The GSP Monthly Dispatch – March 2021
Welcome to the archive of The GSP Monthly Dispatch, our monthly roundup of upcoming events as well as fresh and insightful writing from our school coaches. Did you know you can get the Dispatch delivered to your inbox every month for free? All you need to do is sign up.
Before we dive into the March issue of the GSP Monthly Dispatch, we wanted to share some exciting news: You can now register for our two- and three-day virtual summer institutes. Together, we can foster student engagement, implement professional learning groups, design better advisory systems, and learn and lead for racial equity.
Visit our event calendar for a full list of upcoming events.
Elements of Effective Instruction: A Framework for Fostering Student Engagement
After a year full of experimentation, we’ve learned that, no matter the format, impactful instructional practices remain at the heart of student engagement.
Join other teachers, school administrators, and instructional leaders as we reflect on a year of lessons learned, assess our own instructional strengths and needs, and explore resources, tools, and strategies to re-engage our students in their learning.
Date: March 23, 2021
Time: 1:00-4:00 PM ET
Where: Virtual, via Zoom
Cost: $125
New England Reimagining College Access Collaborative: Technical Webinar #3
The New England RCA Collaborative brings together high school educators and college admission officers to work together to create more equitable paths to college admissions, particularly through student demonstration of transferable skills. In this webinar, we will hear from a Vermont high school where all students gather evidence of meeting the school’s transferable skills. Participants will use the student and teacher perspectives to talk about how this might be used in college admissions.
Date: April 1, 2021
Time: 2:30-3:30 PM ET
Where: Virtual, via Zoom
Cost: Free
Student Engagement During Remote and Hybrid Learning
by Katie Thompson
“[Over the last year,] our tech skills have grown exponentially and our ability to multitask was put to the test. One of the key questions that has emerged for teachers is: How do we engage students when we don’t see them as frequently, only see them remotely, or have them joining class with in-person learners?”
The Elements of Effective Instruction in Remote and Hybrid Environments
by Don Weafer
“We at the Great Schools Partnership have spent many years thinking about how to pull together the research about powerful instruction and frame in a way that is useful for educators who seek to improve instructional practice in their schools. The result is the Elements of Effective Instruction, which includes five key elements of teaching.”
Anti-Racism Means Action: Let’s Do It
By Bianca and Christina Horner
“We are a mother and daughter pair, educator and student, both struggling to survive two different pandemics: racism and Covid-19. We’re not doing well. We have the sinking feeling that ‘anti-racism’ is increasingly becoming the latest trend in student performative activism and teacher educational lingo.”
The Elements of Effective Instruction: A Toolkit for Educators
The Elements of Effective Instruction (EEI) is a framework that outlines five intertwined elements of instructional practice that complement and enhance one another. When integrated into learning experiences, these elements foster student engagement with the ultimate goal of improving student outcomes and achievement.
High school graduation and college enrollment rates across New England over the last decade offer promising evidence that we are making progress toward reducing high school dropout rates and increasing students’ access to postsecondary education opportunities. While rates have steadily increased, the likelihood of a student in New England actually completing a college degree or credential remains low. Given the increasing demand for a workforce with a college degree, there remains an urgency to working toward increasing overall college persistence and completion rates.
When we disaggregate the data, inequities in student outcomes become even more apparent. Economically disadvantaged students, for example—who account for 42% of the class of 2019—consistently graduate from high school and enroll in college at lower rates as compared to their more affluent peers. Furthermore, even as college enrollment rates among economically disadvantaged students have risen over time, very few are completing a degree or credential, particularly as compared to their non-economically disadvantaged peers.
When we look over time starting with a cohort in ninth grade, gaps in college outcome rates for economically disadvantaged students are even more stark.
For example, in a hypothetical class of ninth-graders, the data indicate that for every ten non-economically disadvantaged students in that class, ten will graduate high school and eight will enroll in college. By contrast, for every ten economically disadvantaged students in that class, only eight will graduate high school and only four will enroll in college. This trend continues with persistence in college and degree completion; seven non-economically disadvantaged students will persist into a second year and five will complete a college credential whereas only three economically disadvantaged students will persist and two will complete a college credential (including two- and four-year degrees).
These data are part of the Common Data Project 2020 Annual Report.
Thanks for reading! See you next month.
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