Charleston, SC Business News: EVERFI from Blackbaud Announces New and Updated Digital Resources and Product Features for K-12 Schools for the New School Year
Highlights include updated financial education courses, a new health and wellness course, and new platform features for educators
CHARLESTON, S.C., Aug. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — EVERFI® from Blackbaud®, the leader in powering social impact through education, is releasing new and updated K-12 digital resources to its learning platform, just in time for the new school year. Updates include covering important topics like developing smart money habits, the potential benefits of working with a financial advisor, the impact of stress on health and wellness, preparing for taxes, and the use of nonviolent resistance during the Civil Rights Movement.
New and updated resources for the 2024-25 school year include:
- EVERFI: Financial Literacy for High School® – EVERFI’s flagship financial education resource, used by more than 786,000 students during the 2023-24 school year, teaches students how to make informed financial decisions that promote financial well-being over their lifetime. Updates for the new school year include aligning the program material to more comprehensively meet national and state financial education standards through expanded learning objectives. Additionally, the program includes bite-sized lessons that provide more flexibility for teachers when assigning content, new interactive elements for increased student engagement, and will provide greater accessibility for all learners.
- Marketplaces: Investing Basics™ – Sponsored in the United States and Canada by Edward Jones, Marketplaces is an introduction to investing and financial markets resource that provides students with an understanding of how markets work while building their confidence to invest toward their future goals. The resource has been updated to focus exclusively on investing, ensuring students feel confident with both the concepts and skills necessary to participate in today’s market. The resource also has additional investing content, including a brand-new lesson where students learn the potential benefits of working with a financial advisor. Additionally, increased interactivity and accessibility have been built out in this updated resource.
- Tax Simulation: Understanding Taxes™ – The tax simulation developed in partnership with and sponsored nationwide by Intuit for Education, was previously included within EVERFI: Financial Literacy. Educators are now able to access the tax simulation as a standalone resource, providing greater flexibility in sharing this content with students. To enhance and deepen the learning experience, several videos are featured in the resource covering topics like summarizing a 1099 form, calculating tax requirements, and paying for post-secondary education.
- Healthier Me: Intro to Wellness™ – The reimagined program is replacing EVERFI’s previous elementary and middle school health curricula. It includes new and improved content to align with current National Health Education Standards. By taking a whole-person approach, the learning experience focuses on overall physical, emotional, and social wellness to guide students toward making healthy choices for their whole selves. The program also features increased technical accessibility for learners using assistive technology.
- 306: Black History – Continuing the Story™– Through a partnership with The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, EVERFI is adding a fifth lesson to the 306 program. Using a first-person narrative, the new lesson looks at the development of the philosophy of nonviolence. Learners will explore connections among the ongoing struggle for civil and human rights in India in the early 1900’s, the use of nonviolent resistance during the Civil Rights Movement, and the use of nonviolence in the present day to confront injustices.
“Our goal is to ensure that the digital resources we are designing and delivering to K-12 schools are not just cutting-edge and innovative, but that they integrate teacher feedback and are aligned with current standards,” said Alice Lee, senior vice president, K-12 implementation at EVERFI from Blackbaud. “These new and updated programs cover a range of critical topics that teachers and students alike have been asking for. We are excited to roll these updates out for the new school year and to be able to support teachers and students across the country.”
In addition to program updates, EVERFI is also rolling out new platform features for the upcoming school year. The platform updates are the direct result of educator feedback obtained during the last school year and are designed to improve functionality, flexibility, and answer calls for increased login options.
New platform features available on the teacher dashboard in the 2024-25 school year include a new Financial Literacy for High School Collection, a program lock/unlock feature for teachers, and the addition of Google Single Sign-On (SSO).
The Financial Literacy for High School Collection makes it easier for educators to provide students with a sequence of financial education content aligned to standards. The Collection is a series of resources that pair well together to more comprehensively address state and national standards and provide an enhanced, cohesive learning experience for students. The resources can be taken in whatever order is most suitable for a teacher’s classroom and learning objectives. Teachers can easily assign these complementary resources through a brand-new “+ Add All to Class” button.
The lock/unlock program feature allows educators to control what resources are visible in their Students’ Dashboards. Teachers can shift a program to “locked” to hide it from students until they are ready to teach the content. They can come back to their My Classes tab when they are ready to “unlock” the program for their students. This new feature offers educators added flexibility and is in response to educators’ requests to have more control over their student’s dashboards and to not overwhelm them with the amount of content they may be assigned to work through.
Lastly, EVERFI is rolling out Google SSO as another option for educators and students to log in during the upcoming school year. This additional login option will provide users with increased ease of access to EVERFI’s learning platform and library of courses.
“Providing teachers with an educational platform that meets their needs and is easy to use is always top of mind for us and the features we are rolling out for the 2024-25 school year are some of the most requested updates from teachers,” said Dan Grace, head of product, EVERFI from Blackbaud. “Both the Collection and lock/unlock features provide teachers greater control and flexibility when assigning programs to students and we’re excited to hear how these platform updates improve the overall experience for both teachers and students.”
About EVERFI from Blackbaud
EVERFI® from Blackbaud® (NASDAQ: BLKB) is an international technology company driving social impact through education to address the most challenging issues affecting society ranging from financial wellness to mental health to workplace conduct and other critical topics. Founded in 2008, EVERFI’s Impact-as-a-Service™ solution and digital educational content have reached more than 45 million learners globally. In 2020, the company was recognized as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company and was featured on Fortune Magazine’s Impact 20 List. The company was also named to the 2021 GSV EdTech 150, a list of the most transformative growth companies in digital learning. Blackbaud acquired EVERFI in December 2021. To learn more about EVERFI, please visit everfi.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or X/Twitter @EVERFI.
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