As school districts found their footing after quickly pivoting to online learning at the start of the pandemic, many have successfully put academic interventions into action to help students pass their core courses. Yet, credit recovery continues to be a sticking point for schools, especially those that serve children from low-income districts, multilingual students, and students with special needs.
For high school students with special needs, failing a class or receiving an incomplete not only impacts them academically, but emotionally as well. As they watch their classmates move ahead as they fall behind, many experience a sense of isolation and a hit to their self-esteem.
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) is giving schools across the country a much-needed injection of funds to address many of the problems caused by the pandemic. Unlike most federal funding, the stimulus comes with few restrictions for districts – other than requiring them to set aside 20 percent to address learning loss – so they have the flexibility to tackle issues specific to their schools and student population.
Just over $200 billion. That’s how much money the government is funneling into elementary and secondary schools to help them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s more than twice the next biggest influx of funding that K-12 education has ever seen.
This school year has been challenging and understandably some educators are in a hurry to move from online learning back to familiar classroom teaching models. But going back to the way things were before the pandemic isn’t a realistic goal and misses opportunities for creating a new approach that blends the expertise and human connection offered by teachers in a classroom alongside the benefits of a digital curriculum.
While many things remain uncertain about the year ahead, districts are fully engaged in the challenging work of moving education forward as we consider what changes will be needed, even desired, to best serve the needs of students and their families in a post pandemic world. They view disruptive change as an opportunity to reinvigorate our commitment to learning and push us toward innovation. In this webinar, we will explore changes that can shape the future of education and our commitment to moving forward in positive and meaningful ways.
In our latest podcast episode, we talk with Carl Hooker about his desire to see K-12 education become more like the 1989 movie Dead Poet’s Society. He believes we have the potential engage students to learn in unorthodox ways and to inspire them to pursue their dreams – now more than ever.
With the extended school closures due to COVID 19, students may have learning gaps that make it difficult for them to access grade-level academic content. Join us for a discussion exploring ways to use Apex Learning Tutorials to identify learning gaps and set students on a path to grade-level mastery.