Over the years, the educator of the year award-winners and other teachers of similar recognition have justified that teachers have to set high expectations. High expectations are examples of believing in the student’s capacity.

The Practical Situation for High-School Students

For many students, racial bias first becomes apparent in high school. During elementary school and middle school, there wasn’t much differentiation between where every student would be going later. This is because the majority of school districts use location instead of merit to divide school progression.

However, as students prepare to finish high school, the division between students aiming low and those aiming high becomes clear. At the time of graduating, lots of counselors try to help students, especially those with a minority background, to go with practical options.

Institutions, which  are likely to admit everybody, don’t set very high standards for any student. Realistic environments are in no way realistic, and they many times eternize the continuing format of racial bias in academic pursuit.

If you assess schools like UCLA, you can easily identify that the composition doesn’t mirror the primarily Latino community surrounding the school. Therefore, should the counselors practically advise students to select alternatives? When lots of students from the Latino community live near UCLA, it’s natural for them to want to attend it. The institution is close to home and has garnered an impressive reputation. But if the assumption is that they cannot enter, what’s the point in trying?

It Just Takes One Person

It just takes one administrator, counselor, or educator to have confidence in a student and describe the pushback they experienced from another adult. Telling a student that they should never allow people to obstruct them can make a difference in educational achievement.

Much of the belief is that students having a minority background are considered less capable by the teachers. Another factor is that these students are more presumably belong to locations below the poverty level. Moreover, there’s a 30% lower probability that their mother has attended college.

Let’s try to understand the differentiation. Many times, white teachers may feel that they need to be “realistic,” as described in the aforementioned example. Does a place of caring generate this idea? Commonly, teachers who help students choose schools with less competition or easier to enter schools report that they’re attempting to make students’ disappointment less painful. Nevertheless, BAME teachers often link optimism to success and the requirement to develop a structure of support encompassing students needing it most.

The objective is to develop a self-fulfilling prophecy. And administrators or teachers, regardless of their background, can develop this opportunity. Teachers should help motivate students to attain as much education as they can with no racial bias on their abilities.

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In this contemporary era, education is an essential instrument that plays a significant part in defending our democracy. It is our responsibility to align our education so that it helps preserve democracy. Below are some methods through which education can help defend and preserve our democracy.

Providing Knowledge of History

With knowledge of history, people can carefully think about what happened in the earlier times and learn from such events. It is crucial for schools to teach history to enable students to take an objective look at the various forms of government that were present in historical times and weigh them against the present government and their process of handling matters. This way, students can appreciate the democratic system and even seek approaches to attain an improved democracy.

Making People Aware of Their Civic Duties, Rights, and Obligations

Compared to other forms of government, democracy offers the advantage of recognizing every individual as equal before the law. Every person has equal rights, which are protected by the constitution. When people are aware of their rights, they can resist anybody who attempts to encroach upon these rights. This is why the strength of knowledge is powerful.

Additionally, schools should educate people about the paths they can take to become better civilians in a democratic society. This can be accomplished by successfully publicizing the civic responsibilities of citizens, like taking part in elections and paying taxes on time. While reliable elections, the distinguishing facet of democracy, boost the citizens’ confidence in democracy, payment of taxes helps to make sure that the government can execute its civil and other operations. Schools should teach their students all these things.

Empowering Students to Make Wise and Informed Decisions

A country’s citizens should be educated to assess their options logically and understand the reasons why they need to make specific choices while disregarding others. For instance, voters about to cast their votes in an election should be aware of who they are voting for and what are the reasons for voting in favor of or against these people. Additionally, they must know the reasons underlying these political decisions, which they arrive at after evaluating their options using the knowledge they had obtained from  schools. Thus, knowledge acquired from schools plays a vital role in ensuring that citizens don’t end up choosing bad leaders.

Wrapping Up

It is not wrong to declare education to be essential for safeguarding democracy. Education and democracy go hand in hand. A country’s level of education determines to which degree its democracy will succeed. As a result, the incessant use of education in our country will pave the way to an ideal degree of democracy.

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As schools react to pandemic interruptions, having precise and complete statistics in one place is crucial to educators’ capacity to make sound decisions and implement treatment strategies.

Putting Together a Complete Picture

District leaders develop a comprehensive picture to aid in decision-making in areas that benefit students, teachers, and school systems and acquiring the complete picture necessarily requires the gathering of various data points. Observations into investment trends and other frequently addressed issues lead to the ability to compare or see correlations in data, as well as the potential to quickly assemble and extricate data other than subsets (e.g., grade level, cost-free meal status). Simple data observations can frequently yield insights. 

Students’ timetables, for instance, show who is registered in academically challenging opportunities like Enhanced Courses or International Baccalaureate training programs, as well as who has participated in extracurricular activities. Enrollment in these measures and opportunities by demographic groupings should recognize those of the area or school as a whole; differences indicate fewer chances.  

For illustration, as a portion of its bigger growth strategy, a large neighborhood in Oklahoma sought to record equity for their high schoolers in two areas: Advanced Placement and concurrent college enrollment. Our team worked with them to create a dashboard that would track not only AP coursework participation but also which students followed through and wound up taking and getting good grades for academic credit in college. These comparisons enabled the neighborhood to ascertain which pupils were going to college and if there were any discrepancies in course involvement, test inclusion, or exam results. In simpler terms, utilizing the preparation and test features, this district could evaluate whether or not there were inconsistencies and when those inconsistencies appeared.

School attendance records can also be very helpful in recognizing students who need extra help. Persistent absenteeism, characterized as overlooking 10% or over than that of the school days, has seemed to harm student achievement. Students that do not come to school are, essentially, not learning. It is crucial to interfere before students fall into the chronic absenteeism requirements. The mega system of support (MTSS) is designed to have an alert system that suggests whether a child’s engagement is on track, slipping off the record, by now off track, or considerably off track and on the verge of becoming chronic.

We just helped a rural Mississippi department for education determine whether there were variations in student success results based on MTSS attendance risk level. We assessed students’ quality standards on the winter standard as the resulting factor of interest. As per the MTSS criteria, 100 percent of children performing at the lowest point on the winter math assessments were declared “off track” or “very off track.” 50% of those pupils were labeled habitually absent by the winter quarter. In short, half of the pupils who performed the lowest on the winter arithmetic test had already skipped 10% or more of the academic year. After seeing the data presented, district authorities began to take action.

While statistical approach data such as attendance levels and profiles of intensive class students are required for discovering chance discrepancies, qualitative information such as communication records between teachers and parents can also be valuable. Qualitative data adds depth, richness, and subtlety to statistical data points well. Using both forms of data simultaneously is frequently necessary for recognizing requirements, ongoing challenges, and even positive tales.

Putting Data Insights to Use

Identifying and understanding data trends may be both instructive and enjoyable. However, the value comes from putting that knowledge and insight to use. Getting findings to work includes creating an implementation plan to fix weaknesses based on the findings of the analysis. 

For example, if you are studying sophisticated coursework/exam enrollment and find anomalies among various groups, the following stages would be to spot possible root reasons and build an intervention strategy. The cost of AP tests, which typically cost roughly $100 each test, maybe a deterrent. If other data (e.g., qualitative data such as past interactions with juniors or seniors or nameless polls) corroborated this notion, it might be used to justify a grant proposal requesting funds to pay exam expenses for financially disadvantaged students. Continued tracking of trends after monetary obstacles have been eliminated would be helpful info for the schooling system to see whether they addressed the appropriate hurdle and to communicate with grantors as part of the post-reporting process. 

Data must also be shared with key stakeholders. Combining information with teachers and working collaboratively to find answers is crucial for effectively executing student success methods and initiatives.

Collaboration with families is also important for reconnecting disconnected pupils and providing help and encouragement through parental involvement. As a result, districts must adopt communication technologies that are simple for families to use. Districts can quickly increase communication equality by utilizing communication platforms and techniques that do not necessitate parents downloading apps or opting into messaging services.

Students’ conditions and demands vary greatly, which might have an impact on student results. Using different types of data, districts can acquire a more thorough knowledge of these requirements and assist identify important disparities that must be addressed.

The post Student Data is Vital for Schools to Address Education Equity appeared first on The Tech Edvocate.

Cost

For many families, the lack of financial ability is a massive obstacle in regularly sending their children to school. Children from these families don’t even have the basic skills like math or reading that might help them learn trade skills to get employment to serve their communities and support their families. Therefore, these struggling families and communities continue experiencing an ongoing cycle of poverty. Tax-supported public education isn’t available in many places, so schools in those locations charge a significant tuition fee. Establishing tax-supported public education systems can be an effective way to solve this. This can be achieved by reallocating funding from taxes or by collecting local taxes toward developing and maintaining public schools. Apart from tuition, uniforms, books, transportation to and from school, and supplies also require money that a huge number of families just cannot afford. One of the many possible ways to solve these problems is by building a library of shared books for every grade level. Students can reuse them every year, so every student won’t need to buy new books every year. While there is no fast or straightforward way to solve poverty, these kinds of initiatives should help to reduce the financial crises.

Location

The absence of a school within an acceptable distance from home or the lack of access to transportation is another major obstacle that keeps many talented children away from school. It isn’t safe for children to cover the distance from home to school by walking in many areas. This barrier can be lowered through several methods. These may include using technology, having lessons designed for learning at home, giving bicycles or other safe modes of transportation to students, having advanced or older students mentor or tutor lower level students in the area, etc. One article from Forbes discussed new methods presently being utilized to provide rural communities with resources without requiring Internet access. In terms of providing everyone with access to education, developing programs ideal for remote learning and connecting communities can significantly help.

Disability

There are an abundant number of students with different disabilities who can easily receive an education if they are presented with accessible materials. Thanks to technological advancements, lots of methods are available these days to help students with disabilities receive an education. For instance, one article from Triple Pundit discussed new software programs that have the ability to automatically perform English to Braille translation for blind students, making it significantly easier for them to go through the same assignments as their sighted peers. Accessibility must be considered when designing classroom spaces, lesson plans, tech, etc.

If you have any suggestions on building access to education across the globe, we want to hear from you.

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Not everyone is born into the same conditions; educational equality ensures that everyone has access to fundamental education. Children start as equals under educational equality since they can all attend school. Sadly, testing systems that split students into classes as they become older still exist. Because of the knowledge they are taught and the tools they are given access to, the outcomes of these assessments may affect a learner’s likelihood of getting into college.

These evaluation systems frequently place white students from higher-income families in more advanced classrooms because they have the means to do better in school. This gives them more chances than non-white students from lower-income families. This reduces the likelihood of low-income children attending college, perpetuating poverty. These students frequently feel frustrated by their lack of academic progress and drop out or graduate without the opportunity to participate in college.

Learners who want to change their educational path can do so with the help of guidance counselors. Because education equity puts all students on an equal footing, students from disadvantaged backgrounds may be provided with the resources to get back on track. When a school district’s personnel works with students who are not attaining their full potential, possibilities open up.

Because public schools focus on equality and equity, concentrating on educational equality in schools is our most powerful weapon for changing the world. Learners who previously fell through the gaps and became trapped in a never-ending cycle are now receiving the care and respect they need. Students coming from a society where breaking the mold is challenging are given resources to help them fit in with other students. These adjustments are necessary if we are to create a community where everyone may flourish and achieve, regardless of their origins.

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The summer slide is a phenomenon that school districts and administrators are trying to combat with supplementary summer lessons and activities. The increased usage of technology in the 21st-century classroom has expanded into these summer based lessons. Virtual summer schooling has become more common, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic, when students are already doing most of their schooling online. 

Benefits of Virtual Summer School

Virtual summer school has positive effects on all participants but especially those from low-income families. Accessibility of books and resources is a problem that low-income families face during the summertime; the lack of access to these materials often means that students are not getting the opportunity to develop their skills during the summertime. 

Online summer schools can help students access reading material and extra practice by administering technology to students during summer months. This access to school-issued technology gives the students access to e-books and reading programs that they can participate in from their homes. The significance of the summer slide affects students more as they increase in age because the knowledge gap between them and their peers becomes larger every summer. Therefore, schools that create summer programs for young students can help bridge this gap from an early age.  

Successful Examples of Virtual Summer School

In the past, before virtual schooling became a necessity, there were schools and districts administering summer activities and lessons online. A great example of this innovation is Jefferson County Public Schools who created a virtual learning program that promotes math and reading skills during the summer months. These programs can help reduce summer skill loss for K-12 students. 

If your school district does not have a specific summer program available, consider looking into local community schools. These community schools promote values in their communities and can have many resources available to students to assist in their learning and maintenance of skills over the summer months. Although community schools are primarily based on in-person activities, they can have online summer programs that students can access for additional help from home. 

Reading Horizons is also a great resource for students to learn virtually in the summer. This program is available to students who are looking for extra reading help during the summer. There are free Reading Horizons tools available through Google that students can access during the summer months; this allows students to practice their reading without having to pay for the extra content. 

In addition to these valuable resources, some schools allow students to take classes online during the summer months. These classes can help students who may need to retake classes to raise grades and students who are trying to get ahead. With the necessity of online schooling during the regular school year, these summer classes may become a more feasible option for students because they do not have to learn new skills to thrive; they can use technology skills they have already developed over the school year. 

Important Things to Remember When Administering Online Schooling 

Teachers know the importance of building rapport in a classroom. Unfortunately, building rapport can be difficult online. It is important to connect with students and encourage them to connect with each other, as well. This human connection is an important part of teaching and learning and allows teachers to check on student well-being, even without being in a physical classroom. 

Conclusions on Virtual Summer School

Virtual summer school has been proven to be beneficial in avoiding the summer slide. Schools are beginning to develop programs and partner with communities to assist students with their summer learning. As virtual learning becomes more popular, virtual summer schooling will also gain traction; this will be extremely beneficial to students who do not typically have access to resources during the summer. 

The post How K–12 Schools Are Doing Summer School Virtually appeared first on The Tech Edvocate.

Developing countries are often characterised by a lack of high quality infrastructure. Poor quality roads and a dearth of reliable transport links can have a substantial negative impact on school attendance – and this includes both the attendance of pupils and of

Edtech surmounts these challenges by enabling learners to access online courses remotely. Poor transport infrastructure is thus no longer a barrier to learning. Moreover, the provision of free online courses along the MOOC model means that a lack of financial resources does not present a barrier to learning either. Theoretically at least, a student in a remote part of Sub-Saharan Africa could enrol for free in an online off-campus course at Harvard if they so desired.

The future is bright for edtech in developing countries as it provides a very real solution to the financial and infrastructure-related difficulties that learners in these countries often experience in their attempts to access education. Nevertheless, there are still several challenges to be met in order for edtech to achieve its maximum potential in the developing world.

One of the key challenges to m-learning and elearning is the lack of mobile phone and internet coverage. Though rates of mobile phone ownership in most developing countries are pretty high, access to online learning is often hampered by patchy broadband availability. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, full 3G and 4G coverage is not estimated to be available until after 2020. This threatens to exacerbate the gap in educational levels between developing and developed nations.

Overall, though, it is clear that edtech is a hugely beneficial resource for developing countries as it can provide high quality distance learning to students in remote areas who previously had little or no access to education. Are you an educator or entrepreneur? Maybe it’s time to turn your attentions to edtech in developing countries.

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To use computers with Internet access, low-income children have to rely on public resources, such as libraries or afterschool programs. But these resources are not without flaws. Computers at these sites are precious commodities. There are usually in far greater demand than supply, and the wait to use them can be long. In some afterschool programs, even if the computers are available, students may not be allowed to use them if there is no teacher available to supervise. Additionally, the public facilities often do not have funding to fix the computers if they get a virus or the hardware breaks, and sometimes the equipment is outdated and cannot perform the necessary tasks.

What the lack of technology means for low-income students is that, in addition to trailing in academic achievement, they are missing out on opportunities to learn the technical skills they will need to succeed in a highly competitive global workforce. Having limited access to Internet-connected computers means that they don’t have time to tinker or explore. They don’t have time to practice basic skills like typing or writing emails, or more complex skills like researching or coding. To compound the issue, teachers in low-income schools don’t use technology as effectively or as often as teachers in high-income schools.

Instead of using computers to design, create, and explore, many teachers in high-poverty schools use them to reinforce or practice academic skills. While study games and practice quizzes are excellent activities, they don’t make up for the creative computer time that many higher-income students enjoy at home. Students in richer families often learn to code on their own or start blogging or creating their own websites, tools that will be useful as they move into the job sphere. They learn to type and pick up word processing and image manipulation at home, whereas students from lower-income families must take classes to learn these skills. Many never do.

The post What Does Digital Inequity Mean for Low-Income Children? appeared first on The Tech Edvocate.

I am not one of those who decries video games because of the violence, racism, or sexism they often perpetuate, though these are troublesome. After all, there seems to be little evidence to support the correlation some make between video game violence and violent actions. However, as with sports and the entertainment industry, video games can be such a time suck that they leave little room for reading and study.

As Susan Jacoby notes: “In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book—fiction or nonfiction—over the course of a year.” She continues: “The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing, and video games.”

Video games, the Internet, and cell phone use offer instant gratification. They’re ridiculously fun, and unless their use is curtailed, they can become an all-consuming passion among young people. According to an influential Kaiser Foundation report, young people today spend an average of seven and a half hours on media devices—cell phones, computers, and gaming consoles—and that figure is rising. From the report: “A typical US child between 8- and 18-years-old is likely to live in a home equipped with three televisions, three VCRs, three radios, three CD/tape players, two video game consoles, and a personal computer.”

Significantly, the report notes that “African American kids are more likely than White kids to report bedroom televisions, DVRs, cable/satellite TV connections, subscriptions to premium TV channels, and video game consoles.” In other words, a black boy is more likely than a member of other groups to spend time in his room watching TV or playing a video game, rather than studying or reading.

Some may claim that the Internet can be educational and that cell phone use fosters communication skills; however, web surfing and texting are seldom used for educational purposes among black boys. They aren’t perusing the New York Review of Books or browsing Scientific American. The majority of their time online is spent on sites such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, and watching music and amusing videos on YouTube.

Black boys, like all kids, spend a lot of time using technology for entertainment purposes. The difference is, since black boys are already on the bottom of the totem pole, the abuse of technology impacts them way more than their peers. This is where parents come in. I am not saying that children should not be allowed to use technology for entertainment purposes, but I am saying that they need balance. Especially black boys.

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Generational poverty is typically the result of a lack of opportunity. Children who don’t have access to high-quality education tend not to go on to college, and they wind up with low-paying hourly-wage jobs. As adults, they don’t have the time or resources to go back to school, and they raise their children in poverty. Access to opportunities and entry into high-paying careers can break this cycle of poverty.

STEM education opens the door to those new career opportunities for students. The number of available jobs in STEM fields is growing each year. However, there are more job openings than there are qualified employees. That means tech companies are looking for students with STEM degrees, and they’re willing to pay them more.

High-paying STEM jobs can be the way out of poverty for students. In the past, students who lived in poverty may have taken jobs in manufacturing or other trades. Many of those jobs are disappearing, leaving workers back in poverty. STEM jobs, on the other hand, are everywhere, and the tech industry shows no signs of slowing down. Even as certain STEM trends come and go, we can expect to see the overall number of jobs in STEM fields increase.

By providing STEM education to K-12 students in poverty, schools offer a way for students to get ahead in higher education. Students who enter college already proficient in STEM skills are more likely to succeed if they choose a STEM major. Students who are behind, especially in math, may find they cannot keep up with the rigorous coursework of a STEM major. This robs them of the opportunity to explore the STEM careers that could help them break the cycle of poverty.

Having STEM skills can also help students in non-STEM careers. Technology has become a part of almost every job. Knowing how to use technology effectively can give students a huge advantage in the job market.

Schools that give students an introduction to STEM are providing a way out of poverty. STEM education allows students to gain access to a world of higher-paying jobs and improves their odds of succeeding in any profession.

How do you envision STEM education working to end poverty? Tell us your thoughts.

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