Systems upgrade: Central offices join the tech revolution
The COVID-19 pandemic forced decades of technological innovation on schools in the span of one year. As classes moved fully online and into hybrid modalities, teachers across the country adapted in a variety of ways: learning to instruct and facilitate collaboration over Zoom; hosting virtual parent-teacher conferences that enabled families to participate from any location; […]
Curricula on the cutting-room floor: What are we learning about high school priorities, scope, and goals?
This year has been an endless stream of hard choices for teachers. Perhaps the most consequential of these is what curriculum they will cover amid the year’s many distractions, shifting schedules, and the challenges of remote and hybrid learning. Teachers face pacing decisions every year, but this year they described facing a daunting tradeoff: press […]
How 100 large urban districts are wrapping family & community input into plans for spending federal emergency school relief funds
A first look at ESSER priorities indicated many districts may be struggling to reconcile public input with their own strategic priorities.
Bolder leadership needed to keep students safe and learning next year
Schools owe students a chance to gain back the learning opportunities they were denied last year. They cannot afford to squander another year because of tepid leadership and political squabbling.
How 18 top charter school networks are refining remote learning for the fall
18 leading charter school organizations are strengthening curriculum offerings and modifying schedules — although their plans are less detailed than districts’ on remote learning improvements or lessons learned from the spring.
Addressing learning loss for students with disabilities: Could Universal Design for Learning be one answer?
This is the third blog post in our Notes from the Field: Special Education blog series. Data on students’ academic progress during the pandemic is scarce, but early signs show that many students with disabilities struggled to stay on track. Our year-long study of special education in a sample of 15 schools revealed that most already-weary teachers and […]
In thousands of districts, 4-day school weeks are robbing students of learning time for what amounts to hygiene theater
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made clear(link is external) that good ventilation and consistent mask wearing are far more effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 than disinfecting surfaces. This clarification was long overdue. Scientists have long suspected that the virus is mainly airborne. They recognized that measures like deep cleaning and […]
It helps to start small: Lessons on launching schools of choice in a pandemic
“How are we going to [recruit students and families to] this school, because we can’t do anything in person?” This question, which we heard expressed by one founder of a new-school-to-be in Washington State, is being asked by thousands of schools of choice across the country, ever since most of them closed their campuses last […]
A national corps of mentors: Lessons from the pandemic on elevating teachers’ craft, at scale
As the new school year approaches, big-city superintendents everywhere confront the chasm between their students’ needs and their districts’ capacity to meet them. Many children will return to school a year or more behind. Speaking in confidence, superintendents will tell you that the capacity of their teaching force to meet the moment is a grave […]
A national corps of mentors: Lessons from the pandemic on elevating teachers’ craft, at scale
As the new school year approaches, big-city superintendents everywhere confront the chasm between their students’ needs and their districts’ capacity to meet them. Many children will return to school a year or more behind. Speaking in confidence, superintendents will tell you that the capacity of their teaching force to meet the moment is a grave […]