By some estimates, students fell many months behind in their learning during the pandemic. And National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores and ACT scores have fallen for the first time in decades.
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McREL
Our expert researchers, evaluators, and veteran educators synthesize information gleaned from our research and blend it with best practices gathered from schools and districts around the world to bring you insightful and practical ideas that support changing the odds of success for you and your students. By aligning practice with research, we mix professional wisdom with real world experience to bring you unexpectedly insightful and uncommonly practical ideas that offer ways to build student resiliency, close achievement gaps, implement retention strategies, prioritize improvement initiatives, build staff motivation, and interpret data and understand its impact.
In order to improve student achievement, close gaps and ensure equitable outcomes, educators should focus on providing best first instruction every day, in every classroom.
Student-centered learning has shown great potential for increasing student interest and engagement in school. Actively involving student voice and choice in what, how, and when they learn—in effect creating personalized learning opportunities—can lead to increased academic success.
Unhappy families can derail a school’s best laid plans. And after the challenging past few years of pandemic-related disruptions to school routines, some parents and caregivers may be feeling disconnected or dissatisfied with their child’s school. In the September issue of Educational Leadership magazine, Bryan Goodwin and Tonia Gibson from McREL share three priorities schools can focus on to restore parent confidence and satisfaction.
Last week we described how the Deer Valley school district in Phoenix is aiming to reestablish instructional consistency after the Covid shutdowns with technology, but not just technology—with the training and policy tweaks needed to really make it work, too. One Deer Valley principal, Nichole Basl of Legend Springs Elementary School, shared with us how the pandemic abruptly robbed her of the ability to manage instruction, and how she made intentional efforts during and post pandemic to make it a priority once again.
For more than two decades, researchers and communities have been telling principals that they must be not just managers, but instructional leaders as well. The skills they relied on to keep schools alive during the pandemic shutdown were drawn almost entirely from the managerial side of that ledger. Without deriding this accomplishment in any way, we do now need to recognize that principals may be out of practice on the instructional side, and help them get back to it. Instructional consistency is what we should all be pulling for.
This blog series began with a look back at Pete Hall and Tonia Gibson’s visit to Liberty Union High School District in Brentwood, California, last summer. After the chaos of the pandemic, students were in no condition to learn, yet teachers were obligated to make that happen. It was unwinnable.We’re happy to report that the principles of social-emotional learning have heavily influenced Liberty Union’s approach to reopening. District leaders believed us when we said high-quality instruction creates its own positive learning environment, and that students will benefit from this feedback loop.