The U.S. Department of Education is making a mobile app available for students applying for federal financial aid. This beta version of the "myStudentAid" app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Development of the new release was done in parallel with a redesign of the FAFSA.gov website. The goal for both: to make it easier for students and families to fill out the 2018-2019 Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 08/29/18
A new cloud-based payment platform is intended to help schools and community groups accept and process payments from multiple systems and have them accessed through one interface. Families can pay directly through the school's website, and payments are tracked through a single dashboard on the school side of the transaction.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 08/09/18
A study undertaken jointly by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and education technology companies Blackboard and VitalSource found that early activity with digital tools is a "strong predictor" of passing a class — even more so than the grade point average a student enters the class with.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 08/09/18
Whether your school or district has officially adopted social media or not, conversations are happening in and around your school on everything from Facebook to Snapchat. Schools must reckon with this reality and commit to supporting thoughtful and critical social media use among students, teachers and administrators. If not, schools and classrooms risk everything from digital distraction to privacy violations.
- By Tanner Higgin
- 08/09/18
A major national survey finds that principals' major concerns are students with emotional problems, student mental health issues, students not performing to potential and services for students who are at risk.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 07/02/18
Frontline Education, with HR solutions for K-12 education, has acquired Prologic Technology Systems, which produces Total Education Administrative Management Solution (TEAMS).
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/05/18
An ongoing joint data science project at two institutions has found that while colleges and universities claim to care about access for low-income students and people of color, the students they recruit are neither.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 05/30/18
Telling parents that absences matter and offering suggestions for eliminating them reduces absenteeism by as much as 10 percent, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard and Berkeley.
Adequate funding is the top concern for a majority of principals, according to a new survey from MCH Strategic Data. More than half of those surveyed, 52 percent, cited adequate funding as a major concern, 14 points more than the second-most commonly cited concern, teacher morale.
The only people who seem to want face-to-face meetings and personal phone calls anymore are school principals. Four in five parents consider e-mail the most effective way for schools and districts to communicate with them.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 03/15/18