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Tag: propel
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Check Out the Revamped Rubin Propel
After several months of retooling, Rubin Propel is back in action with improved features!
Most notably, Propel is:
- Mandatory
- A game!
That’s right. Students now must use Propel and achieve a score of 85/100 a total of 20 times. Once they reach the “20” threshold, Propel becomes optional. Until that time, students must engage with Propel to learn critical lessons like:
- How to write a subject line (that doesn’t look like a text)
- How to address an adult appropriately
- How to leave a closing line and sign your name
Check out the updated Propel and let us know what you think!
Improves student writing immediately.
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Progress Report: Changes Big and Small to Propel
In summer 2025, the Rubin team is working feverishly to prepare our Propel email etiquette tool for the 25-26 academic year.
Before we dove into product updates, we held a series of focus groups with teachers and students who used Propel in the 24-25 academic year. The students gave us starkly honest advice about what they like and don’t like from the tool, which is designed to teach professional email writing skills.
Here is a current list of changes we have implemented. The school year starts anew in six weeks so time is of the essence!
- After hitting “Reanalyze” score lightbulbs now work
- Discarding email now properly removes all popups related to Propel
- Emails completed label moved to the upper right corner of the initial popup
- Steps in the writing process changed to percentages
- Suggestions for addressing now static
- Added a simple bell curve to show how students’ scores compare with classmates
- Language for top shown error changed
- Domain label removed from dashboard
- Properly positioned user name on Propel completed certificate
- Add color coding to user score and make it out of 100
- Add badge symbol to show whether complete or not and
- Add label below telling them they need 20 emails to receive and make Propel optional
- Remove extension icon from Compose window
Propel gives the student an etiquette score, and the student can work to improve the score by making corrections. 
Propel provides the students with deeper data like how their email writing compares with classmates. Rounding into shape.
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Readying for 25-26: Rubin Products Get Refresh in Summer
When the students break for summer vacation, the Rubin team rolls up our sleeves.
Now is the ideal time to make modifications and upgrades to our products for employability skills training.
Here are the highlights so far:
- In Rubin Emerge (employability activities), we have new financial literacy activities like how to write a check and understand credit card interest,
- Also in Emerge, now teachers can apply a direct grade rather than use our rubric. Teachers told us the rubric can be too time consuming.
- Significant improvements to our Propel email etiquette tool, including:
- Scoring system that gives every student email a score out of 100
- Ability to create a dynamic writing experience based on the nature of your message (ex: email your teacher about homework)
- Deeper data like how your email writing scores compare with classmates
We are excited to roll out these changes and many more ahead of the 25-26 academic year. Book a meeting with our team during the summer, and we will show you around.
Rubin Propel now gives a score based on the quality of the student’s professional skills. As students correct mistakes, the score improves. What’s your email etiquette score?
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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.
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Johnston County (NC) Students Pilot Updated Version of Propel
Our thanks to a class of 9th grade students at Johnston County (North Carolina) Public Schools for piloting the latest version of our Propel email etiquette tool for Gmail.
We provided the students with an upgraded version of Propel on Monday, April 21 and gained feedback on Monday, April 28.
The overall takeaways:
– The students like the new Propel version and how it gives more tailored examples for the email message.
– The students also like the new scoring system and how the score improves when the student uses a green light bulb to correct an issue.
– Technical issues we need to work through:
1. Improve how a student moves from section to section in the email and not get the cursor stuck in a single spot.
2. Make sure the floating boxes with email writing samples don’t infringe on the email writing area.
You can see the newest version of Propel here.
We hope to roll out the newest version of Propel to all Rubin customers in fall 2025.
In the latest version of Propel, students begin the email by selecting the recipient and type of message. From there, Propel provides a tailored email example for the student to follow. Listening hard to the feedback.
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Rubin Partners with Miami-Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District
Rubin Partners with Miami Dade, Nation’s 3rd Largest School District
In the photo: Rubin founder Danny Rubin (left) stands with Miami-Dade students and their teacher Shnae Wallace. The students use Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum to help with email etiquette, job interview prep and more.
Rubin, the leader in online curriculum for employability skills, has partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to provide high school students with lessons that focus on college and career readiness.
Miami-Dade, one of the largest school divisions in the country, has a robust internship program that sends thousands of high school students into the South Florida business community each spring.
In the 23-24 academic year, Rubin products proved themselves as supplemental curriculum for the internship program. During the classroom portion of the internship program, 3,000 Miami-Dade students spent more than 250,000 minutes in Rubin’s Emerge employability skills curriculum on topics like resume writing, email etiquette and job interview prep.
In the 25-26 academic year, Rubin has expanded further into Miami-Dade through career-based pathways like health science, business and agriculture. Rubin will also now provide its Aspire career exploration video platform and Propel email etiquette teaching tool.
All Rubin products integrate to Schoology, Miami-Dade’s learning management system, via LTI 1.3. That means students and teachers access Rubin content in Schoology seamlessly and without a traditional sign-in process.
“We are honored to work with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the nation’s leading school districts,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “Already we have made an impact on several thousand students, and we’re excited at the chance to make a deeper impression in the school years to come.”
We reach South Florida.
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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.
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In First Two Months, Rubin Propel Gives Email Etiquette Advice 30,000 Times
In January 2024, we launched our Propel email etiquette tool for Gmail and Outlook.
Immediately, the tool went to work helping students nationwide become more professional with their messages to teachers and employers.
See how Propel works — 1 minute video!
Quick stats:
Number of school districts participating: 37
Number of students who have Propel as an email extension: 936
Number of emails written with the help of Propel: 5,449
Number of Propel rules shared with the students: 30,019
Let’s break down the data
Propel guides a student to structure an email (ex: include a greeting and closing) and then analyzes the message to offer further suggestions for grammar and soft skills.
Propel offers advice, but students must make the changes. No AI, no ChatGPT. Pure learning.
Among the 30,019 times Propel offered advice:
- Include a greeting (ex: Good morning): 3,357 times
- Add a period at the end of the sentence: 2,415
- Address the person with a proper title (ex: Ms. Smith): 2,351
- Don’t write the email as one “blocky” paragraph: 544
- Be sure to capitalize the first word of a sentence: 460
- Remember to sign your name at the end: 397
- Don’t use a lowercase “i” to describe yourself: 250
What’s more, 99% of students who use Propel write a subject line as a cogent summary of the message. The #1 complaint our team hears from educators about student emails is that students write the entire email in the subject line.
Propel has solved the subject line problem.
“The Propel tool was easy to use and helped my students so much,” said Shelley Roberts, a teacher in Johnston County, North Carolina. “It is disappointing that many students have no idea what the correct format of a letter/email should be. Propel reintroduced terms like body and greeting. The students love the easy, ‘fill in the blank’ process.”
The bigger picture
Propel is an optional extension in a student’s email, which means the initial batch of pilot students choose to use Propel. They want the guidance.
“When a student fixes a small mistake like not capitalizing the first word of a sentence, instantly the message becomes more professional,” said Danny Rubin, founder of Rubin. “The student will then be taken more seriously in the business community, and opportunities can happen more quickly.”
Rubin added: “In that way, Propel is a tool for equity and eliminating bias in the marketplace.”
Click here to request a trial!
Launch and scale.
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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.
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Powerful Data: With Propel, Students No Longer Write Entire Email in Subject Line
Raise your hand if you receive emails from students in which the entire message is in the subject line.
…You can put your hands down now.
Propel, Rubin’s revolutionary email etiquette tool for Gmail and Outlook, eliminates the poor habit and instead teaches students to write compact, professional subject lines.
After six weeks of pilot programs across the country, students have used Propel to assist with emails 4,254 times.
Of the 4,254 emails, only four had a subject line longer than eight words. Four.
That means 99.9% of students who use Propel have learned to use the subject line as a summary and not the full conversation.
Want to see your students stop treating emails like text messages? Install Propel to students’ email accounts.
“We are thrilled with the early data on Propel in the classroom,” said Rubin founder Danny Rubin. “The #1 complaint we hear from educators about communication is that students write the entire message in the subject line. Propel has solved the problem with the initial crop of pilot students, and we hope to roll out the tool to many more schools in the months to come.”
When students compose a new email, they are prompted with a pop-up screen that guides them to write all the part of an email, including a subject line with an example to follow. A subject line is more than a summary of the email. It is a first impression as a student communicates with teachers, employers and the broader community.
A sloppy subject line could prevent the student from receiving a response. A professional subject line allows the student to open new doors and conversations.
Propel, then, is a tool for equity and opportunity that all students deserve.
Problem? Solved.