Change Education with Edmentum: A new series on Edmentum products

This morning I was at the dentist. As I was sitting in the chair with my mouth wide open, the dentist and her assistant were talking about their new digital record-keeping system. As they talked (and I listened with my mouth open), the dentist said, “Some people just don’t like change.”


I’ve been thinking a lot lately about change. In addition to changing the name of three different companies this year, friends and colleagues of mine have changed jobs, job titles, and responsibilities. New business cards, new logos, new letterheads, new products. That’s a LOT of change. And while I can't argue with my dentist that some people don't like change, I can honestly say that I love it. For most of us at Edmentum, in fact, change is nothing new. All three companies that are now part of Edmentum have always embraced change. It’s in our corporate DNA. From our CEO to our instructional designers to our education consultants, we love change. We embrace it. And that makes us uniquely suited to help educators drive change as they create their 21st century classroom.

To say that Edmentum is redefining the 21st century classroom is no small thing, but we have tremendous confidence in educators' ability to drive change that increases student achievement. My job at Edmentum is to ensure that the products we build deliver on that promise. The promise that when you partner with us to implement an Edmentum online learning product, you can feel confident that you're going to see the kind of change in student achievement that you expect.

• When schools leverage Study Island for online standards practice, they see an improvement in standardized test scores.

• When reading specialists supplement their early reading program with Reading Eggs, they see measurable gains in literacy.

• When districts build an online Credit Recovery program with Plato Courseware, they see an increase in their graduation rate.

• When middle schools bolster their ESL program with ESL Reading Smart, they see a noticeable change in their students' confidence.

• When community colleges provide additional online resources to their developmental education learners through Edmentum Higher Ed, they see a significant lift in course completion and retention.

• When high school teachers personalize online learning with Edmentum Assessments, they see students engage in ways they never anticipated.

• When principals partner with Edmentum consultants for professional development, they see wonderful changes in online teaching and blended learning.

All of those changes add up to a whole new definition of the 21st century classroom. The 21st century classroom isn't even a physical classroom. It's made up of a wide variety of learning experiences in which students engage with educators, content, and other students at different times, in different places, and with all kinds of different devices. If that sounds different than your school today, there is probably change in your future. Did I mention that we love change at Edmentum?

Over the next several weeks, you'll see posts from several members of our product management team describing in more detail how Edmentum products help educators drive change as they create the new 21st century classroom.

by Andy Frost is the VP of Product Management at Edmentum.

From the Edmentum blog 12.6.12