What K–12 School Districts Need to Know About DRaaS – By Marquita Brown, EdTech Magazine
There are countless potential threats to the volumes of data K–12 school districts collect: Almost daily cyberattack attempts. Natural disasters. Human error or system failures.
The errors could delay crucial operations such as payroll — or even force schools or districts to temporarily close if there is no way to quickly recover any lost data.
It’s important that K–12 IT leaders and other administrators are able to quickly recover any lost information, and a simple backup isn’t enough. That’s why disaster recovery matters.
Instead of just making copies of information as you would with a simple backup, disaster recovery “refers to the plan and processes for quickly reestablishing access to applications, data, and IT resources after an outage,” according to IBM.
Data is backed up to multiple locations — creating a backup of a backup — on dedicated remote servers, either on-premises or in the cloud. Innovations in disaster recovery mean there are more options for administrators to find solutions that make the most sense for their data and budget needs. Disaster Recovery as a Service, through the cloud, promises fast recovery and flexibility. DRaaS can be fully managed by a provider, assisted or self-service.
'Grow Your Own' aims to address Montana teacher shortage – By Cameron Evans, The Missoulian
A new “Grow Your Own” strategy has high schools partnering with colleges throughout Montana to train uncertified prospective teachers recruited by school districts to fill open positions.
"’Grow Your Own’ reflects the acknowledgment that local communities may provide an answer to teacher shortages in rural and tribal communities by mining existing individuals who are unable to leave their community to attend college due to the cost of attendance and/or family obligations," said Vikki Howard, a professor of special education at the University of Montana – Western, at last month’s Montana Board of Regents meeting.
In some cases, the program connects schools in one community with a college in another corner of Montana.
DEPARTMENT WINS $11 MILLION TO CREATE AT LEAST 600 NEW SEATS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CENTERS IN 2020 – From Louisianabelieves.com
The Louisiana Department of Education today announced it has won a competitive federal Preschool Development Grant worth more than $11 million each year for three years, starting in 2020, to create at least 600 new seats at early learning sites for low-income children birth to age 3, improve the quality of early childhood education programming, and build the capacity of local communities to meet the needs of their youngest learners. Louisiana has won versions of this grant twice before, bringing in $40.3 million, not including the newest funding, since 2014.
"Since Act 3 of 2012, Louisiana has positively transformed its early childhood education system, boosting it to No.8 in the nation," said State Superintendent John White, citing a ranking by the Bipartisan Policy Center. (will open in new tab) "We are proud this hard work has again been recognized by the federal government in the form of funding support. This new grant award marks an important step toward solving the state's crisis of access, particularly among children birth to age 3, who are most in need."
"However," White added, "significant barriers remain for thousands of working families in need of quality care and education for their children. We must continue to work together to find solutions and close this gap."
Higher ed inflation rate drops to 2.5% in 2019 – By Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive
The 2019 inflation rate is "in line" with the sector's five-year average of 2.4%, according to a press release announcing the report. Out of eight cost factors the HEPI tracks, five saw increases this year that were above the five-year average: clerical costs, service employees, miscellaneous services, supplies and materials, and utilities.
However, the inflation rate for two of the three categories weighted most heavily on the index — faculty salaries and fringe benefits — came in under the five-year average.
In the wake of reduced state support, many public colleges have been trying to reduce spending on faculty pay.
As such, full-time faculty pay increases have "barely outpaced inflation" over the past three years, according to a recent report from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). In the 2018-19 academic year, full-time professors at private colleges saw a larger average increase than did professors at public institutions, the report notes.
Out of 870 colleges that provided data to AAUP, more than one in five institutions employs at least 5% fewer full-time faculty members than they did at the height of the Great Recession. Overall, these institutions saw a 35% decline in tenure and tenure-track faculty during that time.
