COVID-19

Imagine doing your high school math or history homework while also being the full-time caregiver for your younger sibling. It’s a challenge that teenagers across the country are facing as schools have switched to online classes, said CU Boulder education researcher Michelle Renée Valladares.

Middle school teacher Nick Schuster had one day to return to his school to pack up materials to prepare for teaching remotely, and he knew what he needed to do. Schuster, a Master’s student in the CU Boulder Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity program, created a makeshift makerspace at home, where he is using 3D printers to make masks for frontline workers.

National Educational Policy Center Researcher and School of Education PhD student Christopher Saldaña interviewed a group of educators and activists about their experiences serving children, schools, and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Saldaña and the group discuss the unique ways that the pandemic has interrupted the normal interactions between students and teachers, administrators and personnel, and schools and communities in this monthly podcast.

A message from the dean in these uncertain times: every day, we hear about the creative ways our students, student teachers and faculty are working with partner schools and educators to provide educational resources for students and families as their schools close. I am proud of our students, faculty, and alumni who are leading this work in schools, educational spaces, and universities across the country. We see you and we are here to support you.

When universities nationwide announced that their classes were going remote as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, the Learning Assistant Program began to receive emails from all over the world requesting help. Online panels of learning assistants will answer questions about how students are experiencing remote instruction and how they can help.

In this Washington Post commentary, Dean Kathy Schultz calls on school administrators to trust teachers and honor the humanizing educational practices that are front and center in their distance work with students during school disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Schultz explores the lessons we might learn during this unprecedented time.

From teachers’ virtual lessons to free “grab-and-go” meals and even emergency child care centers, schools have been finding innovative ways to serve their students after their doors were closed. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) has been recognizing extraordinary Schools of Opportunity across the nation for the past five years. Here NEPC shares the many ways Schools of Opportunity have been responding to the crisis and continuing to creatively serve students and their families in their communities.