Leaders from large urban districts show how they are coordinating remote learning for thousands of students and educators.

05/13/20 • 35 min

When the coronavirus pandemic closed schools across the country in March, transitioning to online learning was a challenge for all districts. Large, urban districts faced especially big challenges in getting devices in the hands of hundreds of thousands of students, ensuring they all had internet access and providing training to thousands of educators. In this episode of Ed Influencers, edtech leaders from two of the country’s largest districts – Los Angeles Unified and Baltimore County – talk about how they got their online learning programs off the ground.

Baltimore County, with 115,000 students, was well positioned to launch online learning because it had an established learning management system that its teachers were experienced using, said Ryan Imbriale, the district’s executive director of innovative learning. Its challenge was to implement a platform for connecting students and teachers in real time. To allow time to train teachers on the platform, the district distributed packets of paper learning materials to students.

Meanwhile, the district called on its existing e-learning department to train teachers on how to deliver distance learning. On the student side, everyone in grades 3-12 already had a device. The district worked with internet service providers to ensure internet access. Imbriale said the key to the district’s success was patience and a methodical approach.

Los Angeles Unified was faced with arranging distance learning for its 700,000 students. Sophia Mendoza, the district’s director of its instructional technology initiative, said the district’s first priority was to deliver training for teachers. It gathered its existing training programs around the ISTE Standards to give teachers a grounding in distance learning. It found that the ISTE Standards for global collaborator and digital citizen that it was already engaged in implementing gave the district some momentum as the pandemic unfolded.

The district sought to balance the urgency of the situation with a longer-term view that its teachers would keep using the skills they learned in this transition to distance learning. In a week, the district was able to deliver 12 two-hour training sessions to about 6,000 educators. The district also found that digital equity efforts that were part of its five-year-old instructional technology initiative put it in a good position to address any internet access issues. To help other districts with online learning, Los Angeles also made its professional learning catalog available to any educator.

Previous Episode

Superintendents from Ohio and New York show how they are navigating the transition to online learning

When the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools in March, districts around the country were faced with quickly doing something they’d never done – delivering learning to students remotely. In a matter of days, districts had to overcome many barriers: ensuring students had devices and internet access, training teachers and putting together curriculum. In this episode of EdInfluencers, superintendents of two districts that successfully navigated the transition to online learning talk about how they did it. In Lakota School District in Liberty Township, Ohio, a quick response and the timing of spring break allowed the district to get a remote learning system in place in 10 days.

Superintendent Matt Miller says the district’s priorities, however, weren’t all focused on learning. First, Miller said, the district wanted to ensure the well-being of students. That meant free meals for those who needed them and maintaining and fostering the social and emotional connections among teachers, students, parents and the community. With students engaged with teachers and classmates, the learning will come, Miller said.

As for lessons learned, Miller cites the need to ensure digital equity, the importance of investing in technology and fostering robust communication at all levels, from superintendents to teachers, students and parents.

In New York, Mineola Public Schools’ transition was eased by the fact that it has been a 1:1 district for 10 years. Superintendent Michael Nagler said that using iPads for learning was nothing new for teachers and students. The district quickly added the WebEx platform to provide a video link between teachers and students. In two days, teachers were trained on WebEx and ready to go.

Nagler said, however, that the district’s first priority was checking in on the social-emotional well-being of students and their needs for learning at home. The district mobilized resources to address those needs. “It's a very difficult time for families and they need us to be the conduit to let them know everything's going to be OK,” he said. For Mineola, its early embrace of technology has paid off. “It just feels like we're doing what we always do,” Nagler said.

Next Episode

Dr. Luis Perez discusses the importance of equitable learning instructional design during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

The public health crisis surrounding COVID-19 has led to school closures across the country, creating a need to transition to online learning. In this special season of Ed Influencers, we will talk to experts who are actively helping schools plan for and cope with the impact of longterm closures. School closures are creating challenges for all students and families, but especially for our most vulnerable student populations. In this episode, we're going to learn from Dr. Luis Perez, Technical Assistance Specialist at the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, about how we can ensure equitable learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic.