Covid has had a profound impact on many of our institutions and education is no exception. Shifts in the learning process happened almost overnight. Teachers and staff responded to deliver learning in new ways. While it has been challenging for all, many students actually benefitted in some ways.
There is no old normal for schools to go back to. The new normal looks to have a mix of learning methods which will be in demand across the student population.
As Education Advisor Carol Allen observed in her recent blog post: school districts
“are now in a position to look beyond the immediate situation and not rely on quick fix interventions but set in motion good practice solutions that are integral and embedded in the whole school learning estate to promote generalization and long-term learning outcomes. Clicker 8 provides exactly this.”
At the same time, on the funding side, districts are also finding that some of their original plans to use their ESSER funds are proving impractical.
In the initial ESSER round, districts were pivoting towards online learning and invested heavily in new hardware and connectivity for all students. For the subsequent, larger rounds of ESSER funding, two big areas of focus were: hiring additional staff to support teachers and investing in HVAC renovations to improve air quality.
Unfortunately, it has proven increasingly difficult to find qualified new hires. Likewise, HVAC projects require many years of planning and execution, which don’t lend themselves to the immediate economic stimulus intent of ESSER.
In light of these developments, districts are now revaluating their original ESSER spending plans.
The good news is that districts can address both these issues at once, the new post pandemic education landscape and the need to redirect their ESSER funding, to set in motion those good practices that Carol Allen writes about.
Districts can leverage those early investments in hardware and connectivity by adding effective tools like Clicker that will help accelerate and advance learning for all.
Clicker provides a solution that can address many learning priorities:
- Support for all students - Built on UDL principles, Clicker supports general education students, ELL populations, and special education students.
- Strengthen critical literacy skills, particularly at the Early Elementary level - Many states have put formal Early Literacy programs in place. Studies show that K-3rd grade students have been the most impacted by the pandemic. Clicker can accelerate literacy learning and help districts get their scores headed back in the right direction.
- Looking to support time-strapped staff? We have a free webinar on Saving Teachers time with Clicker coming up on May 26th.
To learn more about how Clicker can help your district move forward, click here to set up an introductory meeting with one of our Education Consultants.
