Kansas City Public Schools Selects Discovery Education to Support Student Learning and Success
Posted Jan 11, 2021
SILVER SPRING, MD (Monday, January 11, 2021)—Missouri’s Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) has selected Discovery Education to support the district’s community-wide commitment to student learning and success. Through this new partnership, all educators serving KCPS’s more than 15,000 students in 35 district schools will receive access to Discovery Education Experience. A suite of award-winning K-12 digital resources and instructional supports, Discovery Education Experience meets the changing needs of KCPS’s diverse student population in the remote, hybrid, or online learning environment. Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms worldwide.
The COVID-19 pandemic has served to reinforce KCPS’s deep, community-wide commitment to student learning and success. To create tangible, significant, and sustainable academic progress, the district has sought new ways of differentiating instruction. Following the district’s decision to utilize digital resources to help achieve KCPS’s goals, the challenge was to find a reliable, vetted, standards-aligned digital resource that was equally effective both in-person and online, and was relevant and engaging for a student body that is 57% Black; 28% Hispanic; 9% White; and 6% Other and speaks one of 50 languages.
Following a rigorous review, KCPS selected Discovery Education Experience to support the district’s efforts to provide all students an innovative curriculum focused on providing equity, opportunity, and a whole-child education. Experience is a flexible K-12 learning platform that connects educators to a vast collection of compelling high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, and professional learning resources. Together, these resources give educators everything they need to facilitate instruction in any learning environment and create lasting educational impact.
Discovery Education’s team continues adding, contextualizing, and organizing exciting new content and timely resources to Experience each month in response to current events and the ever-evolving needs of educators. These resources, sourced from trusted partners, are aligned to state and national standards, and help educators bring the outside world into teaching and learning every day.
Finally, Experience is designed to work within school systems’ existing infrastructure and workflows. Through expanded partnerships with Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Schoology, Canvas, and now Clever, integrating Experience into existing IT architecture is easier than ever.
“The Kansas City Public Schools are dedicated to making our classrooms—whether they be online or in our schools—oases of high-engagement, innovative learning for all students,” said Dr. Mark Bedell, Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent. “Our new partnership with Discovery Education, which brings Discovery Education Experience to each teacher and student, will help support this vision.”
To help educators integrate their new digital resources into instruction in the coming school year, Discovery Education will provide KCPS teachers dedicated professional learning. Through these interactive professional development sessions, participants will learn best practices for using their new digital resources. Effective professional development will maximize the power of these digital resources, increase student engagement in instruction, and support students’ continued academic development.
The Kansas City Public Schools is the latest school system to select Discovery Education Experience to support student learning in the 2020-2021 school year. Other school systems choosing Discovery Education Experience to support in-class or remote learning include, the Atlanta Public Schools, the Corpus Christi Independent School District, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Nevada Department of Education, and the Topeka Public Schools.
KCPS’s partnership with Discovery Education also provides all district teachers access to the Discovery Education Community. A global community of education professionals, the Discovery Education Community connects members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable networking, idea sharing, and inspiration.
“Discovery Education is pleased to bring the award-winning Experience to learners across the district,” said Emily Keith, Discovery Education’s Senior Director of Education Partnerships. “Dr. Bedell and his team of dedicated teachers are reimagining public education for thousands of students, and we are incredibly excited to be supporting their work.”
For more information about Kansas City Public Schools, visit the district website here.
For more information about Discovery Education’s digital resources and professional learning services, visit www.discoveryeducation.com, and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through Twitter and LinkedIn.