Now, more than ever, digital learning is no longer confined to a school or classroom. Instead, learning is mobile and should be available to students anytime and anywhere. As we prepare for Digital Learning Day’s (DLDay’s) tenth birthday on February 25, 2021, the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) invites educators to join our Future Ready Schools^® (FRS) DLDay network because together we’re better, together we’re future ready.  

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of anxiety were rising among today’s students. But after months of school closures and social distancing, indicators of students’ overall health and well-being have suffered even further. In fact, findings from a survey of students by America’s Promise Alliance “suggest that students are experiencing a collective trauma [during the pandemic] and that they and their families would benefit from immediate and ongoing support.”  

It takes a village to educate a child, especially during a global pandemic. Fortunately, “we have a very large village in Wichita,” says Rob Dickson, chief information officer for Wichita [Kansas] Public Schools. Through teamwork and a collective commitment to meeting every student’s needs, school and district leaders are working with the local Wichita community to reimagine and reconfigure the learning environment for the district’s 49,851 students.

If you ask the students, teachers, and staff at Sutton Middle School to describe what sets their school apart from other Atlanta schools, they all agree—it’s the school’s diversity.  

In mid-August, the Val Verde (California) Unified School District began the 2020–2021 school year with all 20,000 students engaged in high-quality distance learning. Like districts nationwide, Val Verde implemented full distance learning in the spring and again this school year to protect the health and safety of students, staff, and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike some districts, Val Verde already had the tools, resources, and plan in place to transition students seamlessly to a remote environment thanks to the district’s preparation and participation in the Future Ready Schools^® (FRS) network.

“Community” is more than a word at UCLA Community School (UCLA-CS). Just as “community” sits at the center of the school’s name, a strong sense of community guides the teaching and learning practices at this unique school located in Los Angeles, California.  

On any given day, about 30 percent of students in Middletown City (Ohio) School District lack the home internet connectivity they need to participate in learning activities outside of school. It’s a reality that Superintendent Marlon Styles, Jr., and his team have worked diligently to address since he arrived in the urban school district three years ago.

Ever since Middletown Township Public Schools (New Jersey) joined the Future Ready Schools^® (FRS) network in 2015, the district has prioritized personalized learning for both its students and staff. At that time, district leaders never expected they would draw on that forward-thinking approach and commitment to innovative practices to educate students during a worldwide health crisis—or that such a crisis would reveal underlying equity issues in their district.

Within forty-eight hours of closing schools to protect students, staff, and the community from the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), district leaders in Rowland Unified School District (California) (RUSD) rolled out their plan for educating students remotely.

Building community partnerships (one of the seven gears in the Future Ready Framework) has been instrumental in supporting Bristol Township School District’s transition to student-centered learning.  Through partnerships with Digital Promise—a Future Ready Schools® (FRS) founding partner—and the Verizon Foundation, Bristol Township launched a one-to-one student-to-device initiative at its two middle schools in 2015. Now, through a partnership with T-Mobile, the district is poised to expand the one-to-one initiative to its high school in January 2020 and its three elementary schools next school year.