The Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) Calls President Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Good First Step

 The Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) Calls President Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Good First Step

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 25, 2022) – The Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) calls President Joe Biden’s announcement August 24, 2022 on new steps to address student loan debt as a good step toward improving the employee pipeline issue in education.

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Education Arm of The Buck Institute – PBLWorks – Receives a $2.9 Million Grant from the Bezos Family Foundation

Grant will fund creation of a free culturally-responsive and adaptable social studies and civics curriculum focused on PBL for grades 4-12

Novato, California (August 25, 2022) – The Buck Institute for Education (dba PBLWorks) was awarded a $2.9 million grant from the Bezos Family Foundation to design an innovative social studies and civics curriculum that uses a Project Based Learning (PBL) model. The new PBL units are being designed for teachers of grades 4-12 and will be available free as Open Educational Resources (OER). 

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Kentucky Department of Education Approves Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready® Assessment for Grades K–3 as a Universal Screener for Early Literacy

Districts across the state can now use data from the i-Ready Assessment for Reading as part of a multi-tiered system of supports for early learners

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., August 24, 2022—The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) recently named Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Assessment for Reading as an approved universal screener for early literacy. Now, districts across the state can use data from the online program as part of a multi-tiered system of supports for students in Grades K–3 as outlined by the state’s Read to Succeed Act. Today, i-Ready serves more than 11 million students and approximately one-third of all students in Grades K–8 in the United States, including more than 80,000 students across Kentucky.

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Presence Introduces New Therapy Platform to Enrich the Clinician Experience

Free version of platform helps clinicians reimagine their work through digital therapy tools

NEW YORK, August 24, 2022 – Presence, the leading provider of online therapy solutions for children with diverse needs, launches Kanga, a modern therapy platform for clinicians who serve children. Special education caseloads in schools have continued to rise, increasing backlogs, and driving clinician burnout. Presence is expanding the tools available to clinicians in schools, agencies, and independent practices. The technology company has developed a robust, clinician-designed online therapy platform for their own network of teletherapy providers, and made a version of it available to schools during the pandemic.

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PBLWorks Now Accepting Participants for its 2022-23 Kentucky School Leader Network

School leaders receive Gold Standard Project Based Learning (PBL) professional development at no cost to their districts to support implementation of PBL

Novato, CA (August 18, 2022) – PBLWorks, the leading provider of professional development for Project Based Learning (PBL), is offering an exclusive opportunity for school leaders in Kentucky to receive Gold Standard PBL training at no cost to their school districts by joining the Kentucky PBL School Leader Network.

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Vector Solutions Wins Higher Education Safety and Security Platinum Award

Vector LiveSafe panic alarm functionality can be used during critical safety and security events by students, faculty and staff workers to request help wherever they are

Tampa, FL – August 18, 2022 – Vector LiveSafe, from Vector Solutions, has won a 2022 Spaces4Learning New Product Award for its silent panic alarm feature. Vector LiveSafe earned a platinum award – the highest possible – in the higher education category of “Safety & Security – Emergency Communication.”

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Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready® Assessment Named to the Georgia Department of Education Approved List of Gifted Identification Screeners

Districts across the state can now use data from the i-Ready Assessment for Mathematics and Reading to help identify students eligible for gifted education programs 

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., August 18, 2022—The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) has added Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Assessment for Grades K–12 to its approved list of Gifted Education Assessment Measures to identify students’ eligibility for gifted education programs in the achievement domain. With this approval, districts throughout the state can now use their existing reading and mathematics data from the i-Ready Assessment as a source of evidence to support a referral for gifted education programs. The i-Ready normative scores can be used to determine if students meet the criteria in the achievement category of the evaluation and eligibility process, eliminating the need for a separate achievement assessment. 

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Vernier Software & Technology is now Vernier Science Education

New name reflects company’s commitment to building a STEM-literate society

BEAVERTON, Oregon, August 17, 2022 — Vernier Software & Technology has changed its name to Vernier Science Education. This new name reflects the company’s commitment to provide educators with the tools they need to engage all students with hands-on, socially relevant STEM education and build a STEM-literate society.

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New Mental Well-Being Course Rounds Out Full Suite of Safety and Prevention

Training Focused on the Graduate School Experience

Tampa, FL – August 9, 2022 – The need for student mental health resources in higher education has never been greater, according to a new study from researchers at the Healthy Minds Network. Graduate students are especially vulnerable as they may face overwhelming stress related to their academic programs, family caretaking responsibilities, food and housing insecurity, and fallout from COVID-19. In fact, a recent survey found that 67% of graduate student respondents scored low on well-being factors (Ogilvie et al., 2021).

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Award-Winning K-12 Training Courses from Vector Solutions are Now Available in Multiple Languages

New AI -powered Course Translations feature helps schools deliver critical training to every staff member – including staff whose first language may not be English

Tampa, FL – August 1, 2022 – Vector Solutions, the leading provider of training and software solutions to help schools make their operations and communities safer, smarter, and better, is now offering a Course Translations feature to help school district employees access the company’s extensive library of award-winning K-12 training courses in multiple languages. The new translations feature leverages AI technology to translate the text of the course content, as well as the knowledge checks and assessments that are included with the training modules. Some courses also offer translated machine-generated narration.  The translation feature currently includes English, Spanish and French. An expanded 20-language package will be available in the coming year.

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