive points. The number of Brainly users grew from 150 million users in 2019 to 350 million a year later. Cuemath 5-year search growth: 300% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2013 Location: Bengaluru, India Funding: $64.5M (Series C) What they do: Cuemath operates a live-class platform for learning math and coding. Classes are held on Cuemath’s own platform with access to video calls and personalized worksheets. Parents can track the progress of their child on the app, which updates after each class. Quizizz 5-year search growth: 1328% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: Bangalore, India Funding: $47M (Series B) What they do: Quizizz is a gamified learning platform for children and employees. Teachers can create quizzes or use a library of existing content for student assignments. Employers can create polls or quizzes to support employee training (during presentations, onboarding, etc.). Reports are available in the product with instant feedback on class performance. Photomath 5-year search growth: 470% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2014 Location: San Mateo, CA Funding: $29M (Series B) What they do: Photomath is a mobile application for solving mathematical equations instantly. The app uses the smartphone's camera to scan math problems and provide solutions with step-by-step explanations. Photomath has more than 220 million downloads from App Store and Google Play. Mursion 5-year search growth: -38% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2014 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $35.1M (Series B) What they do: Mursion is a VR training platform for workplace training. Specifically, developing "emotional quotient" (EQ) skills. Their product delivers personalized simulations with the use of AI and human specialists. The company has offers training programs for leadership training, healthcare, and more. SplashLearn 5-year search growth: 4900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2010 Location: Gurugram, India Funding: $25M (Series C) What they do: SplashLearn is a gamified math learning product for elementary school children. Their content library includes more than 4,000 games designed to explain math concepts. RangeForce 5-year search growth: 700% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2015 Location: Manassas, VA Funding: $18M (Series A) What they do: RangeForce operates a cloud-based learning platform for cybersecurity training. The startup's product offers a cyber attack simulator for employees to improve their skills. Managers can track the team's performance with reporting features. CoachHub 5-year search growth: 99X+ Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2018 Location: Berlin, Germany Funding: $133M (Series B) What they do: CoachHub is a B2B digital coaching provider. This startup creates personalized talent development programs for employees to hone their skills and delivers them remotely via video. Employees and HR teams can measure performance within the application. CoachHub has more than 2,500 business coaches in its network. Conclusion That completes this list of 21 Edtech startups with significant growth in 2021. What stands out about many of these companies is the fact that they cater to completely different markets, from schoolchildren all the way up to executives that spend most of their time in B2B boardrooms.

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Spotlight

American Sentinel University

American Sentinel University is a leading online university accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. We position students for the future of their industries by offering relevant programs, a flexible learning platform, and superior student support.What makes American Sentinel unique is our primary focus: transforming healthcare through education.

Related News

Are institutional investments in athletics driving negative perceptions of higher ed?

educationdive | January 12, 2018

A recent analysis by KDM engineering is targeting the lopsidedness of higher ed's investment in athletics versus academics; specifically, the analysis looks at how much money is put into scholarships for sports ($2.9 billion) versus STEM fields ($1.6 billion), despite the fact that there are more STEM jobs in the U.S. economy (8.6 million) than sports jobs (11,800). The analysis breaks down to $180 investment per STEM worker, versus $245,763 per professional athlete.Though professional athletes out-earn professional scientists, the return on public investment favors a greater investment in STEM professionals: the average career length of a STEM worker is 40-45 years while a pro athlete’s career typically only lasts three to five years.

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U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to Congress: Make School Funding More Equitable

usnews | January 11, 2018

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is urging Congress to take “bold action” to address inequitable funding in the country’s public school system, publishing Thursday a sweeping report examining how K-12 funding negatively impacts the educational opportunities of low-income students and students of color.“Although the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that public education is a right that should be available to all on equal terms, the longstanding and persistent reality is that vast funding inequities in our state public education systems render the education available to millions of American public school students profoundly unequal,” the report states. Among other things, the committee’s report recommends Congress incentivize states to adopt more-equitable school finance systems, ensure adequate funding for students with disabilities and to invest more in facilities maintenance.

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Report examines Latino student success rates

educationdive | December 22, 2017

The author of a new report that analyzes success rates of Latino students stresses that there is no “magic bullet” for colleges and universities to use to improve their own metrics, and what works at one school may not be applicable for all. However, institutions that prioritize equity and make efforts to measure their progress usually yield positive results.“What we’ve learned over time is that it comes down to leaders on that particular campus prioritizing student success and equity,” Andrew Nichols, the director for higher education research and data analytics for The Education Trust, said about his new report, "A Look at Latino Success." “They make sure those working for them take this seriously.” The new report from the Education Trust analyses the success rate gaps across different kinds of institutions, including public and private schools, as well as those designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions by the federal government. (The designation is given a school that has at least 25% of its undergraduate population identiting as Latino.)

Read More

Are institutional investments in athletics driving negative perceptions of higher ed?

educationdive | January 12, 2018

A recent analysis by KDM engineering is targeting the lopsidedness of higher ed's investment in athletics versus academics; specifically, the analysis looks at how much money is put into scholarships for sports ($2.9 billion) versus STEM fields ($1.6 billion), despite the fact that there are more STEM jobs in the U.S. economy (8.6 million) than sports jobs (11,800). The analysis breaks down to $180 investment per STEM worker, versus $245,763 per professional athlete.Though professional athletes out-earn professional scientists, the return on public investment favors a greater investment in STEM professionals: the average career length of a STEM worker is 40-45 years while a pro athlete’s career typically only lasts three to five years.

Read More

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to Congress: Make School Funding More Equitable

usnews | January 11, 2018

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is urging Congress to take “bold action” to address inequitable funding in the country’s public school system, publishing Thursday a sweeping report examining how K-12 funding negatively impacts the educational opportunities of low-income students and students of color.“Although the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that public education is a right that should be available to all on equal terms, the longstanding and persistent reality is that vast funding inequities in our state public education systems render the education available to millions of American public school students profoundly unequal,” the report states. Among other things, the committee’s report recommends Congress incentivize states to adopt more-equitable school finance systems, ensure adequate funding for students with disabilities and to invest more in facilities maintenance.

Read More

Report examines Latino student success rates

educationdive | December 22, 2017

The author of a new report that analyzes success rates of Latino students stresses that there is no “magic bullet” for colleges and universities to use to improve their own metrics, and what works at one school may not be applicable for all. However, institutions that prioritize equity and make efforts to measure their progress usually yield positive results.“What we’ve learned over time is that it comes down to leaders on that particular campus prioritizing student success and equity,” Andrew Nichols, the director for higher education research and data analytics for The Education Trust, said about his new report, "A Look at Latino Success." “They make sure those working for them take this seriously.” The new report from the Education Trust analyses the success rate gaps across different kinds of institutions, including public and private schools, as well as those designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions by the federal government. (The designation is given a school that has at least 25% of its undergraduate population identiting as Latino.)

Read More

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