Instructure announced on Thursday that they have rebranded their Videri data warehouse/analytics product as well as their Certify data validation suite.  The new name of "Elevate" was selected as the new name.   From their site:  In recent years, Instructure has grown significantly as we've expanded product offerings through a series of acquisitions. And with that growth, we have also seen opportunities to fertilize our mission to amplify teaching, elevate learning, and intensify impact to improve student outcomes. Today, the Instructure Learning Platform reinforces our commitment to learning on a personal level through software, assessment tools, content, professional develop...

California Department of EducationNews Release California Department of EducationNews Release Release: #21-96 November 30, 2021 Contact: CommunicationsE-mail: communications@cde.ca.gov Phone: 916-319-0818 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today announced a partnership with Renaissance that will provide unlimited access to myON digital books and daily news articles for all pre-K to grade twelve students in California from December 1, 2021, through January 31, 2022. This initiative aims to give students The Gift of Literacy during the winter break by providing opportunities to engage in reading at home, at school, and in the community and is part of the Superintendent Thurmond’s statewide literacy campaign to help all California students reach the goal of literacy by third grade, by the year 2026. “I encourage every parent and student to use this free service to continue to read over the holidays,” said Superintendent Thurmond. “This is a great opportunity for our families to share the joy of reading and establish routines that support literacy growth for our students.” Literacy is a key benchmark in measuring and predicting student success, which is why Superintendent Thurmond is taking bold action to help students meet this important milestone. “We hope that free access to thousands of digital books will create and cultivate a lifelong love of reading that can continue to be nurtured by our school and local libraries,” Superintendent Thurmond said. Through this initiative, students—with the support of their families and educators—will access books and news articles in English and Spanish using a special shared account on Renaissance’s myON digital reading platform. myON is compatible with computers, Chromebooks, and tablets, and low-bandwidth and offline reading options provide expanded opportunities to access reading materials. All myON books and news articles include natural-voice audio narration, which is particularly helpful for younger learners and encourages read-alouds and read-alongs outside of school. This initiative is intended to support California schools and districts that are not currently using myON with their students. School and district leaders can access information for this special, shared login on a new web page created for this initiative . They will also find a number of helpful resources to help them launch this initiative with students, staff, and families, including an overview of myON, tips for getting started, family reading activities, and short video walk-throughs. The myON personalized literacy solution is currently used in hundreds of California schools. Students in these schools and districts who have their own personalized logins should continue using them to access myON and take advantage of the enhanced personalization. “We are excited to support Superintendent Thurmond’s bold vision of literacy and access to books for every student in California,” said Chris Bauleke, CEO of Renaissance. “This partnership provides access to myON digital books and news articles through the end of January and reinforces Renaissance’s mission to accelerate learning for all children, in partnership with the California Department of Education.” As part of his literacy effort to ensure students can read by third grade by 2026, State Superintendent Thurmond is working to expand...

Supporting Schools and Districts Impacted by COVID-19 - Illuminate Education Additional resources from Illuminate. https://www.illuminateed.com/covid-19-resources/

Editor's note:  This message was shared with me today and I'm posting it on behalf of Aeries.  This is a great opportunity to hone your Aeries skills and knowledge during the shut-down!  Hello everyone, To help our users keep their Aeries skills sharp during the current school closures, we are offering all Aeries Academy courses completely free of cost for all enrollments between now and June 30th. It is our hope that making these self-paced online learning courses available for free will help users brush up on their knowledge of Aeries SIS and discover new functionality they can put to good use when they return to their normal daily working lives. Aeries Teacher Academy cours...

​Below is the text sent via email today from PowerSchool CEO, Hardeep Gulati: I'm excited to announce that on October 24, 2019, PowerSchool signed a definitive agreement to acquire Schoology, a leading K-12 learning management system (LMS). PowerSchool currently supports 45 million students with its full suite of K-12 technology solutions, including industry-leading student information systems, assessment and analytics, special education, finance, HR, and talent management tools. Schoology supports more than 20 million users through its learning management and embedded formative assessment platform. Adding Schoology's best-in-class LMS to PowerSchool's award-winning Unified Classroom™ w...

California Department of EducationNews Release Release: #19-42June 4, 2019 Contact: Scott RoarkE-mail: communications@cde.ca.govPhone: 916-319-0818 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has announced the release of the California Department of Education’s (CDE) first-ever mobile app for the California Content Standards, a powerful tool that provides quick, targeted access to standards related to the arts, computer science, health education, history–social science, and mathematics.  Content standards are utilized by educators to design the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students should acquire for subject areas at each grade level. The California Standards app, designed entirely by CDE staff, can search, filter, and sort content standards to isolate specific content, identify standards that are common across disciplines, and inform decisions around instruction and assessment. “This app is an incredible tool for our educators and parents, empowering them with access, knowledge, and understanding of these content standards, which are an essential element to the academic success of each and every one of our students in California,” said Thurmond. The launch of the California Standards app is phase 1 of a multiphase plan put in place by CDE. This phase includes 5 of 12 California content standards. In subsequent phases, additional content standards will be included, as well as additional features that will enhance the usefulness of the application to California educators. The California Standards mobile app can be found on the iOS App store, the Android Play store, and the Microsoft store by searching the term “CA Standards.” More information about the app and links to the app stores are on the CDE California Standards Mobile Application website. More information aboutCalifornia Content Standardscan be found on the CDE website. # # # # Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public InstructionCommunications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100 Last Reviewed: Tuesday, June 4, 2019

SALT LAKE CITY — April 17, 2019 — Instructure, Inc. (NYSE: INST) today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire MasteryConnect, a longtime partner and innovator in the design and delivery of formative and interim assessment that supports personalized and mastery-based learning. Through this acquisition, Instructure will accelerate the shift occurring at the state level as they replace high-stakes, end-of-year testing with innovative assessment models. This new approach uses formative data to provide actionable insights for teachers and students. "Today's educators are trying to move away from archaic, end-of-year testing and looking for more intuitive evaluation models," said Dan Gold...

By becoming IMS Global certified, Illuminate continues to demonstrate a sincere commitment to interoperability standards," said Jason Naile, director of instructional technology and media at Forsyth County Schools in Georgia. To fulfill its promise to provide collaborative solutions to educators, Illuminate Education, the leading K-12 Education Intelligence Platform (EIP), announces that its suite of SchoolCity personalized learning solutions is IMS Global Standards certified. Through this certification, Illuminate Education is meeting its pledge to open standards in light of the critical needs of schools and districts to standardize the usability of digital teaching and learning tools acros...

Aeries Software, the leading provider of student data management systems in California with over 530 public school districts utilizing the Aeries® Student Information System (SIS), today announced at its annual fall User's Conference that it has committed to delivering interoperability to its customers by adopting the Ed-Fi Data Standard, which is a way for multiple sources of data to seamlessly and securely connect. Aeries Software is currently pursuing Ed-Fi Certification, which will ensure the technology platforms are mapped correctly and will work as intended. Aeries Software will be offering this additional functionality to its school districts at no cost. "By adopting the Ed-Fi Data St...

Edmodo updated their privacy policy.  A lot of other K-12 software companies are adopting the general policies required by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).  How does this impact US schools, if at all? Below is the text sent via email today from Edmodo: Hi there, Our goal is to make sure that you love using Edmodo. Part of that is giving you the best possible experience as you use our service today, tomorrow, and in the future. We believe it's critical to protect your privacy as part of that experience. We also want to be as transparent as possible about the personal data that we collect and use to provide this service to you. That's why we're reachin...

lluminate Education, IO Education, SchoolCity, Alpine Achievement, and Key Data Systems merge to create the largest provider of data platforms, data, analytics, formative assessments, and a "whole view of the student."   Irvine, Lake Elsinore, and Santa Clara, CA., Atlanta, GA., and Centennial, CO. (July 03, 2018) – Illuminate Education, the company transforming K-12 instruction through education intelligence solutions, has merged with IO Education, SchoolCity, Alpine Achievement, and Key Data Systems (KDS). The new company, called Illuminate Education, will be led by Christine Willig, a 25-year K-12 industry veteran. Insight Venture Partners, a New York-based venture capital and p...

Assignment and Grade Transfer Plug-in Moving assignment and grade information for students moving from one section of a course to another is manual process and a major pain in PowerSchool. Computer Logic Group has developed a simple plug-in that turns this laborious job into a smooth, efficient transaction for teachers inside of PowerTeacher Pro. This may well be the number one enhancement request from PowerSchool users, so spend 10 minutes walking through how this plug-in will save your team time and frustration while making you a hero to all!Click on the date you would like to join us to register!Wed May 30th 2:00 pm - 2:20 pm Thurs May 31st 10:00 am - 10:20 am

REDMOND, WASH., and FOLSOM, CA. – January 18, 2018 – Microsoft Corp. and PowerSchool, a leading provider of K-12 education technology solutions reaching over 30 million students in North America, today announced a new partnership that will bring together PowerSchool's innovative K-12 technologies with Microsoft's O365 for Education productivity suite, Windows devices, and cloud infrastructure to help ensure all students reach their full potential. Aligned around a shared vision that technology in education can help improve a child's future opportunities, the companies have committed to leveraging their best-in-class solutions to help educators, students and parents achieve their common goal ...

We can classify a computer network into different types depending on its size and the geographical area it covers. The most common types of computer networks are LAN, MAN, WAN, PAN, etc. What is a Local Area Network (LAN)? LAN is a form of a computer network most known to the general public. It has a limited reach, roughly a bunch of closely situated houses or building. And that's because we typically use the Ethernet technology (IEEE 802.3) to power our local area networks. The ethernet cables we lay across our houses and offices have their practical limitations. Beyond a certain length, the speed gets degraded. The reach of a LAN can be enhanced using repeaters, bridges, etc. Home Area Net...

 BrightBytes adds Authentica to brand portfolio, providing educators with end-to-end data management to improve the way the world learns SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — June 29, 2017 — BrightBytes,® a learning analytics organization currently impacting one in five schools in the United States, today announced the acquisition of Authentica Solutions, developer of DataSense, an education data Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS). Authentica, a 2017 Microsoft Education Partner of the Year Finalist, currently partners with top enterprise solutions in edtech to help educators at every organizational level meet data management requirements. It is this deep experience in data integration within t...

DOVER, N.H. (PRWEB) MAY 22, 2017 Measured Progress, Inc. is pleased to announce a partnership with Illuminate Education to add high-quality assessment content from Measured Progress to the Illuminate Education Intelligence platform. As a result of this partnership, Measured Progress will make formative assessment items and pre-built quizzes in reading, mathematics, and science from the Measured Progress Formative Content Bank and STEM Gauge® available for use by mutual customers of Measured Progress and Illuminate Education. "This is an ideal partnership," says Rich Swartz, Senior Vice-President of Strategy, Products, and Portfolio for Measured Progress. "Our two companies, which have been w...

From an email annoucement earlier today: Safeguarding the trust and security of our users is of the utmost importance to Edmodo. We are reaching out to you because Edmodo recently learned about a security incident potentially affecting the accounts of Edmodo users. We promptly retained leading information security experts to investigate this incident and reported the incident to law enforcement.  Our investigation has now confirmed that user names, email addresses, and hashed passwords were acquired by an unauthorized third party. The passwords were "hashed" (or encrypted) using the strong and robust bcrypt algorithm, and they were also "salted," which adds an additional layer of securi...

Harris School Solutions has partnered with Edsby to offer the social learning and analytics system to K-12, charter school, and continuing education clients Bethel Park, PA and Richmond Hill, Canada (April 18, 2017) - Harris School Solutions (HSS), the premier provider of technology solutions for K-12 districts, charter schools, and continuing education programs across North America, announced today that it has partnered with Edsby® and will offer the innovative learning and analytics platform as an integrated part of the HSS suite of Student Information Solutions (SIS) products. The agreement makes HSS an authorized reseller of the state-of-the-art Edsby system in the United States through ...

KALAMAZOO, MICH. (March 2017) --- Level Data, a managed solutions company providing data integration solutions for school districts, has announced its Student SyncTM solution now serves more than 170 school districts throughout the nation, a 49 percent increase in a little more than a year.  "It is an ideal fit for school districts looking to save time and money managing student accounts," shared Matt Betts, president of Level Data. "Student SyncTM automates the creation, deletion, and movement of student accounts, account properties, and home folders within a school's Active Directory, freeing Technology Directors and support staff to focus on their other responsibilities.".  Leve...

The Aeries website has been updated with the workshops being offered in the Spring.Please visit the Aeries website at www.aeries.com/workshops-events for detailed information on the workshops available. Webinar workshops now open for registration: Aeries Career PathwaysAeries Career Pathway Dashboard makes CALPADS reporting a much easier task.  Join us for an interactive session to learn how to identify your Career Pathway students and tag them for 2016-2017 EOY data requirements.Aeries Web Security & Portal OptionsAn overview of implementing and managing Aeries security, portal options, portal account management, and portal groups security.Aeries Database Administrator (DBA) Overvi...