COVID Resources
Supporting Your Successful Fall Restart: WestEd Shares Guidance with the Council of Chief State School Officers
WestEd recently partnered with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to provide key guidance for the recently launched “Restart and Recovery: Considerations for Teaching and Learning”— a fully customizable series of vetted resources addressing system-level conditions, academics, and student wellbeing.
“The WestEd team is glad to have supported CCSSO,” says Natalie Walrond, Director for the Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety. “We’ve worked together to create an actionable resource for districts and schools as they plan for a strong start to the school year, partnering on the wellbeing and connection component of this guidance.”
Amid planning for a successful upcoming school year that is sure to present a host of unknowns, including shifting public health conditions, school system leaders are also fielding questions from staff and parents who are looking for guidance and assurance as they make their own plans for the fall and beyond.
Restart and Recovery: Considerations for Teaching and Learning focuses on three primary areas:
- System-level conditions (engaging families and communities, and structuring staff, time, and technology to meet student needs);
- Wellbeing, connectedness and mental health supports; and
- Academics (curriculum and instruction, assessment, professional learning).
In each of these areas, the resource provides clear and straightforward direction to work through critical considerations. WestEd provided guidance for the wellbeing and connection sections, which offer a roadmap for creating a culture of care in which the growth and wellbeing of staff and students are prioritized.
Resources were created at the request of state leaders and with the input of a wide body of organizations and experts, including educators and district leaders from nearly 30 states. Education leaders, as well as professional learning providers, can customize and adapt this guidance as they develop their local plans to meet the needs of the educators and students they support.
As education leaders consider effective policies for reopening schools, the tools and guidance in Restart and Recovery: Considerations for Teaching and Learning can be adapted and customized as needed and shared systemwide. This guidance can subsequently serve as a roadmap for leaders’ planning and decision-making and help to ensure that regardless of what learning looks like in the year to come, every student receives a high-quality education.
Posted on July 27, 2020