Upcoming Member Events

As the spread of the coronavirus persists throughout the U.S., educators, parents, and students have received inconsistent and sometimes conflicting information about plans for continuing education for the upcoming school year. Pressure from the federal government to reopen schools for in-person learning amid the continuing pandemic has sparked conflict as it potentially threatens the physical health of students, teachers and staff, in addition to undermining public health efforts. Do students’ rights to public education require in-person instruction? How does remote instruction compare against live instruction and what are the expected impacts on student equity? How long can public health mandates trump students’ (and parents’) needs? How are school districts approaching reopening for the fall and beyond, and how are they attempting to balance these conflicting priorities?

On August 17, the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings will host a webinar examining the implications of reopening schools for both in-person and online instruction. As local government officials and school districts prepare for the upcoming school year, speakers will discuss federal and state-level responses of support in education amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Introduction to Best Practices in Online Facilitation is an interactive learning experience designed to support you in learning about best practices in synchronous virtual design and facilitation. The focus will be on community building, engagement strategies, clear directions and online design principles. This workshop is great for school leaders, teacher leaders, or anyone who is looking to get a sense of what strong online teaching practices look like.

In this session you will:

• Experience best practices in online design and facilitation using Zoom, Google Suites, and Nearpod*
• Explore possible educational technologies and discuss application to your online instruction
• Practice translating an in-person learning activity to the virtual environment
• Ask questions about online facilitation challenges and explore solutions

This webinar is designed for middle-school math teachers and their school and district leaders, who are now facing a daunting challenge: addressing the significant learning loss from COVID-19 while ensuring their students continue to master the math skills they need to be college and career ready.

For over a decade, New Classrooms Innovation Partners’ work has enabled them to deeply understand learning loss and to develop a comprehensive approach for addressing it—an approach we call tailored acceleration. The goal of tailored acceleration is to ensure that all students attain college and career readiness in math—regardless of where they may be starting—while adhering to the principles of high expectations, rigorous accountability, and educational equity.

District and school leaders are confronting difficult, high-stakes decisions as they plan for how and if they will reopen school buildings this fall as the global pandemic rages on. Safety for students and staff members is the chief priority. But with no vaccine or effective treatment yet against COVID-19, no one can be fully shielded from the risk. There are no playbooks for how to do this.

Many of the options and requirements for reopening schools will upend some of the most effective aspects of teaching and learning. Following public health protocols will cost a lot of money, even as school budgets are pummeled by the economic collapse. Managing the anxieties of teachers, students, and parents will require patience, compassion, and careful communication.

To help district and school leaders navigate these monumental decisions, Education Week journalists and expert guests will discuss with you, some of the biggest challenges ahead and offer ideas and solutions that you can use and adapt for your districts and schools.

Speakers include:

• Lesli A. Maxwell, Assistant Managing Editor, Education Week
• Nathaniel Schwartz, Professor of Practice at Brown University and Leader in Brown’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform
• Arianna Prothero, Staff Writer, Education Week
• Mark Lieberman, Staff Writer, Education Week
• Jhone Ebert, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Nevada Department of Education
• Catherine Gewertz, Senior Contributing Writer, Education Week
• Sarah Schwartz, Staff Writer, Education Week
• Scott Marion, President and Executive Director, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment
• Christina A. Samuels, Associate Editor, Education Week
• Stephanie Hawley, Chief Equity Officer, Austin Independent School District, Texas

The start of the 2020-21 school year will be unprecedented due to social distancing, interrupted learning, and the loss of routine experienced by every member of the school community. How can districts and schools create caring and supportive school environments, in the midst of uncertainty, that encourage students and families to attend and participate in school?

Join our second Attendance Awareness Campaign webinar to examine what it means to address the effects of trauma while helping to reestablish the routine of school. Hear from families about what they need from schools and educators who have supported their communities through traumatic events. Speakers will discuss the importance of clear communications, how strong relationships support learning and engagement, and how many of the practices designed for students and families who’ve experienced trauma are suitable for the whole school community. We’ll focus on activities and strategies educators can put in place just before and during the first month of school, and the importance of using data to inform and tailor these transition activities.

Speakers:
• Gloria Corral, President and CEO at Parent Institute for Quality Education
• Patrick Corvington, Executive Director at DC School Reform Now
• Kwesi Rollins, Vice President for Leadership and Engagement, Institute for Educational Leadership
• Hedy Chang, Executive Director, Attendance Works

Back to school is just around the corner, and school leaders have been working tirelessly to provide the best learning environment for their students against the backdrop of a global pandemic. As we head into the final days of summer, what are their plans, anticipated challenges and solutions, and hopes as they lead their communities of students, teachers, and families into an uncertain new school year?

Join Interim Education Commisioner of the New York State Education Department Dr. Betty Rosa and Chancellor of NYC Public Schools Richard Carranza in conversation with Dr. Nancy Gutierrez, CEO of the New York City Leadership Academy as they discuss how they will provide equitable and excellent educational experiences for students in the largest school district in the country. They’ll discuss topics such as how leaders can ensure equitable opportunities are available to all NYC students; the role technology will play in ensuring access to continuity of learning; how teachers will be supported especially as the teaching environment shifts between school and home; and the importance of two-way communication between families and the school.

And, in the face of a health crisis and challenges they’d never expected to face, they’ll share their greatest hopes for the school year.

Overcoming the systemic racial barriers in education cannot be done without the hard work of teacher leaders who promote equity inside and outside of the classroom. While America’s teacher shortage is widely discussed, there is not enough conversation about the national shortage of teachers of color and what more diversity could bring to local schools and school districts. In this webinar, hear from education policymakers about the strategies they are using to recruit and retain a new generation of diverse teacher leaders.

Panel members will include:

• • Dr. Travis Bristol, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley
  • Gerard Robinson, Adjunct Fellow at The American Enterprise Institute 
  • Dr. Anthony Graham, Provost at Winston Salem University

Introduction to Best Practices in Online Facilitation is an interactive learning experience designed to support you in learning about best practices in synchronous virtual design and facilitation. The focus will be on community building, engagement strategies, clear directions and online design principles. This workshop is great for school leaders, teacher leaders, or anyone who is looking to get a sense of what strong online teaching practices look like.

In this session you will:

• Experience best practices in online design and facilitation using Zoom, Google Suites, and Nearpod*
• Explore possible educational technologies and discuss application to your online instruction
• Practice translating an in-person learning activity to the virtual environment
• Ask questions about online facilitation challenges and explore solutions

Introduction to Best Practices in Online Facilitation is an interactive learning experience designed to support you in learning about best practices in synchronous virtual design and facilitation. The focus will be on community building, engagement strategies, clear directions and online design principles. This workshop is great for school leaders, teacher leaders, or anyone who is looking to get a sense of what strong online teaching practices look like.

In this session you will:

• Experience best practices in online design and facilitation using Zoom, Google Suites, and Nearpod*
• Explore possible educational technologies and discuss application to your online instruction
• Practice translating an in-person learning activity to the virtual environment
• Ask questions about online facilitation challenges and explore solutions

Lau vs. Nichols is considered a landmark court case in the education of language-minoritized students in the United States that paved the way for bilingual education and other special programs that are designed to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of students from bi/multilingual households. An often overlooked aspect of this case was the fact that it was decided based on Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, legislation that was enacted in large part due to Black community activism. Despite this connection to Black freedom struggles, bilingual education research, policy and practice continues to at best erase the experiences of Black students and at worse actively perpetuate anti-Black racism. This panel brings together experts in bilingual education to critically interrogate the ways that bilingual education has historically and continues to be complicit in maintenance and further exacerbation of anti-Black racism. This includes an examination of the development of the field of bilingual education and the ways that has been designed to marginalize and exclude the voices of Black people. It also includes an examination of the contemporary context of the ways that these programs marginalized and excluded African American students and the ways that the experiences of Afro-Latinxs are erased under the broad umbrella of Latinidad. Panelists will also discuss ways of countering anti-Black racism in bilingual education and offer pathways for moving forward in ways that acknowledge that bilingual education cannot be anti-racist unless it accounts for the specificities of anti-Black racism.

In this webinar, AACTE and the EdPrepLab, an initiative of LPI and Bank Street Graduate School of Education, will share lessons learned from the spring on effective teacher and leader preparation strategies during COVID-19. The panel members will also address how programs are continually reimagining their structures and practices even as they maintain a focus on key commitments to deeper learning and equity.

Questions addressed will include:

1. How are programs applying what they learned during the school shutdowns in the spring to adapt to emerging conditions in the fall?
2. How are programs continuing to adapt to new challenges, including remote and hybrid school start-ups, social distancing requirements, and students’ social-emotional needs?
3. How are programs positioning themselves, and their teacher and leader candidates, as assets for pk-12 schools in providing equitable deeper learning opportunities for all students?

Schools were historically designed in the image and interests of those in power. Today, we continue to witness the negative effects of oppressive systems on student achievement, especially for marginalized youth. Creating intentional, supportive spaces in schools removes barriers to student success, fosters holistic growth, and provides countless other immediate and long-term benefits.

Please join panelists as they explore the characteristics and impact of identity-affirming schools and why they may be more necessary now than ever before.

Panelists:

• Dr. Erica Buchanan-Rivera, Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, Hamilton Southeastern School District, Indiana
• Shawn Hardnett, Founder, Statesmen Academy, Washington, DC
• Burnell Holland, Deputy Director, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance – Obama Foundation, Washington, DC
• Naomi Shelton, Director of Community Engagement, KIPP Foundation (moderator)

In these moments when we are being asked to isolate from one another, the opportunities to connect as members of school and classroom communities becomes even more imperative. In addition to connecting with our students on academics and sharing information, now, more than ever, we can make this shared experience be one that allows our students to see the humanity in one another. In this session we will talk about how, unlike an “ice breaker”, community builders allow for a deeper sense of connection and make space for people to be more open and vulnerable, if they so wish. We will also talk about the importance of setting group norms prior to and creating space afterwards for a debrief during each activity. Participants will leave having had a deeper understanding of community building activities with students, and a chance to think about the application for their own virtual (and non-virtual) classrooms.

Facilitators: Brandi Forte, Sophie Rutstein

In these moments when we are being asked to isolate from one another, the opportunities to connect as members of school and classroom communities becomes even more imperative. In addition to connecting with our students on academics and sharing information, now, more than ever, we can make this shared experience be one that allows our students to see the humanity in one another. In this session we will talk about how, unlike an “ice breaker”, community builders allow for a deeper sense of connection and make space for people to be more open and vulnerable, if they so wish. We will also talk about the importance of setting group norms prior to and creating space afterwards for a debrief during each activity. Participants will leave having had a deeper understanding of community building activities with students, and a chance to think about the application for their own virtual (and non-virtual) classrooms.

Facilitators: Brandi Forte, Sophie Rutstein