Ready News: October 16, 2020

Building Impact: A Closer Look at Local Cross-Sector Collaborations for Education

Free Webinar
Thursday, October 22, 2020
2:00-3:00 PM EDT

In recent years, communities caught the collective impact fever and established robust cross-sector collaborations to improve young people’s educational outcomes. Interest was booming. Businesses signed up. Expectations were high. What does research tell us about how these efforts have fared?

The Wallace Foundation commissioned Teachers College, Columbia University, to conduct a study to gain insights around how collaborations were established and their prospects for survival and success. Although they face a number of challenges, “current collaborations show promise for creating a new kind of venue to bring local partners together who often have not cooperated in the past and have even been in conflict,” the authors say. “Importantly, most of the collaborations we studied seem to have helped calm often-contentious urban education politics and establish enough stability for partners to move forward.”

Between 2015 and 2017, the researchers took an in-depth look at three collaborations – Say Yes Buffalo, Milwaukee Succeeds, and All Hands Raised in Multnomah County, Oregon – and a more limited look at five others (Alignment Nashville, Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority, Northside Achievement Zone in Minneapolis, Oakland Community Schools, and Providence Children and Youth Cabinet).

During this webinar session, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from the researchers on the challenges faced in these communities, including working with school districts that may see collaboration as a distraction from their core goals; finding ways to engage marginalized groups in the decision-making process; securing stable, long-term funding; and managing expectations that may be unrealistic.

In spite of such hurdles, the initiatives have shown sufficient potential for benefiting education reform, which will also be explored in this session.

Register now!


How Learning Happens: New Videos Highlight Effective Social and Emotional Learning Practices

Edutopia, a trusted source shining a spotlight on what works in education, recently released a new collection of compelling videos that connect what we know about the science of learning and development with practical applications for educators and providers in all youth-serving settings. The collection highlights exemplary out-of-school time programs in four communities and examines the best practices at work. While the videos were filmed pre-COVID, the strategies and themes are more important than ever.

Any adult who works with young people will find helpful ideas and effective practices seen in out-of-school time programs. Research comes alive in these settings, demonstrating that creating optimal conditions for learning wherever kids spend time can boost student motivation and engagement.

Over the next several weeks, the Readiness Projects team will take a closer look at many of these videos in a series of blogs and consider the science highlighted and how the video might be used by practitioners.

Read the first blog.

 


 

Who Gets to Thrive? The Science of Learning and Development as a Tool for Anti-Racism

Free Webinar Series
First Session: October 30, 2020
4:30-5:30 PM EDT

The science of learning and development tells us an inherently hopeful story of the billions of pathways to thriving inherent in every young person and points to important mindset shifts about environments, experiences, and relationships. Used as a lens through which to view our education systems, these and other insights highlight the many and deep inequities that must be addressed if all young people are to be given an authentic chance to thrive. Anti-racism and designing for equity is about deconstructing systems and actively choosing a new purpose and path forward. What do we actually know about the impact of racism on learning and development? How does the experience of racism and other systems of oppression impact education practice, policy, and the design of a learning environment? What actions must we take to dismantle racism and cultivate learning experiences for all young people to thrive?

SoLD’s “Who Gets to Thrive?” webinars invite field leaders to tackle these questions with some of the nation’s leaders on this critical front.

RSVP for the series.


Findings and Lessons from the Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative

Free Webinar by The Wallace Foundation and RAND
October 26, 2020 
1:30 pm EDT

The Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative (PSELI) is a comprehensive, multiyear initiative, funded by The Wallace Foundation, to explore whether and how students can benefit from intentional partnerships between schools and afterschool/out-of-school time programs focused on building social-emotional skills – and what it takes to do this work.

On this free webinar, learn important insights from a new RAND report, Early Lessons From Schools and Out-of-School Time Programs Implementing Social and Emotional Learning, that examines 38 sites in six communities during the first two years of the PSELI initiative. You won’t want to miss this event at a time when interest in SEL is outstripping empirical guidance about how to implement these programs and practices.

Researchers from RAND will focus on topics such as developing adults’ capacity to promote SEL; improving climate and delivering SEL instruction to students; executing system-level activities to launch and coordinate SEL work across multiple sites; and developing partnerships between schools and afterschool/out-of-school time programs.

Register now.


 

Top Ten Ways to Engage Students in Deeper Learning during COVID

Blog by the American Youth Policy Forum

Staying engaged amidst this pandemic is difficult for us all – and especially so for students. The disruption to the learning environments in K-12 and postsecondary has been profound, and for many students what their schooling will look like in the months to come remains uncertain. Yet there are ways to continue deeper learning and engagement despite these challenges. A new blog from the American Youth Policy Forum outlines some considerations as to how educators can help students remain engaged, motivated, and enthusiastically learning.

Read more.