The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every facet of the educational enterprise. Arguably, the most negatively affected are those who are most vulnerable: special education students. It has been widely reported that the shuttering of many schools in the spring and fall of 2020 has likely harmed students’ academic performance significantly. In special
This article assumes that you already understand the basic tenets of Response to Intervention (RtI) and will focus on how RtI can be improved and evolved to better meet the needs of students, as well as fit the technologies and conditions in today’s classrooms and districts. If you need a refresher on RtI,
With chestnuts roasting on the fire, and the eyes of tiny tots all aglow, the winter holidays bring a much needed respite from the rigors of school, especially in 2020. But according to the US Department of Education, the holiday break can also result in the “opportunity for significant learning loss.” Learning loss is
After speaking to many teachers it’s clear that teachers are trying to make virtual learning work, despite the tremendous challenges. In addition to the usual curriculum tweaks each year, teachers and administrators must contend with a variety of virtual learning challenges, including disparate parent expectations, enrollment challenges, educational equity for all students, internet access
By Richard Capone, Let’s Go Learn, Inc. Standards-based testing in the classroom has been the de facto method for K-12 educational testing. State standards set the target for teachers to teach towards and students to work towards. Administrators use interim assessments, sometimes by the states themselves, or some other benchmark test for quarterly evaluations
As students head back to school this fall, many parents are exploring homeschooling as an alternative to online schooling or as a way to supplement the unique learning situations provided by schools. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all schools are affected in degrees ranging from prohibition of all in-person education to students on campus
As schools attempt to open back up this fall, one strategy to get kids back on campus is to conduct hybrid learning, during which students spend a portion of time on campus and another chunk of time at home using remote learning technology. Hybrid learning is a compromise, as the name implies, to
Efforts to find the best way to teach students involve many personalized learning strategies. One such strategy is to determine the “zone of proximal development.” The zone of proximal development is the sweet spot for personalized learning, where the subjects and rigor are ideally suited to an individual student’s optimal learning. Ideally, this is the
Reading is a complex process, Dr. McCallum explains. In an informative half hour lecture suitable for any adult audience, Dr. Richard McCallum from the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, provides an introduction to reading theory. For parents or guardians helping a child to read at home, a video
Challenges of Providing Online Education Preparing good online learning takes time. Most US K-12 schools have been pushed into online learning with no preparation and no experience. This means teachers who are facing the challenges of providing online education are suddenly trying to teach kids who have little experience using online learning. And UCLA
