Craft Category: Artifacts

Child Nutrition Policy Review

The Learning Accelerator (TLA) reviewed federal, Massachusetts Commonwealth, and district ESSER and ARP guidelines to examine the availability of funding for child nutrition programs for the 2023-24 school year. This policy review highlights the source, synopsis, and final determination as it relates to addressing the TEC Connection Academy (TECCA)’s need to provide nutritional services to students engaging in virtual and/or hybrid learning.

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April 10, 2024

ExcEL Leadership Academy Micro-credential Pathway Adoption in Rhode Island

Despite calls to modernize education preparation, the way we train, support, and grow educators has remained largely unchanged for decades. But some educator training and professional development organizations are taking a different approach by offering educators flexible and job-embedded learning opportunities that recognize and validate learning through demonstrations of competence.

Educators earn “micro-credentials” in the form of digital badges, which capture both the skill the educator demonstrated and the evidence they used to prove their mastery of that skill.

This case study offers a look at one micro-credential program, developed by UCLA’s ExcEL Leadership Academy that has been approved for ESOL teacher certification in Rhode Island. The program offers a progression of 12 micro-credentials focused on the skills and competencies educators need to serve multilingual learners (MLLs) effectively. Additionally, the case study offers recommendations for other states that hope to offer their educators high-quality competency-based pathways to certification and/or professional growth.

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March 1, 2024

Clearing the Path for Assessment Innovation: The Role of Federal Policy

Realizing the full potential of student-centered learning requires transformation of traditional approaches to assessment and accountability.

It is time for policymakers to take a fresh look at these initiatives and take steps – both near- and longer-term – to better leverage federal support for states’ design and use of innovative, student-centered assessments.

To create more equitable assessment and accountability systems that empower and encourage the adoption of new teaching and learning models aligned to student-centered learning, we must shift course and provide a realistic pathway for state and local innovation. Without a clear pathway, educators and communities will lose faith in our systems and millions of federal dollars intended to support assessment innovation will not bear fruit. Now is the time to create the running room states and districts need to try new approaches and demonstrate impact.

In Clearing the Path for Assessment Innovation: The Role of Federal Policy, you will read about:

-Current federal assessment opportunities such as the Competitive Grants for State Assessments (CGSA) program, the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) and flexibility within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA)

-Innovation themes from states, including the critical importance of CGSA funding, efforts to leverage assessments to improve instruction and addressing assessment with related professional development

-Examples of assessment innovation from three states

-Recommendations for a path forward to build on the groundwork states are laying to foster innovation and opportunity in assessment across the nation

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December 15, 2023

Problem-Solving in Seven Steps

Developed by the education researcher Robert Marzano, this protocol describes seven steps teachers can use to guide students through the problem-solving process. Through explicit skill-building, this process supports students’ development of career and college readiness.

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December 7, 2023

The CASEL Framework

Created by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting all students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) development, the CASEL Framework is a tool for educators to use as they support students’ development across five core SEL competencies, known as “The CASEL 5:”

  • Self-Awareness

  • Self-Management

  • Responsible Decision-Making

  • Relationship Skills

  • Social Awareness

The interactive “CASEL Wheel” provides in-depth overviews of each competency, along with additional resources for educators seeking to integrate SEL strategies into their practice.

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December 7, 2023

Mood Meter

Developed by the University of New Hampshire Health and Wellness (and utilizing the work of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence), the Mood Meter activity helps students identify and name their emotions – a key skill for developing self-regulation. Emotions exist across the axis of Pleasantness and Energy. After naming their emotions, students are prompted to think about how these feelings can best be channeled or matched with certain activities, reinforcing that all emotions are accepted.

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December 7, 2023

Promising Practices to Advance DEI Among Non-Profit Boards

The Aurora Institute works to drive the transformation of education systems and accelerate the advancement of breakthrough policies and practices to ensure high-quality learning for all. In pursuing this mission, Aurora has built the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as anti-racism, into its strategic plan.

To support its DEI goals and provide structure around organizational learning, Aurora received a three-year grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). The grant included an explicit focus on engaging the Aurora Board of Directors in DEI work to advance the organization. This case study describes Aurora’s Board of Directors’ evolution and growth with respect to DEI, from November 2020 through July 2023.

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October 31, 2023
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