As schools reckon with learning equity, they’re often focused on academic progress. During the edWebinar, “Leading for Equity: Academic Development Through an Equity Lens,” hosted by AASA, The Superintendents Association and AASA’s Leadership Network, the presenters talked about the important role social-emotional learning (SEL) plays in the process. In fact, they argued that schools must connect academic equity with SEL if they’re going to reach their goal of serving all students.
Beyond just the ability to pivot and be prepared for any type of learning, the pandemic has brought new concerns with “Zoom bombing” and increased outside access to school networks. As part of a series on technology best practices for school district leaders, presenters in an edWebinar sponsored by ClassLink and co-hosted by CoSN and AASA discussed five key reasons why everyone needs to be on top of their cybersecurity plan and continuously evaluate its effectiveness.
Strengthening students’ grasp of language and knowledge takes more than merely learning a weekly list of core words, contended Dr. Elfrieda “Freddy” Hiebert, Author of Scholastic W.O.R.D., in a recent edWebinar sponsored by Scholastic Digital Solutions, exploring a more strategic approach to vocabulary acquisition.
With remote learning still at play, students now rely on virtual engagement with their teachers to have questions answered and assignments clarified. With the appropriate tools and tech access, instructional assistance from afar can be academically beneficial.
At the beginning of each school year, teachers often take the time to get to know their students—their favorite subjects, their goals, their families, etc. With deaf and hard of hearing learners, though, many educators stop and let that one characteristic define the student and the student-teacher relationship. But in the edWebinar, “Deaf Learners: Designing Practice to Support Their Learner Variability, Culture, and Families,” sponsored by Digital Promise, the presenters explained why educators need to dig deeper and understand all of the factors influencing the student’s motivation and interest in learning.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in the traditional education model, there was widespread recognition that schools alone could not do everything needed to provide an equitable education for diverse students because so many factors that determine students’ success were being affected or determined outside of school.
With so many issues for school and district leaders to deal with during this difficult time, staying focused on students’ learning experiences may not always seem like the top priority. But district officials from Alabama and Minnesota, who are determined to provide an equitable education for all their students, recently explained how listening to students and taking action based on student input is a key factor in achieving successful outcomes.
In a recent edWebinar sponsored by FastBridge Assessment System by Illuminate Education, Dr. John Bielinski, Senior Director of Research and Development, Dr. Rachel Brown, NCSP, Senior Academic Officer, and Dr. Kyle Wagner, NCSP, Research Associate, explained that unprecedented events like COVID-19 create a vacuum of knowledge. According to the presenters, district leaders and teachers need reliable data to guide them to determine how learning has been affected, and remediations to recover critical student knowledge.
Disruption in learning caused by COVID-19 is the reality that school districts face this school year. K-12 education is evolving from a brick-and-mortar learning environment to learning both in person and online. While this shift is challenging to say the least, it is an opportunity for school districts to use technology to engage, personalize, and challenge students. In an edWeb edLeader Panel sponsored by EveryDay Labs, Michael Romero, Local District South Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District CA, and Todd Rogers, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University and Chief Scientist, EveryDay Labs, talk about actionable strategies to help create the conditions for learning this fall, including using attendance data, effective communication strategies, and building strong family-school partnerships.
Writing is often difficult for educators to teach, challenging for students to do, and hard for administrators to monitor and evaluate. Yet writing well has become an increasingly important 21st century skill due to online college and job applications, as well as the reliance on email and collaborative documents in many 21st century careers.