It’s time again to send out report cards for many school districts across the nation.  As the third quarter comes to a close, teachers are submitting their grades and comments, and report cards are being distributed to student families 

Many school administrators have been working to change student report cards throughout recent years. Grades used to be universally distributed with the letters A, B, C, D, or F to describe student performance, but with standardize testing becoming more and more relevant, many schools are modifying their grading systems to coincide. 

New grading systems are increasingly being seen on student report cards and have been integrated into schools across the country. These grading systems have been making a more widespread appearance, especially in elementary schools, adding more complexity into the grading of these young learners.  According to educations, these new grading systems will better gauge student progress.

Montgomery County, MD is one example whose district’s 132 elementary schools now use a new standards-based grading system  for report cards.  Under the new system, curriculum learning standards are grouped into measurement topics.  For example, social studies is now divided into several measurement topics, including culture, geography, and history.

The new system takes the letter grades of A, B, C, etc. and creates new letter grades for report cards which include:

• P  - meeting grade-level standards

• I – in progress to meeting grade-level standards

• N – not yet making progress or making minimal progress

In addition to regular curriculum material, learning skills will similarly be graded.  There will also be charts and graphs, depending on grade level, detailing how a student is doing. 

Although this more complex grading system is seen by educators as a better way of explaining a student’s progress with regards to new curriculum and standardized testing requirements, there are still some concerns.

One major concern for school districts is whether or not using these new, multifaceted grading systems will be understood by the students themselves or their parents when they receive the report card.  Most parents and students understand what A, B, C’s stand for in grading, but there is fear that P, I, N’s and other letter combinations now being used in report cards may not be well-read. 

Does your school use a new grading system? Share your experiences on our blog!

More than 3 million Americans are currently living with an autism spectrum disorder.  In order to highlight the need for autism awareness, April has been proclaimed National Autism Awareness Month, with April 2nd being World Autism Awareness Day.

Many Autism Society local affiliates hold special events in their communities throughout the month of April.  To find out more about events taking place to promote autism awareness, you can visit the World Autism Awareness Day’s Facebook page.

Here are some facts about Autism according to www.autismspeaks.org:

• Autism now affects 1 in 88 children.

• Autism prevalence figures are growing.

• Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.

• Autism costs a family $60,000 a year on average.

• Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases.

• Boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have autism.

• There is currently no medical detection or cure for autism.

Is your community holding an event in light of Autism Awareness Month?  Share your thoughts on our blog! 

With a great amount of students using mobile phones over the past few years, many school administrators started to place bans or discourage the use of them in classrooms.  Recently, however, administrator’s thoughts are changing as many teachers now see mobile phones as a learning tool rather than a distraction.

Nearly three-quarters teachers surveyed by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project reported that mobile phones are used for assignments in class and outside of class.  These teachers are finding creative and valuable ways phones can be used in the classroom, realizing that many of their students are comfortable using and are already immersed in the technology. 

Students participate in online discussions, post in blogs, or complete other types of technology-based assignments using mobile phones, e-readers or tablets.  Teachers are also using their mobile phones for reasons other than student assignments.  Eighty-percent of teachers surveyed said that they use their mobile/smart phones to keep up with developments in their profession. 

These teachers also said their phones are useful in collecting materials for lesson plans and creating content that will better engage their students.  Numerous educational apps used for smartphones are also on the market, aiding teachers or used as additional learning tools for students.

Despite mobile phones becoming a great asset, there are still some challenges that school administrators face with allowing them to be used in schools.

1.    Students' access to technology at home isn't keeping pace. More than half of teachers say all or almost all of their students have access to the technology they need at school, but only 18-percent say students have the digital tools they need for learning at home.

2.    Mobile phones are still a classroom annoyance. Even as more teachers let kids use mobile phones as a classroom resource, 28-percent find the devices a "major" distraction, and 44-percent say they’re a "minor" distraction.

3.    Teachers concede students are more tech-savvy. More than 42-percent of teachers believe their students know more than they do about new digital technologies, creating a gap in the resourcefulness of using them as a tool.

Does your school allow mobile phone use in the classroom? Share your thoughts on our blog!

Each year, school districts strive to achieve high graduation rates. Many factors contribute to a student’s ability to graduate; one of the most important contributions being attendance. This is exactly why Springfield Public Schools in KY has launched the “Stay in School” program, a new community initiative to encourage students to attend school every day and earn a high school diploma.

Dora Robinson, president of the United Way and Springfield Public Schools, developed the “Stay in School” to motivate students, parents, community leaders and school administrators to place a greater emphasis on school attendance. Studies have shown that better attendance in schools correlates to more high school graduates.  Springfield’s high school graduation rate was 56.6 percent in 2012, and with this program the school hopes to increase this percentage to 77.4 by 2015.

Programs like this are important for not only motivating students, but also parents and community members.  Through this program, members of the community are encouraged to become mentors to students or provide transportation to students who struggle to get to school daily.  The program also puts emphasis on the importance of parents being aware of their child’s attendance and being a motivator to encourage their child to go to school daily.

According to the California Department of Education there are some school attendance improvement strategies that positively affect attendance rates in schools:

1.)  Clarify school standards to students so they fully understand attendance expectations and consequences.

2.)  Monitor student attendance rates through automated attendance systems and notify parents/guardians of absences.

3.)  Commend students for perfect or improved attendance during the school year.

According to the National Center for Student Engagement, poor attendance is considered a major risk factor for dropping out of school. 

How is your school’s attendance rate? Learn more about how Alert Solutions’ Automated Daily Attendance Alerts can help you reduce truancy in your school!

Over the past few years, school administrators have been focused on combating bullying in schools.  With a massive increase in technology usage and a greater presence of social media, bullying and cyber bullying has been a growing concern for school administrators.  Schools often discuss the problems of their students falling victim to bullying, but many schools are realizing the students are not always the victims.

A 2011 study, "Understanding and Preventing Violence Directed Against Teachers," reported 80% of K-12 teachers surveyed felt victimized by students, students’ parents or colleagues in the past year.  Many teachers, however, do not report these incidents to supervisors. Although teacher victimization is something that has always been in existence, only 14 studies have ever been conducted about the subject.  

Dorothy Espelage, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, writes in her article that talking about the subject of teacher victimization is considered taboo.  Some teachers have stated they do not wish to report incidents where they are the victim of bullying because they fear for their school’s reputation and want to protect their students.

Teachers fall victim to bullying through many of the same methods as students.  For example, Brendesha Tynes, an associate professor at the University of Southern California, became a victim of cyberbullying through Facebook. This type of teacher victimization has been seen in many instances, and has spurred several schools to address the severity of bullying.

Schools must take action to prevent bullying and cyberbullying in all instances, whether the victims are students, teachers, administrators or other faculty members. 

Does your local school or district take measures to protect educators from bullying and cyberbullying?  If not, check out our Speak Up! anonymous communication module today.

The Federal Education Department has called for schools to use e-textbooks within the next five years and some schools have already begun to do so.  The way schools distribute these e-textbooks and integrate them into their classrooms varies.

There are many different approaches schools use to “go digital”. Arizona’s Vail School District launched “Beyond Textbooks,” which features a repository of digital content created and shared by participating teachers. This approach has worked well for the school and helped boost student math and reading achievement.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, public schools are using Discovery Education’s science TechBook.  These books are platform-agnostic, which allows users to utilize these books on more than just one type of device.  Teachers use these e-textbooks in class with students through interactive whiteboards and digital projectors.  Although, it was difficult to get usernames and passwords out to all 90,000 students in the district, the schools have said the efforts were well worth it.

Most students use summer vacation as a time for recreational activities, for example playing video games. Some students at Pflugerville ISD use this time as an opportunity for video games as well, except instead of playing them, they learn to design them.

Educators set up a game incubator where students complete tasks they will need when entering into the job market, including:

1.) Working on Teams

2.) Working with Client

3.) Completing Peer Reviews

Connally High School in Pflugerville, TX offers courses such as, The Art of Video Game Technology, Video Game Design, Computer Programming and Practicum in Video Game Design throughout the school year.  The summer course, Velocity Prep, is a 160-hour, four-week course where students get paid to create projects.

An example of a task given during the course is: “There's been a natural disaster and we need a robot to help with search and rescue missions.”  The students then collaborate with their team and complete the task.

 These courses do not just benefit the students and are also used for STEM research.  Students act as interns for STEM companies, completing actual projects for STEM clients. 

This attributes to the social impact and grand challenges of engineering.  Students become interested in these projects for this reason, and also for the understanding that students that end up in a STEM career could be making $35-42 per hour on average.

Does your school have an interest in integrating video game technology into a summer curriculum? Share your experiences with us on our blog!

As technology advances and the world continues to be more connected, schools begin to realize that policies banning social media may not be the best route.

Social media use in schools has always been a challenging topic, but now it is apparent that social media is progressing faster than these policies can be created.

The question now is whether schools should embrace social media and start using it to educate students.  The intent of how social media should be used has been the biggest struggle, but schools may be better off teaching proper use, rather than trying to stop improper use of these social networks.

The knowledge of building successful communities of learning and education over these social networks is much more useful and relevant in today’s world than trying to control and monitor it.  A Campus Technology article, “Social Networking: Learning Theory in Action” showcased some of the benefits of incorporating social media into education:

1.)  Collaboration: Can be developed when integrated into a project-based approach to learning

2.)  Creativity: Students can manipulate software environments demonstrating a level of creativity that could be integrated into the learning process and work to their benefit.

3.)  Networking: Networking with experts and peers, makes learning more interesting and also more legitimate.

Social media tools have made it possible for a students’ learning environment to become more enriched and relevant through collaboration and constructive communities. Rather than sheltering students from social media, they should learn to be better prepared for the totally connected world they will enter into for future employment and professional work.

Do you think schools should embrace social media or restrict it?  Share your thoughts on our blog!

Sometimes schools face the challenge of a parent or guardian’s lack of contribution to their child’s success and development. 

Schools have found that many of these families would like the help their children more, but just don’t know how.   The APTT (Academic Parent-Teacher Teams) Model helps supply these families with the right skills.

The first part of the model develops a classroom team, consisting of the teacher and all of the classroom’s parents, where the teacher reviews and explains academic data.  The teacher gives parents their student’s performance review and helps parents create 60-day SMART goals for their child.  The parents are also supplied with some activities to try at home with an opportunity to practice within the group first.

The second part of the model includes a review of performance data, the creation of an action plan for continuous improvement and a discussion on how parents can encourage student learning at home. 

Schools that implement this model have seen greater student achievement in both math and reading, as well as an increase in student engagement, attendance and parent-teacher communication.  This model creates a sense of community and has shown the importance of better communication between schools, students and their families.

Does your school have effective teacher-parent communication? Share your thoughts on our blog!

Student bullying brings about many concerns and issues for schools and their administrators.  One of these issues deals with liability.  Are schools liable for student bullying? If so, under what circumstances?

Though schools are encouraged to consult their districts’ legal counsel for information and advice on this matter, the following information can give schools an idea of the legal issues they can face from bullying instances.

One understanding school administrators must have is the difference between bullying and harassment.  Bullying that constitutes harassment is specifically prohibited by federal law.  These instances of bullying pose the greatest legal risk for schools. 

According to the Leadership Insider article “School Liability for Bullying and Harassment” there are five situations that place a school liable for student bullying.

1.       The bullied student is a member of a “protected class” defined under federal civil rights laws, including gender, race and disability.

2.       The peer harassment was based on the students’ membership in a protected class

3.       The harassment was severe, pervasive and offensive.

4.       The school (an official with authority to act) had knowledge of the harassment.

5.       The school was deliberately indifferent to the harassment.

The school still may be found liable even without having knowledge of the incident due to a claim of school negligence under state law. 

Another liability issue may not come from the person being bullied, but the person who is doing the harassing.  This liability stems from the First Amendment right to free speech. 

This puts schools in a difficult position.  According to an Education World article schools are likely to avoid legal problems if they:

1.       Take reports of bullying and harassment seriously, investigate them, promptly enact safety plans for student targets and monitor these plans to ensure effectiveness;

2.       Ensure that every aspect of the harassment situation—from the initial report to the investigation to the administrator response—is well documented;

3.       Train students (who are more likely than adults to directly witness bullying) to serve as teachers’ and administrators’ supplemental “eyes and ears;” and

4.       Work hard to create a school climate incompatible with bullying, so that everyone in the building takes notice and knows what to do when bullying occurs.

By keeping these steps and the First Amendment in mind, schools should be able to avoid legal liability in bullying instances.

To learn about how Alert Solutions can help anonymously track and document school bullying instances, download our Speak Up Brochure today!