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Category: High School
Rubin Adds 8 New School Partners, Enhances Propel with Scoring System
During the second half of May, Rubin started to work with eight new school districts or tech centers for our employability skills products. The initial users will be advisors of the student group Business Professionals of America (BPA).
The BPA advisors experienced a free sample of Rubin Emerge and Aspire and then decided to purchase the full version for their students in the 25-26 academic year.
The new customers:
1. Vanguard Tech Center in Fremont, Ohio
2. Four County Career Center in Archbold, Ohio
3. West Central Area School District in Barrett, Minnesota
4. Metropolitan District of North Posey County in North Posey, Indiana
5. Moscow School District #281 in Moscow, Idaho
6. Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy in Dallas, Texas
7. Wichita Public Schools in Wichita, Kansas
8. Ovid-Elsie Area Schools in Elsie, Michigan
We look forward to kicking off the relationship in the new school year!
Coming in fall 2025: Scoring system for student emails
Students have written emails for decades, but have they ever received a grade in Gmail for the quality of their emails?
Starting this fall, our Propel email etiquette tool will provide students with a score out of 100 based on their professionalism (see image below).
So when a CTE admin tells you, “Student communication skills are so bad these days,” you can turn around and say, “We have a solution!”
Stat of the week
27.9 points
The nationwide increase in score between Rubin pre- and post-tests for Rubin Emerge units like Email Etiquette-Beginner, Networking Mastery and Job Interview Prep.
The national average pre-test score in Emerge is a 62 (out of 100). The national average post-test score is a 90.
Growth in multiple directions.
At Prince William Schools Workshop, Rubin is Glue between CTE, EL
On April 24 in Prince William County (Northern Virginia), the Rubin team was part of a day-long workshop with CTE teacher leaders to determine ways Rubin employability content can bridge CTE and English Learners curricula.
Prince William County Schools, the second-largest school district in Virginia, wants to make sure non-native English-speaking students can comprehend and excel at important communication skills for college and career.
Rubin is privileged to be the resource that sits at the intersection of English Learners objectives and the needs of the CTE community.
Prince William County Schools CTE teachers develop a lesson plan that combines a Rubin Emerge activity (ex: How to Leave a Voicemail) with the scaffolding necessary to teach the lesson to a non-native English speaking student. Prince William CTE Supervisor Christine Good said it best from her post on LinkedIn:
“Student achievement begins with adult behaviors.
When the adults in the room share a compelling vision and actively engage in critical thinking, collaboration, innovation, digital citizenship, and demonstrating resilience through their work, the conversations are rich and the outcomes are powerful. This dynamic team of teacher leaders is committed to creating the conditions for student success within and beyond the classroom!
The collaboration between the Career and Technical Education (CTE) and the English Learner (EL) Instruction teams is Learning and Achievement for All in action as we prepare all staff members to support and challenge all students.
Imagine what our classrooms and schools might look like if we shift the conversation from “all students” to “each and every student.” Small shifts leveraging high impact instructional strategies have the power to transform the learning environment for each and every student, every day.
Special thanks to Grant Bradfield, Katie Min, Danny Rubin, and Shawnell Carmichael for leading a packed and impactful day of learning, and a big shoutout to the entire hashtag#PWCSCTE team Sarah Martin, Ph.D., Tim Vaughan, Nasir Ayoub, Danielle Meyer, Benjamin Stodola, and Diana Collins for working tirelessly behind the scenes to make opportunities like this possible.
Looking forward to the 2025-26 school year!”
Rubin Founder Danny Rubin (center) stands with Prince William County Schools (PWCS) Curriculum Supervisor Christine Good (left) and Supervisor of EL Instruction Kristine Lentz-Johnston. Rubin is collaborating with PWCS to connect workplace readiness skills with the needs of English learners. Every student deserve a chance at success.
Rubin-Trained GA CTAE Student Lands Job During Mock Interviews
Whether it’s a mock interview or an actual interview, opportunities can happen.
That proved true for a Dawson County Schools CTAE student. Dawson County incorporates Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills into its CTAE curriculum. Students use Emerge units for job interview prep, resumes, cover letters, email etiquette and more.
Dawson County Schools held a day when employers from the community visited the school to help students practice job interviews. One employer, who manages an insurance company, was so impressed with a particular student’s poise and maturity during the interview, that he hired her for an administrative position on the spot.
Mind you, the experience was a mock interview. There was no initial plan for job offers.
The student’s job interview performance speaks to the high-quality instruction students receive through Rubin Emerge.
Kristy Moore, the work-based learning coordinator in Dawson County, believes Emerge made the difference during the mock interview.
Rubin = Job offers.
Rubin Awards 1,200+ Digital Badges in Sept/Oct 2024
With the 2024-2025 academic year underway, students are busy in Rubin Emerge learning in-demand employability skills.
At the end of each unit (ex: Email Etiquette — Beginner), students take a post-test. Once students pass the post-test, they earn an Emerge digital badge. So far, students have garnered 1,200+ digital badges for email writing, job outreach strategies, networking, resumes and more.
Here’s a snapshot:
- Email Etiquette — Beginner: 383 badges
- Email Etiquette — Advanced: 172 badges
- Job Outreach: 106 badges
- Networking: 86 badges
- Resume Writing: 78 badges
- Cover Letter Writing: 52 badges
Each badge features a QR code that brings the person to this page on the Rubin site. The pages explains the skills students gained to earn the digital badge.
The badges are ideal for a resume, portfolio, LinkedIn profile and anywhere else students can showcase skills learned.
Badges abound from Emerge.
Teacher Spotlight: For Kyle Bashore, Rubin “Sets the Standard”
In Kyle Bashore’s classroom, Rubin isn’t just a curriculum tool.
Since 2021, Rubin is the standard of excellence his students must strive to meet.
Bashore is a CTE teacher at Cathedral City High School near Palm Springs, California. He teaches inside the HEAL Academy (Health and Environmental Health Academy of Learning), and he’s also the co-advisor of the school’s HOSA chapter.
Bashore draws on our Emerge employability skills curriculum and Aspire career exploration video library to ensure his students write and speak like professionals.
In particular, Bashore has students complete the Emerge Project Management unit to learn how to communicate in a clear, professional manner with teammates.
“I notice a huge change in formality and consideration of others after the Project Management unit,” said Bashore.
Bashore integrates Emerge and Aspire through a seamless connection with his Google Classroom. He carefully selects different topics for the health sciences classes he teaches.
For example:
General resource throughout his classes: Emerge unit called Email Etiquette-Beginner where students learn to write a proper email.
For the TAs (teaching assistants): The TAs practice speaking skills through the Emerge unit called Phone Etiquette.
Emergency Medicine and his HOSA chapter: Emerge units called Project Management and Public Speaking.
Medical Terminology: Emerge unit called Ethics Discussions for tricky workplace situations.
Public Health: Emerge unit called Website Content, which guides students to write a business website.
Bashore also has students search the Aspire career exploration video library to learn about roles in health care (ex: surgical assistant) and also discover cool jobs in fields like STEM, marketing, sports, law and the trades.
Above all, Bashore relies on Rubin to help him prepare students for the world after high school.
“At the start of the year, students begrudgingly work on Rubin assignments as if to say, ‘Do I REALLY need this?’” said Bashore. “By the end of the year, I see significant changes in their professionalism. Without me even asking, they hold themselves to a new standard.”
Thank you, Kyle, for being a wonderful partner in the classroom.
Check out Rubin Emerge and Aspire for yourself! Free trial available here.
CA teacher embraces Rubin Emerge and Aspire
Irvine USD Creates “Light Bulb Challenge” with Rubin Propel
When learning becomes a game, the teachers win and so do their students.
At Irvine (California) Unified School District, a longtime Rubin partner, students practice their email etiquette through a competition.
Our Propel tool provides feedback on a student’s email in the form of lightbulbs next to the words that need correction (ex: capitalize a lowercase word if it begins a sentence).
Special education students in a class called Directed Studies now vie to see who can write an email with the fewest light bulbs (mistakes). The students, all in grades 10-12, have fun while improving their professional skills.
“We weren’t sure how the students would respond to Propel,” said Career Link Supervisor Renee Melton. “Right away, they found the tool engaging. Plus, Propel helped their emails improve.”
We love to see how educators incorporate Propel into their instruction. The tool is a simple resource that can be modified in dozens of ways. As long as students strengthen how they communicate with teachers, employers and other adults, we are satisfied!
Work turns into play in California.
New Record: Students Log 1.3 Million Minutes in Rubin Emerge in 23-24 Academic Year
Students nationwide spent 1.3 million minutes in Rubin’s Emerge curriculum for employability skills during the 23-24 academic year. As a comparison, students logged 375,000 minutes in the 22-23 academic year.
Students in places like Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Fairfax County and more gained critical workplace readiness skills that employers and colleges want to see.
Why the 4X increase in logged minutes?
Our team works hard to bring on new school partners. Beyond that, we pore over the details to deliver our Moodle-based learning management system to school districts. We insist on single sign-on access when possible to eliminate the need for students to sign in with a traditional password or manually create an account.
The ease of use allows students to visit Emerge with one click from their school’s LMS and engage right away with Emerge readings, videos, assignments and assessments for critical topics like email/phone etiquette, conversation skills, interview prep and more.
Digging into the 1.3 million minutes, here are the most popular assignments students accessed:
- Texting vs Emailing: 16,447 submissions
- How to Compose a Subject Line: 12,877 submissions
- How to Prepare Smart Interview Questions: 5,676 submissions
- How to Set Your Own Voicemail: 3,996 submissions
- How to Email an Instructor About a Poor Grade: 2,770 submissions
“We focus every day on the student and teacher experience in Emerge,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “When we see logged minutes jump into the millions, it says that we make it easy for customers to use our product — and to want to keep coming back for more. We continue to work in summer 2024 at the user experience because the journey and task is never done.”
Explore Emerge for yourself and then request a free trial!
4X increase from previous year
Gracie Gustafson from Iowa’s Boone HS Takes 1st in America’s Next Great Intern Contest
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Virginia Beach, VA (April 8, 2024) – Boone, Iowa’s own Gracie Gustafson is America’s Next Great Intern. The senior at Boone Community School District competed against nearly 200 hundred high school students nationwide and demonstrated top-tier communication skills essential to an internship.
Gustafson wins a virtual job shadow with an executive from an in-demand field (one option is a music producer for Jay-Z and Beyonce). She will also receive national recognition throughout the CTE community and a banner for the school to display. Her teachers, Ms. Lindsey Hyman and Ms. Amy Bossard, receive a $250 cash bonus to support their classrooms.
Second place: Sahasra Bangaru, 11th grade student from Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Teacher: Ms. Sandra Wheeler.
Third place: Parisa Majumdar, 10th grade student from Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Teacher: Ms. Benicia Ledford.
“Up and Coming” middle school winners:
First place: Zabdiel Dewar, 8th grade student at William R. Davie Middle S.T.E.M. Academy in Halfiax, North Carolina. Teacher: Mr. Fredirick Lapitan.
Second place: Errili Perez, 8th grade student at Aliamanu Middle School, Panther Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. Teacher: Ms. Cherie Teraoka.
Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability and workplace readiness skills, hosted the competition.
Demand for intern and job applicants with “soft skills” is a top priority across all industry sectors. According to a 2022 survey of employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 76% of respondents want to hire young people who can work on a team, 73% want ones with strong written communication skills and 58% seek new hires who can speak well.
The submission period for the America’s Next Great Intern contest ran throughout February 2024, which is National Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month. All middle school, high school and post-secondary CTE students were eligible.
The instructions were drawn from Rubin’s Emerge curriculum, a broad library of online exercises for employability skills like email/phone etiquette, job interview prep, LinkedIn communication and more. Rubin provides Emerge to CTE programs nationwide.
The students were assessed across five areas:
- Elevator Pitch: Video recording about the student’s background and interests/passions.
- Ethics and Leadership: Written response to a challenging ethical dilemma.
- Team Communication: Email to update a teacher or employer on the status of classwork or a project at an internship/job.
- Resilience & Determination: Written example of a time in which the student demonstrated resiliency.
- Job Interview Preparation: Written questions to show curiosity ahead of a mock interview conversation with either Nike, Disney or Marriott.
“Employers often lament that students don’t possess the ‘soft skills’ necessary to engage in an office setting or on the job site,” says Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Once again, our contest shows that, yes, there are motivated young people coast to coast who will add value to any business or organization.”
About Rubin:
Rubin is the leader in online instruction for employability and work readiness skills. The company, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides Emerge, a digital curriculum that teaches effective writing and speaking skills, to thousands of students in middle school, high school and higher education. Rubin also has a soft-skill notification tool for email writing called Propel and a career exploration video library called Aspire.
Founded in 2017 by Danny Rubin, a former CBS television news reporter and consultant to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubin teaches students nationwide critical lessons for email/phone etiquette, networking, team communication, leadership communication and more. Our motto: “Write well, open doors!”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
We have a winner!
Rubin Propel Transforms Email Writing for Johnston County MS and HS Students
Subject line: [blank]
Email message: turned in
That is an email composed by a 9th grader in Johnston County, North Carolina during the spring 2024 semester.
The trend to write emails like text messages is not unique to Johnston County, of course. In our digital era, students nationwide often don’t understand how to draft a professionally-written email.
That’s why Johnston County piloted Rubin’s new Propel email etiquette tool in the spring semester for middle and high school students.
Propel is a teaching tool for Gmail and Outlook that guides a student to compose a high-quality email. Propel does not use AI, and the tool requires students to do all the writing and critical thinking.
See a 1-minute demonstration of Propel here.
Let’s return to the email written by the 9th grader:
Subject line: [blank]
Email message: turned in
With the help of Propel, here’s what the email became:
Subject line: Completed work
Email message:
Good afternoon, Mrs. Roberts.
I hope you are doing well.
I wanted to let you know that I have completed my interview and turned it in.
Thank you,
– Alyssa
Now observe the growth among 6th graders too.
Here’s an example of a 6th grade email before Propel:
Subject line: why i have 72 grade
Email message: [blank]
And here’s an email in which the student used Propel:
Subject line: What I think the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland means
Email message:
Mrs. Woll,
Good morning. This is Evy from second block.
This is my answer for the journal prompt.
I think the rabbit hole represents part of Alice’s personality, such as the unfocused part, or distracted or curious.
Thank you for your time and effort for reading my answer for the journal prompt.
– Evy
Johnston County 9th grade teacher Shelley Roberts:
“The Propel tool was easy to use and helped my students so much! It is disappointing that many of them have no idea what the correct format of a letter/email should be. This tool reintroduced terms like body and greeting. The students loved how easy the ‘fill in the blank’ process was.”
Night and day difference.
You Won’t Believe How These HS Students Write Emails Thanks to Rubin Propel
High school students in teacher Shelley Roberts’s class in North Carolina have undergone a metamorphosis.
An email metamorphosis, if you will.
With the help of Propel, our groundbreaking email teaching tool, the 28 Johnston County students have learned to write high-quality messages instead of ones that resemble a casual text.
To understand the dramatic leap, here is a before & after from one of Roberts’s students.
James (11th grade)
Email before Propel
Subject line: [blank]
Email message: can u pull me for CT
The same email with the help of Propel (the “after”)
Subject line: Comet Time
Email message:
Hello Mrs. Roberts,
I wanted to ask you to pull me for Comet Time A on Thursday, November 8.
I would like to make corrections on my quiz if I am still allowed to do so.
Please let me know if it is a problem,
– James, 1st block
James’s “after” email might seem like it’s written by ChatGPT. But no, he composed the message on his own and wrote every word. Propel guided James to structure the email, use proper capitalization, include periods, remove slang (“u”) and more.
Watch a Propel demonstration to see how the tool works in Gmail and Outlook.
“Our initial pilot was extremely successful and had a positive impact on the email communication
skills of students,” said Johnston County CTE Workforce Development Specialist Kathryn Farrior. “Before and after examples demonstrate a noticeable improvement in student’s email formatting, grammar and overall email etiquette.”Further, ninety percent of Roberts’s students said they would sometimes or always use Propel when writing
emails.Try Propel for free in YOUR classroom. Click here to request access.
Night and day difference