K-12

By offering free home Internet service to low-income families, a Tennessee school district has nearly eliminated racial disparities in parental involvement and opened the door for virtual parent-teacher conferences.

With visible signage and a 30-day warning period, the automated enforcement system from Redspeed International uses cameras and radar to monitor up to 350 cars simultaneously, supposedly accurate within 0.1 mph.

The editorial board of the Fresno Bee weighs the pros and cons of schools forbidding students from using their phones during the day. A year after San Mateo High did this, 96 percent of its teachers support the policy.

Connecticut high school students were building drones last week in a summer workshop for the Career Pathways program, designed to give them experience, including internships or apprenticeships, before graduation.

Using grants from Cook County and a state nonprofit, a suburban Chicago school district is installing solar arrays on its campuses so students can learn about power generation and the photovoltaic process.

A panel at the AWS IMAGINE conference in Seattle this week discussed the potential for data, given the right infrastructure, to optimize a school district's staff by matching teacher skills with student deficits.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will oversee the $45 million, three-year pilot program, choosing a variety of districts and contractors to test different technological and funding approaches.

More than 1,000 K-12 individual school buildings and districts in Ohio will receive funds to improve security, to be used for staffing more resource officers, buying new security cameras and other tech upgrades.

A panel at the AWS IMAGINE education conference in Seattle this week said schools are already equipped with the tools needed to tackle digital equity if governments, administrators and educators can put them to use.

The GIS software company Esri recently recognized the city of Grapevine's GIS team for digitally mapping the layouts and access points of a local school district's campuses so first responders could plan for emergencies.

Since having to make the switch to remote learning in early 2020, veteran teachers now readily use digital platforms such as Google Classroom, myON, Padlet and Screencastify to enhance lessons and communications.

If it passes, the 725-page bill could provide millions for schools to monitor and reduce pollution and greenhouse gases, for the purchase of electric buses, and for consumers to buy electric vehicles.

A mobile and desktop app, developed by the Center for Schools and Communities and connected to the state Department of Education's homeless youth program, gives students and families 24/7 access to help and support.

A West Virginia school district is in talks with Rank One Computing to install facial recognition software that would create a database of known faces and flag anyone on campus who's not supposed to be there.

The tide shifting toward remote work and learning seems unlikely to turn back, but fret not: properly deployed and administered cloud environments can help students and staff be safe and productive from home.

Organizations like the nonprofit CSforALL want computer science education to incorporate more artificial intelligence and data science, as those are increasingly critical tools for public, private and nonprofit sectors.

Both K-12 and higher education expect to see interest in online full-time and part-time options grow in the long term. Some view hybrid learning as a way to mitigate the negative effects of online-only instruction.

Imported from Boston College, the City Connects program at Poughkeepsie City School District and Dutchess County is tracking student well-being and linking those in need to local support services.