Blog

A decade ago, the Kansas Online Learning Program emerged in the ether above the wheat fields in central Kansas. Our mission was to provide rural students with the same learning opportunities as their peers living in more affluent zip codes. In its ten year existence, the program more than quadrupled in size and resulted in heartwarming success stories.

In our debut podcast, the conversation is focused on the challenges that school leaders grapple with as they plan their 20-21 re-entry to school. What are the barriers and considerations that keep administrators up at night? We chat with 4 school leaders to get their perspectives.

Demands on school internet bandwidth change when schools switch to remote learning models. Schools often calibrate their bandwidth for large download speeds to satisfy in-school usage. However, when students and teachers are remote, the upload speed may matter more.

For decades, Learning Management Systems (LMS’s) have helped transform colleges and universities from exclusively face-to-face learning environments to blended and online learning experiences. A similar transformation is occurring in K12,especially as they adopt various LMS’s during COVID-19 related school closures.

The proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” has more relevance in 2020 than ever before. The 2020 village, in all its modern splendor, is raising children in a connected and digital world that requires more than food, clothing, and shelter. It requires a new and necessary utility—access to the Internet.

ClassLink, in partnership with CoSN and SETDA, recently released version two of the back to school plan rubric. Evaluation is one of the core elements included in the tool. In this post, we dive deeper into the factors districts should weigh when monitoring and evaluating the success of their plans for the upcoming school year.

As you stare down a complicated new school year ready to roll out your updated learning continuity plans, it’s important to remember your work is far from over. Your learning continuity plan needs to be iterative to be effective. As you learn from your success, mistakes, and, most importantly, the feedback of families, teachers, and students, your plan should evolve and change.

Like a well-rehearsed fire drill, everyone needs to know what to do when the remote learning alarm sounds. For the switch to work, you need a clear process where everyone knows which steps to take and when to take them.

At ClassLink, we developed a rubric for back to school planning, in partnership with CoSN and SETDA. Assessment and data are one of the core elements included in the tool. In this post, we dive deeper into the factors districts should weigh when planning to collect and use data during the upcoming school year.