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Special Edition Webinar
Protecting Equity & Access: Online Learning, Special Education, and Serving Students with Disabilities
With COVID-19 shifting much of K-12 education online for more than 50 million students across the United States, how do education systems ensure services are provided to students with disabilities and special needs?
Please join this webinar on Monday, April 27, 2020, at 2 pm ET to hear from experts discussing the latest guidance for serving students with disabilities, as well as strategies in the field to meet these needs in online learning environments. Our presenters will be Ace Parsi, Director of Innovation, National Center for Learning Disabilities, and Sean Smith, Professor, Special Education at the University of Kansas; former Director, Center for Online Learning and Students with Disabilities.
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Webinar
An Introduction to Competency-Based Education
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| On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, the Aurora Institute will host a webinar to introduce participants to competency-based education.
This webinar will answer common questions about why competency-based education is important, how it relates to personalized learning, what makes an effective competency-based school, and what policies are needed to support it fully.
Join this webinar to hear from field leaders for an introduction to competency-based education in K-12 systems. Presenters include:
- Susan Patrick, President and CEO, Aurora Institute; Co-founder of CompetencyWorks
- Eliot Levine, Research Director, Aurora Institute; Manager of CompetencyWorks
- Damarr Smith, Project Manager of Competency-Based Education, Chicago Public Schools
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| From the Education Domain Blog |
Aurora Institute Joins the Educating All Learners Alliance
Aurora Institute is proud to partner with the Educating All Learners Alliance (EALA), a coalition of organizations committed to resource-sharing and community-building to meet the needs of students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We join forces with more than 1,500 members in building a hub of tools, strategies, tips, and best practices for supporting students with disabilities online. Every week, the alliance plans to host webinars or office hours for educators and practitioners to ask questions. Read More |
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Continuity of Learning Is an Urgent State Education Policy Priority
States have a leadership role to play in continuity of learning for preparedness in times of an emergency, such as a pandemic or other disasters, during which schools must close. A hallmark of future-focused, student-centered learning is ensuring that learning can be decoupled from place and time so that learning can continue anywhere at any time. A continuity of learning plan ensures students can stay on their learning pathways during an interruption, such as a prolonged school closure or absence due to illness, natural disasters, conflicts, or weather events. Read more |
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New Federal and State Policy Priorities
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| With a goal to ensure our nation’s education system is fit for purpose; oriented for any time, anywhere learning; and better able to prepare students for the future, we announced a broad-based education policy agenda in Future-Focused State Policy Actions to Transform K-12 Education and Federal Policy Priorities to Accelerate Education Innovation.
The briefs offer 15 policy actions, including a special recommendation to ensure continuity of learning—made particularly relevant by the current COVID-19 school closures. |
Plugged In Headlines: News About Education Transformation
Coronavirus opens doors to rethinking education
Tara García Mathewson, The Hechinger Report
New website offers tips for teachers about virtual special education
Carolyn Jones, EdSource
Our education system is losing relevance. Here’s how to unleash its potential
Karthik Krishnan, World Economic Forum
Closed schools would stay shut in first phase of Trump reopening guidelines
Evie Blad, Education Week
School closures may go into the fall If coronavirus resurges, state chiefs warn
Evie Blad, Education Week
Rural communities’ digital deserts cripple tele-education during coronavirus outbreak
Ivan Pereira, ABC News
‘In the crosshairs’: As school closures extend, states face complex — and often localized — decisions about how to help seniors graduate
Taylor Swaak, The 74
Betsy DeVos releases first coronavirus emergency aid for K-12 schools
Andrew Ujifusa, Education Week
Educators get creative to serve students with disabilities
Elissa Nadworny, WAMU 88.5
National survey tracks impact of coronavirus on schools: 10 key findings
Holly Kurtz, Education Week
Should schools teach anyone who can get online – or no one at all?
Neal Morton, The Hechinger Report
Secretary DeVos proposes rethinking teacher professional development by empowering teachers to customize, personalize their continued learning
U.S. Department of Education
Analysis: A month In, districts and charters make progress on online instruction and monitoring student progress, Lag in grading and attendance
Robin Lake and Bree Dusseault, The 74
PTA joins AFT in town hall on home learning
American Federation of Teachers
Educational Equity & Coronavirus – Listening to parents: The results of our statewide survey of public schools
The Education Trust
In Denmark, the rarest of sights: Classrooms full of students
Patrick Kingsley, The New York Times
Opinion: What will we do when everyone comes back to school?
Beth Rabbitt, The Hechinger Report |
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Aurora Institute in the News
How school districts are outsmarting a microbe
“For a lot of parents, students and teachers, remote learning will be completely new, and where it’s new, it’s important to set realistic goals every day,” said Susan Patrick C.E.O. of Aurora Institute. Read More
Educators in many states report low e-learning attendance
Districts that already had blended learning options in place may have been more prepared for the transition, according to Bruce Friend, chief operating officer of the Aurora Institute, formerly the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. But for those thrust into an online learning environment for the first time, tracking attendance also remains complicated. Read More
Exhausted and grieving: Teaching during the coronavirus crisis
Stress isn’t new to teachers, but what they’re experiencing now makes their typical stress seem like a picnic. Driven by a pandemic to the front lines of an unprecedented rush to distance-learning, the nation’s teachers are scrambling to manage an armful of new challenges. And they’re exhausted. Read More
When to Teach Online Classes Live and When to Let Students Learn on Demand
The first distance learning programs were all correspondence programs in the ‘50s and ‘60s and ‘70s,” meaning that students were sent materials and assignments in the mail and then they sent back their homework and exams, says Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the Aurora Institute and the former director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. Read More
Virtual Education Dilemma: Scheduled Classroom Instruction vs. Anytime Learning
Asynchronous communications, like emails and text messages, can be useful for teachers setting deadlines, offering instructions or even launching a discussion question. Synchronous communication works better for brainstorming or more spontaneous conversations, said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the Aurora Institute, formerly the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. Read More
This week’s ESSA News: Aurora Institute calls for K-12 education overhaul
The Aurora Institute has released its “broad-based education policy agenda” via two documents — one focusing on state policy actions and another outlining federal policy priorities to accelerate education innovation. The agenda includes 15 recommendations to help make the nation’s education system live up to its intended purpose, including a special recommendation to ensure continuity of learning — “made particularly relevant by the current COVID-19 school closures.” Read More
Taking attendance during coronavirus closures: Is it even worth it?
Schools that already use learning platforms that report student logins and participation to teachers are ahead of the curve. But “it’s not a proxy for whether they’re learning or not, or whether they’re necessarily engaged,” said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the Aurora Institute, an advocacy and research organization. “We don’t want students to be logged in necessarily to a single platform for eight hours a day.” Read More
Future of Learning
The Aurora Institute, a supporter of education innovation, recently released state and federal policy priorities that double down on ideas that have been popular in certain education circles for years. Read More |
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Call for Proposals Open Until May 1, 2020
From March 23, 2020, to May 1, 2020, at 11:59 pm Eastern Time, the Aurora Institute is accepting proposals to present at the 2020 Symposium. Educators, practitioners, school and district leaders, researchers, policymakers, advocates, students, and community leaders at the leading edge of transforming K-12 teaching and learning are invited to submit session and workshop proposals to share your knowledge and ideas. We invite potential presenters’ best and highest thinking that can make the greatest impact on the lives of attendees. |
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Symposium Early-Bird Registration Savings
The Aurora Institute’s Symposium is the field’s largest convening of professionals dedicated to student-centered learning, covering the greatest depth of practice, policy, and research. It is an unrivaled opportunity to meet like-minded professionals and allies, form relationships with others at the frontlines of next-generation learning, and add the field’s foremost thought leaders to your professional network.
Register to attend the Aurora Institute Symposium by 11:59 p.m. ET on September 9, 2020, to receive special early-bird discounts on attendee registration. |
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| Our Center for Policy Advocacy leads the multi-stage evolution of policy necessary for the growth of effective student-centered learning models toward the goals of high-quality learning and equity. Our policy priorities are designed to ensure the nation’s education system is fit for purpose and help move states forward from their current state of education to future systems. |
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| CompetencyWorks is an online resource dedicated to competency education in K-12 education. CompetencyWorks shares original research, knowledge, and a variety of perspectives through an informative blog with practitioner knowledge, policy advancements, papers on emerging issues, and a wiki with resources curated from across the field. Bookmark this resource and check often for frequent updates. |
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| The Aurora Institute hosts a resource library containing more than 200 materials. Working collaboratively with diverse experts in the field, the Aurora Institute produces reports, books, policy briefs, blog posts, webinars, and related resources on key topics and tough issues that equip and empower educators and leaders to catalyze and scale personalized, next-generation learning models. |
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Aurora Institute
The mission of Aurora Institute is to drive the transformation of education systems and accelerate the advancement of breakthrough policies and practices to ensure high-quality learning for all.
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