By: Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, Florida State University, and Patience Sowa, RTI International //
“We were actually taught in the university before going out on teaching practice, but what I saw out there was completely different from what we were taught; the theory does not match the practice.”[1]
Over the past 18 months, governments have made in rapidly designing and implementing distance, blended, and remote learning opportunities for students and teachers. Countries deployed a diversity of remote learning opportunities, ranging from radio-based instruction, to TV lessons, to mobile or online learning programs. In parallel, researchers have designed and are implementing studies to monitor and evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of these efforts.
Entering first grade ready to learn takes more than a book and a pencil and the enthusiasm every young child brings to learning. To be better prepared for school, it helps for a child to have acquired certain basic, foundational skills.[1] Let’s look specifically at reading. When young Joy walks into her first-grade classroom on that momentous first day of school, what skills does her teacher hope she brings with her?
Blogs, commentaries, and reports on education technology (EdTech) topics so often highlight the “rapidly changing” nature of technology. More often than not, this is framed as a challenge or obstacle. There are technologies and EdTech efforts, however, that stand the test of time and continue to be relevant for many years.
The 2015-2017 Project Reconnect is one such effort.
Assessment often gets a bad rap. Education stakeholders worry that teachers are teaching to the test rather than teaching to ensure that students have the skills they need to be successful in the world. They also worry that assessments sometimes get used for the wrong purposes—to punish low-performing schools or teachers, for instance—or don’t get used at all, wasting scarce resources. However, when used right—to inform instruction—assessments are absolutely critical. In low-income countries, the lack of systematic large-scale assessments has often meant that governments and other stakeholders do not have a clear picture of learning gaps, which handicaps efforts to address those gaps.
