Resource List

Some states are modifying graduation requirements while others are supporting districts in being flexible with current requirements. The Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinED) compiled each state’s high school graduation requirements in response to COVID-19.
Renowned e-learning pro Zoe Baptista has some good suggestions on how to make the transition from a traditional classroom to virtual learning as smooth as possible in her recent Education Development Center blog post.
The U.S. Office of Educational Technology video “Future Ready: Examples of Personalized Learning” provides a good look at how to create a system that supports personalized learning from start to finish with a focus on career pathways.
This Education Week Teacher blog post compiles several educational resources for online learning provided by members of the virtual professional learning community.

Early Childhood Education

In 2016, the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education developed the Guiding Principles for Use of Technology with Early Learners. The guidance discusses how the “thoughtful use of technology by parents and early educators can engage children in key skills such as play, self-expression, and computational thinking.”
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published the Early Learning and Educational Technology Policy Brief. This brief provides information to help early educators (including those in-home settings), early learning programs, schools, and families make informed choices on the use of technology by young children.
In 2012, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) prepared a position statement on technology use with young children. NAEYC has also curated numerous technology and media resources to support parents and early educators caring for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics provided recommendations for children’s media use, including limiting screen time to high-quality programs for children ages 2 to 5.
Recent research studies have provided information on the ability of young learners to effectively use tablets or smartphones and the appropriate use of media in children ages 0 to 3.
In 2018, Zero to Three identified Five Tips to Make the Most of Video Chats to help children use technology to stay connected with loved ones.
Carrie Germeroth, senior managing researcher at Marzano Research, provides some valuable teach-from-home education exercises as well as several links to online resources for Birth-5 learners in her blog post “Tips for Early Math Learning.”
Marzano Research partners Bright By Three, a nonprofit organization that supports families and children by providing educational resources, provides free learning tips and various other development resources to help parents and caregivers; these resources can be obtained via SMS text message by clicking HERE.
Promise Venture Studio’s recent blog posts “Engaging a Toddler While You Work from Home” and “Supporting Your Young Child’s Learning at Home” offer valuable insights into the challenges that social distancing might present to the parents and caregivers of young learners.
The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts supports over 100,000 children and early childhood educators worldwide. Learn more about the institute and check out their FREE digital resources for ECE teachers HERE.
The Early Learning Lab blog post “Homeschooling During the Coronavirus Epidemic” features quality advice about home schooling your children during the coronavirus pandemic from the perspectives of early childhood education professional Chris Sciarrino and parent Sarah Flores:
The National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families has five helpful tips for parent or grandparent looking to make the most of their video chats with the kiddos while we’re all practicing social distancing.
The Early Milestones Monitor Special Coronavirus Edition is filled with quality resources and inspiring stories from the early childhood education community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth can help connect home visiting services to families. Read all about research-supported technological outreach strategies from Child Trends’ Lauren Supplee and Sarah Crowne HERE.
Written by Erin Higgins, PhD, who oversees the National Center for Education Research’s Cognition & Student Learning portfolio, this blog post takes a look at some productive activities that students and families stuck at home due to COVID-19 can do.

Students with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education released a supplemental fact sheet that provides information on flexibility in determining how to meet needs of students with disabilities in an online learning environment. The fact sheet supplements the department’s questions-and-answers memo on providing services to students with disabilities during the coronavirus outbreak.
Some states have developed guidelines for virtual learning for students with disabilities as part of an established online learning program. The Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute provides guidelines for supporting Individualized Education Program accommodations during online instruction.
Organizations also have resources that were developed to support established online learning programs to serve students with disabilities. The State Educational Technology Directors Association and the Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities provide tools (located here and here) that could support the current shift to online learning.
Research on online learning to serve students with disabilities provides teacher perspectives and information on parents’ roles and support.
REL Northeast & Islands has curated additional resources to share methods of providing online instructional support for students with disabilities.

Remote Instruction

Resources for implementing continued learning during emergency situations:
- In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education released recommendations for schools to maintain teaching and learning during extended school dismissal. The memo provides considerations as well as resources to support implementation.
- Quality Matters provides an emergency remote instruction checklist that includes considerations and actionable strategies for remote instruction in K–12 education.
- The Indiana Department of Education developed an eLearning best practices checklist to support eLearning programs during snow days.
Resources for implementing continued learning specifically in response to COVID-19:
- The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center developed a key preparedness and response considerations memo for COVID-19. This memo provides general guidance as well as links to resources and tools developed by the center.
Additionally, many organizations have compiled lists of free online learning resources as well as options for internet access.
The U.S. Department of Education has several links related to online learning and tech-based education available to peruse HERE.
Several publications and products pertaining to online learning from the National Center for Education Statistics can be found HERE.
A list of 82 brand new Institute of Education Sciences-supported games and other resources that can be used for virtual learning during social distancing can be found HERE.
Digital Promise, a national nonprofit authorized by Congress to spur innovation in education and improve the opportunity to learn for all through technology and research, has created an online learning library where educators can find free materials based on type, grade level, and subject.

District/State Plans

These Forum resources, also from the S. Department of Education, provide guidance related to virtual education data, collecting and using virtual attendance data, and managing data about students displaced by a crisis.
This PowerPoint is from a webinar done by the Student Privacy Policy Office in the U.S. Department of Education. It outlines how FERPA works with online learning by going through several scenarios that might come up for states or districts.
The Consortium for Policy Research in Education created a database of school districts’ plans for supporting continued learning.
The California Department of Education created a lessons-from-the-field web page that provides remote learning guidance.
The Aurora Institute created a resource page that includes sample state and district continuity-of-learning plans as well as checklists of key considerations.