COVID-19 has turned the world upside down in all areas of life, and education is no exception. About 55 million U.S. schoolchildren are unable to attend school, and school systems have had to make rapid shifts to teach them remotely. Parents are scrambling to support their children’s learning while also navigating the health and economic repercussions of the pandemic.
The pandemic and schools’ responses to it underscore the longstanding educational inequities already entrenched in U.S. education. While wealthy suburbs have quickly shifted to full-day online learning, even for young children, struggling urban and rural school systems are still cobbling together enough digital infrastructure—laptops and Internet access—to reach every student.
While privileged parents and pundits have the luxury of debating whether to prioritize academic or social-emotional learning, those on the front lines of exposure to the virus and job loss have little mental energy left to ponder how to keep education on the radar for their children at all.
Nonetheless, some leaders are showing the way forward, whether by borrowing established best practices from the homeschool community, bringing personalized attention to each student into remote learning or helping parents support young learners with disabilities at home. Education visionaries, brightbeam and 4.0 Schools, are teaming up to open a conversation on these practices and shine a light on students and families who might otherwise be left behind.
Join us on Thursday, April 23, at 5 p.m. Central Time, for our inaugural Zoom web chat, #PostCovEd: How the Pandemic Is Changing Schooling Now and for the Future. Our panelists include:
Scott Frauenheim, CEO, Distinctive Schools
LeeAndra Khan, CEO, Civitas Education Partners
Christina Laster, Parent and Civil Rights Leader
Olivia Mulcahy, Parent and Educational Consultant
Travis Pillow, Editorial Director, Center on Reinventing Public Education
To register, click here. Space is limited.
We invite you to start the conversation in advance, here on the blog. What are you doing to prepare your students, kids, family members, or your community for an extended period of remote learning?
Or, jumpstart the discussion on social media. Use the hashtag #PostCovEd on Twitter to share your thoughts on what systems, teachers and parents can learn from adapting to extended school closures.
Meet Our Sponsors
Brightbeam is a nonprofit network of education activists demanding a better education and a brighter future for every child. Brightbeam serves as the umbrella organization for Education Post, Citizen Education, Project Forever Free, Chicago Unheard and more than 20 local digital platforms that spotlight education issues around the country. Learn more at brightbeamnetwork.org.
4.0 is the largest and earliest first check investor in the next generation of education innovators. Through two fellowships, we invest coaching, community, curriculum, and cash in promising leaders to test tomorrow’s learning models with students and families in their local communities. Today, our 1,000+ alumni have impacted the lives of over a million students nationwide. Learn more at 4pt0.org
