For the past three years, David and his son, Adelso, have communicated only by phone. Adelso is just one of about 5,500 children who was taken from a parent, as a result of the Trump administration’s family separation policy. They’re among more than 1,000 families who have been waiting for the Biden administration to follow through on a promise to reunify them. Now there is a new sense of hope as the Biden government starts to reunite a handful of families. But David and Adelso’s story — split between Guatemala and Florida — offers a firsthand look at the continuing psychological effects of separation … … and how the delay in reuniting families has in some cases encouraged people to make a desperate trek back to the U.S. David and his son spoke with us on condition that we not use their full names and conceal their identities. Since he was jailed and deported, David has kept a low profile in the countryside, evading the gangs he says extorted the trucking business he worked for and threatened his family before they fled to the U.S. David was deported to Guatemala after serving 30 days in a U.S. prison for the crime of illegal reentry. Neither David, his wife or their other children have seen Adelso since. “We can make America, once again, the leading force for good in the world.” Days after he took office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to reunify families separated under the Trump administration. “The re-establishment of the interagency task force and the reunification of families.” This week, as migrant apprehensions approached the highest level in 20 years, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would bring four mothers to the U.S. to reunite with their children. The U.S. will reunify another 35 or so families in the coming weeks as part of a pilot project, which David and Adelso might be a part of. But this is just a start, and the process for reunifying all families could take months, and even years. In David’s town of several thousand people, I found three other parents who were forcibly separated from their children under “zero tolerance.” Melvin Jacinto and his 14-year-old son tried to enter the U.S. to look for work that would pay for, among other things, his daughter’s hip surgery. Melvin and his wife Marta’s son, Rosendo, now lives with a relative in Minneapolis. They, too, rely on video calls to stay connected. The reality is that work is really scarce here. Melvin takes what jobs he can find, but the family relies on money sent from Rosendo, their teenage son, who’s now working in the U.S. We visited the homes of two other fathers who were separated from their kids at the border and were told they’d already made the return trip to reunite with them. She allowed me to speak with her husband on her phone. He said he reunited with his son in Fort Lauderdale, and was staying in a house with other migrants. We heard of other parents as well, deported to Guatemala and Honduras, who’d already made the perilous journey to reunite with their children. According to immigration lawyers, about 1,000 separated kids have yet to see their parents again. They’ve had to grow up fast, placed in the care of foster families or relatives. For the last three years, Adelso has been living with his aunt, Teresa Quiñónez, in Boca Raton, Fla. He’s been attending school, and plays soccer in his spare time, but he still struggles with the trauma of what happened in Guatemala and at the border. Unlike some of the separated kids, Adelso does have support. “Yes, definitely, I would go there in the morning, too Yeah —” His aunt Teresa came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, and later became a legal resident. She stepped in to give Adelso the care she didn’t have when she came to the U.S. as a teenager. “I can say that I understand his pain, not being with mom and dad. Living with someone familiar, somehow — still, it’s not the same.” Once a month, Adelso talks with a child psychologist at Florida State University’s Center for Child Stress and Health. The service is paid through a government settlement for families separated under the “zero tolerance” policy. Adelso is one of several children affected by “zero tolerance” that Natalia Falcon now works with in South Florida. “I’ve been working with Adelso and his family for a little bit over six months. We see a lot of sleeping issues. You know, they can’t sleep, they can’t fall asleep or the nightmares, right. We have to look at nightmares very delicately. Those recurring memories, flashbacks of that traumatic event as one of the main symptoms of P.T.S.D. Studies show that childhood trauma, left unaddressed, can negatively affect health and relationships long into adulthood. “I don’t want him to get depressed, taking him to that place, like, ‘Oh, I just want to be alone.’ That’s why I try to bring him out and do things with him.” After being separated from his dad, Adelso spent two months in a New York shelter with other separated kids before Teresa finally won his release. “I still remember seeing him coming out of the airport. His little face, like — it’s heartbreaking, and sometimes I see him now, he has grown so much in this, in this time that he came here, he has become so mature and that’s hard to see too because it’s like life pushing you to be that mature. You are not enjoying your being a child.” For now, Adelso and David continue to work with their lawyers and hope to be part of the first wave of reunions. As for David, he told us that he can only wait so long, and that he has also considered paying a smuggler to cross back into the U.S. and claim asylum again.
What’s Going On in This Graph? | May 12, 2021
3. Below the response box, there is an option for students to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to their response which they can share with their teacher.
4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, May 12, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.
5. By Friday morning, May 14, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that included this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.
Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
More?
• See all graphs in this series or a slide show of 60 of our favorite graphs.
• View our archives that link to all past releases, organized by topic, graph type and Stat Nugget.
• Learn more about the “Notice and Wonder” teaching strategy and how and why other teachers are using this feature from our on-demand webinar.
• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.
• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, professional development opportunities, and more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Coursera teams up with Goodwill® and Facebook Elevate to offer scholarships focused on helping impacted workers transition to digital jobs
By Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer, Coursera
While the recession has nearly ended for high-wage workers, job losses persist for low-wage workers. To support learners most impacted by the pandemic’s economic downturn, we have joined forces with Goodwill®, the leading workforce provider in North America, as well as industry partner Facebook. Together, we are rolling out thousands of scholarships to help learners develop in-demand digital skills and get back to work.
As part of Goodwill’s Rising Together™ coalition, Coursera and Goodwill will provide 2,000 scholarships to learners in need, including people impacted by the criminal justice system, veterans, and underserved high school students. Scholarship recipients will have free access to more than 5,000 courses as well as hands-on projects and Professional Certificates that teach job-relevant business, technology, and data science skills.
“Our society is at a critical crossroads on our journey to build a resilient workforce and economic mobility for all Americans,” said Steven C. Preston, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. “The need for digital skills is more urgent than ever. Our partnership with Coursera and Facebook represents one critical step in closing the increasingly widening skills gap so that thousands of job seekers, particularly people of color and women, have access to continuous upskilling and learning opportunities so they can both obtain jobs and build their careers.”
Additionally, Coursera industry partner Facebook is offering 6,000 scholarships for its entry-level Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate through its community and learning platform Facebook Elevate. The scholarships are part of Facebook Elevate’s commitment to diversity and are designed to help Black learners enter the growing field of social media marketing. Entry-level Professional Certificates on Coursera, such as Facebook’s social media marketing program, help learners of all work and educational backgrounds enter well-paying, high-growth careers in just a few months.
“Companies across the globe are rapidly changing and seeking diverse talent with digital skills. The new Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate Program is a helpful tool for job seekers to grow their digital skills and prepare for the opportunities of tomorrow,” said Judy Toland, vice president and head of scaled solutions, global business marketing at Facebook.
The scholarships from Coursera and Facebook Elevate will be distributed through Goodwill workforce development programs, which provide job training and employment services, including career planning, resume guidance, and interview prep, as well as wrap-around supports, such as access to mentoring, child care, and transportation. For years, Goodwill has fostered learner success through its on-the-ground support for its communities. Although Goodwill’s physical job centers were—and some still are—impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and closures, it has continued supporting learners virtually, including using fully online career resources on Coursera.
Accessible, job-focused learning programs, such as entry-level Professional Certificates, can help workers find good employment, earn a living wage, and contribute to the economic recovery in their own neighborhoods. We’re honored to partner with Goodwill and Facebook Elevate to equip learners of all backgrounds with the digital skills that unlock greater opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Alison Anniversary Interviews: Mike Feerick
Mike Feerick founded Alison on the principle that anyone, anywhere should be able to learn anything, at anytime, for free. The inception of Alison in 2007 as a social enterprise marked a radical shift in online learning. Motivated by Article 26 of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights (“Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free.”), Mike and the Alison team created an online learning platform that offered free education to people all over the world and which was both sustainable and scalable.
Now with over 20 million learners and 3.5 million graduates, Alison is a world leader not just in education, but empowerment. Our 2,500+ courses have enabled millions of people around the world to rise above their circumstances, to choose and pursue their own life path, and to achieve the goals they’ve set for themselves.
Hi Mike, tell us what inspired you to choose a career in education?
I’ve always believed that education underpins all human advances, whether that be political or economic, social or personal. Quality education is the cornerstone on which positive change is built and unfortunately, it has remained the privilege of a relatively small percentage of the world’s population. I founded Alison with the goal of bringing quality education to anyone who needed it, regardless of income, background, or any other factor.
Education is unique among progressive forces in terms of the disproportionate size of its positive effects. A little learning goes a long way. Whether as a teacher or a provider of free online learning, education remains the best way for an individual to have the best chance at changing the world.
What’s your single proudest achievement in the education sector?
My proudest achievement in education is founding Alison. I say that not just because of the sheer number of people we’ve empowered but because we were pioneers in the sector. When we started Alison, there was no one else providing free education like it. I had no lead from anyone else that it was possible, I had to figure it out for myself. I believed that you could provide free quality education through a sustainable and scalable model paid for by advertising and that the social impact could be massive.
I’m proud of having seen the opportunity and having gone for it, and for having done it because it was the right thing to do. When I graduated from Harvard I could have gone into Wall Street but I wanted to do something more socially-focused. You’ve got to do something meaningful with the time and the talent that you have. Alison hasn’t just helped millions individually, we also set the benchmark by showing people what was possible.
What has been the most important development you’ve witnessed in education in your professional lifetime?
The internet, hands down. Not just because of the breakthroughs in communication it has enabled but because of the free flow of knowledge and skills that has been made possible via these new communication tools, and the incredible changes that it has led to. The access to resources the internet has provided has allowed countless people to enhance their personal capacity endlessly. The internet is unequalled in terms of what it has done to enable and empower people.
Why is free education so important in addressing global inequality?
There’s so much inequality in the world. The statistic I repeat ad nauseum is that only 7% of the world’s population have ever been to college. People in the western world grossly overestimate how educated the world is and how accessible education really is. Free education is vital in order to empower masses of people at scale, equally, regardless of income, race, sex or gender.
Not only are millions of people being denied their right to an education, but at the same time, there are employers struggling to find people qualified to carry out jobs across a number of sectors. There’s a huge shortage of people for jobs and yet there are so many people around the world who could be doing this work if only they were empowered through education and free workplace skills training.
Why do you think that online learning has been such a game changer when it comes to democratising education?
It comes down to the cost of delivery: with online learning, education can be free, or rather, online you can enact a model by which advertising facilitates free education. Because free education isn’t actually free, it’s paid for by the learner’s value as a consumer and their potential purchase of a product or a service. This online model is already driving educational costs to zero and allows for all knowledge to become freely accessible and instantly available. We want to be a champion in making this potential happen. Just because something is possible does not mean it will automatically happen.
What in your opinion is the most pressing educational issue globally?
Unfortunately it’s the strength and resistance of the status quo in the education sector itself. People tend to underestimate just how huge a business education is (approximately $5 trillion per annum, according to UNESCO 2020) and how protected it is by people who want no change in the status quo.
Teachers often have the very purest motivation, but behind them are management and often investors who see a balance sheet and not an education scorecard. While many politicians want to increase access to education, they’re surrounded by people who are bought and paid for by the education industry and who, while they’ll talk about how they want change, don’t want to see any real change whatsoever. At Alison we’re driving down costs across the industry and putting knowledge out for free digitally. We know that by upsetting the old market we can create a new, much larger market of people accessing education who’ve previously been excluded.
If you were to recommend one online course to our Learners, what would it be and why?
Touch Typing is invaluable for all online or computer-based work. Over the course of your professional life it will save you months of time and, so often at work, it’s only 5 minutes that can make the difference!
What advice would you give to Alison’s Learners who are using free online learning to empower themselves?
Always keep learning. Education never stops, regardless of age or qualifications. By continuing to empower yourself, you also empower those around you – family, friends, community. The positive ripples of education are endless.
Lesson of the Day: ‘In a First, Researchers Discover a Pregnant Egyptian Mummy’
Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.
Lesson Overview
Featured Article: “In a First, Researchers Discover a Pregnant Egyptian Mummy” by Allyson Waller
Archaeologists and scientists in Poland were shocked to discover that a mummy that had previously been identified as a priest was in fact a pregnant woman.
In this lesson, you will learn about what researchers know about women in ancient Egypt, and also consider what more you would like to know.
Warm-Up
In your journal, or with a partner, brainstorm what you know about ancient Egyptian mummification and women’s health in the past.
What do you know about mummification in ancient Egypt? What beliefs do you have about who was mummified: age, class, religious status or gender? Where did you get your information? Teachers? TV shows or movies? Books?
What have you learned in history about pregnancy and women’s reproductive health? Have you learned about birth control or pregnancy as part of history or social studies classes or texts?
Is it surprising to you that researchers recently discovered the first pregnant mummy? Why or why not?
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, then answer the following questions:
1. How did scientists at the Warsaw Mummy Project realize that their previous analysis of the mummy was incorrect?
2. What additional information were scientists able to piece together about the mummy? How did they draw these conclusions?
3. What makes this discovery so significant within the field of Egyptology? What is most interesting or surprising to you about the discovery?
4. How did the “mummy of a lady” become known as the mummy of a priest? Why do scientists think she ended up in a coffin of a priest?
5. What research has been done about women in studies of Egyptology? What questions does Alexander Nagel, a residential research associate in the anthropology department at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, have about women in ancient Egypt?
6. After reading the article, what questions do you have about women’s experiences, lives and death rituals during that time period?
Going Further
Learn more about women in ancient Egypt
Choose one of the articles or videos below to learn more about an aspect of women’s lives in ancient Egypt.
Smithsonian Video | What Hieroglyphics Say About the Women of Ancient Egypt
Ted-Ed Video | The Truth Behind Egypt’s Female Pharaohs and Their Power
National Geographic Article | This Ancient Egyptian Woman May Have Died in Childbirth
BBC Bitesize Article | The Weird History of Contraception
World History Encyclopedia Article | Women in Ancient Egypt
Based on what you read or watched, what questions do you still have? Why do you think we know so little about women’s experiences — particularly related to reproductive health — in ancient Egypt?
Do you think there are parallels to these gaps in knowledge as it relates to women’s health and experiences at other points in history? What do you think are the causes of these gaps in knowledge? What are some possible solutions?
What implications, if any, does this lack of information have on the present day?
Warsaw Mummy Project
Spend some time navigating the Warsaw Mummy Project. While you cannot explore the recently discovered pregnant mummy, you can look at an X-ray of mummified cats and a mummified child.
Before moving the mouse over the mummy to expose the X-ray image, write down what you notice about the mummies from the outside. Are you able to identify what kind of animal or person is mummified inside? What clues do you see about what it might be? What bones or body parts can you observe in the X-ray image of the cat or child?
About Lesson of the Day
• Find all our Lessons of the Day in this column.
• Teachers, watch our on-demand webinar to learn how to use this feature in your classroom.
Word of the Day: benefactor
benefactor ˈbe-nə-ˌfak-tər noun
: a person who helps people or institutions, especially with financial help
_________
The word benefactor has appeared in 68 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 31 in “Napoleon’s Brother Lived in N.J. Here’s What Happened to the Estate.” by Daniel E. Slotnik:
After Bonaparte left New Jersey for good in 1839, the estate passed to a series of owners, many of them not overly concerned with its preservation. The only surviving remnants include the gardener’s house, a bridge, old foundations and mounds of buried brick that had once been the tunnels.
The site will soon be opened to the public and the contemporary buildings on the property, erected by other owners, will become Bordentown’s new city hall and police station. The gardener’s house will be a museum dedicated to the estate’s history.
… Ms. Mead said that she hoped to open Point Breeze to the public by this fall. Some potential visitors had already expressed interest through donations to refurbish the property, Ms. Mead said, including an anonymous benefactor from France who contributed $10,000.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word benefactor in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how benefactor can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
If you enjoy this daily challenge, try using multiple Words of the Day in a 50-word story that you submit to our Monthly Vocabulary Challenge.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
The Word of the Day has been provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.
Annotated by the Author: Writing Reader Responses
In our “Annotated by the Author” series, we invite New York Times journalists and winners of our student contests to comment on their work to help demystify the writing and research process.
Chances are, a teacher has asked you to write a response to a text at some point in your school career, whether it’s to a novel, a persuasive essay, a historical document or anything else.
But what makes a great reader response? How can you make your writing not only clear and engaging, but a true reflection of your own thoughts, beliefs and experiences?
Two teenage writers are here to show you. For this edition of our Annotated by the Author series, we asked two winners of our 2020 Summer Reading Contest, Judy Wang, a sophomore at The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Mass., and Nina Nzekwe, a junior at Los Alamos High School in Los Alamos, N.M., to annotate their winning essays.
In this contest, we invite students to submit short written responses on a New York Times article, photo, video, graph or podcast of their choice each week throughout the summer. Our favorite responses are those that go beyond saying “I liked it” or “I hated it,” and instead take us on a journey through their experience of the text.
In the videos below, you’ll see how Judy and Nina did just that. They explain how, in their essays, they made personal connections to the pieces they chose, challenged the authors’ arguments, clearly demonstrated their thinking, and wrote with style and wit.
If you’re inspired by Judy and Nina’s pieces, you can submit a reader response of your own to our 12th Annual Summer Reading Contest, which begins June 11 and runs through Aug. 20.
Judy won Week 6 of our 2020 Summer Reading Contest with her essay on “The Phantom Handbag,” an article from the Style section about the disappearance of handbags from everyday life amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I actually stumbled upon the article while just scrolling through The New York Times and exploring the different sections,” she told us. “And I was intrigued by the title and specifically the word ‘phantom.’ And I was like, oh, like a handbag is a physical thing, but how could it be phantom at the same time?”
First, listen to Judy read her winning essay; you can follow along below or in this PDF. As you listen, annotate the text, paying attention to the words and lines that communicate Judy’s thinking about the article and anything else that stands out to you.
On ‘The Phantom Handbag’
Even in my most distant memory, Mama always carried this one bag. Covered in black and tan stripes, the Burberry tote looked more like a lunch box than a handbag.
I hated it.
For one thing, it was constantly overflowing — used tissue paper, bandages, hair ties, foundation, random files from work. After years of nagging my mom to get a lighter, more organized bag, the “leather-lunch box,” with its increasingly fuller belly, stayed.
In “The Phantom Handbag” Lou Stoppard reminisces about the time when a fashionable handbag was a necessity, and questions whether it will be relevant after all the suffering. In today’s time, handbags seem altogether impractical: too tiny for the grocery store, too dangly for cycling, too bothersome for protesting. Coupled with the fact that new normals often create shifts in buyer trends, the future of bag buying doesn’t seem all that promising. Like Ms. Hillier said, “there are other things they can spend money on.” Indeed, as people realize there are more to bags than “a status thing,” high-street bag sales might plummet, but the things carried in these luxurious containers will endure.
Though my mom’s bag was a quixotic choice, I now know that within the countless frivolous objects is the wholehearted love of my mother: tissues for my frequent water spills, bandages for cuts, and ties for my long hair. Whether handbags will see their destiny no longer matters, as the love that was carried with the nitty-gritty will remain constant.
Then, watch the short video above of Judy explaining some of the choices — or, as we like to call them, “writer’s moves” — she made in her reader response. As you watch, consider what you can learn from Judy’s essay that you might like to try in your own writing.
Nina won Week 8 of our 2020 Summer Reading Contest with her essay on “Why America Needs a Royal Family,” an Opinion essay arguing for separating ceremony and celebrity from politics.
What drew her to the Opinion section? Nina told us: “Persuasive writing is interesting in that you can analyze how the author is trying to persuade you, even if the premise is more far-fetched or kind of out there.”
First, listen to Nina read her winning essay; you can follow along below or in this PDF. As you listen, annotate the text, paying attention to the words and lines that communicate Nina’s thinking about the article and anything else that stands out to you.
On ‘Why America Needs a Royal Family’
The royal family’s private life often intersects with their royal duties. Similarly in America, the extracurricular activities of politicians often overlap with their political affairs as well. Seeing this, writer Jennifer Weiner asserts that America needs its own “royal family,” separately-elected representatives who can perform ceremonial tasks while representing America’s overall values.
Ms. Weiner juxtaposes the royal family’s personal affairs with a soap opera, stating that, “The problem with a real-time soap opera … is that very few people are equipped to be its stars.” She appeals to a sense of familiarity by comparing the lives of the royal family and, in larger part, politicians to television melodrama, showing the reader that these matters relate.
I largely disagree with her argument and would like to propose one of my own: We need to separate the ribbon-cutting and the baby-kissing from politics and remove them entirely. Even now, politicians’ personal affairs distract from more important political matters, and an American “royal family” would only compound this issue.
What Ms. Weiner is asking for reminds me of a mascot, such as the Nesquik bunny — a hollow symbol of the values of carefree fun that the company supposedly has while its parent company, Nestle, commits child-trafficking and slavery in West Africa to harvest cocoa. America needs a lot of things, and a mascot isn’t one of them.
Then, watch the video above of Nina explaining some the “writer’s moves” she made in her reader response. As you watch, consider what you can learn from Nina’s essay that you might like to try in your own writing.
Customer Excellence Pledge
Everyone knows that support in the learning system space as a whole is below average. Sure there are vendors who do an exceptional job, but the fact still remains that the number one reason, people leave one learning system vendor for another is support/service.
This isn’t new. It has been the same issue for nearly two decades and yet, time after time, it seems as though vendors and even consumers fail to recognize the importance of it until it is too late.
Consumers rarely ask in-depth questions about support when they do their RFPs. They focus heavily on security, functionality, and learning use cases, including business – all rightly so – you should. However, you must ask the right questions around support beyond what times do they offer it, what types do they offer, does the administrator receive free training, and so forth.
The industry itself does a poor job of monitoring it across the board. I talk to vendors all the time, who say publicly they have great support, but privately acknowledge it is either poor or below average. Other learning system vendors will note again privately that they landed X number of customers from the Y vendor, all due to support issues.
I am working right now, with three consumer clients, all of which cited as a key factor for wanting to leave their current system, was due to the lack of support and service.
Something has to be done to ensure that when you purchase a learning system, you will know first and upfront the level of customer service and support – due to the Customer Excellence Pledge (it is a badge), from well, me.
What is the Customer Excellence Pledge?
It is a program developed by myself, Craig Weiss, to identify learning system vendors, and non-learning system vendors for that matter, who promise to provide elite customer service and support, beyond just telling their prospects and customers and anyone else for that matter, they do.
Nobody will go and buy a car or any consumer product, if the company behind it says, “Yeah our support stinks, but hey, we want your business”. Everyone says it is great, leaving you, the customer, assuming it is. And therein lies the problem.
The Customer Excellence Pledge puts forth a set of statements a vendor has to adhere to – via a signed agreement with checkpoints to validate, the ongoing level of elite support.
What are those statements that a vendor has to adhere to, in the Customer Excellence Pledge?
There are four key statements, plus an additional two validation checks – after all, saying you will do it, is one thing, backing it with data and insight is another. The CEP will provide that.
Vendors who sign the Customer Excellence Pledge – and thus have a Badge appear on their site and even mentioned in their pitch (if they so desire) are telling you, that they will promise to:
- Provide exceptional customer support and service
- Maintain high ethical standards in sales, service, and business
- Take care of customer’s needs and assistance in a timely fashion – this includes response times (no more than 30 minutes, during vendor’s business hours, daily follow-ups if applicable, providing the customer on how their queue works (in other words, what is considered low, medium and high).
- Provides the customer with a dedicated customer support/service member or team. This person or group of folks will be the customer’s point of contact. Eliminating the game of “who can help me, where do I go” – a huge problem in the industry.
How will The Craig Weiss Group, be able to validate that those who sign the agreement are actually living up to it, and following thru?
Multiple check points are in place. They consist of the following (which a vendor must agree to – in writing – i.e. signing of the Customer Excellence Pledge.
- Provide quarterly a set of data that presents the following information: response times, follow-up, and the number of support calls.
- Present their benchmarks for customer support/service. This will enable us to follow their journey to elite support. For example, the benchmarks of where they want to be may not yet be there, but over time, you can see the progression (okay, me, not you).
- Present twice a year, (i.e. every six months), the top five issues that have arisen (or they can present a list, and we can go thru it), and the average amount of time to solve those issues. This enables us again, to see if a constant pattern is showing up and that despite the commitment, the vendor still hasn’t figured out how to solve it.
- Present twice a year, the average number of calls in to support compared to the number of clients. This is a ratio, I use when considering a vendor for an award. Every vendor has this data, a lot never want to tell you, not even me. I always find that troubling.
- If a vendor does NPS, provide the sample, the number of supporters, passives, and detractors. Explain how the sample was selected and how do they follow up with those customers.
- Provide us, five customers, we can contact to seek insight into the level of support. I hope they provide some clients who are six months in, one or two years in, or longer and that they are not just ones they always recommend folks to contact. This is yearly.
None of this information will be made public, however, if you see their badge on their site, you know they are achieving that level of support success.
What if we, as the customer, sign with a vendor, and they are failing to adhere to what they say they will do?
Simple, you let us know via a form we will have set up on this blog and on the FindAnLMS site.
We will put them on our list and monitor if there are customer complaints, and how many, etc. If we see a high level of customer complaints, we will notify the vendor to see, what happened, etc. There are plenty of times, people complain publicly, but never notify the vendor of the issue. The vendor can’t help if they do not know.
How can I find out if my learning system vendor is on the Customer Excellence Pledge?
A page on this blog and on FindanLMSs web site, will list every vendor who has agreed to the pledge (again, signed our agreement). Plus each vendor will be provided a badge to place on their site, telling you, the prospect that they on the program.
If you do not see the badge, check the page. If you do not see either, then know they are not part of the program.
Will there be vendors who say they are and are not?
Perhaps. It is hard to know at this point, but to verify if they are, you can go to the page on the blog, which will be listed as Customer Excellence – and see who is on the list. If they are not there, they are not part of the program.
Does it cost a vendor to be on or sign the agreement or anything else?
No. Absolutely not. This isn’t about generating money, this is about a vendor backing up what they say, with tangible results and a signed pledge agreement.
Do vendors have to be on FindAnLMS to be a part of the pledge?
No. We would love for them to be on the platform, but it is not a requirement. Nor does it mean that every vendor who is on the FindAnLMS platform has agreed to the pledge. We will note those who are, via the FindAnLMS page – entitled customer excellence and via this blog – you will see – “FindAnLMS vendor” next to their name.
Are there any other ways to find out if a vendor is on the program?
Yes. We will be launching a vendor video playlist platform where vendors can add videos of their system – think demos, and other materials. Within that platform, you will see a playlist for Customer Excellence – the vendors who have signed the pledge will have one video of their system on that playlist.
If I am a vendor and I want to sign up for the pledge, what do I need to do?
Contact me – here. Then I will reach out to you, provide the agreement and then send you the badge (it will be available by the end of next week).
When, can I see who is on the list?
The list will launch, May 14th on the blog, and then be continuously updated. We recognize that not everyone will jump to it right away, after all, it is something never tried or done before in the industry. So, it will take time. We recommend that if a vendor you are looking at is not on the list, that you ask why, and if they are unaware, you provide them the link to this blog and to this post (which will be on the top of the site) – very visible. Or you can have them contact me.
If I am not a learning system vendor, but I want to sign the pledge can I?
Absolutely. We will break out on our pages, by category, so if you are an authoring tool, it is listed under that category, content provider, etc.
Our goal is to make the pledge the gold standard for support.
Bottom Line
The Customer Excellence Pledge brings together a level of commitment from a learning system vendor or any other e-learning tool/solution/content provider around customer service and support.
It isn’t just a signed agreement.
It will be more than that.
Publicly telling you, the customer and prospect, that they are going the extra mile.
For you.
E-Learning 24/7
How to make learning part of your team’s regular agenda
Whether you’re interested in empowering your team to innovate, fostering cross-functional collaboration, or simply providing your employees with development opportunities, offering technical training can help keep your team engaged and motivated — while also having an impact on your business.
But while the value of upskilling your team may be clear, we know that adding another task to your team members’ schedules might seem like a tough ask. To help out, we’ve put together some tips on how to make learning with Codecademy for Teams part of your team’s regular agenda, to ensure they’re able to make the most of this educational experience.
Block out time on the calendar for the entire team
When you leave it up to each employee to schedule their own learning time, it can tend to get put on the back burner when other work-related priorities pop up. Top-down support can go a long way in incorporating time for learning into the work day.
Block out time on the calendar for the entire team for a weekly power hour to make progress in their Codecademy courses. This helps to make learning part of a regular agenda, rather than an additional task on the to-do list, and sends the message that they have permission to take the time for personal growth. You can also encourage team members to set email and Slack to “do not disturb” to make sure that the hour they carve out is dedicated to learning.
Additionally, you can include time for a quick 5-10 minute debrief afterward, so that team members can sync on what they learned that day.
Encourage group learning
Learning can take on a whole new level of engagement when it’s a shared experience among teammates. When a group of team members is working on upskilling together, it can help establish a sense of accountability to develop a consistent learning routine.
Whether your team members are working on different courses specific to their role or all learning the same skill, here’s a few things that you can do to help promote group learning:
- Set up a Slack channel: The Slack channel can be a place where teammates can ask questions, share tips, or talk about how they’ve applied their knowledge in their day-to-day. Consistent communication about the learning process can serve as a source of motivation and a gentle reminder that everyone’s working towards a common goal.
- Schedule a weekly or biweekly meeting: This can serve as a dedicated time for teammates to connect and review progress, share feedback, and troubleshoot problems together. These meetings can be casual and fun, so it’s something your team looks forward to!
Here’s what Gary Taylor, Senior BI Analyst at Motley Fool, says about his experience learning Python alongside his teammates:
“The nice thing about doing it in a group is there’s some accountability. You don’t want to let the group down. You don’t want to show up being the guy that doesn’t know what’s going on or didn’t finish that day. The group was a strong motivator.”
Check out our full case study to learn more about how The Motley Fool boosted collaboration and analytical skills through learning to code together.
Help your team build a habit with weekly targets
Even small changes, when repeated regularly, can go a long way in developing a new skill. As a leader, you can help your team build habits that help foster a consistent learning routine.
One way to do this is to encourage your team to use the “Weekly Target” feature on the Codecademy platform. Learners can set weekly targets by going to “My Home” in their Codecademy account, selecting “Update Weekly Target” in the top right corner of the screen, and entering how many days a week they want to learn.
Each week, we’ll show them how many days they’ve logged into Codecademy and how many weeks in a row they’ve met their target. This helps learners create small habits — say, logging on for 15 minutes each day — and see how well they’re sticking to them. It also makes it easier to break down large tasks into smaller bite-sized chunks.
Set realistic expectations
Picking up a new technical skill, as with everything else, takes dedication and time and it’s important to be realistic about what your team can and achieve in a given time period.
For example, here’s how Johnnie Weathersby, Senior Business Intelligence (BI) Data Analyst/Architect and the Codecademy for Teams account manager, puts this philosophy into practice: when assigning weekly review meetings for his team members, he makes sure to allot more time around holidays and for challenging topics. Establishing a sensible approach to learning will make it easier for your team to stick to incremental goals, and will help educational efforts to be more sustainable in the long run.
If you’re ready to put these ideas to the test, you can sign up for a free two-week trial of Codecademy for Teams. We’re excited to see how much your team can learn and grow together in two weeks!
How Have You Commemorated Milestones During the Pandemic?
Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.
What teenage milestones have you always looked forward to? Getting your driver’s license? Going to the prom? Graduating from high school? Celebrating your quinceañera, bar or bat mitzvah, or Sweet Sixteen?
Have you celebrated any of these coming-of-age traditions over the past year during the pandemic? What were these moments like compared to how you’d always imagined them?
In “‘We Feel Lost in Time’: Covid Transforms Teen Milestones,” Taylor Trudon writes about how teenagers have created new traditions and meaningful experiences to commemorate milestones during the pandemic:
Growing up, Carley Ebbenga was used to not having big birthday parties. Since her birthday falls right in the middle of winter break, most kids were out of town so she stuck to small celebrations. But for her Sweet Sixteen, Ms. Ebbenga, who lives in Romeoville, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, wanted to do something special. She envisioned a trip into the city with a few friends where they would eat a nice dinner and stay up late dancing in their hotel rooms.
The pandemic, of course, foiled her plans.
Ms. Ebbenga made the best of things. She invited two of her closest friends to a bonfire in her backyard. They ate chili made by Ms. Ebbenga’s mother and danced around the fire while drinking hot cocoa. The small group also had a “burning ceremony” where they had notebooks and pens to write down “the deepest, most saddest things,” read them out loud and then burn the slips of paper in the fire. Ms. Ebbenga had gotten the idea from watching one of her favorite YouTubers, The Purple Palace, who had made a video burning things she wanted to let go of.
A lot of what Ms. Ebbenga wrote down were those things she missed out on during the pandemic like a Sweet Sixteen or “the nights of laughter lost this year” and “attending my first art show.” “It feels really good to just straight-up watch the fire burn,” she said.
When pandemic lockdowns began last spring, high school students in the class of 2020 realized pretty quickly that they’d be missing their proms and started creating new ways to mark their graduations. But few younger teenagers could have imagined that their lives would still be so limited by the pandemic a year later. Indeed, with different rules across the country, kids have had wildly varied experiences: Some schools have been operating in person and holding proms as usual, while for others, the spring of 2021 is not all that different from last year. And as more classic teenage milestones like Sweet Sixteens, prom and graduation were disrupted or canceled entirely, these kids have had to turn their losses into opportunities, forging new traditions with friends.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
What milestones, teenage rituals or rites of passage have you missed this year? It could be a sports tournament, a special birthday, a school dance or even just time spent with friends after school. How has it felt to have another year changed by the pandemic?
Tell us about a milestone you observed during the pandemic that you were not able to celebrate the way you had imagined. What did you originally want the celebration to be like? How did your plans change because of the pandemic? What did that change feel like? Was it empowering to create your own tradition? Or was it hard to not celebrate the milestone the way you wanted?
What do you think about the new traditions the teenagers in the article came up with for their important moments? Have you created any pandemic-friendly rituals to celebrate your accomplishments and milestones over the past year? Do you feel inspired to commemorate upcoming occasions in a new way?
If you’re in your senior year, did you anticipate events like visiting colleges, attending the senior prom and crossing the graduation stage? What has it felt like to not experience those milestones? What have you done in their place, if anything?
Amaya Wangeshi said that she and her friends “feel lost in time.” Do you identify with this feeling? If yes, in what ways have you felt lost? If not, how have you found meaning at this time?
Tommy Sinclair said that Covid-adapted rituals, even when they were sometimes less fun, were “better than not doing anything at all.” Do you agree with this sentiment? Have you found creative ways to participate in the activities you’ve looked forward to, like school plays or the prom? Or have you struggled with the mask mandates and social distancing requirements?
About Student Opinion
• Find all of our Student Opinion questions in this column.
• Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? Tell us about it.
• Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
