In the wake of instructional challenges faced over the past two school years, NWEA, the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), and the Center for Education Policy and Research (CEPR) at Harvard University have partnered with a coalition of large school districts across the country to help determine which COVID recovery interventions are working and to what extent.

Brought together by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NWEA and Tacoma Public Schools worked together to collaboratively define a set of challenges and develop meaningful, evidence-based solutions around two workstreams critical to student learning and success; social-emotional learning and family engagement.

Building a culture of goal setting doesn’t have to be a chore. Get actionable guidance and practical strategies for amplifying student learning in this new collection of posts from Teach. Learn. Grow.

In this episode, we discuss information why and how teaching programs fail to prepare gen ed teachers for working with students with disabilities, break down a few common myths about students with disabilities, and give teachers actionable ideas and strategies for building student agency with their entire class. Our guests are two NWEA experts in special education: Douglas Buttorff (content designer) and Elizabeth Barker (accessibility research scientist).

In this discussion, we cover how to recognize the assets emergent bilingual students bring with them, how to get back into the groove of academic language, and how to make room for both language and communication with English language learners.

In this conversation, we venture into the domain specific ways we, as educators, can empower students within our classrooms.

This episode will explore elements of culturally responsive teaching, supportive environments, and the actions that educators and leaders can take to create a space where students belong, feel valued, and thereby are more likely to take risks, make mistakes, and build a sense of self-efficacy that will serve them well in their academic journeys and in their lives beyond school.