YouthTruth Resource Backpack | Distance Learning

This brief is one in a series aimed at providing K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students during and following the novel coronavirus pandemic. Click here to learn more about the EdResearch for Recovery Project and view the set of COVID-19 response-andrecovery topic areas and practitioner-generated questions.

View the brief here.

Across the United States, state education agencies and school districts face daunting challenges and difficult decisions for restarting schools as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. As state and district leaders prepare for what schooling will look like in 2020 and beyond, there is an opportunity to identify evidence-based policies and practices that will enable them to seize this moment to rethink school in ways that can transform learning opportunities for students and teachers alike.

Take a look at the report here.

Educators share their best synchronous and asynchronous strategies to boost student participation during online learning.

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Trauma-informed teaching cannot be simplified to cookie-cutter practices. Take this example: a teacher worked with a student to develop a silent signal that he could use when he needed extra breaks during class. Hearing how well it worked, another teacher tried to apply the signal without first building a relationship with the student. It bombed. With the second teacher, the signal became “an angry ear tug instead of a trauma-informed ear tug,” said Alex Shevrin Venet, who shared this story during a recent webinar on trauma-informed distance learning.

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Far too often, students view any schoolwork that they need to do at home as an imposition—something to get through, or worse, avoid completely. This age-old problem has always been an impediment to learning, but it takes on new significance during the COVID-19 pandemic and the remote teaching and virtual learning it has necessitated. We must address this problem head on, because if students and their parents are of the mindset that learning at home will always be a form of drudgery, then our best efforts to teach remotely will be compromised. Think of it as trying to plant a garden on a concrete slab: No foundation to support growth leads to the inevitable result—no growth.

View the article here.