In response to pandemic-induced school closures, virtual schools across the country saw enrollment rates skyrocket. At Highline Public Schools’ Highline Virtual Academy in Washington state, for example, enrollment increased from 200 students in grades 6-12 to over 600 in just two weeks during September 2021 – a substantial three-fold increase. As brick-and-mortar schools have reopened, […]

On this episode of What Will We Take With Us?, a series featuring our conversations with education leaders across the United States on how they grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education, we chat with David Quinn, the Director of Technology Innovation at Mendon-Upton Regional School District in Massachusetts about how, in spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic, the district was able to leverage opportunities that remote learning had to offer to design innovative practices, facilitate flexible learning for educators, integrate strategic scheduling, and offer career-oriented learning for students.

On this episode of What Will We Take With Us?, a series featuring our conversations with education leaders across the United States on how they grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education, PK Diffenbaugh of Monterey Peninsula Unified School District in California shares with us how the district integrated inclusive communication, collaboration, and transparency with critical stakeholders in their school community, ensuring that students, teachers, and families were set up to navigate a school year like none they had experienced before. Through multilingual supports, proactive partnerships, and a focus on innovative practices, the district was able to take deliberate steps to move their initiatives forward and bring the full community into the fold.

On this episode of What Will We Take With Us?, a series featuring our conversations with education leaders across the United States on how they grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education, Bob Ettinger of Renton School District in Washington shares with us how district leadership prioritized both staff and student wellness, facilitated opportunities for authentic engagement through choice and voice, and tackled challenges with the support of teams made up of district personnel and students who co-designed solutions collaboratively.

Throughout much of 2020, school and system leaders have encountered unprecedented challenges within both instruction and operations as schools work to navigate closure, and ultimately, school reopening. Through a networked community called the Always Ready For Learning Strategy Lab, The Learning Accelerator (TLA) and Bellwether Education Partners are working in partnership to support and learn […]

This post was originally published on EdSurge. This article, written by TLA Managing Partner Kira Keane, emphasizes the importance of communicating with families through periods of rapid change, particularly as schools work to navigate their challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The piece explores the work of Monterey Peninsula School District in California, a member […]

Schools across the country (and around the world) are in the throes of responding to the challenges of remote learning as a result of the novel coronavirus crisis. For the moment, many schools might feel as though they are in survival mode, but perhaps we can draw actionable lessons from systems uniquely poised to not […]

In total, there are 98 Launch Districts and 23 Ambassador Districts in the #GoOpen initiative, a nationwide Office of Ed Tech campaign to support school districts adopting and implementing Open Educational Resources (OER). A Launch District makes the following commitments: Identifying a team of leaders who can apply best practices for their implementation of OER […]

The Learning Accelerator has just released its District Guide to Blended Learning Measurement, which provides a useful framework to districts thinking about how to determine whether their digital learning efforts are yielding results. Educators and blended learning advocates are increasingly stressing the fact that technology should be implemented only with clear educational goals in mind, […]

New Blended Learning Snapshot Series will report on successful examples of blended learning implementation across the United States Cupertino, CA – June 2, 2014 – The Learning Accelerator (TLA) has released “TLA Blended Learning Snapshot: Edtech Procurement in Houston” (HISD), the first in their Blended Learning Snapshot Series. The series captures and shares specific examples […]