Blackboard Blogs

American Graduation Initiative: Grant Opportunities Tied to Outcomes Assessment

From Donna Jones, EdD, Senior Pedagogical Solutions Engineer-Assessment

It’s a great time to be a community college! 

America’s community college’s, now more than ever, are educating today’s workforce in basic skills and job preparation training, allowing our country to better compete in a global economy. This past summer President Obama announced his American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion plan to improve the community college system. The main objective of this program is to graduate 5 million students from community colleges by 2020 in an effort to improve the American economy by supplementing our own labor pool with a higher skilled workforce. 

New Report: Parents Want Schools to Do More to Prepare Students

Over the past three years, I have blogged about our partnership with Project Tomorrow to bring you the Education in the 21st Century reports. These reports examined the views of K-12 educators on issues such as online learning and a new breed of K-12 administrators.

This time, we narrowed our focus to parents. Learning in the 21st Century: Parents’ Perspectives, Parents’ Priorities, released at the NSBA T+L event in Denver, CO (amidst 10+ inches of snow!), examines the views of these important, but often overlooked stakeholders in education. The report reveals that parents do not believe our schools are doing enough to prepare students for the 21st century. To improve on this, they identify the application of technology to learning and teacher training as two major elements for success. Read more.

Welcome to the Blackboard Blog on Assessment!

Welcome to the inaugural entry for the Blackboard Blog on Assessment! My name is Charlyne Walker, and I will function as your “tour guide” on this assessment journey. I am currently the Director of Outcomes Marketing here at Blackboard. I joined the Blackboard team in May of this year after spending the last 20 years working in higher education. I hold a doctorate in Leadership and Education with a specialty in Educational Technology and have served as both a teaching faculty member as well as an administrator in higher education. In my last position, I served as Director of Educational Research and Assessment for the College of Arts and Sciences at a large public university in South Florida.