EdTrends
It may only be February, but the end of the 2021-2022 school year is as little as three or four months away. And with the end of the school year comes the scramble by districts, schools, and even individual teachers to spend down their budgets. Whether this “use it or lose it” scenario includes millions […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe When in college preparing for their careers, most of today’s school leaders likely didn’t think that they would need to know about planning for in-classroom learning during a pandemic or purchasing high quality air filtration systems. In addition to having to become armchair epidemiologists, they have also faced new challenges […]
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The U.S. Department of Education has approved the final state and territory plans for using their American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to support the safe and sustained return to in-person learning for U.S. K-12 students. Other states and territories had their ARP ESSER plans approved in 2021. All 52 […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe In the words of the poet Robert Burns, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Headlines from the first few weeks of 2022 show that nothing could be truer of the return to school following the holidays. Thousands of K-12 schools have experienced a disruption to […]
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Every November, Merriam-Webster picks the “word of the year.” For 2020, it was “pandemic.” (Go figure!) While it is still a bit early for the 2021 word to be announced, it might well be “disruption.” And among the things that have been most disrupted over the past year or more is the way that we […]
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By Guest Contributor Dylan Arena, VP, Learning Science, McGraw Hill School Group I’ve been fascinated by both learning and playing for my whole life, but it wasn’t until graduate school that I fully appreciated how related they are. Now I love to remind people that play is the most powerful adaptation for learning in the […]
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By Guest Contributor Dr. Shawn Smith, Chief Innovation Officer, McGraw Hill School Group We’re in a transitional moment in K-12 education. As an institution, education has always had an incremental relationship with change. But within that relatively static institution, individuals – teachers, students, principals – have been making their own changes at the scale of their classrooms, schools, and learning communities. […]
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By Guest Contributor Erin Werra, Skyward Behind just about every public school district is an elected school board. Here are a few considerations to cultivate harmony. It takes a village to run a public school district. Harmony is the goal, but in turbulent times like these, tension arises quickly. As communities navigate changes and challenges, defining […]
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Educators couldn’t miss the headlines about the additional $122 billion allocated for ESSER in the American Rescue Plan (ARP), signed into law in March. But there was another boon for education in the ARP that you may not have heard about: the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF). Administered through the Universal Service Administrative Company of the FCC, […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Parents have always been involved in school and their children’s education. They’ve gone to PTA/PTO meetings, participated in parent-teacher conferences, volunteered in the classroom and, of course, helped with homework. But 2020 and the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic took that involvement to a whole new level. […]
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As teachers exhale and hopefully get some well-deserved R&R, we thought it was time to reflect on some of the changes coming out of the COVID-19 experience. Sometimes out of chaos comes positive change, here are five ways we think schools will have changed for the better: Remote learning may be here to stay. Not […]
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As of April 2021, the CDC reported nearly 80 percent of teachers, school staff, and childcare workers have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine*, recently the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as 12 and experts are predicting even younger children will be eligible to be vaccinated by the end […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe There’s been a lot of talk over the past year about the “learning loss” K-12 students may have suffered as a result of the switch to remote learning, but it is also important to shine a spotlight on the toll it may have taken on their social and emotional development […]
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We’ve had a lot of heroes to celebrate over the past year, among them, and most notably for our community, the over 4 million U.S. K-12 teachers! While thanking teachers should not be a once-a-year event, we have an opportunity with Teacher Appreciation Week 2021, May 3-7, to share our gratitude. This year, more than […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Summer learning is a big topic this year among educators and plans are taking shape for many school districts now. While many school districts traditionally offer students some type of summer learning program, this year is seeing a surge in these offerings as educators and parents strive to ensure that […]
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On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, with another round of COVID-19 relief funding for education. The new law includes: $129 billion for K-12 state education agencies, including $800 million for children experiencing homelessness $40 billion for colleges and universities $2.75 billion to governors for use by private schools […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Lisa Wolfe joins us again to provide an update on education news. From an education perspective, reopening schools and the status of spring assessments dominated the education headlines during the first quarter of 2021. Plus, the news of investment, growth, and acquisition in the education community during Q1 is […]
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Each year, we review the marketing strategies that we believe will guide our customers to success in the spring selling season and beyond. When we look at the trends for 2021, it quickly becomes clear: In today’s environment, a focus on data, digital, and customer engagement will pave the path to marketing growth and sales […]
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By Guest Contributor Caroline Gilchrist, Skyward, Inc. In a world of connectivity, pockets of darkness remain. Twelve million children in the U.S. lack the internet access or devices they need to participate in remote learning. This disparity has only become more apparent—and devastating—amid the pandemic. Are you looking to light up the dark? Here are […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Now that the second half of the school year is underway, let’s take a look at the hot topics in education for 2021. Although COVID-19 has put added pressure on the education system, many of this year’s topics are the same ones that the community has dealt with for ages. […]
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Reaching educators and engaging them are both an art and a science and, generally, we lean into what worked in the past. 2020 required us all to pivot plans and rethink strategies for communicating with educators. As teachers and the greater education community figured out how to teach and learn in new ways, there were […]
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Typically, at this time of year many education marketers are spending a lot of time on the road, traveling from one conference to another. However, face-to-face education conferences came to a halt in the middle of March 2020; many went virtual for the rest of the year with a few cancelling completely. This year, for […]
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In Chicago, a third grader attends virtual school at the dining room table, her laptop perched on a stack of books and her father nearby in case she needs help. A high school student in Maine is learning physics in a newly designed classroom, with 10 of her classmates, all wearing masks, at desks more […]
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School supply lists are a lifeline for teachers and districts. Outfitting students and classrooms has become a collaborative effort with teachers, parents, fundraising appeals and districts all pitching in. This year, with so much uncertainty about how and where instruction will happen and heightened focus on health and hygiene, lists look a little different. With […]
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Navigating the school buying cycle has always been about syncing your marketing efforts to the beat of the educators’ purchasing journey to avoid missed steps and lost opportunities. With the COVID-19 outbreak changing how we view “school” so drastically these past few months, navigating the upcoming school buying cycle is perhaps the most challenging yet. […]
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A Gallup report from fall 2019, Education Technology Use in Schools, found that slightly over half of teachers (53%) said they would like to use digital learning tools more often in teaching. Teachers are getting that opportunity now with EdTech (i.e., educational technology) adoption on fast forward, and MDR wanted to know how they were […]
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It may be an understatement to say that 2020 has been a difficult year so far. Yet teachers are meeting the year’s challenges. They tell us that they are adapting and the school community at large continues to find ways to change. In the midst of these changes, things are beginning to open up again, […]
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While education is certainly facing unprecedented challenges in responding to stay-at-home orders, educators are rising to the challenge. A history of constant evolution in U.S. education – from Common Core to asynchronous learning – may have helped educators hone their skills as problem solvers. That’s one conclusion from a recent survey MDR conducted with educators […]
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe How we view “school” changed somewhat abruptly just weeks ago. While this would typically be the time when companies would be ramping up their efforts to market products and resources for the 2020-2021 school year, instead everyone is taking a step back to assess what the needs will be in […]
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By Guest Contributor Dr. Anne Snyder, McGraw-Hill Education As schools have shuttered and emergency homeschooling has become the new norm, families and teachers alike are working together to ensure that learning continues, albeit in new ways. The restrictions introduced by the COVID-19 safety precautions have understandably created challenges for families and educators alike. Despite this, […]
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