Recent Posts
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, Read More »
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States and school districts around the country are seeing the influx of American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) funds. The U.S. Department of Education recently approved plans from 11 states and Washington, D.C. for using the funds to safely reopen and sustain the operation of schools, and address the needs of Read More »
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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. Read More »
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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 Read More »
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe While there wasn’t quite as much activity as in the first quarter of 2021, the education space remained a hot bed of acquisition and investment activity in the second quarter with some significant initial public offerings (IPO) and leadership appointments. Here are highlights: McGraw Hill acquired Kidaptive, Inc., an adaptive Read More »
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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 Read More »
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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 Read More »
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One of the major challenges in selling to education is getting your product in the right hands, using the right channels, and then securing the sale. The trick is to reach out and develop a connection so you can confidently inform decision makers, “This product will meet your needs or address your problem!” Establish Relationships Read More »
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You’ve likely heard some rumblings in the marketing world about the death of the third-party cookie. Dramatic language aside, some big changes are coming in how browsers handle user site visit information. Those changes will have an impact on how MDR’s digital display advertising works. So, we want to give you a heads up about Read More »
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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 Read More »
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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 Read More »
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Experts say that the average American employee receives more than 120 emails a day. Looking at your own inbox, you might think even that is a vast under-estimate. Every day, you need to sort through the important work emails that need to be handled immediately, the e-newsletters that contain information that help you do your Read More »
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The last year in education has been an ‘all hands on deck’ situation. Educators, parents, districts, providers, nonprofits…everyone pitched in to keep student progress moving forward under challenging, and constantly changing, circumstances. Like a stress test, this current school year demonstrated how important it is to have an efficient and flexible marketing operation that can Read More »
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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 Read More »
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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 Read More »
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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 Read More »
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If the view from your window looks anything like mine, spring may be the furthest thing from your thoughts. But, thankfully, it really is right around the corner and now—before the crocuses pop their heads through the snow—is the time to start planning for the spring 2021 selling season! Although this year’s selling cycle has Read More »
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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 Read More »
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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. Read More »
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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 Read More »
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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 Read More »
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We all—especially these days—spend countless hours behind our screens, communicating via email, private messaging, Zoom, and other online tools. But at the end of the day, who doesn’t still love going to their real-world mailbox and checking to see what surprises (other than bills) may have arrived that day? It might be a greeting card Read More »
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That’s what MDR learned after surveying nearly 1,000 K-12 teachers in October 2020 after this far from ordinary year in education. There are some silver linings to be found in education’s pandemic response, and we explored teachers’ experiences and attitudes. Educators are highly positive towards technology in the classroom, with 54% indicating it was very Read More »
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After months of back and forth, a new COVID-19 relief package was approved and signed into law on December 27, 2020. It includes $54.3 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund, a significant addition to the $30.75 billion that was allocated when the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was approved in March 2020. Read More »
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By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Just weeks ago, Dictionary.com named “pandemic” its Word of the Year and users of the online dictionary selected “unprecedented” as the People’s Choice 2020 Word of the Year. No “words” are truer as we have all spoken and written those two words during 2020 more than ever before in our Read More »
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Between a global pandemic, a presidential election, and heightened focus on equality and justice, 2020 has been a year like no other for learning. Amidst the challenges and uncertainty this year has brought, students of all ages are being challenged to reevaluate not only how they learn, but how to relate to one another. They Read More »
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Ringing in a new year always presents us with the chance to be optimistic and think about the opportunities it will bring. While 2020 may have looked a lot different than expected, as 2021 nears, we actually do have reason to be optimistic. Having said that, the change of a calendar year doesn’t necessarily mean Read More »
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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 Read More »
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The first few months of the 2020–2021 school year have been more than a bit “unusual.” However, in the run-up to Thanksgiving and the winter holidays, it is quite clear that we have much to be thankful for — even in the midst of what can sometimes feel like chaos. At MDR, we are pausing Read More »
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What’s moving the needle in sales and marketing these days? Complete, Accurate, and Fresh Data. The definition of data quality is changing, largely because today’s education sales and marketers are using data as high-octane fuel for sophisticated activation strategies, like: Personalization Account-Based Marketing Customer Data Platforms Programmatic Advertising Defining Buyer Personas Identifying Lookalike Audiences Marketing Read More »
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