vmt-award-2024_-46-2-_yellow

Note from the Virginia Department of Education Tina Mazzacane

On March 13, 2020, schools across the Common wealth closed their doors amidst much uncertainty surrounding the COVID - 19 virus. Virginia public schools were required to quickly transition from a brick - and - mortar model of education to a technol ogy - enabled and remote learning model. Students, families, educators, and entire communities had to manage this unprecedented transition, while ensur ing that equitable access and support for a variety of student learning needs are met. Achieving equi ty in remote learning is more complex than simply providing equality in access to learning resources and technology. Providing ongoing support to stu dents and their families to ensure student success remained a top priority. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is providing ongoing guidance to school divisions to ensure continuity for learning after schools closed and VDOE continues to support schools as they plan for the reopening of schools for the 2020 2021 school year. In addition, the VDOE Mathe matics Team provides ongoing support to mathe matics educators across the state. In this article, I will share some of the many resources that are available. The Virginia Learns Anywhere guidance docu ment, created by the Continuity of Learning (C4L) Task Force, was intended to address the immediate needs of school divisions to meet the ongoing learning needs of all students when school closed last spring. The document includes equity consid erations and key steps when choosing alternative options for virtual, online, and other instructional delivery models and strategies. Learning in Place Mathematics Resources were compiled by the VDOE Mathematics Team to as sist teachers, parents, and students in identifying quality resources to support ongoing learning at home since March 2020 school closures. Re sources include Virginia Standards of Learning Mathematics Tracking Logs for Kindergarten through Algebra II to identify the standards stu dents had sufficient exposure to and experience with prior to the COVID - 19 school closure, and to

support teachers decision - making regarding when and how experiences with new standards may oc cur moving forward. There are also online re sources, playlists, and collections of select eMedi aVA resources, and suggested offline activities. When Governor Northam ’ s June 9, 2020 News Release, announcing Virginia ’ s Phased Return to School Plan, simultaneously a guidance document was simultaneously released by the Virginia De partment of Education called, Recover, Redesign, Restart 2020. It is intended to help guide school divisions in making plans for the 2020 - 2021 reo pening of schools. This comprehensive guidance document includes the recommendations from the Return to School Recovery Task Force, the Ac creditation Task Force and the Continuity of Learning (C4L) Task Force. The document out lines the phased approach to reopen schools and it includes resources to support school divisions with instructional plan support. As mathematics teachers prepare for the return to school in the fall, equity and rigorous content should guide instructional decisions. It is estimat ed that content learning loss for some students may be as high as 50% due to the shut down in March 2020, which is dependent on the instruc

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 46, no. 2

14