Alliance
A group of prominent of organizations supporting education for students with special needs has come together in the wake of the nationwide school closures, under the name Educating All Learners Alliance. Four founding members of the alliance published an important manifesto with the title “We can rise to the challenge of educating students with disabilities during COVID-19”. An important read.
“A whole new system”
Closer to home, John A. Dues, chief learning officer for United Schools Network in Columbus, published a deeper look at USN’s efforts to transition from in-class to online learning. It includes a detailed flowchart of the many actions required from the operations team to teachers to students and families.
Supporting parents in distance learning
The superintendent of Richland School of Academic Arts in Mansfield is focused on maintaining the progress of her school’s early readers during mandated at-home learning. “Parents have not been trained to start a reader or to give any kind of foundational strength to the reading,” she said. “And it’s not their fault, it’s not their job.” She describes the efforts she and her staff have implemented to support this vital work.
Another charter/district “merger”
Dropout recovery school Mound Street Academy will be “absorbed” into Dayton City Schools next year. Dayton superintendent Elizabeth Lolli says she does not expect major changes to the school’s programming right away. Except for the school choice aspect, that is.
Celebration
The theme for National Charter Schools Week 2020 is, serendipitously, Above and Beyond. Very appropriate for the important work we have been highlighting in this newsletter so far this year. The good folks at NAPCS will be hosting a webinar on Monday, May 4, with ideas for your celebration and advice for making sure that your great work does not go unnoticed. You can register for the webinar by clicking here.
