Institutes Provide Support for Districts Transforming Teaching and Learning
WASHINGTON, DC—Future Ready Schools® (FRS) today announced a series of free regional events to support school and district leaders in creating policies, procedures, and practices that transform teaching and learning. These five FRS “institutes” will feature professional learning for superintendents, district leaders, principals, teacher leaders, and instructional coaches, IT directors, and librarians/media specialists. To date, FRS has held more than thirty institutes serving more than 650 school district teams and more than 2,100 educators.
“FRS institutes bring together teams of educators taking steps toward true systematic change in their districts,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed), which leads FRS. “This year’s FRS institutes will continue to grow a strong community committed to changing culture, instructional practice, and ultimately, improve learning outcomes for their students.”
FRS is working with an advisory board of education experts to create the research-based, two-day agenda filled with personalized professional learning opportunities for educators led by expert facilitators. Each FRS institute will launch ongoing regional networks of enthusiastic implementation experts who will act as mentors to support and host follow-up activities to ensure districts have the resources needed to create customized, actionable personalized learning plans.
The 2018 FRS institutes are FREE, but space is limited. Dates and locations are as follows:
Sept 10–11: Mansfield, OH
Sept 17–18: Chicago, IL
October 25–26: Atlanta, GA
November 12–13: Portland, OR
November 29–30: Ashburn, VA
Registration is open to up to five members per district at www.futureready.org/institutes.
The institutes are based on the FRS framework and include differentiated sessions for district team members, along with extensive training for FRS project managers on the FRS interactive planning dashboard, a free online tool that serves more than 1,000 school districts and 15,000 educators. Through the dashboard, school district leadership teams develop plans to effectively use technology and improve learning outcomes. Aligned with Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act, district leaders use the FRS five-step planning process to set a vision for student learning, assess their needs, identify gaps, obtain strategies, and plan and track their progress over time. This process begins before districts invest valuable resources to purchase laptops, tablets, and other technological devices.
“In the rush to purchase the latest device, some districts skip over the vision and planning steps—sometimes resulting in devices being left on the shelves or awkward fits into instruction,” said Wise. “FRS institutes will help school district leaders plan and strategize while also connecting them with a support network of individuals who have overcome—or are facing—the same challenges they are.”
A project of All4Ed, FRS helps school districts develop the human and technological capacity needed to personalize student learning and prepare students for college, a career, and citizenship. Over the last three years, 3,200 school districts’ superintendents—representing more than 19 million students—have signed the Future Ready District Pledge, committing to personalize learning by tailoring instruction to students’ strengths and needs while engaging them in challenging, standards-based academic content, with the help of effective digital learning strategies.
All4Ed and FRS appreciate its corporate partners, including McGraw-Hill Education, AT&T Aspire, Follett Software, Amazon Web Services, bulb Digital Portfolios, Pearson, and Discovery Education, for their generous program support. Due to their participation, FRS can offer free webinars, planning tools, and events at no charge.
To learn more about the FRS institutes, visit www.futureready.org/institutes.
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The Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) is a Washington, DC–based national policy, practice, and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring all students, particularly those underperforming and those historically underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship.
Future Ready Schools® (FRS) is a bold effort to maximize digital learning opportunities and help school districts move quickly toward preparing students for success in college, a career, and citizenship. FRS provides districts with resources and support to ensure that local technology and digital learning plans align with instructional best practices, are implemented by highly trained teachers, and lead to personalized learning experiences for all students, particularly those from traditionally underserved communities. FRS is led by the Alliance for Excellent Education alongside a vast coalition of organizations. www.FutureReady.org
