Equity & Access PreK-12 | Mar Apr 2021 Issue

Equity&Access PRE K-12 FROM ACE-ED.ORG

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CONSORTIUM FOR EQUITY IN EDUCATION

APPLIED LINGUISTICS FOR EMERGENT BILINGUALS HIGH-PERFORMING, HIGH-POVERTY RURAL SCHOOLS WHAT IS CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING?

& LOTS MORE

INSIGHTS FROM ASSOCIATION LEADERS AT National Superintendents Roundtable | National Association for Gifted Children Media Literacy Now | Urban Assembly | Magnet Schools of America

MEET THE MARCH/APRIL 2021 CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY JOIN THE CONVERSATION: #AGEOFEQUITY

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Learners Thrive level schedules, and instn.u:tional design to, ensur,e y•ou r Pathfinder spaces ar,e urtil ued at their m aiximum capacity.

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CONTENTS ARTICLES & FEATURES CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY

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SUMMARY REPORT: THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON K-12 EDUCATION edWeb.net & Eduscape

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THROWING THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER James Harvey

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WITH DIGITAL EQUITY, ACCESS IS JUST THE BEGINNING Beth Holland & Hali Larkins

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WHAT IS CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING? Curriculum Associates

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HIGH-PERFORMING SCHOOLS IN RURAL & HIGH-POVERTY PLACES Spartanburg School District 2 Staff

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A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR EMERGENT BILINGUALS’ LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION Maya Goodall & Kristie Shelley

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WE MUST END THIS UNCIVIL WAR: A CALL TO REFLECT UPON THE PROMISE OF EDUCATION David Adams

FOUR ESSENTIAL CURRICULUM PRACTICES TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES & ACHIEVE EQUITY Lisa DiGaudio

CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY - 65 Donald Bender | Dessie Bowling | Brice Cockfield | Isabel Govea Jemma McMenamin | Shaun Nelms | Minerva Pardo | Evan Whitehead

FROM THE ASSOCIATIONS National Superintendents Roundtable - 12 | Media Literacy Now - 18 | National Association for Gifted Children - 44 | Magnet Schools of America - 52 | Urban Assembly - 72

THE ACE-ED.ORG EXECUTIVE TEAM Publisher & Director of Sales LARRY JACOBS 978-712-8187

VP & Editorial Director MAIA APPLEBY 561-427-5092

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS - 76

SEL

SUPER CHARGE YOUR MIND FOR

SUCCESS

SEL for Student and Teacher Success

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FOUR ESSENTIAL CURRICULUM PRACTICES TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES & ACHIEVE EQUITY

I’ve been a teacher at various grade levels and a charter school founding principal, but at heart I’m a curriculum person. I have a passion for developing an appropriately differentiated, inclusive curriculum to help every student become successful, especially students coming from the most challenging circumstances.

considered the most at-risk and difficult to engage in the learning process. That’s the context for what we do and what we believe. We have a foundational belief that schools should be responsible for ensuring students’ growth in ways that make sense. For our vulnerable student populations, no matter their perceived limitations, we have a mission to help all students achieve success and find a pathway in college or full-time work that best suits them.

At New Dawn Charter High School, we are a transfer school, meaning our kids are over-age and under-credited for their respective grade levels. Our students have either dropped out or are in-school truants. They’re not on track to graduate with their 9th-grade peers and they’re

I was founding principal of our first school in Brooklyn eight years ago, but have since returned to my true passion as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for both schools. In a setup like ours, with two campuses working in parallel, a non-traditional schedule (which I’ll

By Lisa DiGaudio

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American Consortium for Equity in Education

describe shortly), a broad range of needs to meet, and a maximum need for differentiation a strong curriculum is the backbone of our approach and gives us the ability to adapt and react in all the necessary ways, day-to-day.

the importance of eye contact (a new perspective for many students who have come to understand eye contact as precipitating a “throw down” or confrontation) to interviews and resume building.

With this in mind, I’ve organized four important learning from our successes with curriculum and instruction that are relevant to leaders in any school setting. While our schools may appear unique to you, and you wouldn’t be wrong, the reality is we are driven by a commitment to equity, opportunity, and a whole child education, just like so many educators in so many diverse schools and districts across the country. Further, since so many of our students have had long-term negative experiences with school, and because all of them are coming to us after having been removed from their previous school, we are engaged with them in a process of “re-learning” how to do their education. Even though we have some learners who are 20+ years of age, we are nonetheless teaching some processes and behaviors the same way you might expect in elementary years. The upside of this is that we’re building everything from the ground up with intentionality, and we don’t take for granted any of the “basics” of what we do in the school.

On the academic schedule, this means we have two weeks each month to cover coursework rather than four, which necessitates a tight curriculum process. To make sure we are standards-aligned, covering the necessary content all students need to get their credits toward a diploma, and are keeping our curriculum aligned across our two campuses, we use Chalk’s curriculum mapping and analytics platform. This is also supportive given that we have rolling enrollment, with students coming in at any time of the year and any point in their academic journey, so we can be confident that we have access to functional curriculum maps to get every learner where they need to be. Through this combined process, students’ academic needs toward a diploma and career-ready skills are all covered successfully.

Here are four of the most important things I’ve learned about designing equitable curriculum practices:

1. Our goals need to be based on achieving real-world success We have students graduating at 19, 20, or even 21 or 22 years old, so we’re uniquely positioned to think about how their schooling is preparing them for the workforce. We have alternating tracks, in which students spend one week in the classroom followed by one week at an internship, and we provide job training to make sure they’re prepared for success in that internship. This starts small with such lessons as

2. Curriculum must be designed to educate the whole child In addition to academics and internship experience, social-emotional learning (SEL) is the equal and essential third piece of our curriculum approach. Our students are in advisories each semester centered on SEL, and this isn’t just sitting around and talking; it’s real curriculum. This helps students in numerous different ways. It keeps them engaged in school, a huge factor, as we’ve found that students who engage with us at least 35% of the time will graduate, and helps them relate better to their peers inside and outside the school. Many of our students are gang members, so in teaching these lessons we need to overcome some significant challenges, but we’ve found success.

With all of the difficulties and traumas students are facing, including new ones brought about

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by the pandemic, SEL is important for every school.

3. Let’s expand our definition of differentiation Not only are we mindful of differentiating for our students’ diverse academic needs and accounting for where they fall on the over-aged/under-credited spectrum, but another area that we consider part of our differentiation practices is attendance. Our kids are under a lot of pressure in their home lives.

Especially during the pandemic, we have many students driving for food delivery services such as DoorDash to help with finances, which might go until late at night before they get home and perhaps complete their homework at 2 or 3 a.m.

If that student shows up in school the next day we consider it a “win,” and we address the student who’s in front of us that day. If they were up all night, they might fall asleep in class, so we know we’re going to plan ahead for tomorrow and live to succeed another day. This is another benefit made possible by our curriculum maps, because we can always feel confident in where we are and where we need to go next, without fear of getting off track because a particular day didn’t go as planned.

4. Assessment should reflect curriculum and inform instruction New York has canceled the Regents Exams (state standardized tests) this year, yet we’ll know where all our students stand because we’re consistently assessing, not to rank or grade them, but to inform us about the

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standards we’re missing and the instruction we need to deliver. This is another area in which Chalk is so beneficial, through its real-time data on student progress. We can see at any moment where we might have gaps in standards coverage for a student or group of students, and then teachers can get together and use Planboard to plan and deliver the right lessons.

In short, the goal of assessment must be to inform instruction, and in doing this we are much better at getting every student where they need to be more quickly.

We have many students who graduate ahead of schedule and many others who take longer than expected, but with our differentiated practices and an attitude of “sticking with it,” we know we can help them all succeed. One of the joys of the job is the transformation we get to see in kids that go far beyond what you might observe in a “typical” setting. This spring, we’ll be graduating one such student who came to us already three years behind, and has now been with us for four years. It didn’t always look promising, but now she’s on track to graduate and the change has been remarkable. This is our mission in action, and if we can do it, I’m confident many other leaders can achieve the same.

Dr. Lisa DiGaudio is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for New Dawn Charter Schools.

She was the founding principal at New Dawn Charter High School and holds a PhD in leadership, policy and change from Walden University.

American Consortium for Equity in Education

Know What They Know and Give Them What They Need i-Ready Assessment, get a clear picture of every student’s performance and an individualized pathway to growth.

i-Ready.com/Assessment

8 Ways to Implement SEL Now

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At the core of every person, is a desire to connect be connected, and to feel like they matter. Building the skills to connect and empathize with others is something that needs to be taught — it is not inherent. Otherwise known as social and emotional learning (SEL), the importance of teaching these SEL skills is beginning to pop up everywhere. While some may consider SEL a trend, its impacts are based on research and its lasting effects are clear.

ENGAGE. Leverage technology and the power of media by inviting in others’ voices to share their learnings in school and in life. Use this multimedia whether teaching in person or remotely.

“Empathy fuels connection” – Brene Brown

CONNECT. Foster powerful relationships with role models who can highlight positive behaviors and form lasting friendships with students and teachers.

Now is the time to implement a social and emotional curriculum that works — one that will resonate with both students and teachers. Here are eight steps to setting up an SEL curriculum for success:

1 2 3

INFORM. Ground your team in research. Learn more about the need for and efficacy of social and emotional learning to strategize about how it addresses your school’s mission.

Visit Classroom Champions’ website to learn more about What is SEL? And Why SEL Matters:

info.classroomchampions.org/what-is-sel

CULTIVATE. Nurture a culture of growth by recognizing that a new curriculum requires a learning curve. Integrate time into your existing staff meetings to reflect, connect, and collaborate on the importance of SEL. Classroom Champions provides ongoing professional growth opportunities and customizable PD for educators to come together to talk about best practices: www.classroomchampions.org/webinars

EMBED. Weave SEL into your weekly schedule so that the learning becomes habits of mind. Build a base of understanding to best reflect your school’s mission and values.

Sign up for a free 30-day trial to explore the first of eight media-rich, thematic units, Goal Setting: teach.classroomchampions.org

Classroom Champions’ Mentorship+ Program pairs worldclass athletes with classrooms for an entire school year of virtual mentoring: www.classroomchampions.org/mentorship-sel-foundations

COMMUNICATE. Invite families into the conversation by providing them with turnkey SEL resources to rely on at home. Provide just-in-time advice and guidance , parent to parent.

Share Classroom Champions’ SEL Comes Home video series with caregivers so that they can underscore the same learning objectives at home: teach.classroomchampions.org/sel-comes-home

GATHER FEEDBACK. Consider how you will gauge impact and efficacy to best understand how your students continue to grow. Align programmatic goals with your school’s vision.

Check out CC’s Impact Report, assembled by a research team dedicated to improving the lives of kids: www.classroomchampions.org/impact

CHERISH THE LITTLE THINGS. Celebrate the small wins by setting and reflecting on short- and long-term goals.

Classroom Champions offers 30-minute weekly lesson plans which are easily extendable and integrate seamlessly into existing core curricular areas:

Classroom Champions and the athlete mentors consider themselves teaching partners in this effort to bring SEL to all!

www.classroomchampions.org/sel-foundations

Please reach out to us to learn more: Kate@ClassroomChampions.org

Elana Meyers Taylor Classroom Champions Mentor and 2x Olympic Silver Medalist visiting her mentees at Glenn L. Downs School in Phoenix, AZ.

Every student

deserves a champion.

Imagine a school where kids are learning from world-class athletes, engage with teachers, and treat others with respect.

Classroom Champions’ SEL programs have been proven to improve attendance and academic performance while lowering disciplinary referrals and bullying. Individual teachers, schools, and districts can sign on for a comprehensive K-8 Social and Emotional Learning Foundations Curriculum and virtual Mentorship+ Program. Classroom Champions has created a framework for social and emotional learning that embeds students in a world where they build growth mindsets, have positive classroom culture, and develop emotional literacy.

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INTEGRATE SEL INTO SCHOOLS THROUGH A CROSS-CURRICULAR APPROACH

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DISCOVER VIDEO-RICH LESSON PLANS THAT PROMOTE ACTIVE LEARNING AND COLLABORATION

•

BRING A REAL-WORLD PERSPECTIVE TO SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Get started today by contacting kate@classroomchampions.org or visit classroomchampions.org to learn more!

Celebr ati 10 yea ng rs!

THROWING THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER

By James Harvey, Executive Director of the National Superintendents Roundtable Forty-year veterans in our schools can’t recall a time when public education wasn’t the object of unrelenting criticism. A school superintendent who retired a few years ago told me that, from the day she entered the classroom, her entire career in education had been spent amidst public complaints about school performance.

The criticisms come in two parts, one clearly unjustified. That criticism is that public education is failing across the board. Putting the nation at risk, in fact. That’s demonstrably not true.

On the next page, you’ll see an infographic from the National Superintendents Roundtable and the Horace Mann League. It makes clear that public education is one of the great success stories of the United States.

Consider: only 34 percent of young adults had a high school diploma in 1950, compared to nearly 90 percent in 2016. Graduates can’t read? Nonsense. Every major racial and ethnic group, at ages 9, 13, and 17, is scoring higher on recent NAEP reading achievement tests than they were in 1971. (The same holds true for mathematics).

But there exists a justified criticism.

It revolves around equity.

As the infographic also demonstrates, we have a lot of ground to make up if we want to equalize outcomes. While around 90 percent of Asian and White students graduate on time, the

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proportion declines precipitously when students of color, the poor, and those with disabilities are examined.

The on-time graduation rates for Hispanics (79 percent), economically disadvantaged students (78 percent), African-American (76 percent), Native American (72 percent) and students with disabilities (66 percent) are shockingly low, a consequence of a combination of structured discrimination within the school system and government abandonment of the communities in which many of these students live.

So, we find the fourth major component of the infographic focused on out-of-school factors that require attention. The United States is almost off the international charts in terms of high levels of student poverty and low levels of support for families with children. Where do we find Finland, often held up as a model for what our schools should accomplish? Why, off the charts in the other direction—generous levels of support for families and very low levels of student poverty.

But there is a danger that in responding to the legitimate complaints of leaders of communities of color and the poor that “reformers” with their proposals for vouchers and charters will throw the baby out with the bathwater. It’s the special needs of special populations that require focused attention.

We shouldn’t pretend this is easy but meeting those needs will not be accomplished without honestly addressing the dimensions of the challenge.

American Consortium for Equity in Education

Discrimination within the school system As the endless parade of school finance suits demonstrates, one part of the challenge is that more resources, financial and human, are typically directed toward students in the most affluent communities than toward students in low-income neighborhoods.

That seems to be true in comparisons between districts in the same state and in comparisons between schools in the same district. Within individual schools, also, it is not uncommon for the more advantaged students to have greater access to more experienced teachers and more demanding curriculum than low-income students and students of color.

Some years ago, the Roundtable held a conference on opportunities within schools, at

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which a highly impressive young African-American graduate recalled locating an Advanced Placement class buried practically in the school attic. When he walked into the classroom the teacher greeted him with, “How did you know about this class?”

Structurally according to Government Accountability Office, nearly three-quarters of schools in more affluent communities offer Advanced Placement classes; less than half of schools in racially and economically isolated communities do. There’s a lot of work to be done in the schools.

Discrimination outside the school system Those challenges within the system pale in comparison to community challenges. There seems to be little doubt that the conditions

American Consortium for Equity in Education

under which some children live stunt their development and leave them too traumatized to learn.

In some communities, said the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Anthony Bryk (following 15 years of research on school improvement in Chicago), the “density of problems walking through the front door is so palpable every day, it virtually consumes all your time and energy and detracts from efforts to improve teaching and learning.”

What are these problems? Among them: POVERTY More than 50 percent of students in American public schools are low-income, according to the Southern Education Foundation.

CONCENTRATED POVERTY IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR About 16 percent of schools in the United States are both high-poverty and high-minority enrollment (i.e., with 75 percent of students in the school made up of students of color AND eligible for free and reduced-price meals).

“redlining” that denied housing to families of color in many communities, denial of mortgages, and even federal loan guarantees to builders premised on the explicit condition of prohibiting sales to African-American buyers.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the achievement gap between students from high- and low-income families is about 40 percent larger for students born in 2001 than it had been for those born 25 years earlier, according to Sean Reardon of Stanford University.

What needs to be understood is that truckloads of research dating back to the seminal “Coleman report” in the 1960s demonstrates the out-of-school factors account for somewhere been 70 and 80 percent of tested student achievement.

“Reformers” can keep tinkering with ersatz solutions such as charters, vouchers, and tests and accountability. But, until U.S. policy begins to respond to the Third World conditions in which too many American children are being raised, dramatic improvements in student outcomes are likely to be hard to find.

A “DURABLE ARCHITECTURE OF COMMUNITY DISCRIMINATION”

James Harvey is executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable. Follow NSR on Twitter at @natsupers.

Paul A. Jargowsky, director of Rutgers University’s Center for Urban Research and Education, told the Roundtable that patterns of gentrification and exclusionary zoning have exacerbated neighborhood segregation, encouraged unbridled suburban development, creating a “durable architecture of segregation.”

Recent research argues that “de facto” segregation in the North was not an accident but the consequence of federal, state, and local practices that included exclusionary zoning, ACE-ED.ORG

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VIEWPOINT FROM MEDIA LITERACY NOW

Media Literacy Is Essential to Equity, Well-Being, and Democracy

By Erin McNeill

Media literacy is an essential life skill that all students need and deserve in the 21st century.

Therefore, equity in education requires that media literacy is taught in a comprehensive way from kindergarten through grade 12 in our public schools. But more than that, media literacy is also key to overcoming systemic racism, which is a root cause of inequity in education.

I’ve had a number of conversations in recent months that started: “I had no idea how big the problem of white supremacy extremists was in this country.” Systemic racism and white supremacy have become much more visible to those, like me, who have had the luxury and privilege to go about our lives in ignorance.

According to Stanford psychologist Steven O. Roberts, media is one of the key factors that support systemic racism in the United States today. By legitimizing overrepresented and idealized representations of white Americans while marginalizing and minimizing people of color, across many media forms, those messages contribute to the attitudes and beliefs that create a support structure for systemic racism.

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The MLN team gathered some examples of what he is referring to: • Across formats, Black males are overrepresented with negative associations, such as criminality, while underrepresented overall — for instance, as characters in video games; as experts called in to offer perspectives and analysis in the news; as computer users in TV commercials; and as “relatable” characters with well-developed personal lives in entertainment programming.

(Source 1) • News and opinion media overrepresent poor families and welfare recipients as being Black and are almost 1.5 times more likely to represent a white family as an illustration of social stability than a black family.

(Source 2) • Scripted TV police programming, through which many people develop their understanding of the criminal justice system according to Color of Change, do not accurately depict racial disparities in the system. In addition, Black people are underrepresented in front of and behind the camera: viewers rarely

American Consortium for Equity in Education

see victims of crimes portrayed as Black women, while only 11% of writers were women of color and 81% of showrunners were white men (Source 3) Media literate students can decode the messages, challenge the media systems, and tell their own stories. Media Literacy Now is elevating K-12 media literacy education as a tool to create the society we all deserve: one that nurtures racial equity, social justice, and true democracy. Media literacy skills are also essential to health, well-being, and parenting, and full participation in economic and civic life today. The fight for media literacy education is the fight for educational equity.

The success of our grassroots initiative depends on the actions of a wide range of people: educators, business leaders, parents, and youth can play a part. You can learn more about our mission and sign up at our website.

We are organizing so you can add your voice to help change the educational system on the local, statewide, and national levels. Together, we can be effective in fighting for the structural reforms needed so that we can live in a nation that is just and equal for all.

Sources: 1. Social science literature review: Media representations and impact on the lives of black men and boys (2011).

2. A Dangerous Distortion Of Our Families: Representations Of Families, By Race, In News And Opinion Media, A Study By Dr. Travis L. Dixon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2017) 3. Normalizing injustice 2020

Erin McNeill is a journalist, a parent, and founder of Media Literacy Now, a national education policy initiative that is leading systemic change in states across the country to ensure that all K-12 schools are teaching a comprehensive set of media literacy and digital citizenship skills that students need for health, well-being, economic participation, and citizenship.

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EQUAL ACCESS TO CRITICAL THINKING MATERIALS FOR ALL STUDENTS

All students deserve access to the best learning materials, and to the expectations that they are capable of critical thinking, of achieving great things with their lives, and of solving important problems not just for themselves and their families, but for their communities and society in general.

That's what izzit.org © believes, and why we provide our materials, at NO COST, to educators of all types, from certified classroom teachers to at-home educators (and how many more of those are there in this time of COVID?) and those who lead small groups of students, like scouting troops or neighborhood after-school centers.

Looking at our society, it's clear that we need today's students to become tomorrow's problem-solvers. And that means they need to learn to dig deeper. To ask the right questions.

It's also clear we need more respectful discussion and debate, the ability to listen to those who don't think exactly the way we do and explore alternative ideas.

Because as much as it doesn't feel like it sometimes these days, we are all in this together.

Let us help you provide your students with what they need for future success.

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One free DVD (we even pay shipping!) every school year for U.S. educators Unlimited streaming and downloading of almost all our videos Online, auto-graded quizzes Teachable Moment - short, right-to-the-point videos Supplemental worksheets and other learning activities Current Events lessons – Two each school day with vocabulary words & higher-order discussion questions designed to promote critical thinking and respectful discussion & debate Supplemental worksheets and other learning activities Online, interactive one-week courses The U.S. Constitution & Black History First Amendment Substitute Lesson Plans – learning doesn't have to stop because you're not there!

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IZZIT EASY TO USE? It is! And we have all sorts of ways to help you: Customer Service team based in Erie, PA can answer your questions, 8 am – 6 pm, M-F. 888-242-0563. Not sure what to use with your students? We can help! Prefer to email us? Email Ask@izzit.org.

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WHO KNOWS WHAT PROBLEMS THEY’LL SOLVE FOR US?

SPONSORED CONTENT

HOW SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING CAN HELP PREVENT COVID BURNOUT

By Chase Harman & LaTausha Bonner

Even with the pandemic continuing to impact our mental health, a social emotional learning platform can help the entire school population adopt a healthier, more positive mindset.

teacher and student wellbeing during this challenging period, we’ve integrated more social emotional learning (SEL) into our curriculum.

Let’s face it, we’re all a little burned out on remote learning, hybrid classroom environments, Zoom, and other pandemicrelated issues right now. As teachers, students, and parents, we’re all in the same boat as we work to balance the realities of our current situation with the need to keep students engaged, learning, and moving forward.

We like the results so far. Using the SEL curriculum from 7 Mindsets, we get to move beyond just knowing our students on an academic level and better understanding their diverse mindsets, backgrounds, and cultures.

Equipped with these powerful insights, we can more effectively inject life skills and other non-academic lessons into the day-to-day learning.

Working collectively, we’ve been able to achieve this goal, albeit with some definitive signs of fatigue and burnout surfacing from time to time. To effectively promote both 22

For example, we recently used our SEL platform to center in on what students want to be when they grow up. Using vision boards, they

American Consortium for Equity in Education

explained their goals and dreams in detail. This really opened up a whole new opportunity for us to learn about our students and what they enjoy doing. We then used that feedback to expand our lesson plans and develop engaging lessons for them.

Here are some other ways our SEL curriculum supports good mental health for teachers and students during this uncertain time:

Helps give a difficult situation a positive spin As a whole, social emotional learning lends itself to being a more optimistic (versus pessimistic) teaching approach. This benefits both students and teachers. For example, I (LaTausha) am always trying to think about it actively, trying to stay more positive, not let my guard slip, and not be negative about myself (or something that's going on). I strive to maintain that positivity as we go about our days, regardless of what type of educational delivery method we’re using.

Allows teachers to give themselves grace We’re all dealing with new issues that were nonexistent in the “traditional” classroom setting (e.g., taking a whole week to get a paper done that used to take one classroom session to complete), which has made patience a true virtue in our current educational environment. I (LaTausha) have been teaching for six years now, but when the pandemic hit I realized that I needed to be more mindful of time management and also more patient with myself.

Our SEL curriculum has helped me in these areas and also helped me better understand—and have more patience with—our

parents and better understand their struggles and their aspirations.

Creates emotional bonds When our family dog passed away recently, I (Chase) had to leave school early. The next day in class, we spent time talking about the experience and also about the students’ own experiences with death (i.e., extended family members passing away, losing brothers or sisters, etc.). Being able to discuss these personal issues leads to stronger emotional bonds between myself and my English students, and it also helps me teach life skills.

I’m open to listening and being understanding, both of which are especially important for me as a first-year teacher at our school.

Building relationships Social emotional learning gives teachers an effective way to engage and interact with students. It’s also a perfect opportunity to build new relationships with them. Our platform includes a “relationship builder” that we work through with our students in the morning, and we can implement similar SEL instruction into our daily lessons. A small adjustment to a more positive mindset not only helps the student in question, but that optimism can also radiate through the entire class. We all need more of that right now.

Chase Harman is an English teacher and LaTausha Bonner is a social studies/science teacher. Both teach at Columbus Arts and Technology Academy in Ohio.

Learn more about this ridiculously amazing social emotional learning solution at 7Mindsets.com.

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ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF STRUGGLING STUDENTS OVERCOMING CHALLENGES AND FINDING SOLUTIONS “Whether financial hardship, loss of a family member to COVID, or reactions to the boiling over emotions of Black Lives Matter, no two students will have had the same experience.”

- Sam Drazin, Executive Director at Changing Perspectives This year—perhaps more than any other in recent memory—our classrooms are full of students who have all made it through the first 75% of 2020, but are unlikely to share the same story. We have spent a lot of time making sure that educators know how to engage students in synchronous sessions; that they’re able to master the tools of online learning; and they know how to set solid boundaries when communicating with learners weekly.

But one topic keeps pricking at the heart: how to reach students who aren’t engaging well. We tackled this topic in the spring, but while we have made a lot of progress in day-to-day teaching during the age of COVID-19, the need for inclusion and support has only grown.

THE TROUBLE WITH HYBRID & REMOTE LEARNING In addition to the issues present with access inequality, students who need additional support in the classroom have also been disproportionately impacted by hybrid and remote learning. For many exceptional learners, a structured routine is a foundational way to ground learning. As we are all aware, structured routine was the first thing to be disrupted this year, and though the 2020-2021 school year was better planned than last spring, it is often marked by varying schedules, pivots to full online learning, and lots of home-based learning where structured support services are not available at the same level as they would be in a traditional classroom or campus. Although support services are focused on the student, when students shift to home-based learning, families are forced to play an additional role.

All parents of remote learners face extra challenges this year. But there is no doubt that children who are on IEPs or 504 plans are under extra stress, and will require more support and resources to be successful.

To learn more, watch the full recording of our webinar: "Addressing the Needs of Struggling Students: Overcoming Challenges and Finding Solutions." Joining hosts Kris Murner and Dennis Yim are E. Christopher Williams, Associate Director of STEP at New York Institute of Technology, and Sam Drazin, Executive Director at Changing Perspectives.

To learn more, watch the full recording of our webinar: "Addressing the Needs of Struggling Students: Overcoming Challenges and Finding Solutions." Joining hosts Kris Murner and Dennis Yim are E. Christopher Williams, Associate Director of STEP at New York Institute of Technology, and Sam Drazin, Executive Director at Changing Perspectives.

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WHAT IS CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING?

This article was originally seen on Curriculum Associates’ blog.

All students deserve equitable opportunities to learn. Culturally responsive teaching gives educators the tools to not only be equitable in their instructional practices but to also validate and affirm students’ identities and engage them on that basis. However, there’s a great deal of confusion in the education world about culturally responsive teaching. What does it mean exactly? How does it help students learn?

How can educators implement culturally responsive teaching in their classrooms?

In this introductory explainer post, we explore what culturally responsive teaching is not, what it is, and how it can transform instructional practices.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Is Not . . .

A Set of Prescriptive Actions It’s not simply about celebrating Black History Month, putting quotes from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color leaders, artists, athletes, and politicians on your classroom walls, nor is it even just about developing a specific set of skills. As Dr. Sharroky Hollie, Executive Director of The Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning, says culturally responsive teaching must start with a change in mindset (i.e., beliefs, attitude, biases, etc.) before a change in skillset (i.e., practices, habits, training, etc.).

Just about the Content The term “content” could refer to materials, curriculum, themes, or objectives that guide a class. Diverse or multicultural content is necessary, but, by itself, it is not enough to ensure cultural responsivity. Let’s break that down.

First, diverse texts and classroom resources are important. We want to be very clear about that.

According to Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, “We have to ask what texts can help our students accomplish. Texts should drive cognitive goals (skills and intellect) as well as critical analysis (criticality) and sociocultural goals (identity).” Whenever possible, educators should choose texts that reflect students’ lives or expose them to lives unlike their own (these are known as “mirror” and “window” texts, respectively).

Second, having diverse texts in the classroom library does not automatically make that classroom culturally and linguistically responsive. For that to happen, teachers must also use instructional and classroommanagement practices that consider and then draw on beliefs and behaviors from students’ home cultures.

A Change from “Bad” to “Good” Culturally responsive teaching asks educators to reimagine their classrooms, not throw out every practice they’ve been using or activity that has been successful. While change is required, culturally responsive teaching practices can build on “good” practices already in place. In fact, many of these practices will be familiar to educators (e.g., speaking with physical gestures, facilitating discourse, and using a variety of voluntary and nonvoluntary response protocols). What’s different is that the strategies

behind them are fueled by the belief that diversity is an asset and the practices themselves consistently communicate teachers’ high expectations for all students. Excellence is always the goal.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Is . . .

A Mindset As mentioned above, the culturally responsive teaching journey starts with educators’ willingness to examine and challenge their own worldviews, biases, and habits. While educators will start their journeys at different entry points, they must believe that all their students will succeed, and they must clearly communicate that belief to those students.

In Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning: Classroom Practices for Student Success, Dr. Hollie writes, “[culturally responsive teaching] is rooted in seeing and feeling the change for yourself . . . you can see the difference without any external endorsement or research because you know that it feels right.”

Asset-Based In an asset-based classroom, diversity in thinking, background, learning style, and culture are seen as not only positive but necessary. Differences are embraced as strengths rather than problems that need to be solved. Culturally responsive teaching focuses on what students can do and what they each uniquely contribute to the class dynamic.

Furthermore, in culturally responsive classrooms, educators recognize students’ home cultures and languages as assets for

learning by intentionally drawing on them to shape curriculum, instruction, and classroom management. With time, culturally responsive classrooms take on a different look altogether.

They become collectivist in nature—dynamic spaces where students not only learn from the teacher (and vice-versa), but they also learn from one another.

An Engagement Strategy Dr. Hollie likes to tell educators who seem overwhelmed by culturally responsive teaching to think of it as a strategy for engaging all students. When students are validated and affirmed, they are more likely to feel recognized, valued for their contributions, and eager to learn. When educators put students’ ideas at the center of instruction, they signal that they respect and value students’ thinking.

Relationship-Centered Relationships are one of the cornerstones of culturally responsive teaching. In fact, culturally responsive teaching cannot happen without strong teacher–student relationships, as educators need to get to know their students individually in order to understand each student’s culture and values. With time, the trusting relationships students have with their

educators should extend to families and community members.

Success-Focused High expectations signal to students that their teachers believe in them and their ability to learn. Students who meet high expectations gain self-esteem and develop a growth mindset, which is the understanding that learning and achievement come from effort and practice rather than inherited and fixed personal characteristics. To close the opportunity gap and make real progress in addressing the harm caused by systemic racial inequities in education, teachers need to believe that their historically underrepresented students can master the same rigorous content as their dominant-culture peers.

Developing a culturally responsive instructional practice takes time, but the proven benefits (e.g., increased engagement, learning gains, deeper relationships, etc.) are worth it.

When teachers put students at the center of all instruction and when they give marginalized students an equitable education experience—that is the essence of culturally responsive instruction.

Learn more about our approach: CurriculumAssociates.com

Engage Learners Anytime, Anywhere Discover how i-Ready provides personalized instruction that is rigorous, inclusive, and motivating for all students, no matter where learning takes place.

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CLOSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

NOT ALL LEARNING IS ONLINE, BUT EVERY LEARNER SHOULD BE.

By John Harrington There is a growing gap between students who have access to a fast Internet connection and those who do not. This gap is sometimes referred to as the Digital Divide.

More recently, the term “homework gap” has been used. But no matter how you refer to it, for students who lack the necessary resources, the inability to get online is a barrier to their success. Like access to running water and electricity, Internet access plays a vital role in providing students a quality education. It is time for our society to address digital equity by ensuring that every learner is online. Not all learning is online, but every learner should be.

NO INTERNET ACCESS AFTER SCHOOL Funds For Learning estimates that there are

7.2 million family households in the United States who are not online -- millions of Americans who lack and cannot afford Internet access at home. For students, this means an inability to complete homework assignments, collaborate with their peers, review materials from their teacher, or access a Khan Academy video to help them understand a concept. They cannot check their grades, take a practice quiz, or ask a question via chat. In the best case, they can a visit the local library (inside, or, more likely, outside in the parking lot). But that is hardly an ideal learning environment.

WHAT CAN BE DONE? There is good news. The challenge facing our communities is surmountable. This is a not a

“moon launch” situation requiring us to stretch the limits of human knowledge. No, on the contrary, we can readily address now.

It turns out there is quite a bit that can be done and there are legions of individuals lining up to help. The same technologies that connect most Americans to the Internet are accessible, or nearly accessible, to many of those who do not have it already. For a broad segment of the disconnected population, the cables or wireless signals needed are relatively close by. In a study conducted by Funds For Learning in 2016, we found that there were one million Americans living in public low-income housing within a quarter mile of a school or library with Internet access.

In other situations, school buses and library book mobiles loaded with Wi-Fi have been used to bring the Internet further out into the community. Cellular data plans and special “point-to-point” connections can also be used. The point is this: in almost every circumstance in which a student is offline, there exists a way to bring them back across the digital divide, and many of those options are quite affordable.

NO FEDERAL SUPPORT If the technology is there, what is stopping online education? The piece missing is a serious commitment from the federal government to address the need of off-campus Internet access for students. A lack of financial support, combined with regulations that prohibit off-campus Internet

John Harrington is the CEO of Funds For Learning, a nationwide consulting firm committed to helping schools and libraries connect students to the Internet.

Learn more about Funds For Learning.

access, is the primary barrier to closing the digital divide. There are no federal funds specifically earmarked to address this need.

For years, many of us in the “EdTech” community have been calling for additional aid to help these students. But no support has been made available. Furthermore, there is a perverse wrinkle in the current federal regulations. Schools and libraries are prohibited from extending their Internet connectivity to the community around them.

If a Wi-Fi signal stays on school property, that is okay. But if a student uses that Wi-Fi signal across the street, then the school risks losing federal funding.

ACTION IS NEEDED The lack of Internet access for students is a systemic problem that results in limited academic opportunities for far too many children. These impediments then fuel cycles of poverty and other social ailments. We can and should do better. It starts with understanding and communicating the need.

Leaders and decision makers in Washington, DC, cannot address situations if they are not aware of them. We each have a responsibility to educate members of Congress and federal regulators to make sure they comprehend the scope of this problem, and then we need to hold them accountable to help our communities.

By prioritizing federal funding and cutting through unnecessary red tape, we can help connect all students to the Internet.

SEL GOES DIGITAL INDUSTRY VOICES INTERVIEW WITH ROBIN PORTER AT DISCOVERY EDUCATION

Robin Porter is the Vice President of Digital Content at Discovery Education. She started her career more than 30 years ago as a middle school language arts teacher in Maryland. After a decade in the classroom, Robin moved to USA Today’s education department where she headed up product and curriculum development, teacher training and partnerships for the newspaper’s in-school education program.

After leaving USA Today, she worked with several Ed Tech companies and media networks to create instructional resources, interactives, and digital content. Robin currently leads the team responsible for Discovery Education’s collection of more than 200,000 digital content resources. She evaluates, produces, and collaborates with trusted partners to add and curate high-quality digital content resources across Discovery Education’s services. She is passionate about the power of digital content to engage students and meaningfully influence instruction.

On February 17, 2021, Larry Jacobs had an opportunity to sit down with Robin and learn about some exciting updates to the Discovery Education platform. Their conversation follows.

ROBIN, TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND CURRENT ROLE. Sure, Larry, and thanks for the opportunity to speak with you. I serve as Discovery Education’s Vice President of Digital Content. Along with my incredible team, we manage Discovery Education’s deep vault of more than 200,000 32

digital, multi-modal, content resources.

Together, we evaluate and produce content, and work with trusted partners to add content to our digital services such as our flexible digital K-12 platform and digital textbooks, or Techbook. Then, within our services, we curate the content in creative and meaningful ways to make it easy for educators and students to integrate into instruction.

But I am an educator at heart. I began my career as a middle school language arts teacher, and it was in the classroom that I became fascinated with the power of high-quality digital content to engage students in meaningful ways. Like many of my colleagues at Discovery Education whose experience includes time as a classroom teacher, I approach my work with the teacher (and of course the student) first and foremost in my mind. Together with my team, we work to create and provide to educators high-quality content and unforgettable digital learning experiences that are inspire student engagement, curiosity, and agency,

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TODAY DISCOVERY EDUCATION LAUNCHED A SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING CENTER. CAN YOU TELL READERS ABOUT THAT? Yes, happy to do so!

Today Discovery Education announced several exciting, updates to our flexible K-12 digital platform, but the update I am particularly proud of is our new Social-Emotional Learning Center. This new resource offers a carefully curated collection of hundreds of resources designed to help educators integrate Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL, into their classrooms so all students can thrive.

Together, these resources provide educators content to integrate SEL into core instruction or discrete lessons, to build school and classroom culture, to support trauma-informed teaching, and and build educator capacity around SEL. We know that schools and school communities’ needs and approaches are all different so the Center has been designed as a one-stop clearinghouse where educators can find and prioritize the resources that best fit their unique school community.

WHY IS SEL SO IMPORTANT FOR STUDENTS TODAY?

The new SEL Center contains some incredible resources that educators can easily integrate into classroom activities. Among those resources are videos, mindfulness exercises, podcasts, Virtual Field Trips, slideshows, microlearnings, writing prompts, reading passages, and even master class series. There are animated collections for younger students and even a whole collection where well-known athletes, artists, celebrities, and other newsmakers share their advice to their younger selves. In addition, we’ve created several ready-to-use instructional activities that make it even easier to use these resources for instruction, as well as some helpful professional development opportunities that provide educators additional support.

Well, I think that just as COVID-19 has highlighted many of the inequities in our education system, it has also highlighted the fact that you cannot separate students’ emotional health and well-being from their ability to be successful in school. Each day, we are hearing from our K-12 partners across the country that now, more than ever, so many of the students in their districts are struggling with self-esteem and relationship issues, anxiety, and general stress. COVID-19 has interrupted students’ continuity of learning, has left them missing friends and school, deprived them of the normalcy and connections of sports and activities, and unfortunately in some cases, forced students to deal with additional hardships including job losses in their families, sickness, and death.

The resources in the Center are designed to guide students in cultivating self-confidence, managing stress, building supportive relationships, and maintaining their well-being. The Center’s content is aligned to CASEL’s five competences and organized into tabs that focus on multi-modal, student-facing digital content for all grade bands, ready-to-use instructional activities, educator professional development, and school culture.

The content in the SEL Center is designed to support educators as they help students better cope with what they are facing and feeling and to build school cultures that prioritize student wellness. The resources encourage students to be the best version of themselves and to develop many of the relationship skills they will need for future success. I think it is fair to say that in today’s society, all students can benefit from the ability

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to communicate with people from all backgrounds, practice empathy, and look at academic and interpersonal issues from a variety of perspectives. That said, we also know that every student is different, and that students’ personal and social identities also need to play an important role in the integration of SEL resources.

HOW DID YOU SELECT THE CONTENT FOR THE SEL CENTER? CAN YOU GIVE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE RESOURCES IN THE CENTER? Well, like all the content we add to Discovery Education’s digital services, the selection of content comes at the end of a rigorous process in which we carefully review each resource to ensure it is high-quality and appropriate for classroom use. For the Center specifically, we ensure that the content supports educators in building social and emotional competencies for all students in a variety of different instructional settings.

In addition to content that we produce, Discovery Education has developed a strong network of trusted content partners with whom we are constantly collaborating. For the SEL Center, we have curated digital resources from the collections of well-recognized organizations like CASEL, Learning to Give, Inner Explorer, Common Sense Education, and My Mindful Music. In addition, we have produced content in collaboration with corporate and community partners who are committed to helping students build social and emotional wellness, like the Allstate Foundation, LG Foundation, RFK Foundation, and Wings for Kids.

carefully curating the resources to make them easy to choose and integrate.

WHERE IS THIS CONTENT FOUND WITHIN DISCOVERY EDUCATION’S LEARNING PLATFORM? Discovery Education users can find the SEL center within our award-winning, K-12 learning platform.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR DISCOVERY EDUCATION AND SEL? Well, given the iterative nature of our work, we are never really “done” with improving our digital resources or adding additional content.

So, just like we do with all our dynamic channels, the Discovery Education Content Team will continue producing and adding additional content regularly to the SEL Center.

Right now, we are particularly focused on adding resources that help educators integrate SEL into core instruction and to adding more content that is equity-focused and that authentically connects social emotional learning to the identities, strengths, and experiences of all children.

In addition, in coming months, Discovery Education will launch the Coalition for Social-Emotional Learning.

A unique public-private partnership, this coalition will bring even more critical SEL resources to educators and students, so be on the lookout for more news about that in April.

Learn more about the Discovery Education digital platform here.

To build the Center, our team spent months choosing which resources from our own collection to add, working with partners to choose resources from their collections, and 34

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WriQ provides a standardized benchmark for writing which allows you to assess learning loss due to COVID and the summer slide. You can chart writing progress over time and compare achievement year on year, not just within a class, but through a year band or an entire school.

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Have you moved beyond one size fits all solutions and quick fixes?

The National Center for Innovative Transformation in Education (NCITE) offers a dramatic leap forward in place-sensitive systemic transformation that advances outcomes for all.

NCITE is an action-oriented national network of schools, districts, communities and other educational entities with the primary goal of building local capacity to solve personalized educational problems of practice and to share those solutions across the network and beyond.

NCITE’s mission is to build sustainable educational models that: • Empower collaboration and innovation across schools, districts, and states.

• Build internal capacity to utilize and share effective processes, protocols and models.

• Measure evidence and impact to determine ongoing improvement.

• Engage partners to accelerate progress, transform practices and systems in response to need.

• Establish and expand partnerships, networks, and services to students

NCITE is driven by a fierce belief that education is critical to a vibrant, sustainable future and must include deliberate focus on equity, access, opportunity, outcomes, evidence, impact, strengths versus deficits, advocacy, and talent. In short, we believe that everyone is simultaneously a LEARNER, a LEADER and a MAKER.

NCITE was founded by the award-winning Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, with more than 50 years of experience and evidence in school and staff transformation. Learn more about KVEC.

NCITE

NCITE Empowers a Systemic, Responsive Change in School Culture.

Where everyone is a LEADER, LEARNER and MAKER.

APPLICATION & SELECTION OF COHORT TEAMS

NETWORKING

Opportunities for networking with teams across multiple states/agencies to learn and grow together.

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CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Educators within the schools engage in continuous professional learning and apply that learning to increase student achievement.

THEORY OF ACTION DEVELOPMENT

VIRTUAL & FACE-TO-FACE COACHING

NCITE (KVEC) staff work with school teams through virtual sessions and on-site visits.

ACTION RESEARCH PLAN PRESENTATION

ONGOING...

• NETWORKING • PROFESSIONAL LEARNING • COACHING • PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

ACTION RESEARCH

Designed around identified problems of practice and implementation of theories of action culminating in a capstone presentation.

ACTION RESEARCH RESULTS PRESENTATION

The acronym NCITE is used to identify ourselves not just because it is quicker to say in conversation but also because it is pronounced exactly the same as two words whose definitions serve to clarify our “Why.”

DATA ANALYSIS, ADAPTATION & LEARNING

In-sight (noun): the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding.

In-cite (verb): to encourage or “stir up” with a purpose.

LEARN MORE

ncite.theholler.org

Pr ov i di ngy ourdi s t r i c twi t hgr ea t erequi t yt hr ough: -St udentPr ogr am Expans i on-e x pa ndy our c our s eof f er i ngs -Bei ngabac kuphi r i ngpl an-nev erha v ea not her t ea c herv a c a nc y -Tr ai ni ngr emot et eac hi ngs ki l l s et s-pr epa r e y ourt ea c her sf ort hef ut ur e Ov ert eny ea r sofe x per i enc eof f er i nga l wa y sl i v e, a l wa y ss y nc hr onousi ns t r uc t i on, ont hepl a t f or ms y oua l r ea dyus eev er yda y .

Cont ac tUs : equi t y@pr oxl ear n. c om pr oxl ear n. c om 8005248570

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A r s t of i t s ki ndc er t ic at i onpr ogr am f r om educ at or ss eeki ngt o l eadvi r t ual t eac hi ngpr ac t i c ei nt ot hef ut ur e.

I t ’ st i met os t a r tf oc us i ng onhowt obeeffec t i v ev i r t ua l t ea c her s-we ’ r ebui l di ngac ommuni t yof educ a t or swhowa ntt owor ka sagr oupt oc r ea t es t a nda r dsa nd r equa l i t yv i r t ua l educ a t i onopt i ons . s ha Offer i ngi ndi v i dua l c er t ic a t i ons , gr oupt r a i ni ngs , oppor t uni t i es f orgr a dua t ec r edi t , a ndmor e .

F i ndusa tvi r t ual t eac her as s oc i at i on. or ga nds i gnup f orourf r eeI nt r ot oVi r t ua l T ea c hi ngc our s e .

c us t omer s uppor t @v i r t ua l t ea c her a s s oc i a t i on. or g

A Paradigm Shift for Emergent Bilinguals’ Language Instruction

By Maya Goodall and Kristie Shelley When we first started our teaching careers, we had no idea that there was an ongoing vigorous debate about whether learners could learn to speak, read, and write in two languages at the same time. Politicians, educators and parents all weighed in on the topic. Eventually, in California, it went to the public and voters passed the then Prop 227 or English Only Law. The thinking was, it would be much easier for students to achieve academic success if they

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focused on one language only, English.

Research has since revealed the human capacity for bilingualism.

Human beings are uniquely wired for language and are capable of learning more than one language at a time.

After years of teaching Emergent Bilinguals,

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coaching teachers, curriculum directors and administrators, we wrote a curriculum that blended practical knowledge from the classroom with research-based applied linguistics. Through our experiences with students, we realized there was a huge opportunity to engage in more speaking, listening, and grammar in English language instruction. We noticed that there were not enough of these activities happening in classrooms for students to truly master English.

Applied linguistics validated our experiences, with the Output Hypothesis Applied linguist Merril Swain did an intensive study with seventh graders in Canada who had been in a French immersion program starting in kindergarten. She expected the students to be better equipped to carry on conversations than they were. What she found was that they were not on par with language proficiency levels expected after years of instruction. This prompted her to come up with the Output Hypothesis, which in a nutshell states: in order to learn a language, you have to speak the language.

The idea that speaking practice is a necessary component of language learning has been widely accepted in the field of second language acquisition. According to Richard and Rogers (2007), the act of engaging with spoken language by producing it for oneself is at the heart of language acquisition.

However, most U.S. classrooms focus exclusively on the listening portion of language learning. Comprehensible input has been the most widely used theory in teaching language and is based on the idea that the learner needs input that is understandable, according to their language proficiency level. It is theorized that through this input the learner will eventually create their own output. (Krashen & Terrell,

1995) However, a quick glance into language proficiency data of students shows that there is an opportunity gap.

We wanted to fill that gap with a curriculum focused on speaking, listening, and grammar Our curriculum centers around this concept: help teachers engage in academic conversations with students. When a student is involved in conversation, they have an opportunity to notice. The learner/speaker notices what they are saying; how they are saying it; and they are getting immediate feedback from the listener. (Swain) All of this information is vital when piecing together a new language and integrating it into new knowledge.

Yet, when we talk to teachers, we hear they are overwhelmed with everything they already have to do in class and giving learners time for speaking practice can sometimes feel out of reach. This is why we used AI and speech recognition to help with this repetitive and ongoing task. In Rosetta Stone English, the learners practice speaking with different characters, using academic language. The language the learners speak was carefully crafted from language proficiency standards and content standards. The learners have the opportunity to practice academic language at their level, speaking on topics that they will hear about in their subject matter classes.

During the exchange between student and AI, the speech recognition engine is capturing data for the teacher, and lets the teacher know if a learner has mastered a specific grammar skill. If not, the teacher will be directed to teacher-led lessons they can use to reteach a needed skill. In this way, we have used AI and speech recognition engines to help teachers give the all-important speaking practice, without adding more to the teacher’s plate. The teacher can

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focus on their content instruction and engaging in conversations while giving very specific, targeted language instruction when necessary.

In this way, the program is personalized and engaging for each student.

The difference in this curriculum is built into the algorithms. Everything learners say is counted, measured and weighted, then the data is disaggregated and given back to the teacher.

The teacher will know the language proficiency level of the learner, specifically what skills they have mastered and what they still need to learn and be equipped with targeted lessons to ensure mastery in addition to having the ability to monitor progress daily. When it comes to language proficiency, this truly is data informed differentiated instruction.

In addition to cutting edge language instruction, our curriculum is based on culturally responsive teaching. This means we used AI to create an environment where the heritage language of students is a culturally relevant asset for them, not a deficit. We like to focus on what the learner knows (their heritage language) and who they are going to become (bilingual).

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Instead of thinking of learning English as a zero-sum game, we like to think of it as a win-win: learn English and become bilingual.

Twenty years on Prop 227 was outvoted in favor of Prop 58 The California Multilingual Act. It seems that parents, teachers, and voters have come to understand that in addition to proficiency with English, bilingualism has its benefits.

Indeed, helping learners become bilingual is a contribution to society. Curricula should seek to honor bilingualism, heritage language, and culture while teaching English.

Maya Goodall and Kristie Shelley are Senior Directors of Emergent Bilingual Curriculum at Rosetta Stone/Lexia Learning.

American Consortium for Equity in Education

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Addressing Excellence Gaps: Ability Grouping

By Jonathan A. Plucker

In several of my recent columns, I’ve shared research-backed recommendations for how to identify advanced students in more equitable ways than those traditionally used in American schools. But advanced learning is about programming, not identification. They go hand-in-hand of course, but there is no point in trying to identify talented students if your district or school doesn’t have high-quality, advanced learning opportunities.

With this issue’s column, we start to dig into what the research says about advanced learning programs and services, and how they can be designed with both equity and excellence in mind. Let’s start with a topic completely lacking in controversy: ability grouping.

I’m kidding, of course. If you want to get a group of educators riled up, walk into the room and say the words “ability grouping.” That’s a fair reaction, because the expert opinion on the topic is confusing. When I went through my preservice teacher prep program in the early 90s, I would go from one class where we were told that grouping is always bad to another where we were told grouping is always good, with other professors sharing perspectives in between. And with conflicting studies appearing to emerge on a regular basis, it is understandable that educators are confused about the effects of ability grouping.

A quick note on terminology before we get much further: “Ability

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grouping” has little to do with ability. A better term is “performance grouping,” as most decisions about how to differentiate for students are based on their current performance level (i.e., are they working below, at, or above grade-level?). I’ll use grouping as shorthand for flexible ability grouping throughout this column.

Why group at all? Well, we have to group students in some way – I don’t know of any schools where the students wander around the building like free-range chickens. We choose to group student by age in most schools, but there is nothing magical or predestined about grouping primarily by biological age. So we must group, but how?

Several colleagues and I conducted a study that provides some insight into the need for grouping (Peters et al., 2017). We were interested in estimating the percent of students who start the school year having already shown they had mastered the standards for that year.

In other words, what percent of fourth graders show up for the first day of school having already performed at the fifth grade-level or higher on the previous year’s state achievement test? That’s a pretty conservative definition of above-grade-level, as it doesn’t take into account students who have the potential to work above-grade-level, just those who are already performing at such high levels.

The results suggest that for third through eighth graders, 20-49% were above grade-level in

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reading/English and 14-37% in math on state assessments. Using NAEP data, we found evidence that 15% of students in those grades perform at least three grade levels ahead in reading/English, 6% in math.

That’s an enormous range of performance levels for teachers to accommodate in a single classroom, and it’s no wonder that research generally shows that whole-class instruction rarely works for advanced students or helps close excellence gaps (Plucker & Callahan, 2020; Plucker & Peters, 2016). The performance range of students in the average classroom is just too much to handle effectively.

My current take on the relevant research is that (a) ability grouping has the most positive effect on the lowest- and highest-achieving students, (b) what happens within the groups is more important than the groups themselves, (c) ability grouping done well appears to close excellence gaps, and (d) within-class grouping appears to work better than between-class grouping. Space limitations prevent a detailed analysis on each of these points, but interested readers can refer to the cited resources (Plucker & Callahan, 2020; Steenbergen-Hu et al., 2016).

Of course, the research is also replete with qualitative research on what happens when grouping is done carelessly or not closely monitored, with low-income, special education, Black, and Latinx students placed into the lower groups, where they then receive low quality instruction with few resources, encounter low expectations, and become stuck in that group forever. From my perspective, this is when flexible ability grouping becomes tracking – the placing of students into academic tracks from which they don’t benefit and can never escape. Tracking is always a bad thing.

There’s a straightforward (if not easy) solution to prevent grouping from becoming tracking: Be vigilant. Are students in the more remedial and more advanced groups learning at a quicker pace than in whole-class instruction?

Do formative assessments result in students moving up to more advanced groups throughout the year as their progress dictates?

If the answer to either question is no, then educators should closely examine the quality of instruction, curricula, and resources being used in each group.

Of course, even with the use of such groups, differentiation is still needed. For example, if you’re fourth graders are performing across nine different grade-levels and you use various grouping strategies to reduce the performance range, odds are that each teacher is still teaching three or more grade-levels of performance at any given moment. And even if all goes as planned, that range will inevitably grow as some students learn more quickly than others. Differentiation is still a vital teaching skill in grouped instruction.

Jonathan A. Plucker is the Julian C. Stanley Professor of Talent Development at the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University, where he is also a Professor of Education. He currently serves as President of the National Association for Gifted Children board of directors. He can be followed on Twitter at @JonathanPlucker or reached at jplucker@jhu.edu. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Johns Hopkins, CTY, or NAGC.

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SPONSORED CONTENT

At-Home Learning Program Changes Lives for Native and Rural Families Author: Kim Fischer

The COVID-19 Learning Slide The COVID-19 pandemic has brought education inequities to the forefront and it’s an issue we can’t waste time in addressing. Many families do not have the resources needed to adequately prepare their young children for the coming school year which could have dire consequences for these young learners.

Experts, like Dr. David Lawrence of The Children’s Movement, believe that this issue may affect children’s academic performance over the long term.

could look more like a ‘COVID cliff,’ ” says Dr.

Lawrence. “We shouldn’t let that happen.”

And, unfortunately, as the pandemic progresses, children may not enter or return to school for much longer than six months. Many schools transitioned to online learning in the fall and remained that way while others resumed in-class teaching, only to return to remote learning as local cases rose.

“...a ‘COVID slide’ in which children could miss out on formal school for up to six months

While school-aged children may receive virtual support from their teachers, preschool students are being

impacted before their formal education even begins as in-person options are forced to close their doors.

Early education is a critical period in a student’s academic journey, and largescale disruptions may have long-lasting repercussions. Without the right support during those crucial early years, children will start school at a serious disadvantage.

And those who were already at risk of academic gaps are also those who may be most impacted by the COVID slide.

Educational Inequity in Rural Communities The issue is particularly dire in rural areas, where early learning resources are already limited. Mother and healthcare worker Cornelia Yellowman knows this struggle only too well.

Living in a small Navajo Nation town near Southern Utah, the YellowmanWilliams family are grateful to have the outdoors right in their backyard.

As Cornelia prepared her daughter Kenzie to start school, she wanted to secure a bright future for her.

“She told me that she would like to be a doctor,” Cornelia said, “so I have that huge hope for her.”

“I hope to see [Kenzie] have a good life,”

agreed Kenzie’s father, James Williams.

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“You know, you always want your children to succeed in life.”

While their rural backdrop provides unlimited beauty, its remoteness presents certain access barriers. Without Internet and digital resources in their home, Kenzie could not access the same learning resources as her peers, and Cornelia herself had to finish her online college courses from her work’s parking lot, the only place she could access Wi-Fi. Cornelia’s family is one of many in the Navajo Nation unable to access educational resources from home.

Between school closures and limited digital access, these families are left even more behind during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, schools in rural areas often function on limited budgets that may be strained even further this year, leaving little room to serve children who have not yet entered school as they struggle to support existing students.

Despite these challenges, Cornelia prioritized Kenzie’s education, even to the point of delaying her own degree.

“It matters a lot to me because it’s a struggle, especially for this generation. You have to have… some kind of educational background behind you to basically get a job.”

American Consortium for Equity in Education

Waterford’s Summer Learning Program Waterford.org is a non-profit whose mission is dedicated to ensuring educational equity and access for students.

Through their kindergarten readiness program, Waterford Upstart, children learn key reading, math, and science skills the year before kindergarten to prepare children for school. The program costs participating families nothing, regardless of location and background.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and with generous philanthropic support, the organization provided an accelerated version of Waterford Upstart to families of incoming elementary students through their 2020 Summer Learning Path.

Additionally, qualifying participants received Internet access and all technology needed to complete the program from the comfort and safety of their home regardless of where they live. In total, over 13,000 families participated in the Summer Learning Path.

after completing the program, many of whom had never owned let alone used a computer.

Families in nine different states and the Navajo Nation gained access to the program’s curriculum, educational resources, and program support through personal family coaches.

In the Navajo Nation, almost 200 children were given access to Waterford Upstart.

Of those participants, 91% belonged to low-income families, and nearly 89% received a computer to keep

used the program are ready for kindergarten

Arizona State Representative Arlando Teller expressed his gratitude for Waterford Upstart’s support in Navajo Nation communities: “The children who and many of them, along with their families, now have a computer and access to the internet. Ahéhee’ [thank you] for the opportunity and partnerships made.”

Yellowman-Williams Family: Digital Access in the Navajo Nation After her daughter’s teacher informed her of the Waterford Upstart program during a parent orientation night, Cornelia signed up right away. Kenzie is now learning crucial skills that will help her begin kindergarten in the fall, ready to learn. It’s also empowering Cornelia and James with the tools they need to create a strong home learning environment.

Cornelia said of her daughter’s progress, “I just hope she can store everything, every educational thing in her brain, just so that it will help her understand what type of world she’s going to be ready for.”

Cornelia and Kenzie’s educational futures were revolutionized by Waterford Upstart’s access to Wi-Fi and technology.

Cornelia understood digital literacy is an essential part of today’s education, so she knew this experience would help Kenzie reach her academic potential.

“It will broaden her horizon, it will open her up to a lot of opportunities [like] experience with laptops,” says Cornelia, “but especially, she will take this learning to school.”

Plus, Cornelia no longer has to finish her college assignments from her work parking lot. Now, she can work on them at home and spend more time with Kenzie.

for their children through Waterford Upstart. In a community where digital and educational inequity is rampant, this opportunity could be life-changing.

The Yellowman-Williams family was one of many Navajo Nation homes who built a strong educational foundation

“It’s like a dream come true getting this software for my Kylie,” says Cornelia. “And also not just for her— for the family.”

edFocus Industry Summary Report: The Impact of COVID-19 on K-12 Education The edFocus Summit, co-hosted by edWeb.net and Eduscape, provided an opportunity to listen firsthand to leading educators about how the industry can help schools find solutions to the unprecedented challenges created by the coronavirus.

Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, opened the conference with the observation that, from March to June of 2020, we experienced a sudden shift that has been like an earthquake in education with seismic aftershocks that have brought us where we are today. This is an important moment in the history of education to address what has happened over the past year, and what we hope for the future. edWeb hosted panels with leading educators in different roles — superintendents, tech leaders, principals, teachers, and librarians — and asked three primary questions: What is the biggest challenge you face right now?

What do you see as the biggest opportunity coming out of the pandemic?

How can industry partners help?

We were able to listen to the unique challenges facing educators in different roles and also learn what they’ve observed and recommend in common. An important goal of the conference was to bring together leading educators and industry leaders to be in the same virtual rooms together. The ability to use technology to bring people together has been cited as one of the big wins of the pandemic.

To hear their responses to these challenges has been informative and inspiring. Being a good listener is one of the best ways to be a better partner, and this conference provided deep insights into educators’ needs.

edFocus Industry Summit Report 2021: The Impact of COVID-19 on K-12 Education

READ THE REPORT & LISTEN TO THE PODCASTS HERE 48

American Consortium for Equity in Education

With Digital Equity, Access is Just the Beginning When implementing efforts to improve digital equity for learning, providing access to technology tools and software is often the priority. However, technological access only scratches the surface.

In order for all students to truly experience high quality digital learning, solutions should be human centered and fully address the multifaceted challenges that stem from the digital divide in learning.

By Beth Holland and Hali Larkins

UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL ACCESS

ACTIONS TOWARD PROVIDING ACCESS

According to a recent Common Sense, Boston Consulting Group and Southern Education Foundation report, three critical factors drive the digital divide: affordability, availability, and adoption.

In the midst of shifts to remote and hybrid learning environments, this context significantly impacts students’ potential to access high-quality learning experiences.

Up to 60% of students do not have access because of cost, particularly in urban areas with larger populations of Black and Latino students.

Lack of availability disproportionately impacts the rural South, immigrant communities, andindigenous populations leaving up to another 25% disconnected.

Finally, up to 40% of students may live in areas with available and affordable access but they do not adopt the technology because of language barriers, housing insecurity, undocumented status, or lack of familiarity.

At the end of last spring, Common Sense and BCG conducted a study to examine the extent to which students could access remote learning.

Their analysis determined that 15-16 million students (approximately 30% of the public school population) did not have sufficient high speed internet, and nine million of those students had neither access nor a computer or tablet. Since that time, school leaders, policy makers, and advocacy organizations have worked to increase access to remote learning.

While 20-40% more students have been connected this fall, over 12 million still cannot access learning.

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At the federal level, responses to current challenges are largely focused on providing funding. Both the March 2020 CARES act and the new COVID relief plan propose funding that can be used to address digital access. More recently, Congress has allocated $3.2 billion to discount broadband services and devices in certain households during COVID, and an additional $7 billion has been proposed by the FCC to support schools and libraries (with the potential for that funding to also apply to home access).

MAKING DIGITAL LEARNING TRULY EQUITABLE What is missing from these statistics and technology expansion efforts is the principle of humanity. These percentages represent millions of students from millions of households who are essentially cut off from learning. Anecdotal accounts from families and educational research prove that simply having the technology in the home is not enough.

Steps that increase funding at the federal level are critical for addressing digital equity.

However, real solutions that create sustainable

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and long-term change require a more human approach.

INCREASED INVESTMENT IN LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS First, low-cost access does not always solve the issue. For example, Comcast is currently under fire because their low-cost Internet Essentials program is not sufficient for remote learning.

Students report that they cannot connect to Zoom classes, stream instructional videos, or successfully access assignments. Such issues in availability particularly impact communities where broadband availability and connectivity either does not exist or is very limited. Policy makers must establish infrastructure projects and initiatives to guarantee access for learners and families.

IT AND DIGITAL INCLUSION SUPPORT Second, not all families have the digital literacy to take advantage of new technologies. For example, Oakland REACH is teaching parents how to help their children by providing customized tech support for families who are new to tools for distance and remote learning.

American Consortium for Equity in Education

Digital inclusion supports such as tech support and multilingual training are efforts that policy makers can establish in order to build digital literacy and inclusion skills amongst students, caregivers, and teachers.

CUSTOMIZED NEEDS Finally, every context, community, and child has a different set of needs. Both the technology and the learning experience needs to be accessible for ALL learners. The potential for success in providing customized support for specific communities will depend on data and understanding of nuances within specific contexts.

Solutions for equitable digital learning can be achieved by breaking down silos, partnering across public, private, and social sectors, and assessing student-level needs. Establishing processes for data collection that parents and communities trust is essential for understanding the specific needs and solutions that can support equitable learning for ALL students.

Beth Holland is a Partner at The Learning Accelerator, leading work in research and measurement as well as digital equity. Beth holds an Ed.D. in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education from Johns Hopkins University, an Ed.M. in Technology, Innovation, and Education from Harvard University, as well as a B.S. in Communications from Northwestern University.

Hali Larkins is an External Relations Communications Intern with The Learning Accelerator. Prior to that, Hali was a Family and Learning Subject Matter Expert at YouTube. She is currently working towards her M.A. in Instructional Technology and Media at Teachers College, Columbia University.

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VIEWPOINT FROM MAGNET SCHOOLS OF AMERICA

Magnet Schools and the Focus on Equity and Equitable Access

By Todd Mann I’ll cut right to the chase: There is no other school model that is so uniformly focused on furthering racial diversity; Magnet Schools of America (MSA) is uniquely positioned to deliver on this goal.

MSA represents the 4340 magnet schools throughout the country.

Magnet schools have five pillars at their foundation, but none is as important, as vital, as Pillar number one: Diversity is a cornerstone to offering students a global educational experience. Schools, through recruitment and lotteries, strive to have student populations that are reflective of the community. Culturally competent educational environments model empathy, respect, and working collaboratively with a variety of persons.

MSA has been further energized by Black Lives Matter. It has caused us to tighten up our mission statement’s focus on equity and equitable access. We have intensified our existing partnerships with groups who share our mission. It has propelled us to establish new relationships, such as with The Century Foundation’s Bridges Collaborative. That initiative is a collaboration with school districts around the country with zeroed-in attention to racial integration in our nation’s schools.

We held a panel with the key individuals working on the Bridges Collaborative at MSA’s annual Policy Conference in February. By the time they were done presenting, the line was long with those districts saying that they wanted to participate. Speaking of our Policy Conference, our keynoter was NEA President 52

Becky Pringle. We could not have asked for someone more appropriate to kick off our event than Pringle. Talk about laser-beam focus, the NEA President did not mince words when it came to stressing the need to put our country’s public schools back on solid footing.

Let me take a moment to mention conferences. MSA is going all-virtual on our national conference. This event will start with pre-conference sessions on Tuesday, April 27th and end early afternoon on Friday, April 30th. We encourage you to attend, and the good news is that the registration is much less. If any of you need any special attention to registration, please let us know at conferences@magnet.edu.

Todd Mann serves as the executive director of Magnet Schools of America, where he developed the first certification program for magnet schools and secured a bipartisan funding increase for magnet schools. He also serves as the executive director of the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools, an association representing high schools that specialize in STEM approaches and outcomes.

American Consortium for Equity in Education

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LANDMARK COLLEGE

An Integrated Approach to Teaching Students Who Learn Differently While many colleges offer special programs for students with learning disabilities (LD) and other learning challenges, Landmark College is one of the only accredited colleges in the United States designed exclusively for students who learn differently, including students with learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

For almost 40 years, our combination of research-based learning strategies and academic support has proved successful in preparing students for the rigors of college-level work. As the field of learning disabilities and differences expanded, our approach to working with students has grown more varied, but always with a constant unyielding mission to provide best practices for all.

ACADEMIC ADVISING

In addition to classes, students in their first year at Landmark College participate in weekly academic advising sessions while engaged with the advising curriculum. As students progress in their coursework, they become increasingly independent and meet with their advisor less frequently. Students pursuing their bachelor’s degree work with degree specific advisors. The academic advisor is central to the system which supports individual student performance.

THE LANDMARK COLLEGE DIFFERENCE

Landmark College offers the same range of student services found at any college—from counseling and health services to student life and athletics. The difference at Landmark College is that these professionals, like our faculty and academic advisors, bring specific expertise in, and a passion for, working with students who learn differently.

Working together, we help students discover their path as confident, empowered, and independent learners. We integrate our innovative learning strategies into everything we do.

CENTERS FOR ACADEMIC SUPPORT

Landmark College’s Centers for Academic Support offer unparalleled support to students who learn differently, at no additional charge. The Drake Center for Academic Support is the first place students turn for help with reading, writing, and study skills. Academic support centers within individual departments offer drop-in support and one-on-one scheduled appointments with Landmark College faculty.

COUNSELING & HEALTH

Counseling Services are available to provide support to students dealing with stress and other personal, social, or academic difficulties. Health Services offers support for physical issues.

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION COACHING

Through the office of Coaching Services, Landmark College’s Professional Certified Coaches work with students who have a variety of learning profiles and struggle with executive functioning.

INTEGRATED SERVICES FOR STUDENTS WITH AUTISM

SUMMER PROGRAMS

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES & CURRICULUM

Whether located on our Putney, Vermont campus or at one of our programs in California and Colorado, the instructors consist of current Landmark College faculty as well as teachers from the surrounding areas who are experienced in working with students who learn differently.

Students with autism who are academically prepared for college may still face significant challenges navigating the social curriculum and adjusting to the more fluid routine of the college student. Landmark College recognizes the need to provide additional programming to assist students with autism to meet their college goals. Our integrated services model for ASD support services provides a structured living and learning environment that combines an effective pedagogical approach with tailored social and other programmatic supports.

Originally founded as a two-year college, Landmark College began offering four-year degrees in 2014. We now offer an array of baccalaureate and associate degrees, with optional minors and concentrations.

Landmark College offers summer programs to assist a wide range of students with learning differences, including middle school students, high school students, graduating high school seniors, and students enrolled at colleges around the country. All of the programs are designed to enable students to identify their learning strengths and differences. Students learn specific strategies to be successful in formal academic settings and grow personally and academically in an intentional and supportive academic community.

Landmark College offers a diverse selection of courses in anthropology, English, business, communications, humanities, philosophy, psychology, history, literature, math, science, foreign languages, theater, video, music, art, physical education, and other disciplines.

For all entering students, the curriculum sequence begins with skillsdevelopment courses, designed to address the key areas of writing, reading, communication and study skills. Self-management, as well as the development of self-understanding and self-advocacy, are also important parts of this firstsemester curriculum.

Initial courses are offered at non-credit and credit levels. This allows students to be placed in classes where they are able to succeed, from the start. Due to our rigorous academic standards, more than 50% of incoming students begin in non-credit courses, with most moving into credit courses after one or two semesters.

VISIT OUR CAMPUS

Landmark College offers several Open Houses on Saturdays each semester. You can also schedule a visit with our Admissions office any week day during regular business hours by calling 802-387-6718 or emailing admissions@landmark.edu.

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DESIGN WITH EQUITY IN MIND

By Tina Gridiron In my first five months as the newly appointed vice president for ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning (Center) it has been an honor to join the great work of ACT’s 60-year history and partner with colleagues from all around the world to continue building toward ACT’s future success.

As a mission driven nonprofit organization, dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success, ACT is trusted in the arena of college and career readiness. And, as a unit within ACT, the Center seeks to strengthen, deepen, and extend that trust by promoting tools, programs, policies, systems, and organizational efforts designed to address the challenges and barriers impeding opportunity and success.

Specifically, the Center harnesses ACT’s commitment to holistic success and the organization’s long-standing dedication to opportunity and inclusivity, in order to fight for fairness and success for diverse racial, ethnic, income, and accessibility groups. In short, the Center engages with aligned stakeholders to eradicate deep-seated racial and income injustices in our current education and workforce ecosystems and is intentional in designing solutions with equity in mind.

As an African American woman who is unapologetically committed to education, service, and equity, joining ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning has been an unexpected gift where my personal passion has joined seamlessly with professional opportunity. Some may call it serendipity and others may call it luck. But, whatever the spark, through the Center’s efforts to address systemic opportunity gaps and success barriers, I have been given the opportunity to advance programs and strategies designed to affect real change in the lives of students from low-income backgrounds and students of color.

As the Center elevates research, builds 56

coalitions, and supports programs that consistently contribute to student success, we champion large scale efforts which mirror the meaningful supports that mentors, colleagues, and friends have given me throughout my education journey. The Center serves as a collaborator and bridge builder across all of ACT, strengthening and enhancing ACT’s long-standing commitment to equity in the design, development, and implementation in all that we do. In short, the Center brings the heart of ACT’s mission to life as we strive to help all individuals achieve their education and workforce goals and dreams.

Without question, as ACT continues to grow, evolve and mature, future generations of individuals from low-income communities, Black/African American learners, Latinx learners, individuals who are the first in their family to seek postsecondary education, and individuals with exceptional abilities, among others, will be supported to realize their dreams.

A prime example of how the Center consistently engages in efforts designed to increase student success can be seen in the many years of support and collaboration that the Center has enjoyed with Excelencia in Education, Univision, and the Association of Latino Administrators

American Consortium for Equity in Education

and Superintendents (ALAS). With each collaboration, the Center has systematically addressed sinkholes along the education pathway that disproportionately affects Latinx students.

In particular, the Center has promoted data-infused strategies to fill holes in the education pathway and has partnered with others to fortify the road to success for future generations of students. Through the Center’s support for Excelencia’s Growing What Works database and the Examples of Excelencia program, along with our support for other effective college preparation, access, and completion strategies such as Univision’s parent fairs and social media engagements, and our commitment to growing a community of highly prepared Latinx leaders through the ALAS Superintendents Leadership Academy, we have placed a high emphasis on advancing strategies that matter and have made common cause with those committed to Latinx student success.

In similar fashion, when addressing the education challenges and promoting the education success of Black and African American students, over the years the Center has turned to leaders like Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy (dean and professor of Education in the School of Education at American University) and Clayborn Carson (professor of History at Stanford University and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute) to better understand the current realities facing Black students’ success and ensure that we are considering strategies for system improvements.

Each leader we have worked with has provided insightful perspectives on the complex reasons behind the roadblocks and speed bumps along the education and workforce pathways traversed by Black and African American students, while artfully outlining the creative strategies needed to overcome and eliminate each barrier. Whether through the promotion of self-efficacy, improvements in the cultural

competence of school counselors, and/or the dual power of peace and justice efforts, each leader has challenged our thinking and our assumptions. Through their research and advocacy, we are reminded that while change is never easy, it is always necessary if we seek to improve.

ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning was launched in 2016 and strives to connect ACT’s transformational work in the areas of Learning, Measurement, and Navigation with meaningful equity-focused programs and activities across the education and workforce ecosystem. From its inception, the Center has served as a vehicle for ACT to highlight diverse voices, to collaborate with diverse leaders, and to advance diverse strategies to achieve true impact and change. Over the last 60 years, ACT has established a strong foundation and with each new day the Center builds on that foundation by designing tools and solutions for more equitable and just education and workforce outcomes.

I remain convinced that the systems, policies and programs we design can light each student’s path toward success. All that is needed is a collaborative spirit, a success mindset, and an intentional design with equity in mind. Together, we are stronger. And as we look to the future, the Center is committed to building deeper connections, clearer education pathways, and easy to understand road signs so tomorrow’s students will reach their personal and professional milestones and dreams. A successful design with equity in mind.

Tina Gridiron, Vice President of ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning, has led grant initiatives as an officer and director for Lumina Foundation where she worked extensively with community colleges, minority-serving institutions and regional comprehensive institutions. She has also served as the acting director of the Black Community Services Center at Stanford University.

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Landmark College Expands in California Bay Area with Planned Success Center

By Mark DiPietro

As part of its broader expansion of learning options under an emerging umbrella brand called LC Online, Landmark College has announced plans to open a “Success Center” in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021.

This West Coast expansion will help meet increasing demand for learning support for students, both face to face and online.

“Over the course of the past several years, there has been escalating interest in the Bay Area for additional resources that help students who learn differently,” said President Dr. Peter Eden.

“LC’s full-time, residential program in Vermont draws students from across the United States and the world, and our rapidly growing online initiative, LC Online, serves students literally anywhere—but this targeted expansion will allow for even more direct support for online students and parents in the Bay Area.”

For many years, Landmark College has offered Online Dual Enrollment for high school or gap/transition year students with learning and attention challenges as an opportunity to earn college credits while still in high school. In addition, LC also offers online course options for college-level students, which are currently being expanded in order to bring effective educational methods to students who learn differently but will not study on LC’s Vermont campus.

Landmark College has had some presence in California for many years. It previously offered a one-week transition-to-college program each summer on the campus of UC-Berkeley, a program that has now been adapted into a five-day Online Boot Camp.

LC’s West Coast expansion includes the hiring of Sandra Fishler as its new regional director for Landmark College’s online programs in the Bay Area. Fishler is based at the campus of LC’s close partner, Compass High School in San Mateo, which is the site of LC’s planned Success Center. Landmark College has also provided domain expertise as a participant in Compass’s recent online webinar series. (Compass’s head of school is Doug Killin ’87, one of LC’s earliest alumni.)

“Having Sandra onsite demonstrates our commitment to students and families in the Bay Area, and reaffirms our promise to bring Landmark College practices and instructional supports to students who have not had such opportunities, until now,” said Dr. Manju Banerjee, vice president for educational research and innovation at Landmark College.

Fishler comes to LC from HotChalk, Inc., where, as director of academic affairs, she collaborated with many university partners. Her role is the first step in what LC projects to be a growing support system and capability for online students on the West Coast.

Once established, the Landmark College Success Center will have a learning specialist on site who will offer academic support to students with LD. Some social skills support will also be offered. Services will be available to students regardless of whether they are enrolled in LC Online programming.

Fishler’s role is to network with schools, educators, and education professionals on the West Coast to build connection with the College’s online programs. LC has also expanded its recruitment efforts in the region: Sharon Farrell is the new assistant director of West Coast Admissions, who will work alongside Fishler as well as from her home in the Bay Area; and Landmark College alumna Erica Loveland ‘20 oversees recruitment in the West Coast market area that includes California, Oregon, and Washington.

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BOVINE AIR & EDUCATORS WHO CARE High-Performing Schools in Rural & High-Poverty Places

By Angela Hinton, Cathy Garner, Kristen Senn, Norman Mayfield, Emily Daniel, Marsha Adler, Allison Dupler, Brittany Acquisto and Brittany Green Nestled among pastures and farms, centered between two beautiful lakes with mountain views in rural Upstate South Carolina, the heartbeat of Carlisle-Foster’s Grove Elementary School is fueled by intentional relationships that build a culture of efficacy among teachers and students. Through collaborative efforts with teachers, parents, and community, the school maximizes every moment, every day, to weave together the knowledge, life, and career skills that ensure student success at a rural school with more than 55% pupils in poverty that earned the distinction of becoming a 2019 National Blue Ribbon School for high achievement over time.

Less than 10 miles down the road, tucked away in the small town of Chesnee, SC is Chesnee Elementary School, a Title I school with approximately 70% poverty which was the second-highest performing Title I School and eighth-highest performing school in the state (out of 663 elementary schools) on the 2019 SC School Report Card.

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Making High Performance a Reality in High-Poverty Schools Both of these schools are shining lights in Spartanburg School District Two, a district with high-performing schools throughout; however, what these schools really have in common is a sustained focus on continuous improvement by the implementation of our district’s Instructional Focus on high impact Teaching and Learning Teams (TLTs), Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and the coupling of best practices with vetted digital tools to further differentiate and personalize learning and success for all students.

This continuous focus and commitment to continuous improvement has transformed both schools into exemplary models of high-performing schools in rural, high-poverty settings.

At both schools, teams of teachers collaborate together, with the support of instructional coaches and administrators, to implement the

American Consortium for Equity in Education

TLT process using the district’s High Impact Instructional Cycle. During scheduled weekly meetings, educators work together to collaborate on standards-based curriculum and instruction and plan next steps to meet each student’s needs. During TLTs, teachers want to ensure that they truly have an understanding of what students need to learn by carefully unpacking the standards to create learning progressions, goals, and success criteria that is communicated to the students.

striving to ensure that every child gets what he or she needs whether academically, socially, or emotionally.

• Analysis of data plays a critical part in planning and differentiating instruction at both schools • Small group instruction is the catalyst for addressing individual student needs based on students' strengths, weaknesses, and interests • Classroom instruction reflects the importance of addressing the many different learning styles of students • By constantly looking at student data, teachers constantly plan for how to differentiate and personalize the instruction in the classroom to meet students’ needs

Supporting Both Academic & Life Skills During TLT time, teachers find that certain students continue to struggle, so they use the Response to Intervention (RtI) process, an important part of our systemic, MTSS Framework of supports. Using this process, teachers can focus on specific skills and interventions that can be used to push students to the next level by meeting them where they are.

In addition to RtI, social and emotional well-being is also an important part of our MTSS framework. Centering on the needs of students beyond academics is vital to both their academic and personal success. This means

As a part of our Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework at each school, students are taught what it means to behave properly in all aspects of the school program.

They also earn special privileges and treats individually and collectively to reinforce and reward positive behavior.

The goal of our MTSS Framework is to ensure that all students attain mastery of the standards, develop healthy, strong relationships; acquire the soft skills to work with others; and develop positive attitudes toward lifelong learning. Our MTSS framework gives our students support in both academic and life skills.

Rigor Builds Equity In addition to our high impact TLT process and the MTSS Framework, the third critical piece of our instructional focus is the coupling of sound, research-proven instructional practices with vetted instructional technology to further differentiate and personalize instruction for students and increase students’ mastery of the standards and subsequent achievement.

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At both schools, there has been a constant focus on providing solid, guided instruction in literacy and math. Guided instruction is a time for the teachers to use data to pull together small groups of students and give them support on areas in which they commonly struggle.

Students not meeting with the teacher in a small group are able to work in another small group, with a peer, or independently on differentiated learning tasks designed to move them forward on their learning paths.

As part of guided instruction time, students utilize vetted instructional technology and adaptive software such as iReady to work on standards and skills they have yet to master. iReady: • Allows students to work on their learning paths as well as assignments from their teachers to ensure they are getting the level of instruction they need • Provides materials for teacher-directed, small group instruction as well as adaptive instruction designed to meet students’ learning needs in reading and math • Augments guided instruction, helping all students attain mastery of the standards over time • Challenge students who have already mastered the standards, pushing them forward in their learning In addition to the use of the TLT and MTSS processes and the coupling of guided instruction with powerful digital tools like iReady, educators in both of these schools firmly believe that rigor builds equity and that all students can learn and learn well!

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Mastery of Standards is for All Students We believe that when students are challenged and see that their teachers believe in them, amazing things will happen! Students who are typically low performing, as well as students with disabilities, can be pushed beyond what is expected. In these high-performing schools, students are met where they are and provided with intentional learning activities that allow them to reach proficiency and beyond.

Students at both of these schools know that they will be successful, given the appropriate time and support. They take ownership of their learning and pride in setting and reaching goals. And the best news of all is that all of these students and teachers know that these processes work for them — and that they can work in all grade levels and settings, whether a school is located across from a beautiful cow pasture like Carlisle-Foster’s Grove Elementary, tucked away in a very small town like Chesnee, or located in a bustling metropolitan area!

We thank the dedicated, equity-focused educators and leaders at Spartanburg School District 2 who contributed to this article: Angela Hinton, Cathy Garner, Kristen Senn, Norman Mayfield, Emily Daniel, Marsha Adler, Allison Dupler, Brittany Acquisto and Brittany Green

American Consortium for Equity in Education

MARCH/APRIL 2021

CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY Here, we celebrate the standouts who are making a true impact for equity in schools throughout the country.

There are so many wonderful educators out there — far too many to list in a publication like this — but we want to do our part to showcase the work of as many as possible.

Read. Share. Get involved. Enjoy!

Donald Bender Dessie Bowling Brice Cockfield Isabel Govea Jemma McMenamin Shaun Nelms Minerva Pardo Evan Whitehead Know someone who would make a great Champion of Equity in a future issue?

Take a minute to fill out the nomination form! If your nomination is selected, we’ll contact both of you to get the information we need.

NOMINATE A CHAMPION

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CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY DONALD BENDER Donald Bender is in his 40th year of education for migrant and bilingual education.

He serves as the Migrant Family Engagement and Student Leadership Coordinator for the regional Educational Service District #105 that serves Central Washington State. The ESD 105 Migrant Office is dedicated to supporting school districts by working together to meet the varied needs of migrant students, families, and their educators.

“The cultural and linguistic treasures that families bring to our schools and communities are like a natural resource that should be cultivated for the benefit of all.”

— Donald Bender

DESSIE BOWLING Dr. Dessie Bowling, Associate Director of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, is believes all kids and educators deserve access to resources and opportunities to engage in learning experiences that cause them to be passionate about taking ownership for their future story.

“The quality of life for any person and for any community should never be dictated by their zip code. That belief inspires and motivates me to continue my work as an educator.”

— Dessie Bowling

Donald was the leader in the development of an innovative home visiting summer school program for school-age children for migrant education. Instead of bringing children to the school, home visitors bring culturally responsive learning activities to the home.

This program has been replicated by many school districts in the region.

An outspoken champion for all learners and a fierce believer in providing access and opportunity for marginalized children and families, Dessie has worked tirelessly to focus effort on sustainable innovation for diverse career readiness opportunities. She has helped to lead multiple national initiatives that focus on the social-emotional well being of poverty-level children and families. Her drive and her commitment serve as an exemplar to educators across the country.

Learn more: esd105.org/domain/56

Learn more: kentuckyvalley.org

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CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY BRICE COCKFIELD

ISABEL GOVEA

Dr. Brice Cockfield wanted to help his staff deepen their understanding of equity. He, his leadership team and their digital learning created badges and t-shirts to encourage faculty to complete the self-paced Equity professional development course in the 7 Mindsets portal.

Dr. Isabel Govea is the Principal of Harkness Elementary School in Sacramento, Calif.

She uses the Leader in Me program in her school to address social-emotional needs in both kids and adults that are so essential. When it comes to students, Leader in Me provides a process for working with each learner regardless of individual needs

“Creating equitable opportunities for students, regardless of circumstance, is the real work of public education - it is the American dream. It is difficult, messy, and sometimes confusing work that requires patience, perseverance, and resilience.

There is no easy way. If it was, we would have solved it by now.”

— Brice Cockfield

“In order to get academic gains, you have to develop the whole person of everyone in the building―staff, faculty, kids. Everyone has aspirations and when you infuse support in everything you do, you have that intrinsic motivation for people to flourish.”

— Isabel Govea

The badges bore the slogan “All Means All” while the T-shirts sported the words: “All Means All Equity Hero.” Those badges represent what Dr. Cockfield calls “a micro-credentialling program for staff.”

Dr. Cockfield is looking forward to more courageous conversations with the staff as they lean into the importance of these discussions on equity, diversity, and inclusion.

To ensure her school is continuously improving its ability to meet all students' needs, Isabel focuses on developing the leaders in her school. She's passionate about coaching potential by finding and fostering talent in the adults around her. Dr. Govea deeply believes that developing the whole person is more important than a narrow focus only on academics. She believes that to achieve academic gains, you have to develop the whole person of everyone in the building — staff, faculty and students.

Learn more: schools.lexington1.net/CSMS

Learn more: harkness.scusd.edu

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CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY JEMMA MCMENAMIN An advocate for excellence and equity, sixth grade Palm Beach County, Florida teacher Jemma McMenamin routinely uses culturally relevant teaching practices to promote social emotional learning and rigorous learning opportunities for her students.

“2020 was a historical year for many reasons. It brought up a lot of sensitive issues for so many people. I knew going into this school year, I had to really prepare, not only my students, but myself as well. I just wanted my students and their families to feel supported and ease any anxieties going into this school year.”

— Jemma McMenamin

SHAUN NELMS Dr. Shaun Nelms is the Superintendent of Rochester, New York’s East High School. Beginning in 2014, he has led a transformation effort at East HS that started with establishing core values to change how students engaged with one another, as well as establishing a culture and climate of which all stakeholders are aware.

When everyone understands the culture, “they call out when actions don’t match the culture they seek to establish,” he says.

“I just want to make sure that there’s someone being a guardian of equity and a champion of equity for those kids, and if I can provide that, then great.”

— Shaun Nelms

To bridge the digital divide experienced by many disadvantaged students during distance learning due to COVID-19, Jemma hosted a series of summer virtual meetings with her incoming 6th grade students and parents to increase their capacity to navigate digital learning programs. Upon completing a summer course in Culturally Relevant Teaching, she also hosted summer virtual forums for students to talk about the civil unrest that took place during the summer as well as their anxiety about transitioning to middle school.

As a result of culture-first efforts, the school has had a tremendous decrease in suspensions, to go along with equally impressive increases in graduation rate and parent engagement.

Shaun and his team also focus on building capacity in others, ensuring opinions are truly valued, giving support so people can take chances without operating in fear, and celebrating their competency daily.

Learn more: palmbeachschools.org

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Learn more: rcsdk12.org/east

CHAMPIONS OF EQUITY MINERVA PARDO

EVAN WHITEHEAD

Minerva Pardo, Family Engagement Coordinator for the West Valley School District in Yakima, Washington and a national trainer for the Strengthening Families Five Protective Factor Framework, worked with the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance to translate all training materials into Spanish.

Evan Whitehead is the Director of Special services for a PK–8 school district in Illinois.

He’s also a national consultant, trainer and presenter with Dr. Ruby K. Payne’s aha! Process, Inc., providing local and national trainings, presentations, and speaking engagements.

“We must change the narrative of martyrdom in our profession. Educators are compassionate, empathetic givers, and fixers by nature. We sometimes care more about those we serve than we care about ourselves.”

— Evan Whitehead

"Talking about inequalities places people in a hurtful, shameful and even hopeless state. The work of diversity, equity, and inclusion is the process for healing."

— Minerva Pardo

Evan has served as special education paraprofessional and teacher, Latino parent outreach coordinator, dean of student discipline, community outreach coordinator, Director of Tile 1, Special Services, Bilingual Education and ELs and Assistant Superintendent.

The goals of this initiative are: 1) Build resilience among students, families, and communities 2) Build leadership skills for parents as the first and most important teachers and advocates for their children 3) Support school staff to lead family-friendly schools and culturally responsive classrooms.

He is also a passionate mental health advocate, mindfulness practitioner and proponent of equity, diversity and intercultural competency. His 3Bs, Balance, Boundaries, and Breaks, promote a lifestyle of self -advocacy in the areas of mental health, mindset, self-care, and well being.

Learn more: ahaprocess.com

Learn more: wvsd208.org

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at School • apafdn.org/schools

Notice. Talk. Act. at School School Mental Health Education Program Our professional development curriculum, developed with education and mental health professionals, helps school staff know how to best: NOTICE warning signs TALK with the student ACT appropriately in referring students to resources

What’s Included? »

E-Learning Module (30-40 mins)

»

lassroom Module Designed to be C Tailored to your School

»

Online Assessments

»

18-months of Learning with New Courses, Based on Your School’s Assessments

Learn More & Access Free Resources Visit us at apafdn.org/schools to learn more about our professional development, utilize our free resources, or view our recorded town halls. Resources include: FAQ Mentally-Healthy Schools in Times of a Pandemic Notice. Talk. Act. at Home Coping Skills What Do Disruptive Behaviors Indicate?

Twitter: @PsychFoundation | Facebook: @apafdn

at School • apafdn.org/schools

What Do Disruptive Behaviors Indicate?

By Christopher Seeley, MSW When children display disruptive behaviors at school, it often means that there is turmoil in their lives. These behaviors are caused by underlying issues that students are trying to communicate.

They are purposeful and are their attempts to solve a problem. The American Psychiatric Association Foundation hosted a virtual town hall, What Do Disruptive Behaviors Indicate? Featuring psychiatrists and a juvenile rights expert. During this discussion we touched on why students may be displaying this behavior, how we can respond with compassion and empathy, and how schools can begin to address the school-to-prison pipeline.

What messages should adults receive when they see disruptive behavior?

The first message that you should receive as an adult is something is not right and I need to be supportive. One of our experts offered up an analogy of a fever: when someone has a fever, there is an underlying cause, the fever is just a symptom. The fever could be cause by a lot of different things, so we must figure out what it is to deliver the best treatment. Same for disruptive behaviors, we must see that as a symptom, with an underlying cause that we must discover. This discovery must be handled with compassion and empathy.

What can adults do when a youth is displaying disruptive behaviors?

It is crucial to understand the importance of giving that youth space when they might be displaying disruptive behaviors. Giving them a chance to cool off, reassess their emotions, and coming back to the conversation.

This is important for the adult to do as well, sometimes even engaging in an argument with a student who is being disruptive, can cause us to lose our cools. It is also important for adults to remember when they might be causing more harm then good and may need to remove them-selves from the situation. A youth may show that they are trying to remove themselves in other ways like putting their hood up or putting in headphones.

Seeing these as signs that they need a break, can prevent an outburst from even happening.

How can schools begin to address the school to prison pipeline?

The rise of trauma, especially racial trauma is going to continue to show itself in these ways at school.

When we can only provide the resource of police officers, then that is the only support they are going to be met with. The experts shared that we should notice when a student is showing disruptive as a sign for support services, not punishment. You need to start a conversation with the student to check-in, show you care, and to determine what might be causing this disruptive behavior to occur.

If further support is needed, then you need to take action, that can depend on your community resources or the resources at your school. We must not forget that these at still developing brains that need our help and support, we must be able to respond with compassion and empathy because we do not know what is causing this disruptive behavior to occur. We encourage everyone to check out our resource What Do Disruptive Behaviors Indicate?

Find out how you can bring our Notice. Talk. Act.™ at School key-frame to begin addresses the schoolto-prison pipeline in your local community.

Visit apafdn.org/schools

WE MUST END THIS UNCIVIL WAR A Call to Reflect Upon the Promise of Education

By David Adams

The vitality of our democracy flows through our public school system.

Thomas Jefferson knew this as he advocated for the establishment of a common education for all through his "Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge.”

Thurgood Marshall knew this as he dissented against the Supreme Court's unwillingness to desegregate that system, writing that, "Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together."

And First Lady Jill Biden knows this, having 72

dedicated her life and labor to improving this system.

These leaders recognized the foundational role that public education plays in developing citizenship and a concern for the common good. As we welcome the inauguration of a new administration following a time of great unrest and anxiety in this nation, it is time for us to reflect on the role that education can play in strengthening character and nurturing citizenship among those served by our public institutions.

Our national community has been through a lot over the last few years, culminating in an

American Consortium for Equity in Education

insurrection against the foundations of our society. It is not enough to condemn the actions at the US Capitol; true change follows from converting our outrage to effort, transforming our pain into purpose.

Some of our countrymen, untethered to civic institutions that reinvigorate our commitment to the common good, unprepared by an education system to disentangle feeling and thinking, and unable to distinguish between positions that nourish the need to belong from those that are constructive to the whole, have been made susceptible to ideas that would drive a stake into our ongoing pursuit of a more perfect union.

Our public schools hold the sacred duty to not only serve the public, but to create the public we serve.

To this end, I ask fellow educators to embrace this time of transition in our nation and recommit ourselves to a holistic public education. Let us commit to educating students who are equipped with the skills, values, and experiences necessary to cultivate consideration for others and a desire to contribute to their community; who know how to recognize sources of error in their thinking and the thinking of others while investigating truths about themselves and the world, and who pursue problem-solving through the lens of the common good. Let us use this transition as a moment to invest in moving our nation forward by fortifying the social, emotional, academic and civic foundations of our nation’s youth.

As educators, we can begin to do so by leaning into this moment. Rather than to run away from the unfortunate events that occurred in January or shrink from the opportunity to discuss the challenges in transition of power, we need to embrace these moments with the purpose of bridging misunderstanding and fostering community.

Lead discussions in your classrooms.

Create spaces for students to safely reflect.

Provide a forum where accurate information can be shared.

These interactions are the fire that will forge the democratic skills and values that students will utilize as adults - perspective taking, conflict resolution, personal and social responsibility, and active listening. These skills and virtues, as much as voting itself, are truly the foundation of our American community, of our democracy.

As President Biden exhorted us, “We must end this uncivil war.” We must find community.

The day is today. The time is now. We are the change we seek.

David Adams, Senior Director of Strategy at Urban Assembly, has spearheaded multiple initiatives to support the social-emotional development of more than 9,000 students at UA schools in New York City.

An expert on social and emotional learning, David sits on the board of CASEL. He is an author of The Educator’s Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence, and co-author of a chapter in the textbook, Challenges to Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs in Organizations. He is a Civil Affairs Officer in the Army Reserve and holds an M.Ed in Educational Psychology from Fordham University.

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A learner’s well-being doesn’t stop at physical distancing. They desperately need developmentally, socially and emotionally safe spaces as well. Though we never counted on a pandemic, we designed our spaces to move, change, and adapt to meet every learners’ needs. Especially now.

As believers and disciples of agency and equity for each and every learner, we believe now is not the time to retreat into past practices, but a time to tap our collective resources to collaborate, investigate, innovate and excel like never before.

Get to know us . Tour our spaces . Join the converversation of creating engaging spaces for extraordinary futures, whatever they may hold.

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