Obama Administration Calls for Improved Instructor Evaluations

(Boston, MA) November 23rd, 2011: The classroom has traditionally been a space where teachers evaluate students on their work. Teachers may soon find that paradigm reversed as teacher evaluations gain prominence under new federal regulations.

President Barack Obama's recent revision to the No Child Left Behind education law allows states to avoid depending solely on student test scores to drive educator ratings – if they can prove they have a better way to evaluate them. 

As educators increasingly look to teacher ratings to decide critical issues such as pay, tenure, and awarding teaching licenses, a growing number of states seek evaluation systems that gather input beyond student test scores, including student feedback. 

Moses Brown School, one of many institutions that incorporate teacher evaluations, uses ConnectEDU’s CoursEval to gather student input. CoursEval is a web-based course evaluation system that gathers student feedback to offer improved diagnostic reporting to support institutional goals. 

“Our goal at Moses Brown is to nurture and sustain a culture in which great teaching flourishes, and one way we do that is by providing teachers with meaningful feedback drawn from multiple sources.  Direct student feedback is an essential part of that process,” says Matt Glenndinning, Headmaster at Moses Brown School in Providence, RI.

Stakeholders across the education spectrum note that the student point of view may prove to be more valuable than has previously been realized. And this value travels beyond institutions needing to meet legislative requirements.

Mr. Glenndinning explains: “I find that having an opportunity to reflect on the experience with a particular course or teacher imparts a sense of ownership and responsibility to students.  Students feel that they have a role in shaping their educational environment.”

With CoursEval, students can report in complete anonymity on what drives their success.  This information, in conjunction with other measures, is crucial in expanding student achievement.

To learn more about CoursEval, visit our website.    

ConnectEDU Proudly Sponsors The New England Board of Higher Education Leadership Summit

(Boston, MA) November 9th, 2011 - On Monday, hundreds of New England’s higher education, government and business leaders came together for the New England Works: A New England Leadership Summit on Bridging Higher Education and the Workforce conference, sponsored in part by ConnectEDU. The leaders met to discuss the vital role of higher education in preparing the highly skilled workers that will drive future innovation.

The New England Works Summit examined key questions facing higher education and workforce development in New England and across the nation, such as: How do we fix the gap between supply and demand in the New England labor market? And how can higher education institutions prepare learners for the fast-changing 21st Century economy?

Ted Fischer, ConnectEDU’s President and Chief Operating Officer, kicked off the conference as an introductory speaker.

Ted explains, “ConnectEDU’s dedication to engaging education, policy and workforce leaders from around New England to help bridge higher education and the workforce is central to our mission. Our platform is designed to provide learners the tools necessary to close the workforce gap. With products like AlumniConnect, StudentRecruit and TalentConnect, we can ensure that our postsecondary graduates are career ready for the jobs of the New England innovation economy.”

ConnectEDU teamed up with Massachusetts state agencies to create a statewide college and career planning portal focused on enabling student success. YourPlanForCollege.org, powered by ConnectEDU technologies, launched this fall in over 130 high schools across Massachusetts. Members of the YourPlanForCollege team attended the conference to take part in the important discussion.

“We’re excited to be part of the thought leadership that came together on this critical topic. YourPlanForCollege is supporting students in high schools across the Commonwealth as they develop skills directly correlated to meaningful employment. –Marie DeMego, State Director of YourPlanForCollege.

To read more about how ConnectEDU bridges the gap between education and the workforce, visit http://www.connectedu.com/NEBHE.

Congratulations to our New Pathways Council Chairperson

Today, Jane Swift was announced as the new CEO of Middlebury Interactive Languages, a joint venture between Middlebury College and K12, Inc. Jane also serves as the ConnectEDU Pathways Council Chairperson, a team of education thought leaders dedicated to identifying, informing, and promoting education policies that expand students’ access to postsecondary opportunities and prosperous career pathways.

I want to personally congratulate Jane on her new position. After working closely with Jane over the past few years, her passion for improving the education system for students of all ages is evident, and it is clear she is the right person for the job. In addition, I’m excited to continue our work together through the ConnectEDU Pathways Council.

ConnectEDU will also be strengthening our ties with K12 through the launch of our Learner Pathways platform this year. Replacing K12’s existing provider, ConnectEDU’s solution will empower all K12 students to successfully manage their college, career, and financial planning.

Congrats Jane!

Ted Fischer, President and COO

ConnectEDU’s Director of Policy and Research Honored for Work in her Community

(Boston, MA) May 31^st, 2011 - Exemplifying our employees’ commitment to commendable community involvement, ConnectEDU’s own Dr. Stephanie Gertz, Director of Policy and Research, received a service award from the Synagogue Council today.

Stephanie and her husband, Cantor Steven Weiss of Sha’aray Shalom in Hingham, received the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts’ Community Service Award today for their leadership and involvement in a myriad of activities within the Greater Boston Jewish community. Beyond their involvement with their synagogue in Hingham, Stephanie and Steven are active with the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Jewish Federations of North America, and numerous local and national organizations.

At ConnectEDU, Stephanie is equally committed to assisting her teammates and our customers. We’re inspired by her selflessness and share the Synagogue Council’s appreciation of a great philanthropist. Congratulations, Stephanie!

ConnectEDU sponsors TEDx Conference at Brown

TEDx speakers highlight the need for innovation in higher education.

(Boston, MA) May 9, 2011 - ConnectEDU was the proud sponsor of the first annual TEDx event at Brown University on Wednesday evening. TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is an annual conference where presenters such as Bill Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, and Google’s Larry Page give short talks on “ideas worth spreading.” TED has spawned a global movement of independently organized conferences called TEDx events. Brown’s TEDx event focused on innovation within the higher education space. Needless to say, ConnectEDU was thrilled to support the focus of this event based on our devotion to developing technology that enables learners, educators, and employers to innovate.

One speaker, Professor Deak Nabers, touched on a theme particularly close to our mission. Professor Nabers, a Brown University English Professor, spoke about the need for longitudinal data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of college courses. Nabers stated that while he can evaluate how well a student does on the specific (and self-admittedly esoteric) items listed on his syllabus, he has no idea whether or not his class helps his students prepare for the next English class they take, let alone prepare to graduate and enter the working world. He called on Brown to help him evaluate the things “outside of his box” (his box is comprised of mid 20^th century American Literature) in order to provide him with more feedback for his teaching. While he noted that innovation is sometimes a taboo word within the bureaucratic and traditional space of academia, he urged his fellow academics to look outside their respective boxes and demand data on how their classes fit into a student’s learner lifecycle.

ConnectEDU specializes in tracking student data from high school, through college, and on to their career. ConnectEDU’s CoursEval software helps colleges like Brown create, deploy, and analyze longitudinal surveys geared to evaluate courses and faculty instruction. CoursEval also integrates into the ConnectEDU platform, so that colleges can evaluate more than just individual performance of students over the span of a course—they can evaluate beyond the span of a course.  We’re excited to work with leaders like Deak Nabers to move our mission forward and continue to support innovation in the education space.

The TEDx videos from all speakers at the Brown event will be available online soon. Click here to watch Deak Nabers and more.

A Storm Warning with Cloud Computing

Rick Blaisdell, CTO, reflects on the Amazon Cloud outage and how it relates to ConnectEDU’s Cloud preparation.

April 29, 2011 - As the CTO, it seems like I get more attention when things go wrong than when they are going well. Simply performing is always the baseline requirement.  Most of the people I interact with know I drink the Cloud Cool-Aid, and when the Amazon outages were posted, people came running from all over asking me if I was nervous that ConnectEDU is also on a Cloud.  

There are actually many Cloud providers in the market. We use NaviSite as our provider and are running on the Cisco Unified Compute System (UCS).  NaviSite is an enterprise provider, so they not only helped build our Cloud, but they also manage and monitor it.  This means we have security experts, maintenance experts and a 24/7 monitoring facility to ensure the system is secure, scalable and reliable.  

As a standard, virtualization platforms (Clouds) have built-in failover mechanisms, so when a blade (computer) fails, the Clouds that were running on those blades are automatically moved to another blade.  These types of failures happen more often than most people would expect, and when they do, whatever virtualization platform that is used will take care of the issue automatically. Depending on how the system is setup, the user base may never experience an outage.  This is how it’s supposed to work. However, in extenuating circumstances, if a company hasn’t put the right number of backups in place, a major failover can cause the system to go into a panic (yes, that’s the technical term). This is when things get really ugly.

So, what can a technology department do to prepare for such a disaster?  If the companies that were affected by the Amazon outage had an active live site failover at another location, they would not have experienced a loss of service.  This is not inexpensive and everyone should weigh the risks and costs of how much and what type of redundancy they require to provide the uptime expected. The Amazon incident should remind us of what can go wrong in a physical or virtualized environment, and luckily ConnectEDU has made the appropriate precautions to avoid extreme downtimes.

- Rick Blaisdell
  Chief Technology Officer

Stepping Up & Impacting the Everett Community

ConnectEDU's Employee Highlight, Frankie Nuzzo, went above and beyond to help a friend in need and inspire a community.

April 26^th, 2011  - Last month a tragic fire in Frankie’s hometown of Everett, MA left a friend and his family homeless with nowhere to go.  Not shy from stepping up for people in need, Frankie took the lead in organizing a successful 3-on-3 basketball tournament that raised over $25K.

“Managing this fundraiser was not all that dissimilar from the mindset and approach we practice at ConnectEDU. As Craig Powell likes to say, ‘There is no mission without margin.’ We push our mission of empowering students to manage their education and launch their career forward, while simultaneously innovating how we build a sustainable business,” Frankie said. “When I first heard about my friend’s family losing their home in a fire, and knowing how fragile their financial situation already was, I knew they needed help.  Help can come in many forms - some people give help through well-wishes, saying prayers, or other forms of generosity. Don’t get me wrong, these forms of charity are all great and more than appreciated, but I wanted to make a more tangible impact.

He set an ambitious goal of raising enough money for the family in need to find a new home within the month, which meant raising a lot of money, and raising it quickly. As an added challenge, the City of Everett has a median household income of under $40,000, which meant that depending on a few large donations was not an option.  Frankie needed to reach a high number of people willing to donate smaller amounts. And that’s how the soon-to-be annual Mo's 3-on-3 Tournament was born.

Frankie and his team raised $11,000 in seven days. Frankie’s efforts caught the eyes of the Boston Celtics, who recognized Frankie’s fundraising efforts by donating to the cause, bringing the total amount raised to over $25,000.

The Everett community is also supporting its high school students through the implementation of YourPlanForCollege.org, Massachusetts’ college and career readiness portal sponsored by the Executive Office of Education, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, and Massachusetts Education Finance Authority. Powered by ConnectEDU, YourPlanForCollege is an online portal designed to provide students everything they need to get ready for life after high schools.  Go to www.yourplanforcollege.org to learn more.

To read more about Frankie’s accomplishment check out this ESPN Boston article: http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/news/story?id=6397022

Summer Search and the 2011 Boston Marathon

April 18th, 2011
Posted by Erik Peterson

It’s Marathon Monday in Boston, a day that will be truly unforgettable for some 25,000 runners who will be competing in the 115^th Boston Marathon. For runners, the Boston Marathon compares with stepping onto the field at the Super Bowl, and I’m thrilled to be joining the field this year. As a member of the Entrepreneurship Program at ConnectEDU, I’m even more excited to be supporting Summer Search Boston, a unique college access organization that combines traditional college prep support with once-in-a-lifetime summer experiential learning opportunities.

Summer Search targets the most deserving students: 92% are first-generation college-bound, and their families make less than $25,000 a year on average. These students face an environment of great challenges and low expectations. Only about 60% of Boston Public High School students will graduate, while less than 20% will complete a college degree. But the students that are lucky enough to join Summer Search are given a fighting chance to break the cycle of poverty.

In addition to weekly mentoring, test prep, and college counseling, Summer Search students attend two experiential learning programs during their sophomore and junior year summers. Many students attend Outward Bound leadership development trips, attend summer programs at American universities, or participate in study abroad programs around world. What does hiking and traveling have to do with closing the educational attainment gap? Ask Ron Delorme, a Summer Search alumnus who hiked the Sierra Nevada. “The first day made me want to give up,” he told the Summer Search team last week, “but it was worth it, because I did some things I never thought I could do before.” That’s exactly what striving for a college degree means for disadvantaged students: defying the expectations of a broken system that lets far too many promising individuals fall through the cracks. 

That mission lines up pretty nicely with what we strive for at ConnectEDU. In my work on the product development team at ConnectEDU, I’ve helped design and develop tools to help students reach their end goals. Students across the nation are facing unique challenges when applying to college and researching careers. Regardless of what hurdles they face, ConnectEDU is working to provide the tools they need manage their education and launch their career.

Summer Search has the results to prove the program’s efficacy: 100% of Summer Search Boston’s students graduate from high school, and 89% have completed or are persisting in their postsecondary degrees. These are extremely impressive numbers, and I feel so honored to support such a worthy cause. 

Wish me luck today as I take on the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston, and please consider supporting Summer Search’s noble mission and impressive results!

Visit my fundraising page to learn more.

It’s Time to Educate and Innovate

January 27^th, 2011 - In the first hour of President Barack Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address over 100,000 tweets were posted, and of those tweets public education accounted for the highest percentage (report courtesy of Tweetbeat).  The 16.7%, which beat out other categories like government spending and job creation, clearly showed that fixing education is on the top of American’s lists.  Luckily, along with investing in innovation and infrastructure, education was communicated as a top priority for this administration. Funding for education reform will continue to be awarded to states through Race to the Top grants.  The grants are given to the states with the most comprehensive, innovative plans to reform not only how students are educated in science, engineering, technology and math, but also how teachers and principals are evaluated, how states plan to turn around their lowest-performing schools, and even more importantly, how states are going to use data to track and report on their progress.

Since inception, ConnectEDU has been investing in building the technology that gives states the tools for exactly what Race to the Top demands of them.  Our statewide efforts with Massachusetts, Michigan and Texas are proof that we are moving forward with this movement.  Our president had a clear message that if we don’t support innovation in our education system we will continue to fall behind.  At ConnectEDU, we're focused on supporting states in their efforts to increase students’ college and career readiness and capture more Race to the Top dollars to accelerate their plans.