TOP TASKS

Don’t let disruption stop innovation

The belief that the nation turned a corner this summer in the fight against Covid-19 has caught many districts flat-footed. “A little more than a third of districts in our review describe plans to support learning for students required to quarantine. Half of these make a general statement of commitment to provide students with remote learning but give no further detail,” write Bree Dusseault, Travis Pillow and Christine Pitts for CRPE.

The story of Kayden, a 10-year-old student in California, is emblematic of the problem facing many families. As reported by CalMatters, Kayden was quarantined on the fourth day of school after contact with a classmate who had tested positive. “Kayden’s teacher provided a packet for him to complete during the 10 days of quarantine. His mother said he finished it in three days and has since then spent his time watching TV and playing video games.”

One potential solution suggested by CRPE is replicating the work of Houston ISD. The district “provides the most information of any district we reviewed, with a dedicated webpage for quarantined students to learn about their options. The district commits to four hours of real-time instruction a day.”

Maximize student learning and leadership through great teaching

Back in April of 2020 in the fourth issue of this newsletter, I asked Doug Lemov for his advice on how teachers could adapt to a new world of education in the pandemic. In our video interview, he insisted no matter what environment students and teachers found themselves in, the underlying science of instruction was unchanging: “If I had to group it into a set of key principles, I would say it’s, one, ensure the engagement of every student in the class. Kids can be sitting in the room, but that doesn’t mean they’re engaged, and that’s one of the key tasks of the teacher. Number two, push for rigor.”

On September 15th, Lemov will launch a new version of his best-selling book called Teach Like a Champion 3.0, which has been revised and updated throughout to help teachers put these lessons to work at a time when students need great instruction more than ever. “We’ve got to follow the science for one thing–we’ve got to make sure students have a rich, knowledge-based curriculum and strong instruction that engages all students’ attention fully,” Doug shared. “That’s not making it into our classrooms consistently enough and we’ve got to recognize that that’s where the solution lies.”

Great teaching is also critical for Steven Farr, the head of the Global Learning Lab at Teach For All. His focus is on how teachers can cultivate student leadership not only through the way they organize and run their classrooms, but also how they guide students toward applying their growing skills in collaborative and creative ways. “When the Global Learning Lab studiesclassrooms where teachers are growing students as leaders of a better future, a fundamentally different approach to teaching and learning emerges–one built around purpose, relationships and discovery. Given the global challenges this generation will need to solve in the future, the time to reimagine our classrooms is right now.”

Key Resources

The Walton Family Foundation and Bellwether Education Partners released a new report, “The Overlooked,” focused on children who changed schools, disenrolled from schools or lacked access to a preferred educational option. Together, those children number 10.8 million. The report was co-authored by 50CAN National Voices Fellow Alex Spurrier.

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers released their 2021 supplemental renewal guidance. Included in this year’s guidance is an evaluation of how effectively schools pivoted to remote instruction and identified student and family needs. 

Ohio State University’s Vladimir Kogan and Stephane Levatru analyzed 2021 state test results. Among the findings: third graders lost a third of their typical annual learning in ELA, with each week spent in remote learning contributing to greater losses.

Education Reimagined announced a new cohort and virtual series, the Learning Lab Orientation, that seeks to bring together educators, youth development organizations and homeschooling cooperatives to envision the future.

Emily Liebtag–who recently joined Education Reimagined as their new Senior Partner for Systems Transformation, authored a fascinating case study on the partnership between Transcend and Van Ness Elementary, a DC school that had previously shuttered for low performance. The case study focuses on shifting the school to one that supports social-emotional and student-driven learning.

Education Week memorializes the 1,000 educators who died of Covid-19. “We will continue to record their names,” Lesli Maxwell writes, “We will remember them.”