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Just as COVID hit some communities much harder than others, schools across the U.S. suffered disparate academic losses in the wake of the pandemic.

But new research points to a surprising finding: Students within the same district seemed to experience similar academic setbacks, regardless of their background. In the average district, white and more affluent students lost about the same amount of ground in reading and math as Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income families.

To researchers, that suggests that factors at the school district and community level — like whether students received quality remote instruction and whether communities experienced a strict lockdown — were bigger causes of test score declines than what was going on in students’ homes.

“Where children lived during the pandemic mattered more to their academic progress than their family background, income, or internet speed,” a team of researchers wrote in a new report.

The report offers some insight into why school districts experienced a wide range of academic losses during the pandemic. Citing pre-pandemic evidence that learning loss can persist for years without major interventions beyond normal instruction, it also points to the need for more intensive academic recovery efforts in some places. Those findings come as many schools are under pressure to reach more students with extra help like tutoring, and school leaders are trying to figure out the best ways to spend the limited COVID relief funding they have left.

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Report Card on learning loss was a sobering but not unexpected reckoning for how deeply and broadly the pandemic impacted student learning and achievement. 

NAEP state-level findings of drops in math and reading scores were followed by the release of the Education Recovery Scorecard, which leveraged NAEP data to offer the first comparable view of district level learning loss during the pandemic. This one-two punch confirms that COVID-19 learning loss was extensive and, in some cases, worse than expected. Recommendations on how to move forward are not in short supply, and for many, data lies at the heart of transitioning from learning loss to learning recovery. 

Funding, policy, and learning decisions without data is a recipe for disaster – particularly given estimates that it will take hundreds of billions of dollars to offset the impact of learning loss. But we also need the right data and the right approach to interpreting this data, to initiate a successful learning recovery process.  

Holistic learning loss data only goes so far

During my tenure as South Dakota Secretary of Education, I witnessed firsthand the importance of data to support and enhance all aspects of student, teacher, and institutional performance. With roughly 150 school districts, statewide data held value, but the diversity of education experiences across urban and rural areas underscored the need for individual student data as well. In 2019, 40 percent of South Dakota students attended rural public schools, which meant different student-teacher ratios and access to digital learning. Despite assumptions, however, standardized test scores in rural areas often kept pace or outpaced those in more populated areas. 

State and district-level learning loss data is critical. But learning recovery requires analysis of individual student-level data. That’s why attention is being paid to a dozen states that have been specifically tracking COVID learning loss all the way down to individual students. All told, the data from these states represented approximately 15 million students who participated in state assessment programs.  The individual state analyses used students’ entire available testing histories in all tested grades and subjects. In this approach, students are compared to themselves. 

This statistical approach is used to predict how students would have scored on assessments absent the pandemic. By comparing those results to the expected scores and assessing how students performed versus how they were expected to perform, one can arrive at a student-specific measure of learning loss. The intended value is to reveal the strengths and struggles by school, grade, subject, student group, and individual students. That’s the level of information education leaders, and teachers need to make instructional decisions and allocate resources for learning recovery and acceleration. 

Student-level data will help guide learning recovery 

Regardless of how states responded to the pandemic, this look at student-level data revealed commonalities that mirror the national findings, as well as anomalies that should be heeded when making learning recovery investments. 

Post-pandemic academic achievement is showing encouraging signs of improvement, although not evenly across school years, according to NWEA, a nonprofit, research and educational services organization serving K-12 students.

The new research findings are based on fall 2022 assessment data from nearly 7 million US students in grades 3-8.

The new report is part of NWEA’s ongoing research effort to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted student achievement in reading and math.

Key findings include:

• Students lost less ground during summer 2022 compared to pre-pandemic trends (“summer slide” wasn’t as steep).
• Academic rebounding in reading and math continued in fall 2022; however, rebounding is not even across school years and summers, especially in reading.
• The youngest students in the sample (current 3^rd graders who were kindergarteners when the pandemic began) have the largest reading declines and showed the least rebounding.
• Even with continued rebounding, student achievement remains lower than a typical year and full recovery is likely still several years away.

“We can now confidently say that Spring 2021 is when we bottomed out. That was the point where the gaps between test scores during the pandemic relative to historical trends were at their widest,” said Dr. Karyn Lewis, director of the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA and co-author of the new report along with Dr. Megan Kuhfeld. “Since that time, we’ve seen those gaps start to shrink, which is good news and indicates we’re on the path to recovery. But there is still a long road ahead of us and achievement levels continue to be below pre-pandemic norms.”

Fall data is helpful to educators as a checkpoint to realign instructional plans and for district leaders to understand where more intervention efforts may be needed and for which students.

“This is a great moment for school leaders to look for opportunities to give classroom teachers the flexibility they need to serve students with varying degrees of proficiency, like flexible schedules and adding staff that can support dynamic student grouping,” said Dr. Chase Nordengren, principal research lead for Effective Instructional Strategies at NWEA. “This will be no easy task as school leaders continue to juggle challenges like staffing shortages and balancing academic recovery with student mental health. They deserve our support and understanding as they focus their efforts on meeting the needs of students who need it the most.”

One concerning finding is the impact on reading levels of third graders, who were kindergarteners at the onset of the pandemic and have seen the largest impact in reading and the least improvement.

“Teaching kids to read with good accuracy in English takes several years. We have a complex language where one letter pattern can stand for different sounds, such as COW and SNOW, and where similar sounds can be spelled different ways, such as WAIT and WEIGHT. It should not be surprising that when good systematic teaching about this complex code was challenged for a year or more, our current third graders turn out to be struggling,” said Dr. Cindy Jiban, principal academic lead, focusing on early learning at NWEA. “First, we need to ensure that we are offering strong, evidence-based code instruction beyond the grades where those skills used to be actively taught. Phonics and fluency instruction need to extend, to meet students’ needs regardless of grade. Second, we need to acknowledge and allow for the time it takes students to move toward fluent reading of a complex language, even when our instruction is excellent.”

Mathematics also continues to be a focus, as throughout the pandemic, the subject saw greater declines.

“I’m heartened to see mathematics rebounding given how far behind students fell and it speaks volumes of our educators as they continue to find ways to increase time with mathematics in school,” said Dr. Tammy Baumann, VP of Academic Services focused on mathematics at NWEA. “But families are in a unique position to offer incredible help. It is imperative that students develop a positive math identity at a young age. Adults at home can help by referring to children as young mathematicians and engaging them in intentional opportunities where they have positive experiences with mathematics.”

Related:
Mastery learning can help close pandemic learning gaps
District leaders outline top 3 COVID relief funding priorities

In this episode of Innovations in Education, hosted by Kevin Hogan:

• New research offers major insights into post-pandemic learning
• In post-COVID schools, let’s redouble efforts to support students
• Meet the 2022 K-12 Hero Awards winners!

Related:
Future strategies for today’s schools
How to ease three district pain points

The other day, my friend’s high school daughter complained, “It’s not fair!” “What’s not fair?” her mother asked. “Everyone is cheating!” her daughter replied. “They started doing it during COVID, and now it’s a habit.” Unfortunately, academic dishonesty is just one example of the many negative consequences of the COVID pandemic.

In hindsight, we have ample evidence that remote learning during COVID increased hardships for PK-12 students, both academically and non-academically. Some students lacked necessary resources. In one study, even after all students were provided with a laptop computer, internet access, and headphones, low-income students’ school attendance and engagement were consistently less frequent than their higher-income peers (An, 2021). Food insecurity also increased during COVID, partly due to the hiatus of school breakfast, lunch, and take-home snack pack programs (Parekh et al., 2021). And worst of all, children at home during COVID were twice as likely to experience physical abuse and three times likely to experience emotional abuse during the pandemic than in prior years (Park & Walsh, 2022).

Without a doubt, remote learning during COVID was distressing for students, with 71 percent of parents in one study reporting that the pandemic had “taken a toll on their child’s mental health” (Abramson, 2022, para. 2).

It was a stressful time for teachers, too. One study found that teachers experienced higher burnout rates, depression, and anxiety as a result of the rapid transition to remote learning and its extended duration, which led to feelings of isolation, lower work commitment, and higher teacher turnover (Gutentag & Asterhan, 2022).

All of these factors contributed to a substantial decline in student learning during COVID. One year into the pandemic, Kwakye and Kibort-Crocker (2021) reported that 23 percent of low-income students received a failing grade during the pandemic compared to 8 percent of average- and high-income students. After two years, federal achievement data revealed significant drops in third-grade students’ overall math and reading scores across the United States (Camera, 2022).

So now, we’re all back at school, but things have changed. In addition to lingering fears of COVID, the national trend toward disrespect for authority has increased student discipline issues, and the rash of school shootings in recent years has rendered school safety a huge concern (Kurtz, 2022; Oshin, 2022).

Moreover, controversial curricular reform efforts in social studies, science, and health have exacerbated the re-opening of schools, with community feelings of distrust, protests at school board meetings, and parents pulling children from public schools in favor of private and home school options (Sparks, 2022).

Related:
4 tips to build a strong classroom culture this year
7 educators share back-to-school action plans

The eSchool News K-12 Hero Awards recognize the dedicated efforts of education professionals across K-12 departments, including IT, curriculum, instruction and administration. 

Sponsored this year by JAR Systems and SAP Concur, the program received an influx of inspiring nominations that highlight the innovation and selflessness of educators in schools and districts across the nation.

Listed here is the second group of the program’s finalists. The first group of finalists was featured on eSchool News last week–find them here!

Jump to: Jim Perry, Jones County Public Schools, Juliann Koehn, Cory Matsumiya, Kim Kaspar, Kirk Langer, Laura Johnson, Mark Hess, Michele Bledsoe, Mira Campbell, Neal Kellogg, Scott Mitchum, Shawn Braxton, Spartanburg School District One, Steven Langford, Tiffany Brinkley, Twin Rivers Unified School District.

Nominee: Jim Perry, Stapleton School
Nominated by: EmpowerU, Inc. 

Jim Perry came to education as a second career and has brought such dedication and fresh perspective to his staff, students, and district at large.

Jim wanted to support student well-being and resilience in the face of the disruption and set-back in social-emotional learning that COVID created. Jim embraced EmpowerU immediately. He took the self-regulation and resilience framework and adopted it at a school-wide level. As classroom teachers led classrooms through turn-key lessons and helped students apply what they learned to their goals and challenges, Jim took it even further by having assemblies to showcase the learnings happening in each classroom.

He believes in EmpowerU so much that he helped to present to the larger Baldwin County Public Schools district on the benefits and major changes that he is seeing in his staff and students. His enthusiasm for creating a safe social emotional learning environment is very admirable and his students are so lucky.

Jim is a vibrant a leader like Jim Perry, and Stapleton is thriving under his leadership. We love Jim Perry!

Nominee: Jones County Public Schools
Nominated by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)            

Jones County Public Schools: Forward-Thinking K-12 Heroes of the Pandemic

Jones County Public Schools in North Carolina has a unique pandemic story. It all started in September 2018. After Hurricane Florence devastated the community and destroyed one of the district’s schools, Jones County Public Schools set out to rebuild its school infrastructure, which now includes a brand-new, high-tech, solar-powered K-12 campus. To complement its forward-thinking vision, the district sought a blended curriculum solution that offered a full suite of digital resources accessible from a single platform. District leaders formed the Jones Curriculum Council (JCC), a committee of teachers tasked with researching and evaluating top-tier curriculum solutions. HMH’s connected solutions scored highest on the JCC’s rubric. The district formed a partnership with HMH—purchasing HMH Into Math, HMH Into Reading, HMH Into Literature, and Waggle programs, along with professional services, which are all accessed via Ed, HMH’s learning platform.

As Jones County leaders will tell you, this dynamic, one-stop-shop of connected solutions and professional learning services positioned the district well to face the unique challenges presented by COVID-19 and the 2020-2021 school year. HMH’s blended curriculum enabled the district to navigate the shift to remote and hybrid better than most districts.

Every day during the pandemic, Jones County educators provided synchronous instruction to in-person and virtual students daily, a task that would be difficult, if not impossible, without a genuinely digital-first solution. Each class was recorded for parents to review anytime, and in-person students collaborated and engaged with their virtual peers.

It was the innovative thinking of JCPS leadership that set the district up for success. Following that initial decision to focus on digital and with the start of the pandemic and beyond, Jones County principals, teachers, and students all embraced “a new normal.” With HMH’s blended curriculum and data tools, teachers in Jones County were able to streamline instruction and personalize learning for each student, without having to purchase extra materials or sign in on multiple platforms.

HMH and JCPS developed a safe plan to capture the Jones Country experience on video and spoke with some teachers and students using HMH connected solutions during COVID-19. The footage acquired was edited into a series videos demonstrating the power and benefits of HMH’s digital-first, connected solutions in a hybrid learning environment.

Nominee: Juliann Koehn, Epic Charter Schools    
Nominated by: EmpowerU, Inc. 

Epic Charter Schools offers online learning to more than 30,000 students in the state of Oklahoma. For years, the school had been searching for ways to reverse the pattern of disengagement, build motivation to complete schoolwork and get students over that finish line at graduation.

With no school counseling team — and teachers weary from other new programs and systems — EPIC needed a partner it could trust to serve Tier 2 students.

Juliann Koehn, Social and Emotional Learning Specialist at Epic, worked to bring EmpowerU to the district and enrolled over 400 students in the program during the 2021-22 school year.

Over 91 percent of Epic students who completed EmpowerU saw a positive impact on well-being, academic engagement, and outcomes, and Juliann is committed to bringing those same results to as many students as possible.

Juliann is passionate about the need to equip students with the tools to be successful and sees the potential in each of them. She works tirelessly to educate others about the importance of programs like EmpowerU to help students become more confident, self-directed, and reach their goals both in and out of the classroom.

In the first few weeks of the 2022-23 school year Juliann has rolled out EmpowerU to over 550 Epic students and counting!

Nominee: Cory Matsumiya, Kamehameha Schools           
Nominated by: SAP Concur         

Kamehameha Schools, headquartered in Honolulu, HI, is the largest private school network in the nation, with a sole mission to educate native Hawaiian children. 

Cory Matsumiya, Assistant Controller, has been with Kamehameha Schools for 15 years.  Cory was the original “owner” of SAP Concur and the primary champion for getting the solution implemented. 

It’s with great pleasure that SAP Concur nominates Kamehameha Schools and Cory Matsumiya for the eSchool News K-12 Hero Awards. 

Cory, part of a team of 3, which he refers to as the “3 Musketeers,” implemented SAP Concur in 2015 in an effort to drive efficiencies, control spending, and optimize visibility for an organization with 4,000+ employees.  Cory exudes an innovative and forward-thinking mindset when it comes to doing the right thing for the organization.  He embraces opportunities to make his team more efficient by automating and streamlining processes, is always eager to find ways to improve current processes, and is more than willing to share his experiences with others to help them do better.  We are grateful for our partnership with Cory and Kamehameha Schools!

Nominee: Kim Kaspar, MSW, Aurora Public Schools’ AWARE Program                     
Nominated by: Hazel Health       

Hazel Health (Hazel) nominates Kim Kaspar in honor of her dedication to ensuring her students receive care based on what’s best for them, not what’s easiest for adults. Providing access to mental health care has been a priority for Aurora Public Schools’ AWARE Team even before the pandemic. However, as districts nationwide experienced a shortage of qualified health care professionals, the pandemic’s impact on students’ mental health created an unprecedented need to expand access to care quickly. Based on this need, Aurora Public Schools was in the implementation stage when the Director of Mental Health and Counseling unexpectedly had to take a leave of absence.

Understanding the importance of expanding care in the wake of the pandemic, Ms. Kaspar stepped up to move the work forward. Ms. Kasapar not only ensured the partnership was successful but pushed Hazel to innovate its services to align with Colorado state policy. In Colorado, students 12 or older do not need consent from a parent or guardian to access mental health services. Ms. Kaspar understood that students might not be comfortable getting permission to receive the care they critically needed and pushed Hazel to align its services within the district accordingly.

To ensure the partnership’s success, Ms. Kaspar took the Hazel team from school to school across 30 sites to present to the staff responsible for student care. She helped overcome objections and foster collaboration between the schools and the Hazel team. One aspect of the partnership in particular that she highlighted was the ability for Hazel to transition student care to long-term providers as needed. She said, “I hate for kids with mental health challenges to tell their stories to different adults.” She values that Hazel makes the experience seamless for students—whom she puts first at every turn. Now, Hazel sees consistent utilization of its services across the district, primarily due to Ms. Kaspar’s efforts.

Nominee: Kirk Langer, Lincoln Public Schools      
Nominated by: Lightspeed Systems         

Kirk is responsible for keeping the students and faculty of Lincoln Public Schools connected and engaged through technology to ensure that learning isn’t disrupted. Kirk leads a team of 65 experts, and under his guidance they have accomplished feats such as the procurement of 3,680 brand new MacBook Airs for certified staff, and organizing extensive cybersecurity trainings for staff to keep the district and its students safe. His passion and dedication to bettering his district through the use of technology is commendable and makes him a worthy recipient of this award.

Nominee: Laura Johnson, Apex Learning Virtual School   
Nominated by: Edmentum           

Before schools shut down due to the global pandemic, most students had little to no experience with digital learning or online school. Many schools found themselves having to adapt to a virtual setting to survive. As a certified teacher through Edmentum’s Apex Learning Virtual School (ALVS), Laura Johnson is dedicated to ensuring every student thrives in a virtual environment. The pandemic tasked her to meet an influx of students who faced new sets of challenges, while maintaining high standards and helping students cope with new learning environments.

For 14 years, Laura Johnson has taught a variety of subjects, including social studies, psychology, and music and art appreciation–all virtually within ALVS. She started as a part-time teacher while she was still at a brick-and-mortar school, where she drove 38 miles each way to teach. Eventually, Laura became the first full-time teacher with ALVS, and she now connects with students all over the globe.

While ALVS has provided rigorous and engaging online curriculum to students in grades 6-12 for many years, the pandemic made ALVS see a sudden influx of 5,000 new virtual students. As one of the school’s experienced teachers, Laura volunteered her expertise and contributed immensely by stepping in to assist with interviewing, hiring, and training 125 new part-time teachers to meet the demand.

Laura was also heavily involved in the ALVS/Eastern Shore of Maryland Educational Consortium partnership where she and other educators provided instruction to more than 400 students to meet state standards, and ensured lessons complied with management’s outlines. She supported getting this new grant program off the ground, delivering quality digital instruction and modeling new ways of teaching, and connecting with students for the state. This program will continue this year with the same group of motivated educators thanks to the successful contributions of Laura.

Laura’s mantra for being a virtual teacher is “you need to care.” During the pandemic, she faced new challenges, such as students being reluctantly thrust into a digital program out of necessity, and not out of motivation or opportunity. However, Laura went out of her way to make connections with these students. Through phone calls that allowed her to get to know them and discover what motivates them, she took the extra steps like providing individualized feedback on assessments and checking not just for completion, but for understanding. For all assignments, Laura responds with affirmative feedback with “glow or grow” information, meaning what students need to be aware of for future assignments or shares what they did great.

Laura shared that some students who joined her office hours or who reached out to schedule time to speak with her did not really need help academically; instead, they just wanted to talk and have someone listen to them. As a parent, Laura knows the value of a teacher who truly cares about each individual student and that is exactly how she chooses to impact students’ lives and educational journeys—by making those connections, whether students are 38 miles or 1,038 miles away.

Nominee: Mark Hess, Mary Helen Guest Elementary School
Nominated by: Epson

Mark Hess has served in a variety of roles since he was hired in 1993 by Walled Lake Consolidated School District in Walled Lake, Michigan. Prior to COVID-19, Hess was the executive manager of instruction, technology, and data analysis and was one of the key developers of the district’s initiative to revamp its instructional units to focus on the latest research on high-yield teaching strategies, power standards, and embedding technology in each unit. When everyone had to shift to remote and hybrid learning in 2020, Hess’ initiative helped schools and staff feel well-prepared to make the transition because many already had confidence when using technology and openness toward instructional technology. In addition, the district already had computers and document cameras for teachers, who took them home to assist in presenting content during remote teaching.

For the 2020-21 school year, Hess’ district position was dissolved following new district leadership, so he returned to the school building as the principal of Mary Helen Guest Elementary School. As the school leader, Hess learned new ways to support his teachers with the ups and downs of the constantly changing school year. This included finding opportunities to offer effective and efficient professional development and encourage teachers to share best practices with each other. Additionally, investing in the best-in-class technologies has always been a priority for Hess. This includes Epson BrightLink Interactive Displays and Document Cameras for every teaching space. Classrooms throughout the district are outfitted equitably with technology and have an adequate infrastructure teachers need for engaging learning environments.

The 2021-22 school year presented new opportunities for Hess as the elementary school was renovated over the summer and every learning space was updated to active learning environments. Hess ensured teachers were prepared and informed about ways to utilize their new classrooms. Teachers were very appreciative to have more flexibility and are seeing an increase in student engagement and participation. Hess has led staff and teachers to create a safe, motivating, and positive learning environment for students. Hess did not use the pandemic as an excuse to stop innovating and instead, stayed creative to ensure the best learning environment for every student.

Nominee: Michele Bledsoe, Puyallup School District
Nominated by: Hazel Health       

Hazel Health (Hazel) nominates Michele Bledsoe in honor of her deep understanding of the youth health crisis and her ability to build the cross-functional buy-in that ensures her students have equitable access to mental health care. Before the pandemic, the Puyallup School District was experiencing capacity challenges in meeting the needs of its students when it came to providing timely mental health care. The pandemic exacerbated those challenges making the requirement more critical. Because Puyallup is a diverse learning community, finding a partner that could provide culturally competent health care was a top priority.

Ms. Bledsoe, director of Equity & Social Emotional Wellness, K-12 Counselors, MV and Truancy, had the vision to be an early adopter of Hazel. She believed in a world where every student in the Puyallup School District had access to timely, quality health care regardless of their family’s ability to cover the cost of care. And she put in the work to make it a reality. Ms. Bledsoe did the deep research required of a trailblazer to get buy-in from her board and teams across the district. She also had the foresight to understand that leveraging ESSER funds to expand access to student mental healthcare was fundamental to overcoming the impacts of the pandemic.

Thanks to her dedication, every student in the district—more than 22,000—now has access to evidence-based mental health care. Students can receive care in school or at home in minutes to days versus the national average of months. Since Hazel specializes in delivering culturally competent care, the professionals providing care reflect the district’s diversity, which means students and families receive care and support from professionals who understand and value their experiences. Positive word of mouth from families with students who have accessed care is driving the second-highest utilization rate of services out of all our partnerships nationwide. Further, the partnership helped to expand the capacity of overloaded staff dedicated to supporting students’ mental health.

Ms. Bledsoe quickly understood that sustainability is essential and laid the groundwork early for transitioning the work to more sustainable funding sources to ensure students throughout the district can continue to access quality healthcare once ESSER funding runs out. Thanks to Ms. Bledsoe, stakeholders across the Puyallup learning community are positively impacted—but most importantly, students now have access to the care they need to have their best opportunity to thrive.

Nominee: Mira Campbell, FH Miller Jr. PS
Nominated by: Tools for Schools, Inc.     

Mira Campbell has taken on legendary status amongst the Book Creator team. There are very few teachers out there who continually push the capabilities of our tool like Mira does.

Her work is innovative and pushes boundaries–and she’s great at sharing her knowledge with others!

The story behind this nomination comes from a project that Mira ran during the pandemic. They started the project in the classroom, switched seamlessly to remote learning and then finished the project with an in-person celebration that melts the heart!

This was a creative writing project that was differentiated for the various skills, interests, and learning styles of her students, allowing every student to be successful. Mira worked with the class teacher to introduce writing techniques, and then used a writing prompt to generate story ideas. After brainstorming ideas together, they drafted stories in Google Docs before creating fully fleshed multimedia publications in Book Creator.

Mira took advantage of the full suite of tools in Book Creator to allow students to create in the media that worked for them–some kids dictated their books using speech to text; others used drawing and emojis to bring their stories to life. With real-time collaboration in Book Creator, the teachers were able to keep in touch with students and post feedback in their books.

In January 2021, whilst still in lockdown, Mira arranged a class reading over Zoom. They invited the principals to join, and the students got the thrill of sharing their work with a wider audience.

Mira then had students use Flipgrid to record reflections on the book creation process–what they learned, strategies they employed for writing, and a question for Debbie Ridpath Ohi (the author of the writing prompt). These video reflections were embedded at the end of their books. What’s more, Mira reached out to Debbie and she gave her own feedback on the books and answered the questions!

At this point, most people would wrap up the project, but not Mira. Mira used the PDF export feature in Book Creator and worked with a local printing company to print physical copies of their books, which she presented to students in a big reveal once they were back in the classroom! The video she put together of that moment may be the best thing we’ve ever seen Book Creator used for.

Mira is a hero for a number of reasons:

1. She cares about her students and goes out of her way to make projects that work for them on their own individual levels.
2. She works collaboratively with the teachers around her to get the most out of everybody.
3. She generously shares what she has learnt with other teachers.
4. She knows Book Creator inside out and goes above and beyond in the way she uses it in her classroom.
5. She goes the extra mile to give students the best learning experience they could hope for.

Nominee: Neal Kellogg, Oklahoma City Public Schools
Nominated by: TutorMe              

Originally an elementary school music teacher and site lead technology educator, Neal Kellogg is the Director of Educational Technology Services for Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS)—serving 34,000 K–12 students across 33 elementary schools, 12 middle schools, 8 high schools, 4 alternative schools, and 6 charter schools.

Under Neal’s direction, technology at OKCPS is evolving to a more personalized, engaging, and interactive experience, focusing on personal responsibility for self-directed professional learning. A shy student in high school, Neal credits the positive impact his band teacher had on him when he was growing up, which helps guide him today in his role.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Neal prioritized communication first and foremost with students, families, and teachers at OKCPS—the second-largest district in Oklahoma—to ensure learning continued. The pandemic pushed OKCPS to move quick, making it crucial the district kept everyone informed about the direction the district went, along with ongoing changes to better support students.

In March 2020, Neal oversaw the district roll out a one-to-one device program and implement a new learning management system (LMS). While these initiatives can take two years or more to fully scale, the district’s program was up and running by August—just in time for the 2020–2021 school year. During this time, Neal worked with his team to implement solutions to help teachers—including TutorMe, an online tutoring solution–to provide students additional academic support and complement the work teachers were already doing. Neal worked with other leaders throughout the district to help OKCPS adopt, modernize, and move forward in a short period of time.

Throughout the pandemic, Neal’s confident and calm leadership inspired his teammates, while demonstrating natural leadership skills. Neal’s leadership helped guide his team and kept heads above water. Throughout all the change, Neal also fostered a healthy work-life balance throughout the district—recognizing the importance of supporting teachers’ mental health.

Nominee: Scott Mitchum, USD 112 Central Plains             
Nominated by: Bluum    

USD 112 Central Plains Technology Director Scott Mitchum hails from a family of teachers and a tradition of helping people. Throughout childhood, Scott had a passion for learning, reading, and devouring encyclopedias.

Accepting a golf scholarship to attend college, Scott briefly studied law before receiving a master’s degree in library science. After serving as a librarian for 26 years, Scott taught himself computer programming before eventually accepting a position at two junior colleges teaching the subject.

Today, Scott finds himself as the technology director of two districts in Kansas. During the early days of the pandemic, Scott was aware of immediate shortages of N95 masks for emergency care workers and sought out a way to lend a hand. Through teaching his students 3D printing techniques, he realized he could use the printers to manufacture masks, so he and a colleague discovered a mask prototype to model from a doctor YouTube.

After learning of a hospital nearby in Hoisington that had a shortage of masks, Scott began creating masks with 5-6 printers running 24/7, switching out polylactic acid (PLA) in the middle of the night. Each mask took seven hours to print.

He continued to tweak the printers to include weather stripping around the outside to make it air-tight and a HEPA filter from a vacuum cleaner. Scott produced approximately 140 masks and 100 face shields that were used primarily for surgery. Even though the hospital offered to pay him, he politely declined.

Nominee: Shawn Braxton, Cleveland Metropolitan School District             
Nominated by: Bluum    

Shawn Braxton is the Executive Director of Learning Technology and Training Services for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Shawn has been an integral part of standardizing technology across all 97 schools within the district. Most recently, he created a comprehensive plan to place a Clevertouch interactive flat panel in every classroom that lacked one. Although this project just launched over the summer, 1,081 Clevertouch panels have already been installed in classrooms that currently had only projectors. By the end of the 2022-23 school year, every classroom will have an interactive flat panel. Shawn is constantly investigating the future of classroom technology and how it could improve student learning and classroom instruction.

Shawn also played an enormous role in the creation of the district’s first-ever Tech Fest. Tech Fest was a two-day event in August that allowed students, parents, and the community to visit one of two locations within the district and interact with the district’s new technology. This event was also an opportunity for students to engage with educators outside of the classroom, build excitement around the upcoming school year, and have their devices fixed or replaced.

Shawn is a visionary when it comes education technology and how it can change and shape the minds of students. He is a catalyst for his district and is constantly on the cutting edge for new and inventive ways for students and teachers to utilize technology in the classroom.

Nominee: Spartanburg School District One
Nominated by: Promethean        

Spartanburg School District One spans three cities in rural upstate South Carolina, where nearly half of 5,000 students come from lower-income families. This also means students have limited access to technology and devices at home. Furthermore, less than 22 percent of residents in the district hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.

These combined factors have prompted the administrators of Spartanburg School District One to take action to ensure students are equipped for life beyond high school. To achieve that goal, administrators are tasked with exposing students to computers and devices and providing them with the tools and skills needed to be successful post-graduation. However, while many students have limited resources, the district is also tasked with utilizing a limited amount of school funding, which is derived from taxes on businesses within the district, while much of the local workforce commutes to larger cities outside of the tax area.

This has prompted Spartanburg School District One administrators to get creative and be strategic as to how funding is used in order to enable engagement and facilitate movement within the classroom. Dr. Jimmy Pryor, Assistant Superintendent, Accountability and Technical Services at Spartanburg School District One, determined an interactive panel would enhance learning, facilitate mobility, and increase engagement for students and simultaneously streamline lesson delivery for teachers. To find the right fit, Dr. Pryor launched a pilot program where educators tested a variety of interactive displays. As a result, Promethean’s ActivPanel was not only the preferred choice but an easy choice for educators.

It didn’t take much convincing for Dr. Pryor to secure an ActivPanel for every classroom within Spartanburg One. The superintendent and school board quickly gave the green light to invest in the new interactive panels. Within the first six months of using the ActivPanel, teachers recognized the increase in student and teacher mobility and student engagement. They also recognized the enthusiasm the panels provide for teachers to deliver quality instruction and felt motivated to expand on their professional development to learn more about the ActivPanel’s capabilities.

With four blue ribbon schools, four schools awarded “Palmetto’s Finest” by the South Carolina Association of School Administrators, and three statewide top performing high schools, administrators are looking forward to delivering on the promise of post-graduation success for students, too. Administrators district-wide anticipate seeing positive outcomes and improvement as it relates to state-mandated, end-of-course tests, all of which contribute to students’ growth and development throughout their Spartanburg tenure and beyond.

Nominee: Steven Langford, Beaverton School District
Nominated by: Lightspeed Systems

Steven Langford is the CIO of Beaverton School District in Oregon and the President of CoSN, a widely known and well-respected organization within the K-12 edtech world. Under Steven’s guidance, Beaverton has created a path of innovation and improvement for other districts to follow.

In addition to this, Steven gladly shares his advice and wisdom on how to implement new programs/systems/projects successfully. Beaverton successfully rolled out district-wide multi-factor authorization, which is a crucial component to cybersecurity, and something that is not easily done.

Steven’s continued approach to innovation in the technology department in his district is inspirational and makes him a worthy recipient of this award.     

Nominee: Tiffany Brinkley, EdOptions Academy
Nominated by: Edmentum           

For many educators, making the switch to teaching virtually presented challenges. Connecting with students virtually was new to many educators and required an untapped skill set. At a time when human connection was limited but needed, Tiffany Brinkley improved the overall student experience with virtual learning by making personal connections and accommodating students’ needs. As a result, she positively influenced student results on high-stakes exams, all while mentoring new teachers.

Our nominee, Tiffany Brinkley, has been an educator for 10 years, with 5 of those being in an online setting through Edmentum’s EdOptions Academy. Tiffany has taught various math courses ranging from 6th grade math through AP Calculus.

When a student enrolls in one of Tiffany’s classes, she always first reaches out to make a personal connection because she knows this is the key to student success. Instead of beginning the conversation with academics, she asks about their summer, interests, or hobbies. To continue to keep students involved and engaged, she sends out monthly questionnaires on fun topics. These questions and her interest in their answers allow students to feel more comfortable in a virtual setting.

Although she had taught virtually before, Tiffany noticed an increased need for student engagement during the pandemic as students sought out help and connection. Pre-pandemic, Tiffany knew there were students who needed extra support, but now those who didn’t typically reach out before were requesting time to meet with her. So, she decided she would make it easier for students by allowing them to decide their meeting time with her, rather than adhering to a standard set of office hours. She finds this flexibility beneficial for her students and it allows her to better connect them.

In 2021, she made a huge impact on a project working to better prepare students for high-stakes state exams. In the previous year before Tiffany joined, the program did not have any students pass the math exam. By delivering instruction during live Zoom sessions and providing extra support with a study program she helped to develop, Tiffany was able to raise students’ passing rate from zero to 15 percent overall on the state exam for Algebra 1.

Because of her stellar contributions, Tiffany was awarded National Teacher of the Year from Edmentum in 2022. She was recognized for her performance as an educator and her dedication to being one of three mentors training and onboarding other math teachers who were hired to meet demands during the pandemic. While helping other educators navigate how to be an effective teacher, Tiffany was described as “the glue that holds us all together” because no matter what challenges arise, she quickly and calmly finds a solution.

By building connections with students and her fellow EOA teachers, Tiffany improved students’ experience in a virtual setting, giving them the resources, opportunities, support, and flexibility they needed to adapt and overcome the adversity faced during the pandemic.

Nominee: Twin Rivers Unified School District
Nominated by: EmpowerU, Inc. 

Twin Rivers has been intentionally and strategically focused on increasing educator and student mental health on a comprehensive level.

District leaders like Christine Flock and Travis Burke understand the critical need to support educator well-being as paramount to improving student engagement, motivation, and outcomes. Their thoughtful selection of partnerships that are collaborative drive them to create programs that go beyond “check the box” solutions and result in integrated programs that drive outcomes. They work across departments to fully leverage the power and impact of the EmpowerU solution, understanding how each piece fits together to drive whole child success.

School districts continue to prioritize expanding summer learning and enrichment offerings, adding specialist staff such as mental health personnel and reading specialists, and investing in high-quality instructional materials and curriculum, according to a survey administered by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

The School District Spending of American Rescue Plan report is part of a multi-series survey focused on how district leaders across the country are utilizing American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, address student learning recovery.

This survey also sought information about what issues districts are experiencing in spending ARP funding and how they would change their spending decisions if they had more time to drawdown federal COVID-relief funds.

“Superintendents know best how to maximize the academic impact of the funding. It costs nothing for Congress to give districts additional time to extend the additional resources they have in place—reading specialists, tutoring programs, enrichment offerings and social-emotional supports—for students for an additional two years,” said Daniel A. Domenech, AASA executive director. “We call on Congress to extend this arbitrary deadline and enable students to get the additional time with these professionals and programs they need to recover from the pandemic.”

Districts’ ARP spending priorities have remained consistent from the 2021-2022 school year to the 2022-2023 school year. Improving instructional practices, expanding learning opportunities and learning time, hiring staff and addressing the social-emotional needs of students remain top priorities of public school system leaders, regardless of state, district size or locale.

eSchool Media is pleased to announce the three winners of the eSchool News  K-12 Hero Awards: Dr. Ann Hughes, Director of Student Intervention for Sanger ISD in Texas; Kim Leblanc, Chief Technology Officer for Calcasieu Parish School Board in Louisiana; and Daniel Olivas, Network Analyst at Austin Independent School District in Texas.

Winners were chosen for their commitment to education during and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, their creativity and innovation in helping all students continue learning while ensuring students felt safe, empowered, and engaged.

The K-12 Hero Awards Program, sponsored this year by JAR Systems and SAP Concur, recognizes the dedicated efforts of education professionals across K-12 departments, including IT, curriculum, instruction and administration. 

Nominations were judged by a panel of education experts, including Laura Ascione, eSchool News editorial director, Kevin Hogan, eSchool News editor-at-large, and Eileen Belastock, CETL, Belastock Consulting.

Here’s a look at each winner: 

Dr. Ann Hughes, Director of Student Intervention, Sanger ISD, nominated by Ripple Effects

Ann’s students struggle with myriad challenges, including issues such as depression, hyperactivity disorders, and anger. Troubled students frequently come to Linda Tutt from other districts in the state as a last resort. In short, Ann’s program is the last hope to get these kids on the right track.

Ann has limited resources, both from a funding and personnel perspective. However, she meets those challenges holistically and creatively. She stops students each day to engage in meaningful conversations about their lives. She taps into programs like Ripple Effects for Teens, which has modules that address a wide range of issues including mental health, personal trauma, and academic challenges. Ann has designated individual rooms throughout campus dedicated to giving students space to regroup. There’s a Movement Room to work off excess energy and a Chill Out Room for relaxation. Music, yoga, and dance are other key elements she incorporates to reach her students.

To fill the gaps in funding and personnel resources, Ann has spearheaded community partnerships with local churches and charities, which provide counseling support not available at school. These collaborations have resulted in students honing their agriculture skills at community gardens and learning how to run a business via a nonprofit grocery store.

Kim Leblanc, Chief Technology Officer, Calcasieu Parish School Board, nominated by Bluum

Conventional wisdom would say that economically-disadvantaged schools across the country would need to think twice before making a major investment in technology. However, not all districts in that predicament have a technology director like Kim Leblanc. Calcasieu Parish School Board serves 29,500 students across 60 schools. It is a 100 percent CEP district, which means that every student is eligible for free lunch based on the economic poverty data submitted to the federal government.

NWEA, a nonprofit, research and educational services organization serving K-12 students, has released new research highlighting the latest data on achievement during the pandemic.

Key findings from this third school year impacted by COVID-19 suggest early signs of rebounding offering some hope. However, results also underscore that recovery is still years away and there is a need for sustained urgency in addressing interrupted learning.

The study is the latest in a series of research from NWEA focused on tracking the impact of the pandemic on learning. It used data from over 8.3 million students who took the MAP Growth assessment in reading and math during the COVID-impacted years (spanning 2018-19 to 2021-22) and compared these data to an equivalent sized sample of students who tested before the pandemic (spanning 2015-16 to 2018-19). Key takeaways from this latest data bring both hope and concern.

Early signs of hope:

• Initial signs of academic rebounding were evident in 2021-22 with academic gains (fall to spring) that paralleled pre-pandemic trends, especially in math and among younger students.
  
• Academic growth rebounded to parallel pre-pandemic trends across school-poverty levels; however, students in low-poverty schools have less ground to make-up and thus will likely recover faster.

Continued concern:

• Despite initial signs of rebounding, student achievement is still lower than where we’d expect it to be if the pandemic did not happen. Furthermore, if improvements continue at the rate we saw this year, the timeline for a full recovery is years away and will likely extend past the availability of federal recovery funds.
  
• Achievement was lower for all student groups in spring 2022 (compared to pre-pandemic levels); with historically marginalized students and students in high-poverty schools remaining disproportionately impacted.

As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and prepares for its first post-pandemic school year, the results of a new Khan Academy survey of teachers offers hope for a brighter future and, at the same time, reaffirms education’s deep commitment to staying laser-focused on recovery.

The findings show: 

• Nine out of 10 teachers say they’ve been able to identify learning gaps that need to be addressed. 
• 84% of teachers believe mastery learning can help address learning loss from the pandemic.

We wholeheartedly agree. Mastery learning ensures each student has the opportunity and incentive to master a concept before they stop working on it. It’s the philosophical core of Khan Academy, and decades of research shows that mastery learning works. 

The nationally representative survey of teachers shows that the majority of teachers are using mastery learning or would like to. For example:

• 53% of teachers use mastery learning in their classrooms. 
• An additional 35% would like to use mastery learning.

While this news is encouraging, the survey also shows the profound impact of the pandemic: 

• More than 80% of teachers say that when introduced to new concepts, their students need more help than they would have needed before the pandemic.
• Only 59% of teachers say their students mastered the content they needed to last school year.

Mental health and behavioral support were also prominent threads. After a tumultuous two years, teachers identify student mental health needs and a lack of behavioral support as major barriers in the classroom.

Mastery learning can fill in the learning gaps 

We believe mastery learning can accelerate pandemic recovery. Sal Khan, our founder, is a longtime advocate for mastery. Unlike traditional learning, students in mastery-learning classrooms are not pushed ahead in lockstep, which can cause the accumulation of knowledge gaps. (Sal calls these “Swiss cheese gaps.”) 

Last year, in the wake of pandemic school closures, several large school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, turned to elements of mastery learning to address lost learning time. Six superintendents published a high-profile op-ed advocating for the widespread adoption of competency-based learning, which shares many of the same tenets. 

“It’s terrific to see so much enthusiasm for mastery learning,” Sal says. “Mastery can play a critical role in recovery. It allows teachers to personalize learning so that each student can progress through their grade level while also addressing the areas where they may need extra help.” 

Mastery learning allows students to progress at a pace that’s right for them under the watchful eye of expert teachers who make decisions about instruction. 

The eSchool News K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by JAR Systems and SAP Concur, has returned for 2022 and recognizes the dedicated efforts of education professionals across K-12 departments, including IT, curriculum, instruction and administration.  The nomination period runs from June 27 – September 1, 2022.

“The great education beta test brought on by the pandemic has resulted in discoveries and innovations across education — from distance learning and closing the digital divide, to addressing the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, and so much more,” said Kevin Hogan, eSN’s editor-at-large. “I’d like to encourage everyone to participate in this year’s Hero Awards, so your real-life challenges and successes can be celebrated and shared with the education community.”

As nominations come in from across the country, let’s take a look at last year’s winners and the amazing efforts they put in to keep learning accessible for students, teachers, and staff during an unprecedented global pandemic.

San Diego Unified School District

San Diego Unified School District‘s Instructional Technology Department was nicknamed the “First Responders” due to its proactive approach to COVID-19. From showing teachers how innovative technology could help improve learning outcomes to ramping up workshops geared toward preparing educators to teach online, this small but mighty team of six went above and beyond to make an impact during unprecedented times.

“Because of everything we did learn during our shutdown and our online learning, our district is transitioning to a one-to-one district, where students will get a device in second grade,” said Julie Garcia, the district’s Director of Instructional Technology, in a podcast with Hogan. That’s their device for second through fifth grade, then another device for six through eight and another device in ninth grade for ninth through 12th. So we’ll continue a lot of these strategies that we learned.”

In this episode of Innovations in Education, Sponsored by Galaxy Next Generation, host Kevin Hogan explores:

• 5 steps to an engaging online elementary program
• 6 tips to begin an elementary esports program in your school
• What Tech Should Stay With The “New Normal”

This school year marked the first “almost normal” school year since the 2018-19 school year. Most began the school year with mask mandates, and many quarantined entire classes or grades due to COVID-19 outbreaks, but schools remained open and students filled classrooms.

The fact remains that learning is forever changed. The pandemic highlighted vast inequities in communities across the nation, teacher burnout increased tenfold, and the issue of students’ learning preferences–in school, hybrid, or online–attracted more debate.

A series of factsheets from the Clayton Christensen Institute explores five insights about post-pandemic education, backed by data, which could have major implications for schools and districts as they prepare for the 2022-23 school year.

The Institute undertook a two-year series of nationally-representative surveys to track the adoption of online learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to better understand its various uses and associated instructional practices.

How are teachers blending and personalizing learning in post-pandemic education settings?

The Institute defines blended learning as: “A formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path and/or pace, and at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home (such as school). The modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience.”

Pre-pandemic, 69 percent of teachers used some form of blended learning. Blended learning use declined from pre-pandemic levels, but roughly half of all teachers (49 percent) still used some form of blended learning during this most recent school year.

Personalized learning is defined as: “A pedagogical philosophy, tending to refer to
a host of efforts and modalities (blended learning is one such modality) that tailor learning and development to the individual student, based on beliefs about what outcomes educators want students to reach and how to best help them get there.”

Personalized learning takes the form of regular small groups (65 percent of teachers reported using this method), student agency (62 percent), blended learning (49 percent), and flexible pacing (41 percent). Just 21 percent of teachers reported using all the personalized practices in the study.

Teachers who used blended learning were much more likely to also use personalized learning practices than teachers who did not use blended learning, the research found.

In general, despite education’s rapid shift to online and hybrid learning immediately following the pandemic, neither teachers nor administrators indicated they view online learning as a highly effective instructional model (both groups rated it as a 4.3 on a 10-point scale, with 10 indicating the most effective model).

Which instructional resources do educators rely on?

The primary curriculum sources teachers reported using in their classrooms didn’t match what administrators reported as the primary curriculum for their schools.

Thirty percent of teachers use materials they have created for their own use as their primary curriculum source, while 15 percent of administrators believe the same. Eleven percent of teachers use commercial print curriculum as their primary curriculum, while 37 percent of administrators report this as the primary curriculum in their schools.

As an Instructional Technology Coach in Georgetown County, South Carolina, I have the amazing opportunity to work closely with teachers and students as they use educational technology in meaningful ways. 

It is clear that COVID-19 has changed how teachers use educational technologies to support teaching and learning.  During the “Emergency Teaching Era” of the pandemic, educators grew quite familiar with edtech resources and developed many new competencies and strategies for integrating those resources into instruction.  However, as the education community tentatively moves into what I think of as the post-COVID world of education, the competencies and skills teachers built, and the edtech tools they acquired, can be used in new ways within your classroom.  Here are some of the best strategies and skills I’ve recently learned for the new technologies I began to use during the Pandemic:

Write Around the Room: This is a great activity to do with upper elementary through high school aged students, and capitalizes on devices students received and the keyboarding skills students picked up while learning remotely.  For those of you who have ever found yourselves searching for creative ways to inspire your students to write while also reinforcing important skills related to story structure, having your students “write around the room” is a fun way to get your students excited about writing. 

Each student will need a Chromebook or laptop or tablet with word processing software like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Give each student in the room a DIFFERENT story starter. Mix it up if you want…Make some story starters funny and others informational. Set a timer for 3-6 minutes, and instruct the students that they are tasked with writing the BEGINNING of that story. At the timer’s end, tell students to get up and move to another device anywhere in the room and continue the story on that device. Set your timer for 3-6 minutes once again and have your students write the MIDDLE of this new story. When time is up, have students move to different devices one more time to write an ending to a third story. Many times students will start their section of writing with a new font or font color which makes it easier for them (and me) to track their progress through that piece. The real fun is in the reading of the stories. I love it when students throw in plot twists and surprise us all!

Spur of the Moment Reviews (with a twist!): Let’s face it…It happens to us all. We finish up a super lesson that we are most pleased with ourselves for creating, when we realize we still have 10 minutes before lunch and NOTHING planned to fill that time.  With students online, it was the perfect time for a bio-break–now, with students in your classroom, you must have a plan for gaps.  The good news is that your students ALWAYS have important skills and topics to practice and review. You can review multiplication/division facts, operations with integers, prefixes/suffixes, verb tenses, physics facts, important events in history, and any other topic your students may need at a moment’s notice! 

Quiz software is something we all learned about during the pandemic.  For this strategy, it’s as simple as signing up for a FREE account with an online quiz game creator like Blooket. I kept Blooket handy when we were forced to teach remotely, and it is just as effective (if not more) when launched in a live class session. Warning: Your students are going to get excited, and maybe a little loud. Blooket is VERY similar to the popular Kahoot! service, however Blooket allows you to decide which game format you would like to present to your students for that session. My students always loved the “Battle Royale” game because Blooket randomly put them in teams (with VERY silly names) that would compete against each other. Both platforms offer libraries of reviews created by other educators as well. These games have been life-savers for me as we transitioned back to face-to-face instruction and found ourselves adhering to a rigid schedule.

School district leaders across the country are cautiously optimistic about post-pandemic teaching and learning–and they’re also tracking what may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to upgrade their technology infrastructure and classrooms with next-gen solutions like interactive displays, laptops, and more.

In 2020 and 2021, Congress passed three COVID relief packages that added up to over $190 billion for public and private schools. Billions more are slated to arrive shortly.

The potential for this funding is great. How to effectively secure and implement it can be daunting. Join eSchool News and a panel of the country’s most insightful analysts as they discuss the state-of-play of federal and state edtech funding programs and what districts can do to take advantage.

While many American parents and students say they are now ready to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic – 77 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, a number that has not changed much in recent months – the coronavirus seems likely to remain with us in some form for the time being. The number of infections is once again rising in the U.K. and Europe, which may presage another wave of cases here in the U.S. This potential disruption comes exactly two years since the vast majority of U.S. schools shut their doors and transitioned to remote learning in response to the start of the pandemic. 

Since that time, educators, parents, and experts have debated the pros and cons of virtual education compared to the traditional in-person learning environment. It’s important to take stock of what we’ve learned about virtual education over the past two years, so that we can continue providing the best possible learning experience for students.

It has become accepted wisdom in some quarters that remote education is simply worse across the board for students than traditional in-person models. Certain studies have blamed virtual education for learning loss, social isolation, mental health and behavioral issues, and more. However, using remote learning as a catch-all for a variety of school-related challenges (many of which existed before the pandemic) misses some nuances.

The experience of my organization, the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) – which provided mostly in-person economics classes and curriculum to high school teachers and students, before transitioning to virtual instruction because of COVID-19 – shows some of the positive aspects of the remote learning experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.

Here, eSchool News highlights the Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy–one of its K-12 Hero Awards finalists. Keep reading to discover how this district keeps learning going in the middle of a global pandemic.

Nominee: Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy

Nominated by: Wacom

What makes this nominee a hero?

As a ninth grade STEAM teacher at Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy (BELA), Celina Bertoncini was assigned the task of creating and teaching a brand-new STEAM program–during the height of COVID-19. BELA is an all-girls public charter school located in Brooklyn, New York, which provides a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. To meet the needs of students and the restrictions of teaching during a pandemic, Celina created a STEAM Pathways program for her school.

The school offers three pathways for students: Computer Science & 3D Design, Biomedical Science & Anatomy, and Digital Media & Art. Celina’s 9th grade students take courses that introduce each pathway to students and let them explore each topic to determine which pathway they’d like to select for 10th-12th grade. During this school year, Celina’s classes were a mix of remote and traditional learning, so she knew she would need to find virtual alternatives to the traditional lessons she taught and how she interacted with students. She was determined to find solutions that worked in any scenario, whether it was hybrid, completely virtual, or in-person.

One example of the many creative lessons she created to engage students, no matter the learning environment, is the “Dream Room” lesson for teaching about 3D printing. Students create their own sketch of their dream room using a drawing app and their Wacom Intuos tablet. They then have to calculate measurements to make the room and objects proportional. Students create a 3D printable model of the room in the app Tinkercad, and Celina can then 3D-print their designs with the printers in the school. This lesson teaches students about math, design, and coding, and the technology tools used had them enthusiastically completing the lesson. For example, with the Wacom tablet, they are able to draw graphics, diagrams, and sketches and annotate their work digitally. It has been a helpful tool for students online and in the classroom during a school year of hybrid learning.

Throughout the school year, Celina continued to develop innovative and creative ways to engage students and promote collaboration in a mix of traditional and online learning. Like for many educators, Celina juggled switching from virtual to hybrid to in-person learning throughout the school year. Even with these challenges, she never stopped showing up excited to teach her students creative lessons that engaged them in their learning.

Ensuring classroom air safety is more critical than ever this year–and every school year in the foreseeable future. As we prepare for a return to in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year, discussions continue to focus on how schools will keep students and faculty safe from airborne COVID-19 and other viruses and pathogens.

The COVID-19 Delta variant and other numerous variants have the potential to cause localized outbreaks beyond student and faculty, infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated populations. This is a permanent challenge for school districts–one that requires proven, long-term, cost-effective solutions. Just cracking the classroom window or increasing the HVAC airflow in schools won’t cut it.

There are three primary air purifying solutions on the market today, each with many options within their categories: HVAC system upgrades, HEPA filtration systems, and UVC germicidal lighting systems. Understanding the pros and cons of each technology can be overwhelming for educators and administrators looking for the best choice to protect their staff and students.

Unfortunately, not every vendor is as transparent as they should be about their true effectiveness and actual testing results. Some use overblown claims, putting educators and students at risk. Lean into that old adage “knowledge is power,” and research the basics of each technology before committing.

HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning)

Most schools have HVAC systems, whether centralized or one for each classroom, which range from new to very old. These systems provide air circulation throughout the building, often pulling in fresh air from outside. HVAC systems may potentially move virus-infected air out of a room more quickly; however, the air may spread into adjacent rooms before exiting the building. This bad, infected air may also travel across the breathing space of others before it gets to a vent in the wall or ceiling. 

Hoover City Schools in suburban Birmingham, AL, was already one-to-one when the pandemic struck in March. And while its transition to remote learning in the spring was relatively painless, teachers and students continue to adjust to the new realities of hybrid school days.

In this conversation with eSchool News, Bryan Phillips, CTO of Hoover City Schools, describes some of the positives he notices with this forced migration and divines which practices should probably remain once we get back to whatever normal is.

Related content: How automation keeps bullying in check–even remotely

eSN: What are some of the things your teachers are doing that they didn’t do before COVID, but you think they will continue to do when the pandemic finally goes away?

BP: A lot of teachers are running Google Meet every day, recording their lesson, and keeping it. So the kids that aren’t there, they can just send it to them. It’s a vlog—a video diary of what they do every day. Keeping those lesson plans, I think that’s a plus.

For a lot of the advanced courses, we don’t have a teacher for both physical and virtual. So she may have office hours on Tuesdays with the remote kids can ask questions, which I think will be a huge plus moving forward. Some kids may not feel comfortable walking up to a teacher or calling a teacher over their desk in class and asking a question. But if they can go back and send the teacher a message, “Hey, I need to talk to you.” They get them on Meet and work that out and learn whatever that concept is. That’s something you do in college. Well, kids are now learning it in seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th grade.

pi-top, creators of computing devices that combine digital making, coding, and practical projects, today announced their partnership with Maker Mask. The collaboration comes as a result of both companies’ goal to give teachers, students and makers everywhere the ability to make a positive impact on their communities by 3D printing respirators for those in need.

Schools around the world use pi-top to teach core STEAM skills in coding, robotics and AI. Teaming with Maker Mask, pi-top has released a video content series that teaches 3D printing. Detailed lesson plans on the fundamentals of 3D printing and how to 3D print the Maker Mask can be found on Further, pi-top’s online learning space.

As a response to the desperate need for locally sourced personal protective equipment (PPE), the Maker Mask team has created the first National Institutes of Health (NIH)-approved, open-source 3D printable mask which is available for free download at makermask.com. More than 10,000 makers around the world are using their 3D printers and the Maker Mask design to make protective respirator-style masks at small batch production sites in 145 countries. Printing one of the Maker Mask masks takes about four hours and has the equivalent lifetime use of 300 N95 masks.

“We’re proud to partner with pi-top to teach kids valuable hands-on 3D printing skills so they can make Maker Masks. The Maker Mask Initiative is a grassroots response to the COVID-19 crisis and it’s an all hands-on-deck effort that can also empower motivated kids to be part of the solution,” said Jonathan Roberts, leader of the Maker Mask Initiative, co-founder of RPrime, and founding partner of Ignition Partners. “It’s wonderful that pi-top is taking this opportunity to teach kids valuable skills and allowing them to make a real contribution to supporting the front line workers, who are the true heroes of this COVID-19 crisis.”

With the Maker Mask project, pi-top are adding to a previous world-first in the realm of 3D printing. Founders Jesse Lozano and Ryan Dunwoody created the first 3D printable laptop in 2014, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2017.

Jesse Lozano, pi-top’s co-founder and CEO, said, “We have always been on the forefront of 3D printing and when the opportunity to join together with Maker Mask was presented we, of course, jumped in with both feet. For six years we have championed the ability of makers everywhere to positively affect education and the world around them. By completing this Maker Mask learning pathway, teachers, students and makers everywhere can help save lives in the face of this unprecedented global threat.”

The first video will be available beginning today on Maker Mask’s website. For more information on the partnership, and instructions on how to be part of this innovative solution visit pi-top.com/MakerMask

About pi-top

pi-top began in 2014 with the world’s first 3D printed Raspberry Pi laptop aimed at enabling people all over the world to make their own technology, rather than simply consuming it. Our mission is to inspire the makers of tomorrow to solve the global challenges of today, so that they can use technology to have a positive impact on the world. We do this by fusing STEAM, entrepreneurship and social values to unlock the innovation mindset that we believe resides in everyone. With our ever-expanding universe of products, we deliver unparalleled learning by making experiences that are fun, engaging and produce high-impact results.

About Maker Mask

Maker Mask is a rapidly-growing grassroots ecosystem and digital platform response to the COVID-19 crisis. The nonprofit organization is enabling communities to create necessary goods locally and quickly to reduce the spread of disease, protect more people, lighten the burdens on medical facilities, the Department of Defense, and government agencies. The Maker Mask initiative gives people around the world something they can do to be part of the solution to the COVID-19 pandemic while the organization works toward its long-term goal of building and training local production capability for the future. Maker Mask is an RPrime Initiative and currently funded by the RPrime Foundation.

The RPrime Foundation, co-founded by Jonathan Roberts, is a nonprofit digital platform connecting individuals to communities of all types including faith-based, education, government, NGO and all service organizations, to meet societal and community needs. Roberts is also a board member and investor in NavigatorCRE which is driving the powerful ViralInsights/NavigatorCRE data analysis and visualization platform that is an important part of the Maker Mask initiative.