T.H.E. Journal News

A December 2020 purchase of Certica Solutions is bearing fruit for learning management company Instructure. The maker of Canvas has announced a new collection of formative assessments specifically intended to help teachers measure "learning loss," built by the curriculum and assessment experts who joined as part of that acquisition.

While many high schoolers have myriad routes to graduation, those pathways are not all equal, and some may steer students into unexpected outcomes that limit their options early in life.

A new initiative in Arizona will help disadvantaged students in high school and college take Amazon AWS certification exams.

A Texas community college turned to virtual reality to help middle schoolers in the region figure out what careers they should declare for themselves as they enter high school, as well as to promote career and technical education (CTE).

The deadline for the Educators of America Micro Grant program is this Thursday, April 15, The program awards $250 to $5,000 to individual teachers and others involved in education for technology.

Upcoming funding opportunities for K–12 school, teachers and groups (updated February 8)

The permutations of K-12 instruction being delivered are many right now, and so are the choices families are making for the education of their students. By mid-March 2021 more than three-quarters of fourth- and eighth-grade students (76%) were being offered the chance to attend public schools open at least some of the time for face-to-face lessons. But just a fraction of those students attended in-person instruction. The remaining 24% of grade 4 and grade 8 students were in schools that were only online.

The purpose of the tool is to help 200 countries and territories make decisions about school reopening and recovery planning.

A new survey has found that a one in three high schoolers (33%) would like to keep online learning as an ingredient in their education. The remaining 67% – almost all of whom shifted to virtual education to some degree amid the pandemic – prefer learning completely in-person, while 29 percent favored a hybrid arrangement with up to half of their time in a virtual learning environment. Four percent said they would be happy learning virtually full time or much of the time.

Small groups of Colorado students can be paired up with tutors online through a new agreement struck between two education nonprofits. The program is being undertaken by Denver-based Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) and Schoolhouse.world, an organization launched last year by Khan Academy Founder Sal Khan and others.

Education technology company Renaissance has acquired Lalilo, an early literacy company that was started in Paris in 2016 by three graduates of École Polytechnique with a goal of ending illiteracy. Terms of the deal were not made public.

Intel will be supporting esports in high schools. The chipmaker has signed on as a sponsor with Generation Esports (GenE), a company that runs a competitive high school league, providing prizes, "loot crates" and promotion for the events. Tournament play will culminate in the $50,000 "Intel Winners Circle Tournament" this summer.

Parents overwhelmingly opposed going ahead with standardized testing this spring, according to a survey done by a parent advocates group.

New Century Education Foundation is embedding lessons into its adaptive, online tutoring system, to address the needs of dyslexic students of any age. New Century, a nonprofit that focuses on helping teachers and parents improve the learning of students with specific needs, is working with Noah Text to add its stories into the organization's "Intelligent Tutoring System."

Identity and belonging, the truth about vaping and the potential of nuclear science are the topics of three free "virtual" fieldtrips that have been introduced by Discovery Education working with various partners.

Plagiarism among students jumped by 10 percentage points after the pandemic, when classes went online — an increase in the average rate of copying in student work from 35 percent to 45 percent, according to an analysis undertaken by Copyleaks.

E-rate received a $7.1 billion boost specifically to cover expenses related to off-campus connectivity. An expert dissects how the ECF could be structured, what it can be used for and how to help your district prepare for its arrival.

Audiovisual technology manufacturer Aver Information USA has launched a new camera for education that uses AI to “seamlessly track” teachers as they move around the classroom. The camera was designed with K–12 remote learning environments in mind.

Beginning July 1, public schools will be eligible to apply for one of 20 mini-grants designed to promote STEAM education.

Tool retailer Harbor Freight has opened the new application window for applying to win cash prizes for teaching excellence. This competition puts the emphasis on recognizing educators and programs teaching the "skilled trades" in public high schools.