Presented by Windy Lopez-Aflitto, Vice President of Content and Partnerships, Learning Heroes; and Medha Tare, Senior Research Scientist, Learner Variability Project, Digital Promise
Hosted by Barbara Pape, Communications Director, the Learner Variability Project, Digital Promise Global
Sponsored by Digital Promise

Watch the Recording

According to Learning Heroes national research over the past three years, nine in ten K-8 parents, regardless of race, income, geography, and education levels, believe their child performs at or above grade level in math and reading. Yet according to NAEP data, barely a third of students demonstrate the ability to perform at this level, and the results are much worse for African American and Hispanic children. We believe that if parents have a clearer and more accurate picture of their child’s progress, they can fully realize their role as learning heroes and best advocate for their child’s academic success. With this information, parents can also be stronger partners with teachers, supporting classroom learning at home.

To help address this “perception gap,” Learning Heroes created the “Readiness Check,” a simple, highly predictive tool that gives parents a quick (10-15 minute) gut check on how their child has learned foundational skills needed for this school year. Specifically, the tool (available in English and Spanish to support ELL students) is designed to help parents:

• See how their child has learned foundational skills in math and reading necessary to succeed in their new grade
• Learn what they can do at home to support these specific skills in the context of their everyday lives
• Get immediately connected to skill-specific free, easy-to-use videos, activities and more to support learning at home.

In line with this, the Learner Variability Project (LVP) has surfaced and organized research across the learning sciences to understand and represent, from a whole child perspective, the factors that underlie student achievement. With this resource educators can begin to better understand how a learner’s home environment is connected to other key factors that affect learning, and provide resources and strategies that can be used in the classroom to best support the whole learner.

In this edWebinar, hear from Windy Lopez-Aflitto and Medha Tare about:

• Insights from national research revealing parental mindsets, concerns, and opportunities for strengthening parent-teacher partnerships
• Research-based best practices on communicating with parents overall
• How to access the Readiness Check, a free digital tool that helps parents see how their child is progressing with grade-level foundational skills

The recorded session will benefit preK-12 teachers, librarians, and school and district leaders.

About the Presenter

Windy Lopez-Aflitto is Director of Content and Partnerships for Learning Heroes. Bringing 20 years of experience in family engagement, education and philanthropy, Windy is responsible for content development and partnerships at Learning Heroes. She came to Learning Heroes from American Express, where she helped with the expansion of the company’s largest philanthropic platform focused on nonprofit leadership development. Previously, Windy was with Scholastic for nearly a decade and was instrumental in the research and development of the company’s first comprehensive family and community engagement initiative. Windy taught elementary school for several years and started her career in public relations, focusing on education campaigns. She has been a guest lecturer at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and at University of the South in collaboration with Yale Child Study Center. Windy frequently appears on Univision sharing advice for Latino families on how to support learning at home. She is the proud mother of two young daughters.

Medha Tare has more than ten years’ experience conducting applied research in the learning sciences. She is a senior scientist on the Learner Variability Project at Digital Promise. In this position, Medha synthesizes research for non-academic audiences so it can be used by educators and edtech developers to improve educational access to students with varied strengths and weaknesses. She has published in many scientific journals including the Journal of Cognition and Development, as well as blog posts and technical reports that translate research. She earned a B.A. from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan.

About the Host
Barbara Pape is the communications director for the Learner Variability Project at Digital Promise Global (DPG). She has 20 years of experience in strategic communications, writing, and policy analysis, primarily in education. Previously, she served as Executive Producer of the award-winning Teaching & Learning conference, sponsored by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, where she developed content and oversaw outreach and communications. As a writer, she has written for numerous publications, including Harvard University, the National Education Goals Panel (U.S. Department of Education) and Parents magazine. Barbara also served as editor and publisher of the first electronically delivered education newsletter, the Daily Report Card. She earned an EdM at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and launched her career as a middle school language arts teacher.

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Digital Promise was created with the mission to accelerate innovation in education to improve opportunities to learn.

The fourth installment in Digital Promise Global’s Making Learning Personal For All series, Policies and Practices that Meet Learners Where They Are highlights the promise of personalized learning to meet the needs of the full diversity of learners. It also examines policy actions and investments that district, state, and federal and national levels can take to help each learner master content and a broad range of skills. It makes clear that personalization must consider the whole child, put learner voice and choice front and center, and be built on the learning sciences.