ACCESSI Bl LITY, COMPLIANCE AND EQUITY IN EDUCATION
WORKING TOGETHER TOWARD AN
EQUITABLE FUTURE
Thank you for being part of the premiere issue of AC&E, Accessibility, Compliance and Equity in Education. Your readership and what you do every day in the field of education makes all the difference in the world to students everywhere— and to us. Now it’s our turn to make a difference for you and your students. You may know me from my continuing work as host of Education Talk Radio, the daily weekday podcast. As I speak each day to educators, thought leaders, associations in education, authors, etc., more and more people are bringing up the subjects we are addressing—the issues of accessibility, equity and compliance.
We’ll work together to build an equitable school universe where all children have access to the same quality education. You’ll learn a lot and so will we. And I’ll need your help. Please reach out to me and the team with your ideas and examples. Send us articles, ideas and the resources you are finding to be most helpful. Share the information. Keep us in the loop and please don’t hesitate to email me any time at access2larry@gmail.com.
One key challenge for educators is the fact that there has been a tremendous “information and resource gap” in the Pre K-20 space concerning accessibility, compliance and equity. It comes up again and again. The issues of AC&E are top of mind in education. From teachers in the classroom to superintendents, school boards and parents. Accessibility, compliance and equity are not just buzz words. They are a call to action. As you strive each day to deliver the best education in the world to millions of children, you have our pledge that we’ll get you the information you need and show you the tremendous resources that the education industry provides.
Sincerely, Larry Jacobs, M.Ed. AC&E Publisher
THE AC&E TEAM PUBLISHER, DIRECTOR OF SALES Larry Jacobs access2larry@gmail.com EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CREATIVE DIRECTOR Maia Appleby maia@ace-ed.org
A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR BOARD OF ADVISERS
Linnette Attai President and Founder, Playwell, LLC | Tracy Gray, Ph.D. Carolyn Jacobs Fraser Shein. Ph.D., P.Eng.
ACE-ED.ORG
Keith Krueger CAE Stephen Wakefield Vice
Accessibility, Compliance and Equity in Education | Summer, 2018
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SUMMER, 2018
CONTENTS 4 8 10 14
Understanding the Cynthia Curry Let’s Talk E-Rate Compliance Peter Kaplan Access for All: Practical Steps Toward Website Accessibility Steve King and Jessica Scheckton Is Access All We Need? Art Willer
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Using Locally Grown Data to Improve Parent Engagement, Access and Equity Steve Clark The Equity Case for High-Quality Digital Content Marty Creel Empowering Students to Become Comfortable With Writing Quillsoft Access and Application Max Bogert
Sandra K. Darling
UNDERSTANDING THE DEFINITION OF
ACCESSIBILITY Cynthia Curry
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A staple of educational equality for decades, accessibility of learning materials and technologies has increasingly been catching the attention of education stakeholders on both sides of the marketplace. The process has exposed multiple perspectives of what accessibility means, who requires it, and how the responsibility of education agencies is met. Fortuitously, this emergence of awareness converges at a time that (a) the education product marketplace is showing a response to the need for accessibility and (b) prime technical assistance is available from organizations that have long been working to increase both the availability and use of accessible educational materials and technologies. sion systems, thereby improving the independence, participation, and progress of all learners. In the pursuit of seeking understanding, accessibility has taken on varias meaning “when a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally integrated and equally effective manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.” Key phrases are “equally integrated,” “equally effective,” and “substanstudents with disabilities are provided with curriculum materials in necessary formats and technologies with appropriate features in a timely time as students without disabilities.”
ACE-ED.ORG
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The unfortunate truth is that many education result of being introduced to the OCR through the of OCR’s settlements with states and districts that have received complaints about inaccessibility from students or their families. While the target of K-12 litigation has primarily been the inaccessibility of agencies’ public-facing websites, higher education cases have involved complaints of digital inaccessibility closer to the point of student learning, such as videos without closed captions, third party internet-based applications that are inaccessible to screen readers, and clickers that aren’t usable by students who are blind or have physical disabilities. The settlements are also consistent in the range of actions that the parties agree to in the interest of voluntarily resolution. Examples are agreeing to conduct accessibility audits, create new accessibility policies, implement related procedures, conduct training for faculty and staff, and hire or designate an accessibility specialist.
While the shadow of litigation is an undeniable factor in educational stakeholder attention to accessibility, a societal shift in how disability is perceived has had its own impact. Instructional practices that address the capacity of all students to teaching and learning. Research has produced curriculum frameworks that address learner variability. An example is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs. Educators who have adopted such frameworks know the curriculum will fail if students with disabilities can’t participate because the materials provided to them aren’t equally effective or equally integrated and are without substantially equivalent ease of use. Success depends on the availability of educational materials and technologies that all students can access and use for learning.
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Many developers are responding by either already marketing products that meet accessibility standards or learning how to do that. The best way to acquire accessible learning materials and technologies is to be purposeful in your procurement practices. Start by requiring that all materials and technologies purchased by your agency be accessible. This is a necessary stance to prevent barriers to learning. Incorporate accessibility into your purchasing policies and practices, including conformance with Section 508/WCAG 2.0 AA. Include accessibility language in contracts and purchase orders. The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning (AEM Center) has sample language for both print and digital materials. Ask for Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPAT). The VPAT is a tool for vendors to self-report the accessibility of their products. While the VPAT should not be the sole source of product accessibility data, it can be used in ACE-ED.ORG
combination with other purchasing strategies to gather information. Finally, recruit students to be product testers. The greater the learner variability among the students in your testing group, the better. For example, students who use assistive technology will not only be able to demonstrate the product’s interoperability with their devices or software, they can also provide feedback on their unique user experience. The promise of accessible materials and technologies has never been greater for learners who need them. Standards, guidance, and technical assistance are accompanied by an increasingly dominant ethos that all kids can learn when provided with the curriculum and materials that enable them to do so. States and districts can take advantage of the moment by self-assessing steps toward including accessibility. Cynthia Curry is the Director of the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning.
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LET’S TALK
E-RATE COMPLIANCE The E-rate program is a federal program the Federal Communication Commission oversees that provides $3 billion in annual discounts on high-speed Internet services to K-12 school districts. Schools and libraries were included in the Universal Service provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications Act to help close the digital divide. Funds For Learning understands the importance of high-speed broadband, especially as students take regularly scheduled high-stakes online tests and use devices for classroom instruction. The work of a district can come to a screeching halt if the internet goes down for any length of time. However, with any federal program, there are very strict rules and regulations that must be followed necessary to help defray the expense of these services. This provides a dilemma for states and localities, as districts should not have to choose between internet access or cutting school budget. and a myriad of deadlines throughout the year. It is clear that applying for these federal funds and understanding the compliance requirements is a full-time job, on top of all the other responsibilities administrators have. The FCC acknowledged this
PETER KAPLAN FUNDS FOR LEARNING in a 2006 order that provided common-sense followed to the letter of the law that applicants should not have their funding for that year completely denied. The FCC noted that “….the primary jobs of most of administrators, technology coordinators and teachers, as opposed to positions dedicated to pursuing federal grants, especially in small school districts…” following all state and federal procurement eligibility requirements, determine whether the district has enough budget and resources to
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“There are many unintended consequences that, in most cases, make complying with new cover the non-discounted portion of the project and if there was a fair and open competitive bidding process.
compliance with all the E-rate regulations. Funds For Learning conducted a recent data analysis that demonstrates why it is necessary to have district
Districts need to follow all state and federal procurement guidelines as well. In addition to
on non-compliance, from 2013-2016, there was an average of $4.43 million the FCC collected from districts and in 2017, the number surged to $60.8 million. The average amount districts had to return after the service was delivered and funds were already sent to the district was $215,876 in 2017.
documentation associated with their requests for a 10-year period, based on when the service terminates. The document retention requirement and all too often as those that handle E-rate at the districts move from one job to another, the documentation trail gets misplaced or lost. The FCC does not consider losing any E-rate documentation a minor infraction and regularly compliance with the E-rate program. The audits can come anytime within a year or even more than have all the E-rate documentation it is seeking, the FCC will ask the district to return disbursed E-rate funds. In other words, the typically cash-strapped district funds — whether the cost is $10,000 or $5 million — because the district could not clearly demonstrate they complied with the rules at the time they requested the E-rate support. As a best practice, districts should have representatives from the technology department, system and internal controls in place to ensure
ACE-ED.ORG
In 2014, the FCC released new E-rate rules and many of these new rules were designed to simplify and streamline the application process. While I supported the intent of these new regulations, there are many unintended consequences that, in most cases, make complying with new regulations even more 2014 Order and along with stakeholder input, the less burdensome for school administrators to apply and comply with the E-rate program regulations. About the author: Peter Kaplan has been a Client Solutions Executive at Funds For Learning for 17 specializing in the federal E-rate funding program. Our mission is to provide high-quality consulting and support services for the needs of E-rate program participants, including preparing and submitting paperwork, and helping our clients to understand and maintain compliance with E-rate rules and regulations.
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As PR professionals, we spend countless hours honing our messages and perfecting our designs and layout to maximize the chances that our audiences will choose to read our communications. Why wouldn’t we also spend the time to make sure that the estimated -
THE REALITIES OF WEB USE Wide Web, said, “The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of is that many of us are simply unaware of the obstacles individuals with disabilities face trying to use our websites, and of the legal obligation school districts have to remove those obstacles. That’s now changing, thanks in large part to stepped-up enforcement by the U.S. Depart(OCR). Spurred on by an increase in comresponding by requiring districts named in the complaints to ensure the ongoing accessibility of their web-based information.
COMPLYING WITH FEDERAL RULES
So what are the rules governing the accessibilis Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Congress amended it in 1998 to require federal agencies that receive federal funds, including schools, to ensure the accessibility of electronic and information technology, established a set of technical standards schools must follow to give people with disabilities access to information that is comparable to that provided to non-disabled users. However, the Section 508 standards are being revised, and OCR is increasingly seeking schools’ compliance with a more ambitious set of technical standards — the Web Content
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Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium. Most experts believe the new federal requirements will align with the WCAG. Then there is also the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires an “equal playing access to instruction, curriculum and participation in school-related activities to students regardless of disability.
THREE PRINCIPLES OF
ACCESSIBILITY
PERCEIVABLE
The information and interface must be available to the senses either through a browser or an assistive device. So, a visually impaired person who cannot see what’s on a webpage must be able to hear the words read aloud by a screen reader. Or a person who is hard-of-hearing must be able to read text captions synched to a video’s audio track.
OPERABLE must be able to interact with and operate all navigation, controls and interactive elements, either using a mouse, keyboard or assistive device.
UNDERSTANDABLE
Web-based content has to be clear and avoid confusion or ambiguity for a person with cognitive disabilities.
ACE-ED.ORG
While many aspects of accessibility lie in the hands of web development technicians or website vendors who build or provide the sites schools use, web authors also need to take extra steps when posting all types of content. And like websites themselves, accessibility is never “done.” Every time you add a piece of content or a new feature or interactive element, there are steps to take to make sure you haven’t undermined the accessibility of your site.
‘THE RIGHT THING TO DO’
Setting aside legal implications, most school leaders will recognize that making website accessibility a priority is simply the right thing to do, no different from ensuring ramp or site usability. These days, mobile responsiveness is a must in website design because we know the public is using smart phones and tablets to access the web, and we want them to be able to access our content on these devices. Should it be any different if their device is a screen In fact, think of it the same way you would sidewalk “curb cuts,” originally mandated to help wheelchair users gain access to sideever pushed a baby stroller or pulled a rolling suitcase onto a sidewalk. Making all of your web content accessible to people with disabilities can make visiting your site a better experience for everyone.
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A ‘CONTENT CURATION MINDSET’
Maintaining the accessibility (and usability) of your school website will require you to rethink how you are using your site to share online content with your audience. Abandon the old notion of “If it exists, post it on the site; it doesn’t cost anything!” In fact, there is a cost — the time and resources spent making all of that extra content accessible. Think of yourself as the site curator, sifting through and carefully choosing content. In other words, develop a “content curation mindset,” with the goal of shrinking your site and evolving it from an endless archive and PDF graveyard into a streamlined, focused seeks out and engages with information today. Your website should be used in concert with the other communication channels at your disposal. Effective communication is increasingly about more than simply informing; it’s about engagement. Websites are not engagement tools. They’re vehicles designed to deliver passive content. Social media, however, is an engagement tool, where more active content — student stories, photos and videos that people most want to interact with — can have the most impact. In its early stages, social media was an extension of websites, a place to reach people with content and direct them back to the website
audience uses social media anymore. They want to like, react, comment, share and retweet. They want to engage with you directly on the social network, without searching for information anywhere else.
RESPECTING AUDIENCES’ DESIRES
Content, no matter how relevant, means nothing if nobody sees it. Our audiences now choose how they get information based on what kind of information they seek, and we should respect that if we want our messages to stand up against the noise of 24/7 communication. If we do that, if we begin curating web and social content instead of posting everything everywhere, we naturally reduce the workload involved in ensuring that web content is accessible. Remember, we aren’t doing this just for the sake of compliance, but for the sake of usability and effectiveness of all our communications to ensure access for all. And isn’t that what public education and public relations are all Steve King is program manager and Jessica Scheckton is assistant director of communications and public relations for the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Education Services, Albany, N.Y. Contact them at stephen.king@neric.org or jessica.scheckton@neric.org.
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YOU’RE BRILLIANT.
(We knew that would get your attention!) But seriously, the work you do is incredibly important. We’re honored to be part of this movement with you. Follow us to keep in touch and stay informed about articles, interviews and the fall issue of AC&E.
TWITTER | FACEBOOK | LINKEDIN
IS ACCESS ALL WE NEED? In our enthusiasm for all things Internet, we have overlooked an important minority who cannot navigate online tools, the way the rest of us can. All encouragement goes to the access advocates who are raising their voices.
Art Willer acquire the required login and password. That is by far the most common way data breaches occur.
to address, there is more: privacy, security, and quality. I am writing to share actions to take, on all of these burning issues.
The teacher argued that all the other apps he was using did this for him, and suggested our company did not understand the problems a teacher faces. After all, we are only talking about children’s online learning records.
An online program should never transmit passwords, except for temporary password reset purposes. If a program can transmit passwords for one user, it can transmit them for any user who might
Parents have a very different opinion from this teacher. And the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) does too. It mandates all of us to protect children’s privacy, no questions asked.
-
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As a developer and publisher of online learning applications, half of our development cost is incurred in ensuring application security and privacy of users’ data. Strategies like never transmitting or displaying passwords are simply good practices that do not really cost us anything. It’s all the other potential breaches that do. For example, robotic programs called bots, attack our servers about 350 times per hour, looking for weaknesses to exploit. Fortunately, we have the knowledge, and we spend the money and effort to repel those attacks.
SUPERINTENDENTS AND PRINCIPALS, PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING:
Conduct a survey today, to determine every single application that is being used in your classrooms, whether it is free or not. Immediately stop using any application that prints lists of children’s names and passwords, because that application is in violation of the COPPA. Given the app is breaking such a simple security protocol, it probably has other more egregious security cation must display a privacy policy for all users including children. It must display personal contact information, so parents know who to ask should they want their children’s information removed or changed. These are just a few criteria, schools and districts must ensure for every online application they use. Ask about all applications and web sites in use, including common login sites, such as Google. Halt the use of common logins, until you have conducted a more thorough investigation of whether those logins, and the companies behind them, subscribe to COPPA. Free applications cannot be used without applying the same COPPA standards. All apps used in school, and those recommended by a school, have to comply with COPPA. Period. ing their use would halt almost all Internet usage, so be it. Go back to basics, call everybody to order, and move forward from there. Do this to comply with COPPA, and do it for the sake of the children. Their privacy and security, deserves our highest respect.
ACE-ED.ORG
ACCESS
When we think about accessibility, visually impaired people, and sight-free people usually come to mind. They are not the only people who need to be considered. For example, a person disability, also needs accessibility albeit in a different form. At my company, we increase accessibility for all users, by adding voice-over instruction. We build in the capability for every button to speak aloud its function. Spoken help is also provided. We also provide an adjustable interface, and ways to adjust other parameters of learning. Learning style can be viewed as an accessibility factor, so we build in ways to adjust our applications to suit different learning styles. to accommodate sight-free people. I recently discussed the matter with a sight-free woman who had a totally sight-free child. In frustration, she stated, “Every application that is accessible to us is boring and ineffective. Every application that is exciting, is not accessible.” The inherent challenge in online app development and access for sight-free people, is that excitement and effectiveness are achieved through visuals with accompanying sound. Meeting the needs of sight-free people (and others who need accessibility) is not just a matter of overhauling our application code. It is a matter of asking how we can be effective, with this deserving audience.
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SUPERINTENDENTS AND PRINCIPALS, HERE IS WHAT I SUGGEST: Identify the online apps that are being used in the classroom, which have an accessibility policy, or at least a discussion of accessibility in their teacher guides. My company does not post an accessibility policy (yet), but we include a substantial section about meeting special needs and being accessible, in our manager guide. Survey whether the apps you are using, even appear to provide access. Among those apps and companies who have they have addressed access, or they are in the process of addressing access. Contact the application developers to discuss their accessibility strategy. In my company’s case, we are actively looking for school districts to invest and work with us to develop truly effective interfacing for the broader audience. If you are an accessibility advocate, I also welcome your contact. Collaboration among accessibility advocates, school districts, and publishers will ultimately address the access challenge.
QUALITY
Imagine. A school committee has spent two months reviewing and evaluating several typing instruction apps. The committee informs me with despair: “We recommended purchasing your program, but the principal found a free app, and told us to use it instead.” Schools operate under limited budgets. Just as convenience does not excuse lax attitudes toward privacy, security, or access, neither do low budgets excuse the use of substandard learning resources in the classroom.
Our students deserve the best. If the money is not available – which is rarely the real case – we need to advocate for the money, not lower the standards. Superintendents and principals, here is what to do about quality: Survey your teachers to ask how many of them are using applications they know to be inferior, but are using them because budget is limited. You know what to do next.
SUMMARY I see four pillars of online learning that are all tied together: privacy, security, access, and quality. They go together because the absence of any one pillar, is unacceptable. When online learning is not properly implemented or managed, all four elements are often missing. The challenge to acquire all four is solved by properly examining what we are providing our students to experience in the classroom. We must cull the apps that do not meet professional standards, and provide the money to get the applications that do. The vast majority of available apps do not meet professional education standards, and this is all the more reason vetting from all perspectives, needs to happen. Let’s get back to basics and start putting or prestige of being on the Internet. intendents and access advocates to partner with companies like mine. The work needs to go well beyond technical accessibility. The challenge is to build apps that are effective in educating people who have a range of capability sets, be they physical or cognitive. Art Willer is a former classroom teacher with post-graduate study in education. He is the founding president of Bytes of Learning, best known for its computer-based and online keyboarding instruction title, UltraKey. Visit: www.
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EyeSpy 20/20™ Children Deserve a Better Vision Screening More than 10 million children in the U.S. suffer from vision problems that may contribute to poor academic performance. EyeSpy 20/20™ is designed to change lives through early detection of vision disorders and preventable blindness in school age children.
E EyeSpy 20/20
TM
V i s u al A c u i ty • D e p t h P e rce p t ion • Color V is ion • D a t a M a n a g e m e n t
EyeSpy 20/20™ is the accurate, time-saving and easy-to-use computerized vision screening program that evaluates the ENTIRE vision system via a child-friendly video-game. Medically validated by the Storm Eye Institute(Charleston, South Carolina), EyeSpy 20/20 increases the accuracy of vision screenings by computerizing intelligent screening protocols, automatically choosing the correct optotype based on age, and testing for visual acuity, depth perception, and color vision. Results are automatically collected and reports can be printed in Spanish or English. Early intervention of students with vision disorders detected by EyeSpy 20/20™ could save school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars. A traditional vision screening costs between $10 and $15 per child, lacks standardization, relies heavily on human interruption, and does not provide automated data collection and reporting. The EyeSpy 20/20™ vision screening program costs approximately $5 per child, standardizes the screening process, does not rely on human interpretation, and provides automated data collection and reporting.
In addition to being more accurate and affordable, EyeSpy 20/20™ evaluations are more comprehensive – assessing visual acuity, depth perception, and color blindness. We’ve screened over half a million students across the country; more than 100,000 needed eye exams and 90 percent of those required corrective lenses. EyeSpy 20/20 can be installed on an unlimited number of computers, and includes lifetime access to a secure, cloud based HIPAA and FERPA-compliant data collection and reporting system. You can now enjoy a quick and easy solution to vision screening that children love!
FEATURES: • • • • • • • •
Visual Acuity Depth Perception Color Vision Automated bilingual reporting Automated data collection Scientifically validated Unlimited screening on multiple computers Extensive data reporting options
Visit: EYESPY2020.com
USING LOCALLY GROWN DATA TO IMPROVE PARENT ENGAGEMENT, ACCESS AND EQUITY
By Steve Clark As educators do their best to navigate the enormous complexity of “what matters” these days, the recent trend to organize initiatives according to three fundacompliance, and equity – is helping. The core focus of what matters is undeniably a quality education for all students, and more and more we see data metrics helping to guide decision making toward that very important goal. district administrators diligently search for enduring answers to what matters, the role of parents is frequently overlooked. And their needs for access and equity, where are frontline educators
IS DATA IN CHARGE? Traditionally, bureaucracies lean ideologies. In the business of education, with every child’s learning at stake, the need to get it right is pervasive. As a result, we see a strong reliance on case studies, pilot programs, and a truckload of data before anyone risks a decision. When it comes to parent engagement, there seems to be a dearth of data. Perhaps because of this, districts struggle to know where to turn for solid answers.
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In his book, “The Tyranny of Metrics” (Princeton Press, 2018), Jerry Muller aims a glaring light at the false certainty that data gives us. Whether it is organizational performance data, pro-forma accounting, standardized test prep, or political polls, the potential for “gaming the data” to create preferable results is widely practiced. Despite the gamesmanship and intentional skewing, our society places enormous conmaking decisions hollow reasoning.
based
on
This is not to say data isn’t hugely helpful, but what data, from what source, and knowing what it tells create new parent engagement programs, PD trainings and compliance tools because they lack reliable data, then why not create programs that will supply both the access and equity being sought, and some data to help make improvesolutions, not be slaves to data.
A COUPLE EXAMPLES We were a committee of district department heads and a facilitator – me – tasked to increase access and equity for parents. It was already March and I asked what information we had on what parents thought and wanted. The answer was, none. I asked if we could do a survey. They liked the idea. The usual way was to take 2-3 months to request board approval for the funding ($100,000 to 150,000), followed by 3-5 months researching then a few months to create the survey. If all went the analyzed results published by April or May and new programs could be constructed from there. I asked if we could put something up on Survey Monkey and distribute it through parent group email rosters. Four weeks and zero cost. It wouldn’t replace the professional study, but we would at least have something to work from and could begin implementing new programs in September. They looked at me like I was suggesting a mutiny. Perhaps I was.
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While working with refugee families who wanted a simple solution – an immediate and clarifying conversation about how their children were doing in school – I saw how waiting on data kept parents from receiving equity and access. The schools languages spoken, dialects, cost of translators, frequency of need, and where to best hold these conversations. Knowing these people were desperate and that many in their ethnic circles were willing to help each other, especially for the sake of the kids, I asked if it were possible, as a temporary solution, to invite family or community members who spoke some English to volunteer as translators. They could be given some basic instructions and kept on a contact list. At least some people could be helped immediately while setting up the larger studies to get better data. This made no sense to them. Access and equity doesn’t mean everyone all the time. It means addressing issues that restrict access, and providing equity where it is lacking. Some solution right now is better than waiting for a universal approach. The principles are what guides us best, not the safety of proof. Leadership isn’t about waiting on better data, or more data. It isn’t about waiting to be told from above. Sometimes, the data may not be there until you give people a choice and an experience to respond to. Sometimes we just need to use our good judgment and act for the sake of those in need.
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CULTIVATING ACCESS, EQUITY, AND COMPLIANCE Here are some gateway ideas that would help improve access and equity until better ideas come along. They can also be used to verify compliance. They don’t require data-based decision making. Just some willingness and common sense. The idea behind them is to create new practices and realities that will work toward level-
Volunteer management
An online volunteer management service with unlimited numbers of participants can be hired for less than $20,000 a year. Communications, (data) are all reasons to hire a company and grow your volunteer force.
Publish your numbers a public website, and creating an awareness around it, schools would be motivated to improve.
Know your lost sheep
As parent engagement numbers improve, identify who is still not participating and take direct action to engage them.
Capture your info
Some data is better than no data.
Non-digital communications teachers and staff can give more attention to those who lack digital access or literacy.
PC recycling
Parents and schools can donate older hardware to a PC recycling program where refurbished PCs, monitors, keyboards, mouses, and printers are then provided to families in need. Online translation apps, volunteers, and free ESL classes will help to reduce language barrier problems.
Build community ing with them schools can become a hub of ideas, solutions, and fresh data.
PLANT SOME DATA SEEDS Once any of these ideas is implemented the practices themselves will create more and more access for everyone: access to information and opportunity. They create more equity by providing what was lacking and exposing areas where equity is still lacking. Compliance must be measured against established standards. These practices allow those measurements to be found. ents helps everyone, especially the students. We need to stop waiting for data and ideas from above, and at least plant some seeds so the organic process can have a chance to grow. Steve Clark (@parentengagemnt) has more than 18 years of experience as a highly-engaged parent of students in public schools. He is founder and president of Leading to Your Success, an organizational learning and technology consultancy, and in 2017 launched its subsidiary, Parent Engagement Solutions.
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YOUR STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO PROTECTING STUDENT DATA PRIVACY
Protecting the privacy of student data is a fundamental responsibility of today’s school systems. As education leaders, you need to be empowered to make the right decisions about protecting student data privacy, for today and for the future. In Linnette Attai’s new book, Student Data Privacy: Building a School Compliance Program, you’ll learn what it takes to build a program that protects the personal information of your students while supporting your broader school mission.
Available now
“This is a foundational, must-read book that helps educators understand how to get started with concrete actions that build trust with parents and policymakers.” KEITH KRUEGER, CEO, Consortium for School Networking
About the Author For more than 25 years, Linnette Attai has been building organizational cultures of compliance and guiding clients through the complex obligations governing data privacy matters, user safety and marketing. She is the founder of PlayWell, LLC, a full-service compliance consulting firm that takes the complexity out of developing compliant and responsible practices within the framework of your organization’s capabilities, capacities and goals. Learn more at PlayWell-LLC.com and follow us on Twitter @PlayWell_LLC. © PlayWell, LLC™
PlayWell,
LLC
THE EQUITY CASE FOR HIGH-QUALITY DIGITAL CONTENT Lorem ipsum
By Marty Creel In my current role as Discovery Education’s Chief about different nations’ educational systems as I’ve worked with our network of partners worldwide. This wonderful experience has shaped my belief that the United States’ education system, when judged on the totality of its mission, is among the greatest public service initiatives in history. However, that is not to say that our system is not without its issues. When it comes to the challenges American education faces, I tend to agree with the position of Karen Cator, President and CEO of Digital Promise, who, in a 2014 blog post, stated, “The problem with education in America is not lack of excellence. It’s lack of equity.” Despite the tremencators display each day as they meet the needs of their increasingly diverse learners, as Cator states, equity is a critical issue we must overcome.
“THE PROBLEM WITH EDUCATION IN AMERICA IS NOT LACK OF EXCELLENCE. IT’S LACK OF EQUITY.” At Discovery Education, we have a strong sense of duty to the mission of improving equity within our education system. Likewise, we feel that digital content can be a tremendous asset in this effort. However, not all digital content is equal. While the internet is awash in free digital content purported to be appropriate for classroom use, we believe standards-aligned High Quality Digital Content audiences and curated by experts for ease of access is among the most powerful resources available to school systems seeking to improve equity. Some of the key characteristics of HQDC are on the following pages.
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HQDC GIVES US THE ABILITY TO: IMPROVE THE VOCABULARY OF THE YOUNGEST LEARNERS
The gap between students from high socioeconomic backgrounds and those impacted by poverty begins early. It’s well known that students entering pre-school from dual-income families with higher education levels have much deeper and more extensive spoken vocabularies than those who do not. Students who speak a different language at home and encounter academic jump yet another hurdle. HQDC provides the youngest students exposure to a wide variety of school-oriented language. Whether it is through video that comes in dual languages, or digital text that can be read aloud through digital readers, early access to HQDC helps our youngest learners close the vocabulary gap.
BREAK DOWN BARRIERS TO LEARNING FOR ALL STUDENTS
Once students enter school, HQDC provides learners multiple pathways to understanding. The basic goal of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is to provide students as many ways as possible to learn, so that the various barriers to understanding can be overcome. HQDC is unique in that there is almost always another pathway to learning immeattractive visual design, students are naturally drawn into the material. If a student stumbles on the meaning of a word, well-designed HQDC provides alternative explanations. If they struggle with the text is too complex, it provides a lower level of complexity. If reading the text did not engage them, there is a video alternative, or better yet, an interactive tool to help them understand the concept. HQDC also provides multiple language options for students learning a second language. ACE-ED.ORG
PROVIDE ALL STUDENTS MULTIPLE WAYS TO SHINE
The other main goal of UDL is to provide students many ways to demonstrate what they have assignments, UDL encourages educators to let students show what they have learned in many different manners, from the traditional written response to a complex video production. HQDC resources should include simple opportunities for written responses, as well as rubrics and exemplary responses that give students examples and goals. In addition, HQDC must have structures in place that encourage the feedback loops between teachers and students and students and their peers. Most importantly, well-constructed HQDC provides students alternative venues for showing their understanding through a variety of mediums, such as simple graphical presentation, digital drawing, or quick self-produced video.
ENGAGE ALL STUDENTS IN HIGH-LEVEL THINKING
While digital content alone does not help students transition to higher level thinking, HQDC that is expertly curated to ensures more student engagement, which then results in richer thought. Whether it is a virtual reality experience, an information graphic, or a favorite video clip, HQDC deploys assets that make students want to read a passage, analyze data, solve a problem, or discuss a topic to learn more. Creating this type of learning ecosystem requires instructional architects who know the materials available to them and understand the pathways that help students reach high level standards. The architects of HQDC design educational content that works together, which ultimately saves teachers the considerable amount of time it takes to plan instruction that engages all in higher level thinking and learning.
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At Discovery Education, we put a premium on creating HQDC, because we believe it has the capacity to support our collective struggle to improve equity. We encourage our peers throughout the education services sector to do their part to improve equity by designing, building, and implementing HQDC that meet these criteria.
Today’s media-savvy students demand and deserve nothing less.
HQDC: HIGH-QUALITY
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With more than 26 years of experience as an educator, Marty Creel leads Discovery Education’s innovative Digital Instruction Group. Marty began his career as an engaging social studies teacher known for creatively using technology to deepen learning. As a district-wide curriculum, instruction, and professional development leader in a large urban/suburban school system, he was the architect of a thoughtful transition to instructional standards that empowered teachers and principals to support the success of each learner. He may be reached at marty_creel@discovery.com or found on Twitter @creelmar.
Quillsoft Ltd. (Toronto, ON) is a software company that arose from commercialization efforts by a consortium of Ontario-based researchers of rehabilitation technologies in the 1990s. Founded in 2000 by Dr. Fraser Shein, in partnership with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Quillsoft specializes in creating and distributing reading and writing literacy tools. Stemming from its R&D roots, innovation and research-based design remain at Quillsoft’s heart incorporating a passion to help people of all ages. Quillsoft began its journey helping children with special needs in education. Before long, teachers realized most students face some difficulty with writing and could benefit from our software. So, we transitioned to inclusive approaches helping the general student population. More recently, we began addressing the needs of post-secondary and ESL students. Most have related challenges; effective communication is a goal for all. We have always focused on quality and innovation over quantity of features; we don’t try to do everything, but rather be the best at what we do. Quillsoft aims to lead the field with new ideas and approaches. We are well-known for WordQ and SpeakQ software that incorporate word prediction, text-to-speech, and speech-to-text technologies. These technologies, developed in the 1990s are now ubiquitous and remain a great interest in special education. However, we emphasize it is not just the underlying technologies, but it is the higher-level strategies, helping and guiding, that offer effectiveness.
quillsoft.ca
1-844-37WORDQ (1-844-379-6737)
Our team includes technology experts and teachers with many years of experience. We understand the importance of pedagogy and integration of technology (and its challenges) within the classroom. Following the advice by an educational consultant, pre-dating Quillsoft but on the ground floor of developing WordQ, we purposely do not try to replace teachers, nor “fix” students. Further advice, which still applies today, is to make our software as simple as possible, and then make it simpler. When software is easy to use, students actually use it and benefit. In some cases, technology is not even necessary; for example, our strategies associated with proofreading can be learned and applied anywhere.
WE CONTINUE TO EMPOWER STUDENTS
to become comfortable with writing and concentrate on the content, quality, and originality without stress. Our greatest compliment is that our software helps reduce screaming in the home; before, parents would argue with their child over doing homework; afterwards, their child is more independent and asks for help when needed without nagging. Today, Quillsoft and its distribution partners operate in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although our business methods continually evolve to keep with the times, our ideology remains constant. We strive for a return on investment for our users: esteem, acceptance, confidence, achievement, belonging, worthiness, happiness, and success.
ACCESS AND APPLICATION Mac Bogert
The Internet is an astonishing resource, although some of us are more enamored of this phenomenon than others, and access to nearly infinite information includes lots of pitfalls as well as rainbows. More and more communities and school districts are pushing toward access to the web for all.
There’s lots of buzz about the internet transforming education. I think a safer—and more useful—vision is to see Information Technology as a tool, like the internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine did not transform transportation, its application did.
Equitable access for all students isn’t a new idea. Over the years, we’ve had the same conversation about every kind of resource, from textbooks to school nurses.
We can best harness Internet access if we transform how we see, and practice, teaching and learning. We know from a myriad of data that using computers within the old, industrial model of education-as-regurgitation has little positive affect on, and may even lower, achievement and application.
In a republic, we need everyone to be up-to-date on knowledge, issues and news, and we need a public that is uniformly able to make informed decisions. Though there are pockets of people in the country who have a tough time getting on line, most of us can find internet availability. There’s no reason to think we all won’t be hooked up before long. So let’s accept internet access as the upcoming default setting. Let’s use the opportunity this provides.
The beauty of IT is that it provides a golden opportunity to establish schools—all schools, not just the fortunate few—as communities of learning, with a new, broader, post-industrial theme of access and creative discovery.
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EXTRAMURAL ACCESS
We all remember intramural from high school sports, literally “within the walls.” We may not have heard of extramural, “outside the walls.” The Internet is one kind of extramural access. Every school will need to grapple with this complexity, seeking to use the web while not being used by it. That responsibility leads to an opportunity for self-governance and learning about accountability. Each school can establish an assembly, made up of students, teachers, parents and administrators, on a rotating basis. This assembly handles security, levels of access, spam, phishing, firewalls, trolling and other IT issues. They share their findings and actions via the school’s blackboard or other electronic newsletter. This provides a strong sense of kinship and helps students understand working collaboratively toward governance. Everyone benefits by becoming more savvy about Internet security. Extramural access is not limited to the web. A true community of learning embraces other schools, businesses, politicians and surrounding neighborhoods. Schools can provide coaching for younger students in sister schools, especially with regards to issues like safety on the Internet. Schools can become centers of information to educate politicians and entrepreneurs about communication and sharing information. They can foster extramural connections for mutual benefit. The more that schools can connect with their communities, the more value they add and the
ACE-ED.ORG
more their essentiality becomes visible. Schools are often the center for sporting events, social interaction and special gatherings like science fairs and back-to-school night. Why not help them grow into centers for municipal learning and involvement?
INTRAMURAL ACCESS
The tsunami of the Internet provokes change. We can throw up our hands, resist, bemoan and pine for the good old days. Or we can harness this energy to make better schools. Since students—and we’re all students—have a different and evolving sense of connectedness. Why not piggy-back that movement toward the evolution of an interactive learning environment within the school? The leftovers from school-as-factory, preparing children to be productive workers, fly in the face of research as well as common sense, especially when we are all a couple of thumb strokes away from access to the entire planet and to everything ever captured in human history. Public schools will go the way of the passenger pigeon if we can’t shake up the stale framework of limits and control. The web, especially open-source technology, is extremely democratic (from two Greek words for power and people). Since the old barriers are crumbling under the power of the Internet, let’s take this opportunity to introduce three transformative changes. These involve removing barriers to learning and connection.
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APPLICATION: TAKING ACTION
First, let’s do away with the traditional teacher/student separation. Teachers once had access to more knowledge than students. No more. What they offer is experience and insight that many students don’t yet have. So teachers become coaches, sounding boards, sources of insight and guidance. Managers of application rather than managers of pupils. They follow as much as lead the students. Second, give students space to work collaboratively, including mentoring and ad hoc project teams across age groups. Every school and every student (including tall students, aka adults) can benefit mightily from mentoring. No more grade levels. Separating students by age makes no sense in a world where a 15-year-old student who wants to seek a career in law enforcement can instantly access the work of a world-renowned expert in differential association theory. Third, establish forums, projects, and panels that focus on solving real-world problems and create an environment that encourages, even demands human beings talk to each other face-to-face. One of the traps of the Internet is diminished live human interaction. When we don’t spend real time working together—as opposed to virtual time—we are in danger of losing important developmental, cognitive and social skills. Computers are machines. People are not. A learning community can be supported by tablets and smart phones, yet it creates its own demise when that’s the sole connection.
You can access a podcast that covers this topic and listen in your car or anywhere. The perfect route for us auditory learners! Just click here: http://learningchaos1243.audello.com/podcast/1/ Since 1994, Mac Bogert has been president of Aza Learning, providing innovative coaching and learning programs focused on leadership and creative thinking. He began teaching in 1971 after attending Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia. He’s taught in a variety of schools, from elementary to college, today providing learning support for 200 clients nationwide. He recently published Learning Chaos: How Disorder Can Save Education, which suggests we don’t need to make people learn but to remove the barriers that prevent learning. Mac lives in Annapolis, MD, where he works, writes, sails and plays blues guitar, though not all at the same time. Follow Mac on Twitter.
Technology adds to our opportunities for a vibrant relationship with information, each other, and the world. If we can see it as a new layer of convergence rather than as a replacement for communal experience, we can increase access to knowledge, insight, and application based on the evolving interdependence of the learning community.
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Think. Write. Go!
CULTURALLY PROFICIENT TEACHING: BEYOND DIFFERENTIATION Sandra K. Darling, Ph.D.
“CULTURE TRUMPS POVERTY IN ITS IMPACT ON ACHIEVEMENT.�
(Daniels, 2002; Wang & Kovach, 1996; Wang &
attention on, how they interpret the world to give it meaning, what background knowledge they bring to learning, and how they will value that have tried to eradicate the gap in achievement for children from diverse cultures, English language learners and children living in poverty through incredible work of prominent researchers and educators, e.g., Tomlinson, McTighe, Wolfe, Gardner, Kolb, Caine & Caine, Jensen, Sprenger, and Grergorc. As a result, conscientious teachers everywhere have tried to modify their teaching to the learning needs of their students in response to the InTASC Standard #2: Learning Differences. The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards. (CCSO, 2013) Teachers, most of whom are from a Euro-American culture, addressed the readiness levels of students and their prior knowledge of the content, the learning styles and interest levels of learners, instructional strategies and ways of grouping learners and modifying content, process and products for learners.
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HAS IT MADE A DIFFERENCE? The 2017 NAEP report provides some insight: CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS BETWEEN 2000 AND 2016
With all the professional development, time, effort, and preparation that devoted teacher engaged in, racial gaps in achievement persist. Should we abandon all the differentiation efforts we’ve been The answer is no! However, I believe that we need
POVERTY, WHICH IS ASSOCIATED WITH ACHIEVEMENT
READING ACHIEVEMENT • At grade 4, out of a range of 500, teachers showed NO CHANGE in the last 15 years. • At grade 8, teachers were able to reduce the stubborn to improvement as well with NO CHANGE
over the past 15 years. NO CHANGE was made in the achievement gap of White/Hispanic learners
delivering differentiated instruction so that all of our learners will focus their attention on the content, give the content meaning because it is relevant in their lives and culture, see value in the background knowledge and assets they bring to learning, and value that learning for their personal lives and their communities. Culture is the lens through which we perceive the world. This is especially important given that American schools are mostly staffed by Euro-American teachers and administrators. The students who share that Euro-American culture are decreasing, and educators are not reaching a growing number of learners for whom Euro-American culture does not resonate. teachers need to know how to contextualize and pluralize curriculum for cultural relevancy. We need to know how to create a culturally responsive classroom environment in which all learners feel welcome. We need to know how to motivate learners from a collectivist value system as well as the individualistic value system that permeates American schools today.
MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT
are collectivist. Increasingly, learners from collectivist value systems inhabit our classrooms.
was NO CHANGE in the achievement gap for White/Hispanic.
We need to build a model for learning that focuses on the assets that students bring to the classroom instead of the current model that focuses on
• At grade 8 – There was NO CHANGE in either achievement gap in 15 years.
ACE-ED.ORG
cultures, children living in poverty and English language learners.
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FIVE WAYS TO BEGIN THE JOURNEY TO CULTURAL PROFICIENCY
1 2 3
Know your own culture – its beliefs, values, norms, assumptions, biases, and behaviors. Learn the culture of the micro (not macro) cultures of the students in your classrooms so that you can embed it into the curriculum, instruction, and assessment in your classroom to enhance relevancy. You can’t learn and value other cultures until you know your own. Learn the difference between collectivism and individualism (Greif, 1994) and the impact on student motivation and reward systems in your classroom. Vary your group learning experiences to meet the needs of both value systems. Understand the “Self System” (Marzano, 1998) to engage the learner’s brain in the learning task. When the brain asks, “Do I want to learn be “YES!” Teachers need to learn how to “hook” students who do not share their the culture.
4 5
There are many opportunities for teachers to deal of literature available by prominent authors who have dedicated their careers to helping Lindsey, Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Raymond D. teaching and leading, online opportunities to ciency. Culture is the set of customs, beliefs, norms, traditions, and values of a society or community that guide behavior and learning in their daily lives. A preponderance of evidence indicates know how that culture learns, the value it places on education, and how, within that culture, motivation is triggered.” (p. 7) Tileston & Darling, 2008).
Master modifying highly effective instructional strategies (Darling, 1998) for diverse learners for both declarative and procedural knowledge represented in the content standards.
We are a country with rapidly changing demographics. We have a responsibility to see that all children can learn and achieve to their potential.
environment where all can learn. Learn about students’ families, communities and ask questions. (Weinstein, et. al., 2004)
Hussar, W., Sonnenberg, W., and Wilkinson-Flicker, S. (2017). Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethin Groups 2017 (NCES 2017-051). U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC. Retrieved (April 2018) from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch. Tileston, D.W., & Darling, S. K. (2008). Why Cul-
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I GAVE MY STUDENTS A COMBAT MATH GAME.
“THE
ONLY WAY TO BEAT THE ENEMY IS TO OUTFRACTION THEM ” WANT WORK STORIES THAT START LIKE THIS? Teaching is a job that’s creative and collaborative, and there’s never a dull moment. Teachers have better work stories. Learn more about teaching at TEACH.org.
TEACHERS HAVE BETTER WORK STORIES.