Month: March 2021

Superintendents Call for Sustained Funding as American Rescue Plan Provides Nearly $123 Billion for K-12

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Congress’s latest COVID-19 relief bill, passed a final 220-211 vote in the House and is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden. It includes $122.8 billion for K-12 under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, in addition to a separate $7.2 billion for E-rate through the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which district leaders pushed for after previous emergency packages failed to include E-rate funding, and nearly $3.1 billion for IDEA and $1 billion for Head Start.

3 Studies for District Leaders to Read as They Plan for Learning Recovery

The research on what works in helping students catch up, without holding them back or putting them in remedial classes where they miss out on regular content, can be complex and confusing. Education Week and has picked out three of the most salient studies for district leaders as they begin to plan for this summer and beyond.

Lessons Learned From a Year of Closed Schools

Now, a year later, whether and how to reopen schools safely has become the most politicized debate of the global pandemic that will, at least in some ways, alter the public education system forever in the U.S.

Talk to educators and school leaders and they will say moving forward cannot mean a return to the way things were — that the pandemic exposed too many inexcusable tears in the fabric of the U.S. education system and that reopening schools has to be about more than just increasing the number of students with access to in-person learning.

Remake Tomorrow: Share Your Teaching and Learning Successes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

March and April 2021
Remake Learning, in collaboration with KnowledgeWorks and the Pennsylvania Department of Education, will host a series of role-specific listening sessions in order to identify learning innovations that emerged and/or accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, illuminate conditions that exacerbated learning inequities, and chart a path forward to scale change that helps every learner, family and community flourish. Findings will be shared to inform future programing and policy.

Pennsylvania Service Learning Competition by PSAYDN and Propel Afterschool Action Team (grades 6-12)

Deadline: Friday, May 14, 2021

Awards: 1st place $3000, 2nd place $2000, 3rd and 4th place $500 each

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Brite 2021

Monday, July 12 through Thursday, July 22, 2021
Brite 2021, an online, interdisciplinary STEM program built for girls ages 13-16, will provide a high-quality, online suite of activities centered on collaborative learning with female role models. Brite 2021 will consist of two courses: Art x Science, featuring role models and activities at the intersection of art and science, and Dream Big, Take Risks, featuring role models and activities that introduce girls to audacious careers in STEM. A customized online platform, accessed through a 1:1 device, will serve as a launching pad for girls to participate in individual, small group and community-wide activities.

PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED

Demonstrate your expertise in teaching pre-K through 12 students to think critically about their roles as media consumers and creators or in training teachers to do so.

American Rescue Plan Passes Senate, Contains Billions in Support for Afterschool and Summer Learning

The U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives in passing the American Rescue Plan (ARP) on March 6. In all, the Senate bill could make $8.45 billion available at the state level for afterschool and summer programs across all states and $21.9 billion at the local level for afterschool and summer. To get a sense of the tremendous impact this funding could make, consider that $8.45 billion would provide programming for almost 9 million students in need.

Social Emotional Learning Day, March 26

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has proclaimed March 26 as a day for social emotional learning and awareness. We need your strong voice, to share what SEL skills you possess and how they have helped you through your life. After watching the video, click on START below the video to talk about the importance of SEL. We will be selecting the most powerful stories and creating a monologue of these to be shared throughout Pennsylvania.

Building Bioinformatics and Data Literacy for High School Biology and Environmental Science Teachers and Students

Application deadline: Saturday, May 15, 2021
This NSF-funded project is designed to walk teachers through an engaging curriculum that promotes student scientific action in their community to tackle the important socioscientific issue of improving air quality in urban environments. The project requires a time commitment of two to three hours per day for four weeks. Teachers will be paid a generous stipend for research activities that will be conducted both during the summer PD and the school year implementation of the PBL unit.