SACRAMENTO— As cases of coronavirus surge in California, it is clear that distance learning will continue to be part of the daily lives of public school students in the Golden State. The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) believes this is a critical time for the state’s K-12 system to learn from innovative and tech-savvy charter public schools that are utilizing a number of best practices to implement remote instruction effectively, especially in the area of student engagement.
To that end, CCSA released a study today entitled How California’s Charter Schools Engaged Students In Remote Learning which outlines strategies that help ensure students are actively learning and participating, as well as feeling valued and connected to their teachers and classmates. How California’s Charter Schools Engaged Students In Remote Learning is the third in a series of reports that document how charter public schools adapted to challenges brought on by the pandemic.
“Strengthening our public school system is a shared mission,” said Myrna Castrejón, CCSA president and CEO. “If ever there was a time to learn from charter schools, it is now. Their ability to engage students online, bridge the digital divide, and mitigate learning loss is a valuable lesson for California’s entire public school family.”
Effective strategies highlighted in the study are:
- Adopt meaningful ways to measure and track student engagement
- Maintain consistent contact with students using tools like daily, “pulse point” surveys
- Track work completion as an indicator of engagement
- Target student achievement and progress using internal assessments
- Realign non-instructional staff roles to support student engagement efforts
- Develop ways for students, families, teachers, and staff to connect virtually outside of online instruction
In the study, CCSA names Ednovate Charter Public Schools as a “bright spot” in the area of online student engagement because. The network of charter high schools serves mostly low-income students of color in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Ednovate educators and staff call families on a daily basis, make home visits, track work completion, and proactively create digital spaces for high school students to meet and connect.
“We deal with 14- to 18-year-old students and so relationships drive everything they want to do in high school,” said Oliver Sicat, Ednovate president and CEO. “Our strategy for student engagement is all about building relationships and community while making sure students are taking steps forward in their college prep experience.”
How California’s Charter Schools Engaged Students in Remote Learning also includes student engagement data from spring 2020 when all public schools in California were forced to launch distance learning programs due to statewide shelter-in-place order.
The findings show that by early April 2020 – two weeks after the order took effect – most surveyed charter schools, 63 percent, were in contact with all their students, and almost all, 90 percent, of surveyed charter schools were in contact with at least 90 percent of their students. CCSA Director of Research Jennifer Kress says that means charter schools acted swiftly during one of the most challenging times in public education to ensure teachers and students were logging on and learning together.
How California’s Charter Schools Engaged Students in Remote Learning is the third installment in CCSA’s Portrait of the Movement 2020 report. Collectively, the suite of studies offers valuable insight as it relates to the performance of charter schools during the global pandemic – from mitigating learning loss to bringing the digital divide.
To access the latest report, click here. To access all of the studies in CCSA’s Portrait of the Movement 2020, click here.
For more information or for interview requests, contact CCSA Director of Media Relations and Research Ana Tintocalis at [email protected]