I’ll admit, in a moment of desperation, I typed into the search bar, “why do students cheat?” After extensive discussions about academic integrity, I couldn’t comprehend why my students would do such a thing. The internet would have an answer, I was sure of it (it seems my students also shared in this sentiment).

While it didn’t give me the solace I was looking for, it did take me on a tour of the history of academic dishonesty.

My first search result from 2018 offers us a solution: “Why Students Cheat – and What to Do About It.”

As I scrolled further, I noticed that in 1981, a teacher bemoaned, “Research papers advertised for sale. Cadets dismissed in cheating scandals. Students hiding formulas in calculator cases” in an article called “Why Do Some Students Cheat?”

And all the way back to 1941, an article titled “Why Students Cheat” appeared in the Journal of Higher Education.

This timeline tells us a few things:

Students have been cheating for at least 80 years, but probably longer.
And teachers have been bothered by it since then.
While we are quick to blame technology these days, it’s probably not the answer to the question.

So, what are the time-tested reasons why students cheat?

Pressure

Many students are under pressure from parents or guardians to earn certain grades. Maybe the expectation is acceptance to a certain university, following a certain career path, or just a general expectation of “success.” As much as teenagers like to pretend they don’t care what their parents think, this can be a heavy burden to bear.

Whether or not familial pressure exists, some students also place expectations on themselves to perform at a high level. While we hope all our students are intrinsically motivated, perfectionism and fixation on an idealized outcome can be unhealthy, especially because students may feel they need to achieve their desired GPA by any means necessary.

While this may not be our first thought, students do feel pressure from peers as well. When a Harvard Graduate School of Education student asked why cheating happens, a student wrote, “‘Peer pressure makes students cheat. Sometimes they have a reason to cheat like feeling [like] they need to be the smartest kid in class.’”

While educators cannot remove familial pressure, we can focus on intrinsic motivation by increasing student agency and creating a collaborative environment. That way, we’re relieving pressure instead of adding to it.

Priorities

Time management (or really the lack thereof) is likely the most common reason why students cheat when they didn’t intend to in the first place. For high school students, a due date a month away feels as distant as their 25th birthday. In the weeks before the assignment is due, they will have made time for everything but the work needed, so when they sit down to work on it the night before it’s due, they realize they just don’t have enough time to do it themselves.

Sometimes, a student just doesn’t feel like a required class fits into their life goals. A prodigal swimmer doesn’t see how an essay on The Great Gatsby is going to increase her odds of earning an athletic scholarship.

And often because of semester schedules and grading periods, students are faced with multiple exams, projects, and essays all due around the same time. This happened 40 years ago too: “‘It is Friday and many of the kids have three or four tests. It is certain that, since there has been too much to study for, there will be a lot of cheating going on today.’” We already know they struggle with time management, so they seek out lifelines when it all becomes too much.

Try collaborating with colleagues to spread out critical due dates for large projects within each grade level, and maybe add some direct instruction around time management skills with a character education curriculum.

Knowledge & Skills

A student may feel that they don’t have the necessary skills to complete an assignment to the standards they set for themselves. They use someone else’s words instead of their own because they said it better than they could with what they view as the “lumpy, inelegant sound of their writing.”

In the case of plagiarism, it is also possible that students simply don’t quite understand the way to properly give credit for the use of someone’s intellectual property. While this was probably still the case when students were pulling information from actual, physical library books, it is especially true in this age of “reposting images, repurposing memes, and watching parody videos” where students “‘see ownership as nebulous.’”

Which brings us to technology. Though technology “has made cheating in school easier, more convenient, and harder to catch than ever before,” it is not necessarily a reason why students cheat. Clearly, students cheated 80 years ago without the help of the internet.

Knowing the reasons why students cheat helps us to empathize and avoid taking it personally. And as much as it contributes to the issue, technology also offers us a plethora of options for detection. You don’t need to re-read a student’s essay multiple times because something “sounds off” — Imagine Edgenuity’s embedded Plagiarism Checker automatically scans student work and alerts you when a match is found. Worried about students using software to move through courses more quickly (or maybe you didn’t know they could do that)? Speed Radar automatically flags students completing tasks more quickly than expected for educator review. Thanks to these resources, I have been able to stop Googling and relax a bit, knowing that I have the tools to help turn academic dishonesty into a learning opportunity.

Looking for more tips?

Find sample academic integrity policies, downloadable resources, and more on Imagine Learning’s academic integrity page.

About the Author

Ally Jones is a California credentialed educator who specialized in teaching English language learners at the secondary level. Outside of education, she is passionate about fitness, literature, and taking care of the planet for her son’s generation.

January 25, 2022 8:30 am

Imagine Learning Launches Learning Breakthrough Contest

Edtech leader celebrates educator and student breakthrough learning moments on social media and awards prizes

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Jan. 25, 2022 – Imagine Learning, a leading PreK—12 digital learning solutions company, is calling on educators, students, and families to share their experiences and “aha!” moments as part of Imagine Learning’s newly-launched Breakthrough Moment of the Month.

The program, which will run through the end of 2022, is focused on celebrating moments of discovery and learning breakthroughs in every student’s journey. Educators and parents know that look in a child’s eye, that first moment of understanding. From comprehending a story twist, to discovering a new way to solve a real-world problem in a science lab, to learning to converse in a new language—Imagine Learning knows that every achievement deserves to be celebrated.

To participate, educators, students, and families are encouraged to post a 45-60 second video on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook alongside the hashtag #ImagineLearningBreakthrough demonstrating a moment of discovery. Each month, one video will be named Imagine Learning’s Breakthrough Moment of the Month—and up to 10 eligible videos will be awarded a $50 e-gift card in recognition and appreciation for sharing their successes.

“At Imagine Learning, we know that if we empower educators to do what they do best, we can drive breakthroughs along every student’s unique learning journey,” said Sari Factor, Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of Imagine Learning. “We’re eager for teachers and students to share their stories so we can shine spotlight on their success.”

Research has shown that celebrations around learning gains not only hold benefits for both individual learners and whole classrooms—resulting in enhanced social, cognitive and affective development—but for teachers as well, enabling them to find increased personal meaning and joy in their work.

Imagine Learning’s Breakthrough Moment of the Month program is now open for participation. For more information, please visit our website for more information.

About Imagine Learning

Imagine Learning is a PreK–12 digital learning solutions company that ignites learning breakthroughs by designing forward-thinking solutions at the intersection of people, curricula, and technology to drive student growth. Imagine Learning serves more than 10 million students and partners with more than half the school districts nationwide. Imagine Learning’s flagship products include Imagine Edgenuity^®, online courseware and virtual school services solutions; supplemental and intervention solutions for literacy, language, mathematics, robotics, and coding; and high-quality, digital-first core curriculum, including Illustrative Mathematics^®, EL Education^®, and Odell Education^®—all on the Imagine Learning Classroom—and Twig Science^®. Read more about Imagine Learning’s digital solutions at imaginelearning.com.

January 7, 2022 9:00 am

Imagine More Personalized Learning

Dare to hope for every child’s future by imagining a more personalized community, more personalized data, and more personalized instruction.

Before Louis Armstrong begins warbling at the end of Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail, the two main characters come to an impasse. Tom Hanks says, “It wasn’t personal,” right after putting Meg Ryan’s adorable children’s bookstore out of business with his super-sized chain store. With a Kleenex in hand, Meg says,

“All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me. It’s personal to a lot of people. What is so wrong with being personal, anyway? Because whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”

Cue sentimental folks like myself grabbing for their own Kleenex box and clapping after Meg’s soliloquy.

Like bookstores, education is a business, too. It involves complex government funding, state-wide curriculum adoptions, EdTech businesses, publishers, millions of teachers, and even more millions of students. It’s easy for it to feel like a factory production line. But when a family comes in for a parent-teacher conference and sits across that kidney table, face-to-face with the teacher, it is an entirely personal affair. Their child’s future is at stake.

What is personalized learning?

Personalized learning is hard to define. Even the United States Department of Education admits that each state has its own way of explaining and measuring what quantifies a personalized education. In 2017, they put together a definition:

Personalized learning refers to instruction in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each learner. Learning objectives, instructional approaches, and instructional content (and its sequencing) may all vary based on learner needs. In addition, learning activities are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests, and often self-initiated.

Isn’t that the dream? Of course every educator would like to give each child a personalized pathway to success, but we are only human after all. If you teach middle or high school, you have 45-minute periods and see over 100 students a day. How is it possible to let 100+ students direct their own education and oversee it all in such short bursts of time? How do you ensure they’ve mastered each grade-level standard? If you’re in an elementary school, you’ve got some fundamental, sequential phonics skills to teach, and most students will not self-select to learn the “oo” sound-spelling pattern from the moon card.

Yet, we can’t go back to the sage-on-the-stage lecture-style instruction followed by piles of homework, either. We know better now and must do better. If each student is a tiny human, unique in their strengths and preferences and background knowledge on any given subject, then a one-size-fits-all, always whole-group approach will not meet every student’s needs.

Perhaps personalized learning is hard to define because it’s equal parts pedagogy combined with hope. A hope that somehow in this big box, complex system we call public education, we can find a way to give every student the personal breakthrough moments they deserve to have. To throw in the towel means that parent, the one in tears sitting across the kidney table, is forced to fight alone for their child because it will always be personal for them.

They shouldn’t have to fight alone.

What does personalized learning look like?

If we believe that every child deserves a personalized education and that technology is here to help, not hurt, the big question left is, what is the blueprint? What does it look like in action to do the impossible? Here are three simple ways to move toward a more personalized learning experience for your students.

student looks up to teacher while working on a laptop

1. Personalize Your Community

If the pandemic taught us anything, education is a social affair. While some students enjoyed the freedom of at-home learning, many missed their peers and suffered both emotionally and academically during distance learning.

Now that they’re back in class, it’s tempting to drill down hard on skills students missed out on during the pandemic and “catch them up.” However, we cannot skip the community building essential to students’ sense of belonging and motivation. So, as we imagine a more personalized learning experience, let’s imagine a more personalized community.

One way to emphasize community is to start with character education. A comprehensive character education curriculum can guide teachers and counselors from identifying core emotions in kindergarten to serious behavioral intervention in secondary schools. Extensive research shows that character education improves academic performance and student life outcomes such as increased emotional and financial stability.

Building a community is critical to virtual classrooms as well. The community of learners theory outlines best practices for developing teacher and student rapport from anywhere, at any time, to improve online learning outcomes.

2. Personalize Your Data

It’s hard to personalize learning when teachers don’t know the discrete skills and math concepts their students are missing, or how far ahead other students might be in their reading ability. This is where technology can do the heavy lift for teachers. Instead of creating tests and grading them, and grouping students on your own, a robust digital assessment can give educators the data they need to personalize instruction for every student efficiently.

An intervention program like Imagine MyPath not only allows teachers to assess students and view the results on an interactive data dashboard, but it then sends them on a personalized learning journey. When students hit a roadblock and have trouble acquiring an essential grade-level skill, the program alerts the teacher and provides a ready-to-go printable mini-lesson.

The data provided by a digital program and the speed at which it can provide actionable insights for teachers are beyond what any one human is capable of.

3. Personalize Your Instruction

With more personalized data and a healthy classroom community, educators are empowered to personalize their instruction for students. Many instructional models are great vehicles for personalizing learning.

Blended learning is one option. For example, the station rotation model allows some students to be working on a device with adaptive technology or a student-initiated project at their own pace, while the teacher provides targeted, meaningful small-group instruction where we know kids thrive.

In a virtual school, students can self-select from a variety course options. They can work at their own pace. The teacher can have one-on-one check-ins that target those discrete skills students keep missing in their online course or adaptive program.

Project-based learning is another approach that personalizes learning by providing voice and choice in how students demonstrate their learning.

There are so many ways to personalize learning for students. Hopefully, with a more connected community, more personalized data, and effective personalized instruction, we can move closer to ensuring that every student achieves the breakthrough moments they deserve.

Imagine More Personalized Learning

Give every K–12 student a pathway to grade-level success with Imagine Learning’s Supplemental Suite.

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January 7, 2022 8:00 am

The Coaching Relationship

Fostering growth, confidence, and success in the people you are hoping to influence with evidence-based coaching strategies.

America loves a good coaching story. Before Ted Lasso and Roy Kent captured our hearts, we idolized Denzel Washington’s portrayal of Coach Boone in Remember the Titans and Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own. The story that someone believes in our potential and can help us become better versions of ourselves is one we desperately want to believe in (and pay for repeatedly at the virtual box office).

Perhaps that’s why districts across the nation have popularized the “academic coach” position. Often hired by districts to help support core subjects like reading or math, academic or instructional coaches function as side-line cheerleaders. Sans the evaluatory power of an administrator, the coach position is designed to be a nonthreatening means to positive change in teacher mindset and classroom practices.

The good news for education leaders is that evidence shows a coaching model in schools CAN affect change in instructional practice, at least more so than traditional, cafeteria-style professional development. A recent meta-study and framework for high-quality professional development by The Council of Great City Schools indicates that “personalized coaching and support” is one of four essential features of an effective program.

“Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is more often helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”

John Whitmore

Building Professional Relationships with Reluctant Teachers

Whether on the field or in the classroom, coaching is about unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance. It’s not about telling them. It’s not about even providing them with information and resources. Instead, it is about building a relationship that helps them unlock their own potential — to be the best they can be in whatever they are endeavoring.

I challenge you to think about a coach in your own life that has helped you unlock your own potential, whether in sports or professional life experience. If you reflect on that, you’ll recognize that what they did was help you be your best self by helping you do that MIND work on your own. Not just telling you, but having you go through the process of exploring, reflecting, and then identifying places you can move forward.

What are the functions of a coach?

If you are an academic coach, there are three main components to your job:

Guide and support teachers in being the best instructional leaders they can be in their classrooms.
Help build efficacy and leadership skills so that teachers aren’t always dependent on someone else to tell them how to approach a program or problem.
Cultivate effective systems for student learning.

Keep it Confidential and Nonjudgmental

As you build this relationship with the folks that you’re coaching, it is critical to maintain confidentiality and not be judgmental about wherever they are in their process.

There’s a continuum to growth and learning. Teachers often begin using a new curriculum or method in parts and pieces before moving to deep understanding and implementation. Meeting them where they are without judgment builds a positive coaching relationship foundation.

Additionally, one of the most important characteristics of a leader is trustworthiness. Earning trust starts with a confidential relationship. Each building and department are its own small community. Be aware of that and keep yourself in check. Reassure the people you are coaching that each conversation is between you and your coachee only, and they can be sure what is said will not be repeated down the hall.

The Coaching Journey

The stronger your partnership with your coachee, the more effective your coaching is going to be. You can do four things on this coaching journey that help build the relationship and establish that trust and rapport that is so important.

When you’re in conversation with your coachee, focus on listening. Be mindful and intentional when they are talking with you. Ask for details with questions like, “Could you tell me more…” and “Tell me what you mean by…” Asking for details and encouraging them to tell you their stories is a terrific way to establish trust and gain respect.

The second thing you can do to be more effective as a coach is to ask questions. This is the heart of the coaching conversation. The process of inquiry that you take your coachee on helps them begin to imagine what is possible. Ask questions that lead your coachee down that path of exploring and uncovering their potential such as, “What might happen if…” or “Would you like more information on…” Help them reflect and get to that place where they have those ‘aha’ moments, just like we want for our students. Asking the right questions can also help you get to their core need, understand their barriers to meeting that need, and discover the best way to support them.

Third, express empathy! Recognizing and validating teacher experiences (again, without judgment) is critical to a healthy coaching relationship. You can communicate the desire to understand by restating for clarification, saying things such as “Let me make sure I understand…” and “It sounds like…” It’s also important at that moment where they are sharing something difficult to be comfortable with silence. Empathy will help to make sure your coachee feels heard and respected.

The last step on the coaching journey is to take action. Help teachers to identify, design, and activate the changes they want to make. This can happen by brainstorming ideas in a co-creative process. Then, select an idea or two to move forward with. Develop a goal and create a plan. Instead of handing them a to-do list, though, be sure to make it a collaborative process. You can make suggestions such as, “Others have tried…” or “Tell me your next steps…” or even “What new ways of being are you willing to try?”

The four processes of listening, asking questions, providing empathy, and taking action do not happen in isolation. They are all happening at the same time as you have coaching conversations. Remember, at the end of the day, you can have all the knowledge and pedagogy as a coach, but if you don’t have the relationship, you cannot reach the teacher you are trying to influence.

The Coaching Relationship

An inspiring printable to pin on your office corkboard.

Download Now

About the Author — Joan Romano

Educational Consultant, Leadership Coach

Joan was a teacher and district administrator for over 30 years. After retirement, she wanted to continue in education as a leadership coach. She works in districts throughout Southern California, coaching administrators and teachers in supporting programs and implementation. Her passion is to make sure we are providing the best for students and teachers in classrooms.

January 1, 2022 8:00 am

Share Your Imagine Learning Breakthrough

Let’s celebrate students’ aha moments! Enter to win #ImagineLearningBreakthrough Moment of the Month and a $50 prize. Whether it’s a big discovery in class or small assignment at home — every achievement counts.

Imagine Learning is a leading provider of K–12 learning solutions, bringing together our adaptive and core programs, assessment tools, credit recovery, and more to provide opportunities that ignite learning breakthroughs in every student’s journey. Everything we do is deeply rooted in our relationships with educators: We can support and achieve greater learning by working together.

That’s why we want to hear about students’ “aha” moments! Whether it was a notable discovery in the classroom or while working through an assignment at home, every achievement counts! It could be as simple as:

Solving for X in a math equation
Understanding a passage in a story
Speaking a new language
Grasping a complex topic

three girls sitting on a log holding their raised hands

Imagine Learning Breakthrough Moment of the Month

Enter to win a $50 e-gift card

Educators, students, and families can post a short video on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter demonstrating a moment of discovery. Use #imaginelearningbreakthrough in your post, and your video could be named the Imagine Learning Breakthrough Moment of the Month.

Each month, ten videos will be awarded a $50 e-gift card for sharing their “aha” moment! We can’t wait to see how you ignite learning in your schools!

View official contest flyer and contest details.

Enter to win.

Post on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and use #imaginelearningbreakthrough to share your story.

Share My Moment

December 21, 2021 8:00 am

The Drone Racing League and Draganfly Create New STEM Program with Woz Ed and Imagine Learning’s Robotify

Draganfly, DRL, WozEd and Imagine Learning’s Robotify to teach thousands of students how to build, code, and fly racing drones in a new “Science of Drone Racing” curriculum.

NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Drone Racing League (DRL), the world’s premier, professional drone racing property, announced an expansion of their DRL Academy STEM program in partnership with Draganfly (NASDAQ; DPRO) (CSE: DPRO), an award industry-leading drone solutions and systems developer, Steve Wozniak’s Woz Ed, the leader in demand-driven K-12 education, and Robotify, a virtual platform that teaches students about coding using robots. Together, these leaders in technology and education will inspire the next generation of innovators through an immersive and interactive “Science of Drone Racing” curriculum, debuting for middle school students in 2022.

Read the rest of the article.

November 10, 2021 8:00 am

Imagine Learning Acquires Robotify, Innovative New Platform Designed To Teach Coding Through Virtual Robotics Simulation

Imagine Learning, the leading provider of digital curriculum solutions in the U.S., today announced the acquisition of Robotify, a digital curriculum start-up with a mission to empower students to learn coding in an inspiring, engaging, and playful way.

First Acquisition Since Rebranding As Imagine Learning

Scottsdale, Arizona, November 10, 2021 — Imagine Learning, the leading provider of digital curriculum solutions in the U.S., today announced the acquisition of Robotify, a digital curriculum start-up with a mission to empower students to learn coding in an inspiring, engaging, and playful way. The Dublin, Ireland based company was founded by Adam Dalton and Evan Darcy, and offers a user-friendly curriculum aligned to CSTA and ISTE standards, with easy implementation and the resources schools need to help students develop computer science and coding skills.

The acquisition, the company’s first since being rebranded as Imagine Learning, reinforces the focus on its mission: to ignite learning breakthroughs and support each student’s unique learning journey.

“Through the power of digital education, we are making learning more equitable, more collaborative and personalized, always advancing with students at the center”

“We are excited to welcome Robotify to the Imagine Learning family,” said Jonathan Grayer, Chairman and CEO of Imagine Learning. “Coding is the new literacy and Imagine Learning is a literacy leader. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) has become critical to prepare today’s learners for jobs of the future—with coding in particular quickly becoming a prerequisite. We also know that too many schools across the U.S. lack the resources to properly staff or equip a robotics program. Robotify solves this with a digital-first approach to provide greater opportunity to students by using virtual robots to make coding accessible to all. Driving equity is at the heart of our commitment to students, educators, and families, and this acquisition is a meaningful step for us.

“As the barriers between core and supplemental curriculum blur, impacted by data-driven digital education and assessment, we believe that Robotify will become an important element of a K-12 education offering students valuable gamified science and coding content. Through the power of digital education, we are making learning more equitable, more collaborative and personalized, always advancing with students at the center,” said Grayer.

Robotify offers courses that include over 800 different coding activities and games, and even a multi-player platform that allows kids to showcase their coding skills in virtual robotics competition against teams worldwide. The platform offers 24/7 access to the most innovative robots, with no hardware purchase required, ever.

“When we founded Robotify, our mission was simple—to empower all kids to learn coding in an inspiring, engaging and playful way. We are proud of the phenomenal journey we have been on thanks to our incredible team, and this is only just the beginning,” said co-founder, Adam Dalton. “Joining Imagine Learning helps bring us closer to our goal of making programming more accessible to young minds around the globe, and we’re elated to be part of the Imagine Learning family.”

The acquisition of Robotify, coming on the heels of the acquisition of Twig Education earlier this year, highlights Imagine Learning’s commitment to bring STEM forward in service of their mission, and prepare learners for the future.

About Imagine Learning

Imagine Learning is a PreK–12 digital learning solutions company that ignites learning breakthroughs by designing forward-thinking solutions at the intersection of people, curricula, and technology to drive student growth. Imagine Learning serves more than 10 million students and partners with more than 7,500 school districts nationwide. Imagine Learning’s flagship brands include Imagine Edgenuity, provider of online courseware and intervention solutions; Imagine Learning, provider of digital supplemental and intervention solutions for literacy, language, and mathematics; and LearnZillion, StudySync, and Twig Education, providers of high-quality, digital-first core curriculum. Read more about Imagine Learning’s new brand at http://www.imaginethefutureoflearning.com.

For Media Queries

Imagine Learning is a leading provider of K–12 online and blended learning solutions, and we are always available to speak with members of the press.

Visit our homepage to learn more about Imagine Learning.

Tim DeClaire

Imagine Learning

tim.declaire@imaginelearning.com

Back to News and Press

November 1, 2021 8:00 am

Imagine Learning Becomes New Brand for K–12 Digital Education Leader Weld North Education

Weld North Education, the largest provider of digital curriculum solutions in the U.S., today announces that it is bringing together all the Company’s products and solutions under a single unified brand, Imagine Learning.

All the Company’s Solutions Come Together Under One Unified Brand

Scottsdale, Arizona, November 1, 2021 – Weld North Education, the largest provider of digital curriculum solutions in the U.S., today announces that it is bringing together all the Company’s products and solutions under a single unified brand, Imagine Learning. Existing product brands, including Edgenuity, LearnZillion, StudySync, Twig Education, Imagine Learning, and many others will now be united by a shared mission—to ignite learning breakthroughs—and together will enable Imagine Learning to create more forward-thinking education solutions at the intersection of people, curricula, and technology. All existing products and solutions will continue to be available as part of a comprehensive portfolio designed to empower educators and improve student achievement.

“We are taking the next step on our journey to empower more educators, engage more students, and connect more families to learning,” said Jonathan Grayer, Chairman and CEO of Imagine Learning. “Since our inception in 2010, our mission—to ignite learning breakthroughs, open and accessible to all—has been our overriding true north. Through the power of digital education, we are making learning more equitable, more collaborative and personalized, always advancing with students at the center. We are proud of our partnerships with more than 7,500 school districts and educators to help teachers teach, and our commitment to their more than 10 million students. Coming together under a single brand with a single purpose—will support dynamic student learning and meet students where they are to help them progress towards their full potential.”

Imagine Learning is driven by passion, vision, and values to creatively transform what’s possible for all educators, and every student. Our five pillars guide how we support students, educators, and families at every step of the learning journey:

Create Collaboratively
- Everything we do—our products, research, and services—is deeply rooted in our relationships with educators. By working together, we can achieve and support greater learning.
Design for Students
- Our belief in the power of every learner’s unique potential drives us to create interactive, dynamic curricula that can adapt to meet each student’s unique needs—and motivate them to achieve more.
Drive Equity
- We work alongside school communities in creating equitable experiences in curricula and instruction. We have high expectations for all learners and believe that each one benefits from a learning experience that respects and represents them all.
Personalize Breakthroughs
- We empower educators with access to clear and measurable data in real time, helping to inform more personalized instruction and enable an adaptive experience.
Advance Learning
- We conduct ongoing research and thought leadership on emerging topics within education to advance learning for all.

“Unifying under the Imagine Learning brand will make our products and services more accessible and simpler to access and understand for educators, families, and students—and we will continue to create new products and features that will propel each student’s growth and save educators time,” said Grayer. “Together, our capabilities—highly engaging content, assessment to drive actionable performance data and personalized lessons—meet students where they are while enabling teachers to make the most of every moment with their students.”

The new brand identity will be launched with a new website: imaginethefutureoflearning.com. In the coming months it will be anything but business as usual for Imagine Learning. Through a new outreach channel currently in development, the company will extend their focus on Social-Emotional Learning, part of an effort that reflects Imagine Learning’s foundational pillars and supports its mission, to ignite learning breakthroughs.

About Imagine Learning

Imagine Learning is a PreK–12 digital learning solutions company that ignites learning breakthroughs by designing forward-thinking solutions at the intersection of people, curricula, and technology to drive student growth. Imagine Learning serves more than 10 million students and partners with more than 7,500 school districts nationwide. Imagine Learning’s flagship brands include Imagine Edgenuity, provider of online courseware and intervention solutions; Imagine Learning, provider of digital supplemental and intervention solutions for literacy, language, and mathematics; and LearnZillion, StudySync, and Twig Education, providers of high-quality, digital-first core curriculum. Read more about Imagine Learning’s new brand at http://www.imaginethefutureoflearning.com.

For Media Queries

Imagine Learning is a leading provider of K–12 online and blended learning solutions, and we are always available to speak with members of the press.

Visit our homepage to learn more about Imagine Learning.

Tim DeClaire

Imagine Learning

tim.declaire@imaginelearning.com

Back to News and Press

October 20, 2021 8:00 am

Building Equity from Every Angle

Achieving equity in education is an enormous — but not impossible — pursuit. With a clear understanding of the work to be done, we can accelerate equity efforts in our classrooms, schools, and communities.

As districts across the country prepare for the next school year, educators are rightly concerned about the effects the pandemic is having on the persistent inequities in education. The opportunity gaps for students from historically marginalized communities were significant and well-documented before the pandemic, and early data indicate that remote-only learning without universal technology access and other adequate supports has widened this divide.

During the 2020-2021 school year, Black, Hispanic, and Asian students were more likely than white students to live in districts without an in-person school option and without the critical supports necessary to make remote-only learning successful for all students. Recent research from PACE: Policy Analysis for California Education indicates that COVID-19 related learning impacts have been more severe for certain student groups, including low-income students and English language learners. Without aggressive and bold actions, these students may never catch up.

To lessen the impact of COVID-19, reduce the opportunity gap, and begin a sustained change in addressing these issues, the education community must pursue equity efforts that include evidence-based instruction, progress monitoring, targeted supplemental instruction, and professional development for teachers.

As a digital curriculum company, we at Imagine Learning have been on a journey to consider how curriculum can begin to address the equity issues that arise in digital learning environments. And that journey began with defining what equity in the context of education means to us.

“Equity is what allows individual students to get what they need to be successful.”

Dr. Eric Ruiz Bybee

Assistant Professor at Bringham Young University

Defining Equity

While equality aims to provide everyone with the same resources, equity focuses on providing everyone with the right resources for them. “Equity is what allows individual students to get what they need to be successful,” said Dr. Eric Ruiz Bybee, Assistant Professor at Brigham Young University. “Equity is when a student with a learning disability or who is an English Learner is given additional support to meet challenging learning objectives.”

In the context of our work, equity means ensuring that all students have access to what they need to be successful. “In some instances, it means extra supports, and in others, it means instruction that is representative of cultural ways of knowing and learning,” said Danielle Ohm, Senior Content Specialist in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Imagine Learning.

When done well, equity efforts benefit both individual students and their entire community, according to Dr. Maisha T. Winn, Chancellor’s Leadership Professor at University of California, Davis, by “helping students imagine themselves as important community contributors within (and far beyond) classroom walls.”

Download Dr. Winn’s Whitepaper here.

“Not a single curriculum provider can say their materials are perfect. What matters is what is being done to improve them.”

Danielle Ohm

Senior Content Specialist in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Imagine Learning

What Influences Equity

While our work focuses on equity issues in curriculum, equity in education operates on many interrelated levels that must be addressed holistically to close opportunity gaps.

The first is equity in funding, which is about how we invest in districts and schools. For decades, educators and activists have advocated for equitable school budgets — developed based on student need — rather than equal. And while there has been some recent movement to bring equity to the public school budget process, the reality is that school funding is often both inequitable and unequal — resulting in increased investment in students with existing advantages.

The second is equity in resources, which includes access to technology, digital devices, wireless internet, and other essential tools necessary to learn. As all of these materials cost money, inequitable funding makes it nearly impossible for many districts to deliver equitable resources to their students.

Research shows that the past year both highlighted and deepened the disparities in both funding and resourcing. Although districts stepped up efforts to distribute devices, connect students to the internet, and formalize benchmarks for remote instruction, by fall 2020 Black and Hispanic households were still “three to four percentage points less likely than white households to have reliable access to devices, and three to six percentage points less likely to have reliable access to the internet.”

The third is equity in instruction, which is an area of focus for our work at Imagine Learning. This includes having highly trained and effective teachers, curriculum, and instructional materials that are appropriate, challenging, and culturally resonant.

Like many companies offering digital curriculum, we have seen an uptick in questions around instructional equity and addressing bias in our materials. “Not a single curriculum provider can say their materials are perfect,” said Ohm. “What matters is what is being done to improve them.” We have adopted a rigorous and continuous process to evaluate all our curriculum and make sure it aligns with equitable instructional practices, so we can provide all students with materials that are relevant to their lens and way of life.

Our work is informed by the principles outlined in Universal Design for Learning, which focus on ensuring all students get what they need in the way that they need it, and asset-based pedagogies, which consider individual differences — in language, culture, thought, and other traits and ways of knowing — assets that can be leveraged to make learning more relevant and effective. Ohm explains, “In a classroom where teachers have 25-40 students, creating individual pathways is difficult.” Digital curriculum can help bridge that gap. “Teachers have innumerable opportunities to personalize instruction and provide equitable learning opportunities with digital curriculum,” Ohm said. “By being offered multiple means of communication and representation and through the use of features like translations and audio options, students are able to engage with learning materials in the way that’s most meaningful for them.”

The process of building more equitable instructional materials is iterative, and it will never be finished. “We’re agile in a way that textbooks aren’t,” Ohm said. “We have the ability to effect change right away.” And while it’s only one piece of the equity puzzle, the ability to tailor curriculum to a student’s specific experiences and contexts is powerful.

Where To Focus Next

With so much work still to be done, we are also thinking strategically about how to further equity efforts in our schools and communities. To support communities still affected by the pandemic and families who are hesitant to return to in-person learning, equity means continued access to virtual learning. A new poll released by the National Parents Union, an education advocacy organization, found that “the majority of parents value having a choice between in-person and remote with 56% saying they want both options to be provided next year.” To reduce the opportunity gap for historically marginalized communities, districts must provide quality virtual learning opportunities.

For educators on this journey, there are many resources to help guide explorations and conversations about instructional equity.

The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford has built the first national database that measures and tracks educational opportunity in every community in the United States, helping educators understand the opportunity gaps in their community. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Instructional Practice Guide for Equitable Teaching & Learning series offers practical guidance on how to incorporate universal instruction practices into K–12 mathematics instruction. And the National School Boards Association’s Reimagining School Board Leadership: Actions for Equity provides guidance to school boards seeking to “reimagine and redesign systems for learning.”

Achieving equity in education is an enormous — but not impossible — pursuit. With a clear understanding of the work to be done, a multilayered strategy for addressing equity on every level, and innovative, research-informed tools for putting equity models into practice, we can accelerate equity efforts in our classrooms, schools, and communities.

October 1, 2021 8:00 am

Addressing the Future of a Pandemic Generation

Don’t panic about learning loss, optimize each students’ unique journey. Let’s start by acknowledging our collective humanity.

“Learning loss” has become a trending, catch-all phrase for the growing gap between grade-level expectations and actual student performance. The disparity worsened during the pandemic, exacerbating already existing inequities. Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students saw less growth than their peers.

This deficit mindset — focusing on what students lack — has been shown to only worsen outcomes.

Having spent my career in education, first as a teacher and now as a leader in digital learning, I’ve seen firsthand that educators can do incredible things with the right support. Instead of clamoring to “fix” learning loss — what if we focus on empowering teachers to optimize each student’s unique learning journey aided by powerful technology-enabled tools?

Start by Acknowledging our Collective Humanity

As we strive to improve each student’s academic outcomes, it’s important to acknowledge that we are humans first. Many students lost loved ones and most experienced social isolation.

A trauma-informed approach is needed as we welcome students and families back to school.

teacher and student bump elbows during pandemic

“Students this year will each be at a unique point in their learning journey — and that’s ok.”

Sari Factor

Character education is a process that guides students and teachers in the development of skills not covered by academic standards, such as understanding emotions and developing empathy.

Research shows that students who receive character education instruction have improved life outcomes and outperform their peers academically by 11%.

Start the school year by focusing on student well-being — and academic success will follow.

Beware “Accelerated” Learning

With so much talk about the need to catch up, it’s natural to search for shortcuts or methods to accelerate learning. But that’s not how learning works.

Learning is a journey to be navigated and, depending upon what a student knows and what she needs to learn, moving faster is rarely realistic or appropriate.

It’s like asking a driver to accelerate through a traffic jam. What we can do is leverage technology to find the optimal, individualized learning path for every student.

Focus on Each Student’s Unique Learning Journey

Students this year will each be at a unique point in their learning journey – and that’s ok. With the use of digital curriculum tools, educators can quickly and accurately understand where all of their students are and, critically, how to move each of them forward.

That starts with rethinking the way we use assessments. Rather than conducting assessments at the end of a term or school year, this moment all but demands that we create a culture of ongoing assessment and immediate feedback. When using high-quality digital learning tools, every keystroke tells a story about what a student knows.

Teachers receive valuable data to inform their instruction. As partners, digital learning providers need to make that data as clear and easy to interpret as possible.

Next, we need to implement personalized learning programs that focus on optimizing learning, not accelerating it. Many students are significantly behind, and we need to collaborate creatively to catch those students up.

One way is to be flexible in our content delivery. Where a student is and how far they need to go should influence the lesson she receives, and teachers should adapt content as needed to get a student on the right pathfor them. Adjusting or crafting new content for each student would be extremely time-consuming for teachers, if not impossible. By tapping into digital curricula, teachers can more easily tailor lessons for every individual, providing them better access to grade-level instruction.

Third, we should embrace flexible solutions that complement traditional classroom learning. These can take a lot of different forms — from adaptive software on a tablet to virtual on-demand tutoring — all focused on ensuring students have what they need to experience that breakthrough moment. Teachers play a vital role in deciding which instructional tools will work best for each student.

That’s why we believe our work starts with providing teachers with quality programs and the support they need to implement them effectively.

Many districts are also facing teacher shortages at a moment where we desperately need more teachers in classrooms. The ability to “port in” teachers from different locations could go a long way to help students progress in their learning this fall.

Districts should also continue to offer hybrid, in-person, and virtual learning options.

Most students are excited to return to in-person learning, but some thrived with online learning. Enrollment is down, particularly in the older grades. We need to preserve flexible programs that will entice teenagers — including the significant percentage who work and attend school simultaneously back to school.

This school year won’t be easy, but educators do hard things every day in service of students. If we’re going to improve learning outcomes, we need to collaborate across the full education support system — curricula, educators, and families.

Together, we should be clear-headed about the work ahead and committed to giving teachers the support and tools they need to optimize each students’ unique learning journey.

About the Author — Sari Factor

Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Imagine Learning

Sari began her career as a mathematics teacher but soon thought of much bigger ways to impact students. Recognizing that technology could greatly transform the way students learn, she made a career move into education technology and has been working to leverage technology to help students, teachers, schools, and districts ever since.

Sari joined Imagine Learning in 2011 and has held leadership positions at successful educational publishing and learning technology companies, including Kaplan, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Everyday Learning Corporation. “I knew that I could fulfill my vision to combine technology with research on learning to make education truly student-centered.”