An analysis of teacher retirements during 2020 found that the rate was down by about five percent. Just one state under study — Alabama — showed an increase in retirements, of 7.2 percent.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/18/20
The state of Vermont has implemented a plan to increase "surveillance testing," which tests asymptomatic populations to find the virus in the community more quickly. To set a baseline, public health officials have begun routine testing of K-12 teachers and staff. All of the testing is voluntary, and those who undergo it won't need to quarantine. There are no plans to expand testing to students at this time.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/17/20
A new integration for Panopto and Webex users will allow them to transfer their video recordings to their media library. Panopto produces video management applications; Webex is a video conferencing program.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/17/20
"Busy work" was the way most students and parents might classify K-12 instruction last spring, during the first spate of remote education.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/16/20
Voice technology is positioned to provide a safer alternative to touch-based interactions. In a survey by Adobe of a 1,000 voice technology users in the United States, nearly a third said sanitation (such as not needing to touch high-traffic surfaces) was a big benefit of voice technology.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/13/20
Two-thirds of teachers (67 percent) said they're using more digital books this year than last year, while more than eight in 10 of administrators (85 percent) said their districts were using digital books.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/12/20
A Texas county with an all-digital public library is taking on the job of developing a private wireless network to support its rural and economically poor students.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/05/20
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound and wide-reaching effect on students, from the quality and nature of the instruction they have received to their social and emotional well-being.
In May 2020 a committee of experts in education, health, young people and families embarked on a National Academies project to develop evidence-based guidance on reopening schools for in-person learning that would be available in time for fall 2020. As the group progressed, they never predicted that discussions around the issue of reopening "would explode" as they have, as the members of the committee acknowledged in a recently issued report.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/02/20
An analysis of early assessment data found that between a quarter and a third of students began the 2020-2021 school year unprepared for on-grade level instruction in reading and math (28 percent and 29 percent, respectively). And compared with the historical average of the previous three school years, more students began the latest school year behind grade level, especially in math.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/02/20