Giving Compass' Take:

• Joshua Parrish reports on inspiring instances of school districts' remote solutions and innovations to serve their students during the pandemic.

• It is important to remember that there are uplifting instances of people doing good during the pandemic. How can we learn from these remote solutions to support education now and in the future?

• Learn about remote solutions to getting students free lunches during the pandemic.

Amid high-profile news of technology failures and lawsuits regarding reopenings, many parents are worried that schools might not be able to serve their child’s needs or that the impact of this year’s educational disruption might reach far into the future. Of course, the long-term economic consequences, to many, are secondary to the hardships being imposed on families and students now, as the pandemic’s toll on life in the U.S. passes the 200,000 mark.

Despite the ongoing challenges, however, examples of leadership and innovation exist at all levels, as teachers, education leaders and advocates work diligently to find ways to restart learning and address student needs. As a part of a panel interviewed by The New York Times, former secretary of education John B. King Jr. highlighted creative solutions employed around the nation to address local needs. Similarly, a new brief released by the Collaborative for Student Success and the Center on Reinventing Public Education details a set of promising practices that emerged from a peer review of district reopening plans. The analysis shows encouraging examples of district and school innovation, as well as a deep commitment by schools and their leaders to meet the challenges of the pandemic head on and with students at heart.

In answering whether he thought that this represented a “lost year” for America’s children, Pedro Noguera, dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California, described the need for resolve in the face of adversity: “We’ve got to do the work where we are to expand educational opportunities for all students, because our kids’ futures depend on it. We have to do what it takes to make sure that our kids’ futures are not sacrificed.”

Read the full article about remote learning solutions by Joshua Parrish at The 74.