Technology is a powerful tool to enhance learning and it has the potential to remove barriers to education for all children. When supporting countries' use of technology for education (Tech4Ed), the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) maintains a focus on equity and bridging the digital divide. This factsheet provides an overview of the…

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Congress created the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund to help support K-12 public schools in emergency situations. These funds were essential in helping schools to better adapt to students' needs. This report explains how public charter schools allocated the…

Hyde Park Neighborhood Club (HPNC) is a small, hyper-local community-based organization that, before the pandemic, provided after-school care and enrichment to children living on the South Side of Chicago. During the pandemic, HPNC created a learning pod for children in grades K-8 to provide parents in the community with childcare and students…

As school districts begin the 2020-2021 school year, they are planning for a variety of instructional delivery models to meet the needs of students and communities in light of continued COVID-19 risks and mitigation measures. The models include traditional in-person instructional days, periods of complete remote learning through non-traditional…

Student veterans face a unique educational challenge: The same characteristics that signal their potential for academic success often create the obstacles to achieving it. Student veterans are typically older, married, have families and financial obligations, and often either serve as a caregiver or are being treated for a personal disability.…

Educators are responsible for teaching increasingly diverse students in today's technological society. Changes in students, technology, and community contexts require educators to determine which resources will engage learners. Engagement can be fostered by using educational tools such as popular culture, technology, and differentiated…

As of June 2020, it is still too early to know how state early childhood systems will be permanently changed by the COVID-19 crisis. But the need for early childhood data is not new to the pandemic and recovery. States can benefit from data to better understand the landscape of local early childhood services--and about resources needed to help…

In this concluding article for the special issue on COVID-19 and K-12 arts education, the authors look forward to some positive possible changes for the delivery of arts education as students return to school past COVID-19 and will address some of the barriers to these positive changes, including policy opportunities and implications. The barriers…

Recent policy changes in the European Union have introduced the requirement for publicly funded research to be published in open access. This can be seen as part of a mode of democratic accountability that not only promotes transparency but also, Naomi Hodgson argues, is constituted by visibility and openness. By drawing attention to the way in…

This Executive Summary provides a brief overview of the entire Annual Report of the Cohort 3 TPSID Model Demonstration Projects (Year 1, 2020-2021). Information is provided about the TPSID projects about program characteristics, students characteristics, academics, academic supports, employment, vocational rehabilitation, residential services, and…

Technology companies are investing billions of dollars in educational technology, but also creating their own alternative schools. This article traces the emergence of four prototypical 'silicon startup schools' as exemplars of a technocratic mode of corporatized education reform: IBM's P-TECH, part of its Smarter Cities program; AltSchool, a…

This Policy Brief outlines some of the challenges presented to students -- particularly those who are historically underserved -- who are transitioning from high school to college this fall. It shares the ways in which "near peer" advisors, or recent high school graduates, can help ease the transition and steer students toward success.…

This brief provides analysis of federal policy changes needed toward a long-range vision to transform education and ensure our nation's education systems prepare all students with the skills necessary to achieve success, contribute to their communities and advance society. Our policy priorities are intentionally constructed to support…

As this paper was being written, school systems across the country were increasingly announcing plans for full or partial distance learning to respond to COVID-19, and it seems likely that more school systems may implement these plans should the pandemic surge in the fall or winter. As a result, working parents with school-age children are faced…

This report summarizes current state policies and practices in the selection and implementation of digital instructional materials. It is based on the 2019 updates to the Digital Instructional Materials Acquisition Policies for States (DMAPS) online portal. Since its inception in 2015, DMAPS has been updated annually and expanded to include new…