AC&E
Accessibility, Compliance and Equity in Education
THE AGE OF EQUITY:
EDUCATION HAS ARRIVED ACE-ED.ORG | Winter 2019
LANDMARK COLLEGE An Integrated Approach to Teaching Students Who Learn Differently While many colleges offer special programs for students with learning disabilities (LD) and other learning challenges, Landmark College is one of the only accredited colleges in the United States designed exclusively for students who learn differently, including students with learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
in weekly academic advising sessions while engaged with the advising curriculum. As students progress in their coursework, they become increasingly independent and meet with their advisor less frequently. Students pursuing their bachelor’s degree work with degree specific advisors. The academic advisor is central to the system which supports individual student performance.
For almost 40 years, our combination of research-based learning strategies and academic support has proved successful in preparing students for the rigors of college-level work. As the field of learning disabilities and differences expanded, our approach to working with students has grown more varied, but always with a constant unyielding mission to provide best practices for all.
THE LANDMARK COLLEGE DIFFERENCE Landmark College offers the same range of student services found at any college—from counseling and health services to student life and athletics. The difference at Landmark College is that these professionals, like our faculty and academic advisors, bring specific expertise in, and a passion for, working with students who learn differently. Working together, we help students discover their path as confident, empowered, and independent learners. We integrate our innovative learning strategies into everything we do.
ACADEMIC ADVISING
In addition to classes, students in their first year at Landmark College participate
CENTERS FOR ACADEMIC SUPPORT Landmark College’s Centers for Academic Support offer unparalleled support to students who learn differently, at no additional charge. The Drake Center for Academic Support is the first place students turn for help with reading, writing, and study skills. Academic support centers within individual departments offer drop-in support and one-on-one scheduled appointments with Landmark College faculty.
COUNSELING & HEALTH Counseling Services are available to provide support to students dealing with stress and other personal, social, or academic difficulties. Health Services offers support for physical issues.
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
The office of Educational Technology Services helps students take advantage of the wide array of technologies that support the needs of students who learn differently.
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION COACHING
Through the office of Coaching Services, Landmark College’s Professional Certified Coaches work with students who have a variety of learning profiles and struggle with executive functioning.
INTEGRATED SERVICES FOR STUDENTS WITH AUTISM Students with autism who are academically prepared for college may still face significant challenges navigating the social curriculum and adjusting to the more fluid routine of the college student. Landmark College recognizes the need to provide additional programming to assist students with autism to meet their college goals. Our integrated services model for ASD support services provides a structured living and learning environment that combines an effective pedagogical approach with tailored social and other programmatic supports.
Initial courses are offered at non-credit and credit levels. This allows students to be placed in classes where they are able to succeed, from the start. Due to our rigorous academic standards, more than 50% of incoming students begin in non-credit courses, with most moving into credit courses after one or two semesters.
LIBRARY The Landmark College Library offers walk-in assistance as well as one-on-one appointments with students to assist them with their research projects and with developing information literacy. The Library building offers a welcoming space conducive to individual and small-group study, as well as resources to support students’ curricular and extra-curricular needs and interests.
UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES & CURRICULUM Originally founded as a two-year college, Landmark College began offering four-year degrees in 2014. We now offer an array of associate degrees, with optional minors and concentrations. Landmark College offers a diverse selection of courses in anthropology, English, business, communications, humanities, philosophy, psychology, history, literature, math, science, foreign languages, theater, video, music, art, physical education, and other disciplines. For all entering students, the curriculum sequence begins with skills-development courses, designed to address the key areas of writing, reading, communication and study skills. Self-management, as well as the development of self-understanding and self-advocacy, are also important parts of this first-semester curriculum.
VISIT OUR CAMPUS
Landmark College offers several Open Houses on Saturdays each semester. You can also schedule a visit with our Admissions office any week day during regular business hours by calling 802-387-6718 or emailing admisssions@landmark.edu.
CASEY AHNER
CONTENTS
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3 Ways Schools Can Create Equity in Every Classroom
CURTIS LOFTIS
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Making Higher Education Financially Accessible for All
ERIC GOLDREYER
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Measuring What Matters
DONNA WILSON, MARCUS CONYERS Engagement: An Engine for Ensuring Equity
CLEMENS BRAAKMANN
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Augmenting Your Classroom Reality in STEM Learning
AUSTIN MULLINS
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5 Ways Virtual Reality is Transforming Education 2 Accessibility, Compliance & Equity in Education | Winter, 2019
JILL KOENEMANN
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How PBL Ignites SPED Classrooms
KAREN MCCALL
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Engagement and the Accessibility of Digital Content
ROYCE AVERY
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Instant Access to Books is Just the Beginning
THE AC&E TEAM Publisher & Director of Sales LARRY JACOBS Executive Vice President & Creative Director MAIA APPLEBY
Open the Pathway to Success for Every Student i-Ready sets each student on an individualized learning path, delivering online lessons that work hand in hand with teacher-led instruction to accelerate student growth.
Learn more about i-Ready at i-Ready.com/Empower
3 WAYS SCHOOLS CAN CREATE EQUITY IN EVERY CLASSROOM A district instructional leader shares the tools and best practices that provide every one of his students the opportunity to shine.
1) EQUITY MEANS NO EXCEPTIONS One way to get started refocusing efforts on equity at your school begins in the classroom. As the director of instructional support for Los Lunas Schools in New Mexico, I tell my staff it’s up to each of them to ensure high
BY CASEY AHNER Equity in education provides the foundation of every student’s success. When educators focus on cultivating a classroom that truly adapts to every child’s background and needs, we can begin to close the gap between opportunity and achievement. However, it’s not just up to educators to make equity happen in every classroom. Schools and districts are put to the test when trying to find a solution to treating all students the same. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) outlines responsibility for districts and states to ensure equity in a variety of ways, such as documenting resource gaps, using multiple measures to assess student and school performance and progress, and designing standards that develop higher-order thinking skills. Even with laws like these in place, students still struggle to keep up. Here are three ways that schools can help. 4
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levels of learning for all students. And to us, all means all, from English language learners (ELLs) to students of color to low-income students to students with disabilities. In our school, all teams’ work is done collaboratively with a focus on student learning, not teaching. Teachers begin by identifying the essential learning targets that students must understand to create “I Can” statements. It’s important to take the time to understand students’ strengths and needs. By doing this, we can guarantee their needs are met and produce evidence of learning. Each team organizes their team minutes, team notes, essential standards, rubrics, scoring agreements, assessment maps, and proficiency maps, as well as evidence of student
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learning, in their own way. Some use binders, while others use Google Drive or the “collaborate” feature of Apple apps. Ultimately, every student will keep this information in the school’s data room. This allows other teams to access to assist in vertical alignment and planning. Our collaborative teams clarify what a proficient student looks like. We use proficiency and other factors to pace the guaranteed and viable curriculum. Teachers then create Common Formative Assessments (CFAs). From there, they continue to formatively assess students and respond with either intervention or extension. Students who require extra time will never miss what has been deemed essential and important for individual success.
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2) FIRST LANGUAGES COME FIRST Most schools can agree that language can be a serious barrier between students, parents, and teachers. In the classroom, it’s so important for students to have access to resources that allow them to read and write in their first language. This empowers ELLs to learn at a pace that’s comfortable and appropriately challenging for them, while staying on track with their classmates. ELLs are not only learning a new language; they’re learning new topics and ideas in the classroom all at once. Our dual-language classes provide an equitable environment with resources such as PebbleGo, which offers the option to read to students at the K-2 level in Spanish or English. On top of this, we’ve also adopted the Journeys reading program and use the Sendaros component, a comprehensive Spanish Reading and Language Arts program, as well as the Spanish version of the EnVision math program. These tools give students access to information in their home language in ways that were previously unavailable. During a research project last year, I witnessed a student most comfortable with English and a student most comfortable in Spanish paired to work
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together. The two students had a copy of the same biography to research, one in English, the other in Spanish. This allowed each student to read in the language they were most comfortable in, while still being able to participate fully with the assignment. As they read to each other, they started to learn a little about each other’s culture while discussing academic vocabulary meanings and context.
3) CONNECT LEARNING TO REAL LIFE Ultimately, welcoming equity into schools starts when we accept every student for the different backgrounds, challenges, and life experiences they bring to the classroom. We can provide equitable learning for all when we connect school learning to students’ real life experiences and guarantee that ALL means ALL. Casey R. Ahner is the director of instructional support for Los Lunas Schools. He started as a special education teacher for 5th- and 6th-grade students for eight years. After that, he was an elementary counselor, assistant principal, and principal. He is a Solution Tree associate and you can contact him at CAhner@llschools.net.
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“i-Ready has been super helpful pinpointing specific areas that maybe even just a few students need to work on, and then giving me resources to support them.” — Maddie M. Fourth Grade Teacher
Differentiate with confidence i-Ready delivers actionable insights teachers can use to make instructional decisions every day.
Learn more about i-Ready at i-Ready.com/Empower
MAKING HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCIALLY ACCESSIBLE FOR ALL BY CURTIS M. LOFTIS JR. It’s clear that a college education is a proven investment for future success. Statistics show the more you learn, the more you earn. A college degree may result in as much as $1 million more over the life of a career than having a high school diploma alone. In today’s fast-changing economy, a college education can provide individual financial stability and contribute to the overall economic health of a community. It’s also an expensive proposition as college tuition rates continue to rise, thus making it less accessible for some. If a college education is a goal you have set
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for your child’s future, you need to start planning now to meet the cost of achieving that goal. Investing in a 529 college savings plan can provide the pathway that leads to your child’s future success. Named after the section of the Internal Revenue Service code that established the savings plans, 529s offer many benefits that are better than using a traditional bank savings account, or even worse, dipping into your retirement funds to pay for college.
TAX BENEFITS In more than 30 states and the District of Columbia, you can get a tax deduction or credit for contributions made to a 529
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account. Earnings grow tax-free over the years as your child approaches college age. And once you withdraw funds, the money is tax-free when used for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, books, and room and board. I like to tell people it’s like beating the tax man three times.
CONVENIENCE Because there’s no minimum amount needed to open or contribute to an account, 529 savings plans are simple and available to anyone to open. Parents or grandparents can open accounts for their loved ones to help save for future education. Family members such as aunts and uncles, friends and even neighbors can contribute to a child’s 529 account to assist with savings and receive a tax benefit as well.
used for more than tuition. You can purchase laptops, printers, calculators, books, supplies and equipment needed for your child’s coursework. Funds can also be used for student housing. If your child’s scholarship covers everything or your child decides not to go to college, the plan can easily be transferred to a sibling for use. Or as the parent or grandparent account holder, you can make yourself the beneficiary and take post-graduate classes, professional development courses or even short-courses designed for enjoyment like pottery or basket-weaving.
FLEXIBILITY
OPPORTUNITY
Under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, savers can now use 529 plan funds beyond higher education. Effective January 1, 2018, parents may withdraw up to $10,000 to cover K-12 tuition at public, private or religious elementary or secondary schools. And South Carolina is one of 20 states that offer a state income tax deduction or credit when 529 savings are used to pay for K-12.
I often get asked “What if my child gets a scholarship?” Funds from a 529 plan can be
Further, the new tax law now also allows existing 529 plans to be rolled over into 529A
The funds can be used at accredited two-and four-year colleges as well as at technical and trade schools across the United States and in over 600 colleges abroad.
“A college degree may result in as much as $1 million more over the life of a career than having a high school diploma alone.”
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plans, or ABLE accounts, which are tax-advantaged savings tools for individuals with disabilities. Like its 529 counterpart, investors’ contributions grow tax-free and are eligible for tax deductions or credits in many jurisdictions throughout the U.S. One notable difference in ABLE 529s is the expanded use of funds to include assistive technology, transportation, housing, basic living expenses as well as education and job training. This flexibility provides a vital resource for individuals with disabilities without the fear of losing their existing government benefits. It truly has created greater accessibility to a segment of the population that has long
been hampered with restrictions that seemingly prevented a pathway to financial independence and security. The real key to accessibility for higher education is to start saving right away so earnings can grow along with your child. And the dollars you save and invest now are the dollars your family won’t have to borrow when it’s time for college. It is never too early – or too late – to start saving for your child’s future. I encourage you to check out the solution that 13.6 million American families have chosen to help ensure those they love can pay for college – a 529 college savings plan.
Curtis Loftis is the South Carolina State Treasurer. His office administers the Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan and the South Carolina ABLE Savings Program.
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MEASURING WHAT MATTERS DISRUPTING THE PARADIGM WITH EQUITABLE DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS BY ERIC GOLDREYER Learning is a lifetime affair. Take it from me–I’ve started and grown enough businesses in the past 25 years to know the most fulfilling endeavors in life are the ones that fuel your curiosity and stump you just enough to keep you learning the next new thing. Benjamin Franklin said, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.” No matter your past, your context, your age, your dreams, your zip code, innovation and learning are life. Take the Internet, for example. Would you even recognize the world without it? Today’s 24-hour newsfeeds deliver up-to-the-minute headlines on our mobile devices. We no longer wait for the 6 o’clock news or the morning paper.
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Online shopping and next-day delivery services have changed retail business. Ever think about sending a fax? How we communicate and conduct business has been revolutionized.
The Internet has transformed nearly every area of life, except for the second largest industry in the world: education. Why are we still giving kids a piece of paper with a gold foil seal and their name written in beautiful calligraphy when they graduate? How does this help them find the right college or land the right job? It certainly doesn’t offer details about their strengths and passions. It’s time to disrupt education and build a more progressive path — a seriously fun and seriously challenging opportunity. One such positive disruption I’ve had the fortune of participating in was in the hospitality industry.
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As the co-founder of BedandBreakfast.com, I was trying to leverage a relatively new technology – the Internet – to enhance the quality service and products already being offered. Innkeepers were using paper guidebooks. This made the reservation process slow, tedious and often prone to mistakes. The archaic technology supporting what was an innovative industry felt like an injustice to hospitality professionals’ work.
I wasn’t trying to add a bell, a whistle or a cherry on top of the industry – I simply wanted to amplify the potential of these small businesses because I already believed in what they were doing. Education has been using paper guidebooks – grades and standardized tests – just like the innkeepers in hospitality used to. The days of conforming to a one-size-fits-all mold of standardized tests and GPAs are over. Research proves that this approach is not preparing students for a successful future in college or career; it’s leaving students with atypical learning abilities out of luck, which in turn puts our world at a huge disadvantage, seeing as the most successful students are not typically straight-A ones. Our obsession with standardized assessment often inhibits many of the most creative, entrepreneurial and totally out-of-the-box students from impacting the world in the way only they can. What matters most is equipping students with skills needed for college, career and life. This is why I sought out a team of lifelong learners and together we started bulb. We wanted to create a tool to give everyone their own place to gather information, develop content and continually add to their best work for a lifetime. It’s thrilling to see hundreds of thousands of students on bulb every day, creating, collect-
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ing and sharing usable, meaningful knowledge. When students can present their best work to the world or when educators encourage them to do so, we are making a choice to change the dialogue around evaluation and telling a student’s whole story.
THIS IS A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN EDUCATION bulb is disrupting an old paradigm. We are inspiring educators to focus on “what matters” and to liberate learning from structures that no longer serve our students well. With bulb, a student’s natural curiosity finds its match in an educational platform that not only gives the student a fun experience but pride in what they create. It’s a tool that reflects who our students are — what they know, what they do, how they share it. It’s the first step of a learning journey that is lifelong and has no borders — not even the four walls of the classroom. Join us in our quest to serve students better with personalized, continuous innovation by visiting bulbapp.com today. Eric Goldreyer, the CEO and Co-Founder of bulb Digital Portfolios, is passionate about creating new ways for learning to prosper. The consummate entrepreneur was also the founder and CEO of BedandBreakfast.com, founder and owner of FunAir, co-founder and board member of TurnKey Vacation Rentals and owner of the Sage Hill Inn and Spa. He grew BedandBreakfast.com into the leading bed & breakfast lodging website, and expanded its offering through the acquisition of several websites and lodging software companies.
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ENGAGEMENT AN ENGINE FOR ENSURING EQUITY BY DONNA WILSON & MARCUS CONYERS A prevailing myth in education is that children and teens from low-income families cannot be expected to learn at high levels of academic achievement. The truth is that there are many classrooms where high expectations and effective instruction result in significant academic gains by all students. The challenge is that many low-income students arrive at school without the advantage of resources that support their learning. And, studies show that standard approaches for teaching children in poverty such as retaining them a grade and teaching watered-down curriculum, put impoverished students at risk of academic failure.
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IS KEY Keeping the above in mind, what do teachers in high-poverty schools do to work toward successful student outcomes? Effective teachers view learning not as rote memorization, but as mental engagement. At its best, teaching engages students and inspires
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them to cultivate a love of learning and to develop a thirst for new knowledge and skills. Teaching to the broader goal of student engagement is exceedingly important for students from less privileged backgrounds. The goal of teaching to engage reflects a teacher’s desire to make a positive difference in students’ lives. Such teachers may define their job as the continuous initiation and maintenance of student interest and involvement. This approach goes beyond a more traditional approach to teaching, which often places a greater emphasis on discipline or teacher control. The discipline-focused approach essentially considers the teacher as a classroom manager who is more concerned with control and order than learning. In contrast, effective teachers, especially in high poverty schools, are those who stimulate student interest. These teachers can help students to develop an internal sense of satisfaction and pride in learning that goes beyond external rewards.
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FIVE STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING STUDENT INTEREST AND INVOLVEMENT 1) Model a love of learning. A teacher who is passionate and curious is far more likely to generate these characteristics in his or her students from poverty—or for that matter, any student—than someone who is dispassionate about knowledge. Moreover, even if students do not share a particular teacher’s interests, they will be shown the value of intrinsic motivation and developing one’s passions. 2) Set high expectations for all students, regardless of their past performance. Virtually every young child who arrives at school has a growing active brain eager to learn from experience. However, as they grow children and teenagers absorb adult beliefs from school and the community about what they can achieve. Since teacher expectations have a profound effect on student achievement, setting a positive and optimistic tone is imperative. 3) Show that you care. I [Donna] have a story about the power of a caring teacher in a situation in my life where I was quite fearful of not being able to succeed. Through simple human kindnesses,
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my stretching instructor, Elaine, taught in a caring way. An obvious and important way she showed caring was through praise when I did something correctly. For example, although I was not able to stretch my hamstring muscles nearly as far as she did, when I held my legs up until they shook, she said, “Great! You are trying hard! This is good effort and you will soon get better.” Then, she showed me how by the end of the session, I had progressed on this stretch, which was one of the most difficult ones for me. As I walked away after my first session, I was looking already looking forward to the next. Elaine had explained why the benefits of stretching as we mature, hooked me into thinking that I can learn this new material, and emphasized that I will enjoy using it across my life span. By the way, it is of critical importance for educators to practice good self-care with good our nutritional habits, regular exercise, and a positive social network and support system. 4) Give students options in what they read and learn and how they learn. Effective teachers understand that students have their own personal interests and learn in their own way. When students have appropriate options in what they learn and how they learn it, the biology of the brain changes; motivation is increased; and teachers are able to reach more learners more often. To
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facilitate the power of options in learning, teachers may want to find ways to work with your colleagues to identify different ways for students to learn. Here are a few ideas:
• With key literary works, have all students read the same book and give them a choice about which character they would like to act out.
• Give students choices so they can decide what they would like to read and projects they would like to think about and do.
• After students finish a project or read a book, give them a choice about how they are assessed.
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• Regularly vary classroom instruction, for example, with the use of whole group reflection time, partner learning, silent reading time, movement, passionate mini-lecture, and projects. The idea here is that there is something to pique every student’s interest sometime during the day.
5) If students are wary of being “wrong” teachers must convey that it is a safe place to make mistakes. For often, students do not want to make a mistake in front of their peers and are unwilling to expend effort in the likelihood of perceived failure. The best teachers explicitly teach the concept that mistakes are normal and desirable aspects of learning. Together, after spending 100+ years in schools and universities, first as students then in various roles with children, teenagers, and educational professionals, we are convinced that for many youth, school offers the best chance for a good life. As you touch the lives of students from poverty, know that you make a difference.
Drs. Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers, ASCD authors of Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains, are co-founders of BrainSMART, a professional development group dedicated to improving teaching and learning through innovative frameworks and strategies for putting research into practice. They are authors of 20 books and 75 articles and developers of the world’s first graduate degree programs in brain-based teaching. The duo’s original approach is featured on ASCD’s new video series, Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains. On the videos Donna and four classroom teachers model teaching elementary students about their brilliant brains and how they can discover how to how to learn at higher levels.
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AUGMENTING YOUR CLASSROOM REALITY IN STEM LEARNING The role of AR in creating equitable, accessible education for everyone
BY CLEMENS BRAAKMANN When it comes to technology integration, the education sector is just picking up pace. Far behind what other industries have discovered years ago, educators today steadily begin to see the advantages that digital technologies have for education in general, but more importantly, their students. Through various inventions in the EdTech space, by educators and non-educators, and branded under the increasingly popular term Edupreneurship, people have started to realise the potential for return that investments in computer equipment and digital infrastructure have for their school. From the first iMacs to the first Virtual Reality Goggles to the first creative makerspaces, the very best of schools around the world have already integrated a variety of tools and enabled themselves to deliver the most excellent educa18
tion that the world has ever seen. But as pointed out as well by Marty Creel of Discovery Education lately, excellence is far from what is really required to “renovate” the education system, although it is what most Edupreneurs focused on in the last years. The best education system is not the one that ultimately produces the most capable individual; it is the one that creates the largest, equally well-trained, highly capable group that features a diversity of skills and strengths that enable every problem to be solved through cooperation. This capability to solve complex problems through abstract and critical thinking, creativity and collaboration is often referred to as a STEM-skillset nowadays. These skills are
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based on curiosity and ideas, with curiosity being at the heart of every scientific experiment and discovery, and they are soft skills that can be acquired through actively interacting with the world and discovering how everything is interconnected and interdependent—and how the solution for one problem can often be found in an entirely different space when used in an innovative way.
ble for everyone? How do we create equitable integration of the developments that can improve the success of our education system so drastically and even lead to the creation of crucial soft skills? To create accessible, high-quality education, we need accessible, high-quality technologies.
Through high-quality digital content, technology can provide all the means to take on this journey of active discovery and practical learning: Once the right tools are used, STEM can be learned and taught everywhere, creating interactive, engaging lessons that entice kids all around the world to revive their long-lost interest in everything scientific, mathematic and technologic. But what needs to be done? How do we make digitally enhanced education accessi-
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These technologies need low investment in terms of money, time and training, because all of these factors are barriers to widespread adoption. Yet, they need to generate proven, significant improvements in students’ academic and social skills. All of this can be found in one of the key players of the immersive technology space: Augmented Reality (AR). Often overlooked beside its more popular brother Virtual Reality (VR), AR requires no specialized equipment, is much easier to program and create and can be used incredibly intuitively. As a mixed reality technology, AR combines a real-life scenario that is viewed through the lens of a normal mobile device with digital data and content, added into the camera perspective by software. Through AR, 3D-content and models can be projected right on the class room table and then augmented with information on what you are viewing. In most cases, AR works through apps on normal mobile devices, making it possible for schools to use the devices students already possess in BYOD-programs or have them collaborate on one device. Through this approach, that does ‘augment’ your reality with digital elements, yet does not isolate you from your actual environment like a VR headset does, there are countless options for collaborative learning in the classroom and outside with AR. Through 3D-modeling and visualization, especially STEM subjects can be made accessible, easy to learn and exciting. If you think of complex structures like DNA that are extremely difficult to
show accurately in 2D, the merit of AR for STEM learning instantly becomes clear. In turn, this then leads to the creation of the exact skills that are linked to STEM and urgently needed for the economy of the future, as also pointed out in this recent article by Inc Magazine. In the end, AR can be used in every school that possesses at least one device that runs Android or iOS and a projector that can be connected to it. This is the first step toward improving teaching with accessible technology, and the options for expanding it are endless. On the measurable side, AR has already been proven to increase knowledge retention by up to 100% and improve students’ test scores by 33%. Through its multi-modal, interactive nature, it supports every learning style and can be an extremely valuable tool in Special Needs Education. Exactly because of this circumstance, AR is one of the steps towards equity in education, where the teaching methods used suit every learners’ individual needs. Identifying, supporting and even expanding technologies like AR will be a key task for everyone with the mission of creating excellent, yet accessible and equal education all around the world. Along with other major trends and technological developments, seven of which you can find here, AR creates something we left behind long ago in traditional teaching: Room to dream about future ways of application and how much more this tech-nology can do for us, the education sector, the future economy and last, but certainly not least, our children.
Clemens Braakmann, Business Development Associate at CleverBooks Ltd. can be reached at clemens@cleverbooks.eu. CleverBooks Ltd. is a Dublin-based company that aims to make 21st century education accessible for children all around the world. Their innovative STEMaccredit-ed Augmented Reality teaching resources supplement traditional methods and work with curriculums all around the world. To find out more, go to www.cleverbooks.eu.
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Two key principles of strong, effective communication:
Access and
Equity Since 1935, National School Public Relations Association, the leader in school communication, has provided school communication training and services to leaders throughout the United States, Canada, and the U.S. Dependent Schools worldwide.
15948 Derwood Road Rockville, MD 20855 (301) 519-0496 www.nspra.org
Learn from the best in school communication This July in Washington, D.C., join hundreds of professionals who represent diverse experiences, backgrounds, and interests for NSPRA’s widely acclaimed National Seminar. Content you can’t get anywhere else! To learn more, go to www.nspra.org/national-seminar.
LEADER IN ACCESSIBLE INNOVATION: QUILLSOFT USER-FRIENDLY TOOLS DEVELOPED TO HELP ALL LEARNERS BECOME INDEPENDENT, CONFIDENT, EFFECTIVE WRITERS At Quillsoft, we research and create literacy software catering to all walks of life—recognizing the many different needs of our customers from elementary, secondary and post-secondary students, to working professionals. We promote effectiveness in communication by helping people become independent and confident writers, no matter their age or academic level. While still prominent and a pioneer in special education literacy software we have developed strategies and technology that can benefit all writers. Our goal is to enable students to unleash their reading and writing potential on their own, with guidance from teachers and assistive technology including our WordQ, iWordQ, ThoughtQ and ReaderQ software across Windows, macOS, Chromebook and iPad platforms. We want writers to concentrate on content, quality, and originality rather than just correcting spelling and grammar mistakes. Our software supports the writing process by offering practical strategies that take advantage of state-of-the-art word prediction, speech feedback,
proofreading, enhanced topical web searches, and unique plagiarism reduction technologies. All of this is done to support current UDL environments recognizing the importance of pedagogy and integration of assistive technology. Teachers/instructors can focus on helping students work and learn more independently—making them effective writers in the long run.
communication in emails and reports. WordQ’s proofreading support is one of several key strategies that ensure that people can read and understand what you write.
Following on our three decades of R&D experience, Quillsoft remains focused on delivering simple, easy-to-use tools for effective communication. Students benefit from using our tools daily without being overwhelmed by complexity. In some cases, technology is not even necessary; for example, students can apply our proofreading, paraphrasing and plagia-rism reduction strategies anywhere.
ThoughtQ is a Chromebook application as well as a new feature incorporated within the latest WordQ 5 desktop products. It suggests related words and phrases that the writer may not have considered. This makes researching and writing about an unknown topic much easier and definitely more interesting. The ReaderQ Chrome extension guides writers to actively read, take notes and paraphrase while working with web pages. ReaderQ also works with non-web pages and PDFs using the clipboard function where writers can copy and paste text from other documents. This ultimately reduces plagiarism and enables the user to understand the content rather than copying and pasting large chunks of information and promptly forgetting about it later.
ESL and ELL students (second-language learners) benefit from our approach as well, because with ongoing use of our software, they become more comfortable with writing in English. Further, working professionals use our tools to achieve a competitive advantage in business and in life through effective
While teachers are most familiar with word prediction and speech feedback functions, we would like to highlight our latest tools, ThoughtQ and ReaderQ.
TO KNOW MORE ABOUT QUILLSOFT’S PRODUCTS AND PRICING, PLEASE VISIT QUILLSOFT.CA
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Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls Independent School District (WFISD) knew they had a problem: nearly half of their students enter kindergarten unprepared with the basic skills they need to be successful in school. Doctor Travis Armstrong, Director of Early Learning for WFISD, is intimately familiar with the struggles families can encounter with early learning and equal access to quality PreK education. "Children who aren't technically enrolled in the school district, they're at home, but they have a need. They have a need to be educated, they have a need of building that foundation before they enter kindergarten, but potentially there's some barrier there." When families don't qualify for a government-funded preschool program, he says it's incredibly difficult to turn them away because "You're not Just turning down that family, you're turning down that child." Superintendent Michael Kuhrt stresses the importance of children being properly and
equally prepared for kindergarten: "We know where the starting line is, we know where the finish line Is, and we want every student starting at the same starting line." The district understood they needed to reach more students before they enter kindergarten and needed to increase early education access to help families who don't qualify for a PreK program, can't afford private preschool, or are in rural areas where programs simply aren't available.
Accessible Early Childhood Education Kuhrt spearheaded an effort to bring more PreK options to the district. After hearing about Waterford, the district launched a pilot of Waterford UPSTART, offering the program in the homes of 91 qualified families.
�Waterford
UPSTART
Waterford UPSTART is an at-home kindergarten readiness program that is provided at no cost to children and families. The adaptive computer program engages students with educational activities and fun characters while teaching them math, science, and, most importantly, reading.
VIRTUAL REALITY MAKING EVERYWHERE ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE BY AUSTIN MULLINS Can you imagine a world in which children actually get excited about going to school? In the era of virtual reality, we have the opportunity to make education stimulating and fun like never before. VR creates an immersive, engaging learning environment that gets children motivated to learn. And although the technology is still in its infancy, it’s already popping up all over the place. Delivered via headset or mobile phone screen, the potential of this relatively new technology is still being explored—and the possibilities for innovation are endless. As a leader in mobile design and app devel-
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opment, we can’t wait to see where this goes–and we’re excited to be a part of the process.
Here are 5 ways we see virtual reality transforming the education industry: 1) Immersive educational experiences Today, augmented reality is routinely used in the classroom. You may be familiar with the process—it overlays digital information onto real-world objects using the camera on a mobile device. AR blurs the lines between fantasy and reality and brings lessons to life—and because it offers a more tactile experience than book
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learning alone, it allows children to really believe what they’re being told. Virtual reality will take things a step further. Rather than looking at the world through a screen, the children will actually become a part of that world. Or go to a whole other world. The possibilities are nearly endless.
change the game. Now, a student who wants to be a pilot can practice flying without ever sitting in a real cockpit. Or someone interested in dentistry might be able to fill a cavity … without having a patient in the hot seat.
2) New opportunities for low-income families
Students will have a much greater idea of where their interests lie and what they might be good at before they commit to a career path.
Harvard professor Robert Putnam said, “The bottom line is … that poor kids are increasingly isolated.”
4) Virtual field trips
Indeed, in some remote parts of the world, there are students who have to hike miles to get to a classroom every day. Often, even when they do get into school, their education isn’t on par with students in more urban locations. Some are so isolated, they receive no schooling at all. Virtual reality can help bridge the education gap between children all over the globe. Educators will be able to use headsets to connect with students in remote locations. Professionals can give real-time lessons to children in underprivileged neighborhoods. And students will be able to interact with each other … from halfway around the world.
Imagine being able to visit the lost city of Pompeii or the Acropolis in Athens without ever leaving your classroom. Virtual reality makes this sort of learning a possibility. VR already allows students to explore the world around them, and it’s only going to get better. 360-degree learning experiences will engage students in a way never before possible, placing classroom content into a new context. Even better? Virtual reality fosters curiosity. Experts find that the children ask more pertinent questions and think more critically following a VR session.
5) Game-based learning Bottom line? VR is a powerful tool for educational equity.
3) Making college planning easier Choosing a college major can be a daunting experience. No 17-year old has enough life experience to determine their ultimate future, yet that’s what many are expected to do. In the past, those decisions have largely been a gamble—but virtual reality is about to
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Today’s youth love video games. In fact, the average child aged 7 to 11 plays about 4 hours per week. Scot Osterweil, creative director for MIT’s Education Arcade, said: “In most video games, kids are being challenged to do difficult things to master game play. That’s not a bad thing and could be developing skills that will extend beyond the game.”
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So why shouldn’t that be used in the classroom? It’s important to provide education in a way that students find appealing, and virtual reality puts a fun focus on learning. Let’s face it: school can become boring for even the most enthusiastic students–and VR allows educators to present the curriculum in a way that is far more engaging.
FINAL THOUGHTS Virtual reality is going to revolutionize education. Studies have shown that VR is one of the best ways to prompt learning and to stimu-late interests. And not only that, but students put in more effort and pick up skills more
quickly in a virtual environment. At TechAhead, we’ve been helping to revolu-tionize schooling in a different way. Based on a client request, we created the completed solution for student dispersal solution PikMy-Kid. The app, available for Android and iOS, facilitates the control and management of pickup authorizations by the school adminis-tration, reducing the stress associated with after-school pickup. It’s currently being used in 112 public schools throughout the U.S. If you have an idea for an innovative learning solution, reach out to us. Since 2009, we’ve helped countless individuals across all indus-tries turn their dreams into reality.
HOW PBL IGNITES SPED CLASSROOMS A high school special needs teacher uses project-based learning to inspire understanding and collaboration among her students. BY JILL KOENEMANN
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It’s one thing to talk about changing the way you teach, and another to actually try a new approach in the classroom.
were looking for a curriculum that would help students connect what they were learning with their own lives.
At a PLC meeting last year, my colleagues and I started talking about how to teach 21st-century skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving in a classroom where students have a range of abilities. We
The conversation quickly shifted to project-based learning (PBL). This approach suits children with learning difďŹ culties because it allows them to work at their own pace. For collaborative projects, teachers can pair
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higher- and lower-functioning students, who will then work together to accomplish a common goal that is often bigger or more comprehensive than what they could have done on their own. PBL can and should be fun: students have the opportunity to collaborate with their friends and share their final project at the end!
Connecting the Classroom to Students’ Lives I didn’t set out to make my first project such an emotional one, but the Parkland shooting in Florida happened to coincide with us starting a unit called “Survival,” and this project brought our class together at a difficult time. I included six students with varying disabilities. It focused on the challenging topic of survivor’s guilt. We started by reading the short story “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami, which is about a man whose best friend dies when he was 10. In the story, the man tells how he dealt with survivor’s guilt and PTSD for the rest of his life. We tied this
story in with an op-ed entitled “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt” by Nancy Sherman, as well as coverage about the Parkland school shooting and how those kids had to return to school without their friends. The goal was for the students to create a visual representation of how the two stories connected and how they were different, to see how fiction and non-fiction go together.
Encouraging Collaboration Using a visual collaboration platform called Project Pals, students structured their thinking, collaborated on ideas digitally, and constructed argumentative essays. Working this way also supported our pedagogical shift towards infusing technology into every lesson, following the SAMR Model. For this project, students gathered all of their resources and put them in the platform to produce something that was much more than a pencil-and-paper report. You can see more in my video demonstration of the survivor’s guilt project.
The results of our project have been nothing short of astounding. The essays and projects submitted by my students were fantastic; I attribute this sudden increase in quality of work to three factors: The power of connecting learning with real life Providing students with the opportunity to collaborate in a controlled environment My shift to a PBL approach
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5 TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED WITH PBL IN YOUR DIVERSE CLASSROOM
3) Visualize the process of how to structure each project before you get started.
Now that that I’ve gotten through this project and another one about World War I, I’m excited to pass on what I learned with three local special needs teachers so we can begin using PBL in more SPED classrooms. Here are some best practices I’ll share with them about getting started with project-based learning:
4) Time is an issue for every teacher. Use PBL to work smarter, not harder.
1) Get involved with a supportive group of people. Collaborative teaching supports collaborative learning! 2) Choose a platform with strong customer support, because PBL can be daunting at looking for a platform that will help you
5) Start with a short project and work your way into a larger project. This is mostly for gy so much faster than adults. PBL certainly took some getting used to, but I cation, because these kids need 21stcentury skills to succeed in school and in life.
Jill Koenemann is a high school special needs teacher in Michigan’s Monroe ISD. She can be reached at jill.koenemann@monroeisd.us.
YOUR STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO PROTECTING STUDENT DATA PRIVACY
Protecting the privacy of student data is a fundamental responsibility of today’s school systems. As education leaders, you need to be empowered to make the right decisions about protecting student data privacy, for today and for the future. In Linnette Attai’s new book, Student Data Privacy: Building a School Compliance Program, you’ll learn what it takes to build a program that protects the personal information of your students while supporting your broader school mission.
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“This is a foundational, must-read book that helps educators understand how to get started with concrete actions that build trust with parents and policymakers.” KEITH KRUEGER, CEO, Consortium for School Networking
About the Author For more than 25 years, Linnette Attai has been building organizational cultures of compliance and guiding clients through the complex obligations governing data privacy matters, user safety and marketing. She is the founder of PlayWell, LLC, a full-service compliance consulting firm that takes the complexity out of developing compliant and responsible practices within the framework of your organization’s capabilities, capacities and goals. Learn more at PlayWell-LLC.com and follow us on Twitter @PlayWell_LLC. © PlayWell, LLC™
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ENGAGEMENT AND THE ACCESSIBILITY OF DIGITAL CONTENT
BY KAREN MCCALL
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When we think of equity in education for students, faculty and staff with disabilities, we often think of the built-environment. This means making sure that ramps, good contrast on stairs, wide doors and good signage are available for students and staff.
My educational career spans the time when there were no digital/audio textbooks (only large print or Braille) to the present when I can have 600 or more audiobooks literally at my fingertips on SD cards for my Victor Reader Stream.
We often forget that there are barriers to print and print-to-digital content encountered by students, faculty and staff who are blind, or who have a visual, learning, cognitive or other print disability. For those of us who cannot access, or process print or print-to-digital content, learning becomes reliant on memory, notes we’ve taken and other sources of information that facilitate the acquisition of knowledge. I know. I’ve been there.
The accessibility of print or print-to-digital content in the K-12 environment is often done on an ad hoc basis by Educational Assistants (here in Canada). Universal design of content is something not taught in faculties of education or colleges that graduate Educational Assistants. Most learn as they go. If we are going to evolve to an inclusive community, we need to start with the documents and content created in the K-12 classroom.
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Consider the people who would need accessible digital content: Parents and guardians with disabilities need accessible web sites including forms and report cards, scheduling tools for Parent-teacher interviews and digital calendars with important dates throughout the school year. Students and teachers need accessible homework pages, homework assignments and calendars with assignment deadlines as well as access to their report cards. Teachers with disabilities need to be able to add information for parents and students with disabilities.
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Teachers also need to be able to access all of the administrative tools they are expected to use. How accessible are these components for learning and student success in your school board or district? When we talk about the accessibility of digital content, we are talking about some basic elements of a “document.� For example, in a word processing application such as Microsoft Word, those of us who use adaptive technology take advantage of headings in documents. If you look at any textbook, you can
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visually identify major topic changes like chapters and the subtopics under each chapter. Visually the chapter title (heading 1) is different from an immediate subtopic (heading 2) and a topic under that subtopic. This is the document outline, the hierarchy of content in the document. Visually you know that something that is “bold and smaller than something that is “bold, italicized and larger” is a sub topic to that bold, italicized larger text. However, without the document author using styles in Word or any word processor to clearly identify that structure, all those of us who use adaptive technology know is that all of the pieces of text in a document are paragraphs.
USE OF HEADING STYLES What makes the headings navigational points, is the use of styles in word processors or desktop publishing documents. It is the same with websites, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG identify headings as a navigational method for those using adaptive technology (Success Criteria 1.3.1, 2.4.1, 2.4.6 and 2.4.10). The concept is transferable to any type of digital content where the use of headings/styles is available. The use of heading styles doesn’t make your document look different. It simply clearly identifies the visual and structural navigation-
al points in a document. For this reason, it is essential that when you are designing your word processed or desktop published documents, that the headings are sequential. This means using a heading 1 followed by heading 2 followed by heading 3 and not a heading 1 followed by heading 3. Think of skipped headings like trying to follow a map and finding that one of the cities or towns is missing. How much time would you spend looking for that town or city you thought should be there? At the same time, you begin adding headings to your documents you should begin adding Alt Text or “alternative text” to images, charts and diagrams. If an image, chart or diagram has no description clearly and concisely identifying the purpose of the image as it relates to the surrounding content, all those of us who are using adaptive technology will hear is “graphic, 4 inches by 5 inches” or whatever the dimensions of the image are. If the document is converted to tagged PDF (accessible PDF) then all we will have access to is “graphic.” In subsequent issues of Accessibility, Compliance and Equity in Education, we’ll take a closer look at how you can use heading styles and Alt text for images to improve the accessibility of your documents. In part 4, we’ll look at how those simple steps toward more inclusive documents are transformed when the Word document is converted to tagged PDF.
Karen McCall, M.Ed., is a senior advisor in Accessible Document Design at Open Access Technologies (OAT). OAT makes it easy to take inaccessible documents and make them accessible and conforming to Section 508.
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What we do with what we know and how we share has never been more important. bulbs mission is to tell a student’s whole story. bulb Digital Portfolios will… Document progress and growth over time. Provide evidence and make visible the process of learning. Empower students to be agents of their education. Encourage reflection and collaboration.
A modern learning experience invites students and educators to create a beautiful, shareable record of work to #MeasureWhatMatters
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INSTANT ACCESS TO BOOKS IS JUST THE BEGINNING A Texas superintendent shares his district’s multi-pronged approach to boosting early literacy. BY ROYCE AVERY Many educators find themselves in a school or a classroom because they were impacted by learning and, specifically, books. This is why we often make a flawed assumption about our students: We assume that they, too, live a life filled with books. But often, this is not the case. I am the superintendent of Manor Independent School District (ISD), a diverse school district located outside of Austin, TX, with students who come from all different backgrounds. About 70% of our students last year were on free and reduced lunch, which also means that many of our students do not have access to books at home. Because we know literacy is key to a student’s success, we focus on equity and access for all of our learners. Without these efforts, many students would be left behind. In order to put equity and access at the forefront in our district, we have started an initiative where we bring books to the community, allowing students access to books of their choice. We have several programs that work to give students access to books anytime and anywhere. The results have been significant, and could be replicated by other schools who devote the effort and resources to the right programs.
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RESULTS WORTH SHARING Our goal is to see a year’s worth of growth in a year’s time for all students, and we’re seeing great improvement on that measurement in reading, including the following: 72% of Manor ISD 5th-graders made a year’s growth in a year’s time—a 35% increase in reading from the prior year; and 62% of Manor ISD 8th-graders made a year’s growth in a year’s time—a 5% increase in reading from the prior year. How did we make this happen? An important step in the process was making a flood of high-quality reading materials available to our district community.
In addition to hard-copy books, we provide our youngest readers with access to myON®, by Renaissance®, giving them digital access to books at home whether they have internet access or not. This program supplies students enhanced digital books, matched to their interests and reading level. We participate in the Texas One Book program and purchase books for our students to read over the summer. This year our district read The Mouse and the Motorcycle, which we provided to elementary students in both English and Spanish.
We have an integrated set of initiatives that ensure all students have access to a variety of reading materials, both print and digital. These programs include:
In order to provide “windows and mirrors” to our students through the texts that they read, we have purchased culturally responsive text sets for our middle school ELA classrooms. Our elementary school teachers also use picture books and novels that feature many races, genders, abilities, and identifiers, so all students can see themselves reflected in the books they read at school.
Little Free Libraries, which as the name implies, are small, no-cost book repositories placed throughout the community in strategic locations to support students with limited access to books. This is extremely valuable to students as our community does not have a fully-staffed public library. There are currently four of these libraries located around the district, with four more ready to be placed this school year.
Each of our schools features a Literacy Wall, an area where each individual student’s picture is posted next to their benchmark data in a confidential room accessible only to teachers and administrators. The goal of this room is to track each student on an individual basis so teachers can plan and differentiate instruction. To further track literacy progress, K–2 students are assessed on a monthly basis.
Our Reading On The Go program: We’ve outfitted a bus to be a mobile library, and it tours nearby neighborhoods, businesses, schools, and communities. This runs throughout the school year and summer, bringing a mobile bookshelf to students.
It is inspiring to help students develop a love of reading and create opportunities for books to bring joy to and enrich students’ lives. However, our initiatives do far more than provide fodder for uplifting stories.
BOOKS, BOOKS EVERYWHERE
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MORE THAN A FEEL-GOOD STORY We draw on high-quality research to inform our decisions about how to improve students’ early literacy experiences. Reading is critical to the development of young minds, and access to books is a big indicator of whether a child will embrace reading. Just consider these facts: According to the National Institute for Literacy, children who don’t learn to read and write in the early years are at higher risk for school failure. According to the National Early Literacy Panel, children most likely to have difficulties learning to read in the primary grades enter school with less exposure to text, which leads to a potential lack of prior knowledge, verbal abilities, familiarities with basic purposes, and mechanisms of reading and letter knowledge.
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To minimize these negative outcomes, we address students’ literacy needs as early as possible. Manor ISD currently assesses pre-literacy skills using the Ready Set K! Assessment, which is research-based and predictive of later success in the 3rd grade. And as I mentioned, we draw on Sims-Bish-op’s “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” work and multicultural literacy work from Souto-Manning, McNair, and AlHazza to support our use of multicultural children’s literature. A COORDINATED COMMUNITY EFFORT If you’d like to develop a similar campaign in your own school or district, you don’t have to work alone. Work with district partners to expand literacy options for your students. If budget is a concern, then reach out to local
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businesses, religious communities, and nonprofits. Tell them about your needs, and they’ll work with you to run book drives, host events, or offer monetary donations. Offering students good books to read is crucial, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle. It’s important to provide teachers adequate training and resources to help them guide students in their development of literacy skills. For example, Manor ISD has literacy coaches staffed on all nine of our elementary campuses to work with pre-K through 2nd-grade teachers. We have a full-time librarian staffed on each campus, and students have access to the library each week.
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Parents are a valuable but sometimes overlooked resource in promoting literacy in the school and community, too. We have involved parents in our efforts by creating Parent Liaisons who help facilitate effective communication between the local community and school personnel about our literacy initiatives. With a coordinated effort, sufficient resources, and a multi-pronged approach, districts can use early literacy programs to drastically improve educational outcomes for their students. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. Dr. Royce Avery is the Superintendent of Manor Independent School District in Manor, TX. Follow him on Twitter @royce_dr.
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