Superintendents from Ohio and New York show how they are navigating the transition to online learning

Kumar Garg, managing director and head of partnerships at Schmidt Futures and the former leader of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, discusses a host of initiatives designed to strengthen STEM career pathways. He also breaks down some big ideas in education like learning engineering and educator researchers, and explains why these concepts are more important than ever before. In the course of the discussion, Garg also touches on OER policy, learning R&D and how we might improve education research. 

Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D., director of the University of Florida's Engaging Learning Lab and co-chair of the AI4K12 Initiative, a national initiative to strategically integrate artificial intelligence (AI) education into K-12 learning, shares why sparking students’ and educators’ interest in AI is important and relevant, and what steps we should be taking right now. In the course of the interview, Gardner-McCune discusses the guidelines for teaching AI in K-12, explains the connection to computer science and coding, and unpacks the idea of AI as a life skill for even the youngest learners. She also shares the “five big ideas” behind the progression of AI in education: computer perception; representation and reasoning; machine learning; natural interaction; and societal impacts. 

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed.D., a psychology and neuroscience professor at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, studies the psychological and neurobiological bases of social emotion, self-awareness and culture, and their implications for learning and schools. In this episode, she takes a deep dive into how we can build upon our knowledge about how the brain learns to best support students post-pandemic and beyond. Along the way, she discusses her recent research into how the experiences of immigrant students impact their brain and psychosocial development; how the brain develops when students are allowed to drive their own learning; and how what we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic should influence the way school is structured. 

Temple Lovelace, Ph.D., professor of special education and program director of special education Programs at Duquesne University, explains the impact of COVID-19 on special needs students of color with disabilities, and describes the work needed to provide these learners with the education and support they need. An expert on social justice and education equity who’s preparing the next generation of educators, Lovelace defines emancipatory R&D, shares the inequities that emerged for students of color during the pandemic, unpacks some of the systematic oppression that was lessened for these students when they were able to learn from home, and discusses how we might rethink education for these learners moving forward. Listen to find out how Lovelace’s work is keeping equity at the forefront of education. 

Carrisa Moffat Miller, Ph.D., CEO of the Council of Chief State School Officers, shares her organization's key learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, the remaining challenges ahead for state education leaders and the different ways exemplary leaders are innovating to overcome these challenges, with equity always at the forefront. Along the way, Miller shares insights into what she identifies as education’s top three post-pandemic concerns: school reopenings, learning gaps, and mental  health guidance and support. She also unpacks how top leaders are building a new normal in education, and explains how the lessons learned from the pandemic may change how learning takes place moving forward. Finally, she shares her best advice for education leaders: Don’t be afraid to act even when there’s not a clear “right” answer, and get comfortable with admitting when you don’t know something. 

 So far in this season of EdInfluencers, we’ve focused on how schools have responded to closures and online learning. But how should we be thinking about the return to classrooms? What must be different in the future to ensure equitable learning for all students?

Mike Magee is the CEO of Chiefs for Change, a national nonprofit organization that provides guidance on policy and practice to a network of state and local leaders. His organization’s newest report, “The Return: How Should Education Leaders Prepare for Reentry and Beyond,” published in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, offers research-based recommendations in four areas that will impact student achievement and well-being. These are not recommendations that are specifically focused on keeping us physically safe. Rather, they are focused on how we might change the system to be more resilient and equitable and to better serve our students' needs. Some of them may surprise you.

The public health crisis surrounding COVID-19 has led to school closures across the country, creating a need to transition to online learning. In this special season of Ed Influencers, we will talk to experts who are actively helping schools plan for and cope with the impact of longterm closures. School closures are creating challenges for all students and families, but especially for our most vulnerable student populations. In this episode, we're going to learn from Dr. Luis Perez, Technical Assistance Specialist at the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, about how we can ensure equitable learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. 

When the coronavirus pandemic closed schools across the country in March, transitioning to online learning was a challenge for all districts. Large, urban districts faced especially big challenges in getting devices in the hands of hundreds of thousands of students, ensuring they all had internet access and providing training to thousands of educators. In this episode of Ed Influencers, edtech leaders from two of the country’s largest districts – Los Angeles Unified and Baltimore County – talk about how they got their online learning programs off the ground. 

Baltimore County, with 115,000 students, was well positioned to launch online learning because it had an established learning management system that its teachers were experienced using, said Ryan Imbriale, the district’s executive director of innovative learning. Its challenge was to implement a platform for connecting students and teachers in real time. To allow time to train teachers on the platform, the district distributed packets of paper learning materials to students. 

Meanwhile, the district called on its existing e-learning department to train teachers on how to deliver distance learning. On the student side, everyone in grades 3-12 already had a device. The district worked with internet service providers to ensure internet access. Imbriale said the key to the district’s success was patience and a methodical approach.

Los Angeles Unified was faced with arranging distance learning for its 700,000 students. Sophia Mendoza, the district’s director of its instructional technology initiative, said the district’s first priority was to deliver training for teachers. It gathered its existing training programs around the ISTE Standards to give teachers a grounding in distance learning. It found that the ISTE Standards for global collaborator and digital citizen that it was already engaged in implementing gave the district some momentum as the pandemic unfolded. 

The district sought to balance the urgency of the situation with a longer-term view that its teachers would keep using the skills they learned in this transition to distance learning. In a week, the district was able to deliver 12 two-hour training sessions to about 6,000 educators. The district also found that digital equity efforts that were part of its five-year-old instructional technology initiative put it in a good position to address any internet access issues. To help other districts with online learning, Los Angeles also made its professional learning catalog available to any educator.

When the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools in March, districts around the country were faced with quickly doing something they’d never done – delivering learning to students remotely. In a matter of days, districts had to overcome many barriers: ensuring students had devices and internet access, training teachers and putting together curriculum. In this episode of EdInfluencers, superintendents of two districts that successfully navigated the transition to online learning talk about how they did it. In Lakota School District in Liberty Township, Ohio, a quick response and the timing of spring break allowed the district to get a remote learning system in place in 10 days. 

Superintendent Matt Miller says the district’s priorities, however, weren’t all focused on learning. First, Miller said, the district wanted to ensure the well-being of students. That meant free meals for those who needed them and maintaining and fostering the social and emotional connections among teachers, students, parents and the community. With students engaged with teachers and classmates, the learning will come, Miller said. 

As for lessons learned, Miller cites the need to ensure digital equity, the importance of investing in technology and fostering robust communication at all levels, from superintendents to teachers, students and parents. 

In New York, Mineola Public Schools’ transition was eased by the fact that it has been a 1:1 district for 10 years. Superintendent Michael Nagler said that using iPads for learning was nothing new for teachers and students. The district quickly added the WebEx platform to provide a video link between teachers and students. In two days, teachers were trained on WebEx and ready to go. 

Nagler said, however, that the district’s first priority was checking in on the social-emotional well-being of students and their needs for learning at home. The district mobilized resources to address those needs. “It's a very difficult time for families and they need us to be the conduit to let them know everything's going to be OK,” he said. For Mineola, its early embrace of technology has paid off. “It just feels like we're doing what we always do,” Nagler said.

Dr. Pam Cantor is an expert on how trauma affects learning in children. A child psychiatrist, she co-authored a study on the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on children in New York City schools. Cantor says that the stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the closing of schools has a double-whammy effect on children’s ability to learn. The stress of the pandemic causes the fight-or-flight reaction, which is usually buffered by human relationships, such as those in school communities – friends, classmates and teachers. With those school relationships gone or curtailed, new ones need to be created to help children cope. 

Without them, learning can be difficult because traumatic events release the hormone cortisol, which triggers the fight-or-flight reaction and shuts down the learning centers of the brain. With children in no condition to learn, schools and their distance learning programs need to focus on relationship-building. 

Educators, Cantor says, shouldn’t be worried that learning is taking place. Instead, they need to double-down on students’ emotional needs and worry about the academics later. “So today what I'd like to see teachers doing is saying to kids, ‘Do not worry. … You are going to catch up and we will help you catch up. But here are some things we need to be doing now because our main job is to cope with this very, very difficult and stressful time.’” 

The technology students are using in distance learning can be a positive, Cantor says, if it is used to foster student agency and not as an instrument of passive learning. Cantor also says that the stress of COVID-19 will be harder on those students who are facing stresses already, whether that’s an existing family condition or the effects of the pandemic on parents’ jobs. Cantor also touches on how she would like to see schools change when they reopen.