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- ItemThe IEP Project: A Strength-based, Whole Learner Teacher Guide(Digital Promise, 2023-02) Digital PromiseIndividual Education Programs (IEPs) are the entry point to the design of teaching and learning for students with disabilities. This guidebook provides teachers with reflective questions, a sample response bank, strategies from the research-based Learner Variability Navigator, and other resources to write strength-based IEPs. Strength-based includes not only strengths in academic or content areas. It also includes strengths in the ability to collaborate, or found in unique backgrounds and languages, for example. The goal is to create a sense of belonging in classrooms so students with learning disabilities are understood and provided with the tools they need to meet their potential in school and beyond.
- ItemShifting Mindsets: Designing Lessons for Learner Variability(Digital Promise, 2022-06) Tare, Medha; Shell, Alison R.; Jackson, JessicaClassrooms nationwide welcome a diverse group of learners. A goal, and an achievable one, is to recognize this unique diversity on a whole child spectrum and to strive to customize learning to meet individual needs. Critical to this process is for teachers to have at hand research that connects factors of learning in a holistic way. It is equally important to provide research-based strategies that teachers can use to embrace differences and provide pathways to robust learning for each student. With these considerations in mind, the Learner Variability Project (LVP) engaged in a partnership with the national nonprofit DonorsChoose to discover if teachers across the country could use the Learner Variability Navigator (LVN) to find and put in place research-based strategies that address the whole learner. The LVN is a free and open-source web app that curates research to provide factors of learning and affiliated strategies on a whole child framework. The pilot study found that even brief use of LVN encouraged teachers to reflect on the research-based strategies they already use and explore new strategies that support their students’ diverse experiences and needs.
- ItemDesigning for Learner Variability: Examining the Impact of Research-based Edtech in the Classroom(Digital Promise Global, 2019-08) Tare, Medha; Ruppel Shell, AlisonWhile research shows that learners differ in many ways, this work must be translated into actionable strategies to benefit students. We describe the results of our partnership with ReadWorks, a widely-used literacy edtech platform, to help them implement research-based pedagogical features that support learners with diverse needs. In a national survey of over 11,000 educators, 89 percent said they were likely to assign more articles on ReadWorks and 82 percent said they were likely to assign higher-level articles as a result of the features available to students. We also examined K-6 students’ (N=1857) use of these optional features when completing digital assignments and found that 92% of students tried at least one new feature and engaged with harder assignments when they used the features than when they did not. Feature use did not differ by student characteristics such as reading proficiency or special education status, suggesting that these features could potentially benefit all students when they need extra support.
- ItemPartnerships that Work: Tapping Research to Address Learner Variability in Young Readers(Digital Promise, 2018-03) Tare, Medha; Nobles, Susanne; Xiao, WendyOver the past several decades, the student population in the United States has grown more diverse by factors including race, socioeconomic status, primary language spoken at home, and learning differences. At the same time, learning sciences research has advanced our understanding of learner variability and the importance of grounding educational practice and policy in the individual, rather than the fiction of an average student. To address this gap, LVP distills existing research on cognitive, social and emotional, content area, and background Learner Factors that affect learning in various domains, such as reading and math. In conjunction with the development process, LPS researchers worked with ReadWorks to design studies to assess the impact of the newly implemented features on learner outcomes.
- ItemLearning in the 21st Century: How the American Public, Parents, and Teachers View Students’ Potential and Their Learning Experience(Digital Promise, 2019-05) Pape, BarbaraLearning in the 21st Century is the first in a series of surveys we plan to conduct to explore how teachers, parents, and the general public view learning and what impacts learning in order to help students reach their potential.