Ready News: May 29, 2020

Summer. Learning. Loss. Leadership. Readiness Projects Coordinating Partners Blog

The featured blog in this newsletter challenges all of us to think carefully about the language we use. Due to the cascade of COVID-19 disruptions, our young people are experiencing learning and experiencing loss in profound ways. As we head into summer and plan for fall re-openings, we cannot let justifiable concerns about academic learning loss limit our ability to craft broader responses.

As we post this blog, however, we have to acknowledge the bigger lessons and losses that are being played out in real time in Minneapolis, Central Park, Texas, Georgia, and many other places around the country. Racism is more deadly than COVID-19. There is no vaccine in the making. And even if one was available, there are Americans who would declare it their constitutional right not to be vaccinated. Black and brown children and youth are going into the summer with phones in hand, ready to document events they should never see and ready to return to schools that may choose not to discuss them. This is learning. This is loss. We need leadership.

Read the blog.

Virtual Learning Sessions from the Ready by 21 National Meeting

After making the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Ready by 21 National Meeting due to COVID-19, the Forum has been working to share the rich content from our esteemed faculty with the youth-serving field. There are two sessions coming up in June to help you change the odds for children and youth.

Advancing Equity through Summer and School-Year Partnerships
June 10, 2020
2:00-3:00 PM EDT

This webinar will share success stories and best practices of school and community collaboration to support children’s mental and physical health. Attendees will have the opportunity to reflect and discuss the current uncertainty around what “back-to-school” may look like.

Presenters:

* Aaron Dworkin, CEO, National Summer Learning Association
* Daniel Hatcher, Director of Community Partnerships, Alliance for a Healthier Generation

Learn more.

System Building Beyond the Bell
June 30, 2020
1:00-2:00 PM EDT

Join the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and The Opportunity Project (Tulsa, OK) for this webinar focused on integrating learning systems through quality expanded learning opportunities. AIR and The Opp will highlight promising practices in coordinating strategy alignment with a focus on Social and Emotional Learning. Participants will have the opportunity to learn how effective coordination of quality improvement activities can establish a collaborative culture, enhance cross-sector alignment, and develop collective responsibility.

Presenters:

* Amy Anderson, Senior Manager, Experiential Learning, The Opportunity Project
* Fausto Lopez, Content Area Expert, American Institutes for Research

Learn more.

Education Tele-Town Hall – Responding and Returning to Schools: Parents’ Perspectives on the Summer and Fall

National Urban League Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, June 2
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT

In April and May 2020, the Urban League of Louisiana and The Education Trust released a survey for parents that focused on responding to and coping with education during the time of COVID-19 and the resulting stay at home order. This town hall will lift up the experiences and concerns of parents captured by the survey and consider the implications of what parents have shared as well as potential actions and steps for schools, education leaders, and community partners.

Register today.

Connections and Solutions: Local Intermediaries Leading the Charge for Afterschool

Every Hour Counts National Virtual Event
Thursday, June 4
2:00-3:30 PM EDT

Now more than ever, we need connections and solutions. Planted in a new remote reality, afterschool champions across the country are facing a host of unprecedented challenges due to COVID-19 for which there is no playbook or script. With urgency, local afterschool organizations have mobilized like never before to support young people as school and afterschool programs closed. Intermediaries are demonstrating their distinct powers to understand the needs of children and youth and work with policymakers and funders on redefining a new normal.

As communities emerge from this crisis, local intermediaries are poised to bring their communities together to redefine what education and youth development looks like to ensure equity and access to open opportunities for young people.

Join Every Hour Counts, a national coalition of afterschool intermediary organizations, on June 4th in a conversation on how we can all reimagine afterschool that engages, protects and propels youth – and connects schools and communities in new ways.

Learn more here and register today.

Q&A and Report Look at Policies to Support Summer Learning

As school districts scramble to meet their students’ needs in this unprecedented time, they may not be thinking about summer learning-but they should be. That’s one of the messages offered by Catherine Augustine, co-author of a new report on summer learning policy from the RAND Corporation, in a recent Q&A for The Wallace Foundation blog.
Summer programs have always played an important role in supporting students who fall behind academically. With so many young people across the country losing vital learning time because of COVID-19, Augustine points out, these programs may be more important than ever. Yet organizers of summer programs face a host of unknowns, including whether they will be able to serve students at all in the coming months and, if so, how.

One thing that doesn’t have to be an unknown is the way government policy-federal, state, city and district-can help or limit summer learning efforts. Getting Support for Summer Learning: How Federal, State, City, and District Policies Affect Summer Learning Program, the report Augustine co-authored, provides information and guidance to help summer learning leaders secure and maintain support for their programs.

Read the blog.

Developmental Relationships – Bring Intention to Practice

Live Online Workshop by Search Institute
June 23-24, 2020

High-quality relationships are essential to young people’s growing, learning, and thriving-including for those young people who face serious stressors in their lives. But many professionals who work directly with youth-especially youth from marginalized communities-face challenges in forming well-rounded relationships that connect with the diverse needs of youth.

Developmental Relationships- Bring Intention to Practice is a new live, online workshop from Search Institute to help adults learn to be more intentional and inclusive in strengthening developmental relationships with young people.

This live online training will be held on June 23-24, 2020 from 1:00-2:30 PM CDT.

Learn more and register.