Every school day, BusGates’ extended stop arm plays a critical role in helping tens of thousands of children board and get off school buses more safely, offering families and school communities much-needed peace of mind. That sense of security has never been so reassuring. In a single academic year, more than 43.5 million drivers illegally pass stopped school buses, often because traditional two-foot stop arms, mounted flush against the side of the bus, are too easy to miss amid the distractions of heavy traffic and crowded intersections. The result is a dangerous gap between intention and reality, where a moment’s oversight can place children directly in harm’s way. Part of the problem lies in how little the underlying technology has evolved. School bus design, particularly the stop arm, has remained largely unchanged for decades. Since around 1939, the standard stop arm has stayed much the same, with only minor adaptations. Recognizing this longstanding gap, BusGates reimagines the stop arm with an innovative design that is harder to miss and even harder to ignore. Extending five feet from the side of the bus—nearly three times the length of conventional models—it creates a more conspicuous physical barrier that immediately commands driver attention. Moreover, the arm’s bold emergency red finish, combined with a frame of high-intensity LED strip lighting, cuts through the visual clutter of busy streets or bad weather, delivering a clear, unmistakable signal for drivers to stop day or night. Although no solution can eliminate every violation, BusGates’ early deployments have already had an enormous impact. School districts in nearly 30 states have adopted the technology, reporting marked improvements in student safety during boarding and alighting. Many districts have seen illegal drive-around incidents drop by as much as 95 percent. “Those numbers offer peace of mind to parents,” says Dan Thompson, co-founder. “As a company built by parents, we understand the anxiety that comes with putting your child on a school bus, especially when drivers ignore the stop sign. We created BusGates so parents can feel assured there’s a clear, physical safeguard, making bus stops safer for their children.” Safety Solution that Checks Every Box BusGates is helping schools move toward safer bus stops by offering solutions that align with evolving state requirements, control costs and simplify installation.
Top Higher Education Consulting Firm 2025
Swim Digital Group helps colleges and universities solve the deeper problems that hold students back. Declines in enrollment, retention, or course completion are rarely the root issue. They are often the result of communication breakdowns, misaligned processes, or institutional obstacles. Swim works alongside institutions to identify these challenges and implement targeted, sustainable solutions that improve how students enter, move through, and complete their educational journeys. The firm begins each engagement by listening. Through a structured, three-layer discovery process, Swim gathers insights from across the institution. The first step involves deep-dive conversations with frontline staff—the individuals closest to students—who provide a detailed view of daily operations and where inefficiencies or confusion may exist. Next, the team meets with department leaders to capture a broader understanding of institutional goals and uncover potential disconnects between strategic vision and everyday execution. To elevate the student perspective, Swim introduces “secret students” who go through the application and enrollment process just as a real student would. These students represent both current and aspirational demographics, offering firsthand observations about gaps in communication, responsiveness, and user experience. Their insights are complemented by stakeholder surveys that include current students, applicants, withdrawn students, staff, and others, offering a well-rounded picture of the student experience. Artificial intelligence tools are used to analyze this information and highlight patterns that might not be immediately visible. The result is a comprehensive, evidence-based set of recommendations tailored to the institution’s goals, needs, and operational readiness. Swim is technology-agnostic and works with institutions to adopt or refine tools that support greater efficiency while keeping the student experience at the center. Beyond diagnostics, Swim supports implementation. This includes guiding teams through change management, helping align updates across departments, and offering strategies that support staff buy-in and student impact. Each engagement is structured to promote long-term improvement through practical steps, ongoing collaboration, and measurable outcomes. “We meet our clients where they are, bridging the gap between their current state and where they need to be to successfully enroll, retain, and graduate their students,” says Trimeka Benjamin, president and CEO.
Top Tutoring Services 2025
The quality of education in a child’s formative years can determine their life trajectory. Whether they build a path lined with excellence, or, play catch up all the way into adulthood depends on the foundation built during the early years. Considering the importance of these early years, Elizabeth Alexander found that the early curriculums in the U.S., with both preschool and kindergarten, had seen little innovation in many years. For so many years, there had been a stigma about preschoolers learning to read, as if it would hinder their maturity and mental capacity or excitement for learning. What teachers weren’t aware of is that if taught through play and a multisensory approach, learning to read at a young age offers multiple benefits. In kindergarten, children were memorizing sight words instead of learning necessary foundational skills that include phonics and phonemic awareness. This meant that by first grade, when grade levels of reading skills are taught, children couldn’t keep up, which meant being behind in 2nd grade and beyond. Alexander approached literacy education from a fresh perspective. Combined with her being homeschooled across different countries and cultures and helping raise/teach her siblings, she was free from the assumptions of traditional schooling yet acutely aware of the importance of instilling foundational skills for academic success later on. These perspectives were the cornerstone for developing her reading method, blending developmental psychology, multisensory learning techniques and practical insights gained from working directly with young learners. She aimed to teach children how to truly understand reading, not just memorize their way through it. Rather than repeating the same classroom strategies, The Alexander Reading Method looks at literacy challenges, beginning with the overlooked gaps in early education. The curriculum ensures child’s success while being fun and engaging. After all, play-based teaching methods are ideal for young children. Using The Alexander Reading Method, Reading In PreSchool takes young children for 45-minute in-home sessions twice a week through trained teachers chosen by Elizabeth Alexander. Children learn how to decode words while building confidence through repetition, play and multisensory engagement. They move from learning letters to reading at second-grade levels before going into second-grade. There are benchmarks in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade to ensure children reach this level on time.
Top Education Programs Provider 2025
Every school wants their students to step beyond the classroom and into the world — but executing meaningful, safe, and curriculum-aligned educational travel is easier said than done. That’s where Envoys steps in. Envoys is not your typical travel provider. As a best-in-class partner to middle and high schools across the globe, the company specializes in designing and delivering whole-grade and small-group travel programs that are both immersive and academically rigorous. From 120 eighth graders exploring civic engagement in Washington, D.C. to students engaging in music-centered cultural exchange in the Caribbean, Envoys helps schools turn ambitious ideas into transformative learning journeys. “We see travel not as a luxury, but as a classroom,” says Felipe Correa Jaramillo, CEO and Co-Founder of Envoys. “Done right, it helps students grow as citizens of the world — curious, compassionate, and capable of navigating complexity.” Whole-Grade Travel That Goes beyond the Bus Tour Form more than a decade, Envoys has become a trusted partner for schools reimagining their travel programs. A common example? The traditional eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C. or their Spanish immersion experience in Spain. For one private school in Miami, the trip to DC had long followed a familiar formula — hotel, museum, tour guide, food court, repeat. When Envoys took over, the program was transformed into a civic learning journey. Students explored democracy through monument design challenges, active conversations and interactions with multiple stakeholders, and activities that asked them to drive their own exploration and learning while visiting a new place with their peers.
Education and Admission Consulting
Leveraging Policies, Data, and Technology to Inform Strategic Decision-Making in Higher Education
Latina King, Director of Admission and Records, Lone Star College
Programs and Curriculum
The Importance of Course Purge Policies in Higher Education
Tony Sovak, Ph.D., LMS & eLearning Quality, Pima Community College
Private Colleges and Universities
Navigating the Future of Education: A Comprehensive Overview of Trends, Challenges, and Best Practices
Dr. Claude Toland, Director of Education, Universal Technical Institute
School Services
Advancing Nursing Education: Breaking Down Barriers, Building Better Care
Allison Christina Gainer, MA, NCC, LAC, Assistant Director and Nursing Program Mentor, Rowan University
School Services
Leading With Clarity In Times Of Crisis
Andre Briggs, Director of Emergency Management, KIPP Texas Public Schools
IN MY OPINION
Education and Admission Consulting
Admission Strategies from both the Applicant and College's Perspectives
Young Hah, Director of Graduate Admissions & Enrollment Services, Baruch College
LAST WORD
School Services
Navigating the Admission Landscape with Data Analytics
Dr. Mark E Butt, Assistant Vice Provost & Executive Director of Undergraduate Admission, Emory University
IN FOCUS
School Bus Safety: A New Era of Innovation and Challenges
School bus safety has evolved significantly in recent years, with new technologies and smarter safety features constantly reshaping how children are transported.
Evolving Classrooms: The Changing Role of Education Program Providers
Education program providers are vital in shaping the educational landscape by offering various opportunities for individuals to gain knowledge and skills. In addition to meeting the needs of a changing workforce, they facilitate.
EDITORIAL
Innovative Learning Environments that Evolve with Students
One clear example of this evolution is seen in student transportation safety. Modern school bus safety solutions go beyond traditional GPS tracking by integrating AI-based driver monitoring and predictive analytics. These help prevent accidents while enhancing transparency and trust among parents, students and communities.
Going beyond safety, impactful education begins with a curriculum that reflects the needs of today’s diverse learners. Curriculum developers and EdTech companies are creating inclusive, adaptable frameworks that support different learning styles, enhance accessibility and prepare students with critical thinking and problem-solving skills for real-world success.
Likewise, personalized tutoring services are becoming central to modern academic progress. Through adaptive learning platforms, multilingual content and one-on-one guidance, these services help students thrive academically.
As students advance in their academic journey, they face increasingly complex decisions regarding their futures. This is where leading higher education consulting firms play a vital role. By offering expert guidance on admissions, scholarships and career paths, they provide clarity and confidence during the critical transition from high school to college.
In this edition of Education Insider, we highlight key contributors across the education landscape. Featured are leading providers of student safety solutions, innovative education programs, personalized tutoring services and higher education consultancy.
This edition also features senior leaders sharing valuable perspectives on accessibility and safety in education. Allison Gainer, Assistant Director and Nursing Program Mentor at Rowan University, advocates for inclusive learning environments in nursing education and calls for technology integration and policy reform. Andre Briggs, Director of Emergency Management at KIPP Texas Public Schools, shares his approach to emergency preparedness, highlighting how human-centered crisis leadership and cross-sector collaboration strengthen safety systems across schools.
We hope this edition offers insight into how safety, innovation and personalized support are shaping the future of education. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us.
