Defense Department Taps Partner for Overseas Teacher PD

The United States Department of Defense has chosen a partner for a possible five-year contract to provide professional development to teachers at its elementary schools on military installations in foreign countries.

Catapult Learning, which provides professional development to K-12 teachers, will use a combination of face-to-face instructors and virtual learning tools at 168 schools in 11 countries and two U.S. territories run by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). The contract is for one base year with the option of four more following that.

Eighty of Catapult Learning's instructors will spread out to implement system-wide professional learning and literacy model units that the company has developed with the DoDEA's primary goal in mind: successful adoption of the College and Career Ready Standards. The 80 instructors began in-person professional development sessions at all 168 schools in June and will follow up with a virtual support network.

The DoDEA schools employ about 15,000 employees who serve 74,000 children of active-duty military and civilian families.

"Partnering with the Department of Defense to improve the quality of education for the families serving in our military is an honor and a privilege," said Catapult Learning CEO Jeffrey Cohen. "We are thrilled to have been selected for this important work. With 40 years of experience and a team of experts dedicated to providing professional development to school leaders and teachers, we are confident in our ability to increase student achievement across the DoDEA schools."

About the Author

Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.

Featured

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • chart with ascending bars and two silhouetted figures observing it, set against a light background with blue and purple tones

    Report: Enterprises Are Embracing Agentic AI

    According to a new report from SnapLogic, 50% of enterprises are already deploying AI agents, and another 32% plan to do so within the next 12 months..

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • student using a tablet with math symbols dissolving into a glowing AI

    Survey: Students Say AI Use Can Reduce Math Anxiety

    In a recent survey, 56% of high school students said that the use of artificial intelligence can go a long way toward reducing math anxiety.