Dear CMO and School Leaders,
In this unprecedented situation, we know you are working incredibly hard for your students. For instance, you took urgent action over the past few days to make sure your children would be fed when schools were closed. And as of yesterday, 44 sites around New Orleans were providing meals to students. Thank you for the heart, the clarity, and the strategy by which you made this happen.
We know you are also focused on making sure children do not miss out on their education during this crisis. When it comes to distance learning, schools and networks are currently putting different plans in place, based on what is feasible and best for their young people. Some schools are revising pre-existing plans. Please know that we are here to help you in any way that we can. We have compiled a list of some platforms and resources, and organized our Tier 1 Curriculum by virtual or paper-based resources. As your teachers begin to transition to distance learning approaches, they may also be interested in two blog posts by the Charter School Growth Fund, Approaches to Instruction During School Closure and First Steps Into Virtual Instruction.
Internet access, of course, remains an enormous barrier, but we have hopeful news: NOLA-PS released a statement Wednesday that they have purchased 5,000 wireless hotspots for student use. We will be learning more in the coming days about how these will be put into place. There are other resources students can take advantage of as well. Most of you will have heard by now about Cox’s Connect2Compete program. Like many of you, we are still determining the speed and effectiveness with which Cox will be able to implement this, but they are providing a free month of internet service (followed by $9.95 monthly) for families participating in a government assistance program that have a K-12 student. We have linked Cox’s zip-file with instructions for schools and “fast-tracking” families for service. Many internet companies have also opened up their wi-fi hot spots for public use; it appears Cox has hot spots throughout the city, as does AT&T. While success here seems to be sporadic, students that see “coxwifi,” “cabelwifi,” “att-wifi,” or “attwifi” from “available wireless networks” on phones or computers may be able to gain free access. We will continue to reach out with other opportunities as we hear more.
|
