California: Closing the Homework Gap with LCFF

LCAP_Kajeet.jpgStudent success and academic achievement are the goals for any state public education system. As California districts prepare and update their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs), it’s critical for all stakeholders to keep in mind the numerous ways that help lead to success—conditions of learning, engagement, and outcomes (grades, scores, or graduation).

California’s school funding law, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), is how schools focus on student success. The LCFF requires all school districts to involve parents and the community in planning, decision making, developing, and reviewing LCAPs. It also:

  • Requires school districts to focus on eight key areas that help students succeed.
  • Provides extra funding for students with greater challenges, those who are English language learners, low-income students, or highly mobile such as foster youth.
  • Gives school districts more flexibility in spending money to improve local schools.

8 Key Areas for Student Success with LCAP

1. Basic Services — Provide all students with access to fully credentialed teachers in their subject areas, as well as instructional materials that align with state standards, and safe, properly maintained school facilities.

How Kajeet Improves Basic Services: With Kajeet Education Broadband™, provide all students with mobile filtered Internet access at home or on the bus so they can access online instructional materials and complete homework. Kajeet, together with Mobile Guardian, offers a mobile device management (MDM) solution with a teacher-specific dashboard allowing teachers to send and receive feedback from students, and ensure all the correct apps and websites are pre-loaded on student devices before the lesson begins.

2. Implementation of State Standards — Ensure school programs and services enable all students, including English learners, to access California’s academic content and performance standards, including Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Math, Next Generation Science Standards, and English Language Development Standards.

How Kajeet Improves Implementation of State Standards: With Kajeet Education Broadband, all students, including English learners, can safely access academic content to help prepare for state assessments. MDM allows schools and districts to remotely push content to student devices, such as California-specific academic content.  

3. Course Access — Ensure all students have access to a broad course of study in all required subject areas, including math, social science, science, visual and performing arts, health, physical education, career and technical education and others, that prepares them for college and careers, regardless of what school they attend or where they live.

How Kajeet Improves Course Access: Schools can provide students the digital materials they need in class that day, along with remotely installing course-specific applications to student devices with MDM. Many times virtual and blended learning programs allow districts to expand course availability. Combined with selected curriculum, mobile devices and Kajeet Education Broadband, additional courses may be offered to students. 

4. Student Achievement — Improve achievement and outcomes for all students, as measured in multiple ways, such as test scores, English proficiency, and college and career preparedness.

How Kajeet Improves Student Achievement: Ensure students have access to the content and digital resources they need in order to be successful by provisioning content with the Kajeet and Mobile Guardian MDM solution. Keep students on task and focused by filtering web content and apps or even forcing single app mode where students can only use the authorized app on their device. Access to the Internet outside the classroom helps improve test scores and increase graduation rates

5. Other Student Outcomes — Measure other important indicators of student performance in all required areas of study.

How Kajeet Improves Other Student Outcomes: By providing Internet access outside the classroom, students can find time to complete homework on their time and schedules so they have more time for extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs, or applying to colleges.

6. Student Engagement — Provide students with engaging programs and course work that keeps them in school, as measured in part by attendance rates, dropout rates, and graduation rates.

How Kajeet Improves Students Engagement: Studies have shown that having access to the Internet outside the classroom improves student engagement, as well as increases graduation rates. Engage students in the classroom and at home with MDM by providing educational applications and digital resources. 

7. Parent Involvement — Seek input from all parents, and to engage parents in decision-making, as well as promoting parent participation in programs that meet the needs of their students and all students, as an effort led by the school district  and schools.

How Kajeet Improves Parent Involvement: Seek input from parents can access school resources (from more than a cell phone) and assist students with homework, they become more engaged. Internet access outside the classroom can benefit more than just the students.

8. School Climate — Factors both inside and outside the classroom that impact student success such as health, safety, student discipline and school connectedness, as measured in part by suspension and expulsion rates, and surveys of students, teachers, and parents.

How Kajeet Improves School Climate: With Kajeet Education Broadband, specifically with Wi-Fi hotspots, districts can better connect students to resources to complete homework allowing them to study, write papers and research in a safe environment instead of trying to connect to Wi-Fi via a parked car in the school parking lot or forcing them to walk/drive to other locations. Specifically related to the bus, Wi-Fi on the school bus can help improve behavior on the bus allowing for a more pleasant and safe ride to/from school.

INTERNET ACCESS OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

The goal of the LCFF is to ensure students succeed and the options for how to spend the money are broad. Depending on what your district priorities are, we may be able to help. Kajeet Education Broadband provides safe, CIPA-compliant Internet access for students outside the classroom.

Connect your students at home with the Kajeet SmartSpot® or on the school bus with the Kajeet SmartBus™. Plus our innovative cloud portal, Sentinel®, provides reporting and analytics on student usage – perfect for required performance measures. The dashboard is made for a device check-out program, so you can keep track of what hotspots are checked out, by whom, and for how long.

Do you have questions about how Kajeet can fit into your application? Contact us today and we’d love to help. 

 

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