At TNTP, we’re doing everything we can to ensure that students have access to the educational opportunities they deserve while schools are closed during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, and when they reopen. On this page, we’ll offer free resources for school system leaders to help them navigate the wide range of challenges they’re facing right now—from implementing strong at-home instruction while schools are closed, to working with their teams remotely, to finding virtual solutions to teacher recruitment, staffing, and professional learning.
We’ll be updating this page regularly in the coming days and weeks—and you can sign up to get email notifications when we add new resources.
We’re also offering free planning sessions for school system leaders who are grappling with these issues—to think through instructional content, staff training plans, schedules for at-home learning, filling teaching vacancies for next year, or any other challenges. To learn more, email us.
Current Resources
Restarting School
[NEW] Learning Acceleration Guide: The longer schools remain closed—likely through the end of the academic year in most states—the farther behind students are likely to fall academically. Schools need to be ready with a plan to accelerate student learning back to grade level whenever they reopen. This guide offers practical advice for assembling the people, information, and processes to help school systems do that.
Family Engagement
COVID-19 Stakeholder Survey: Understanding the needs of educators, students, and families is especially important during a crisis. We’ve developed a short set of survey questions that can give school system leaders regular updates on how key stakeholders are experiencing the shift to at-home learning—so they can provide in-the-moment support and plan for long-term needs. The survey questions are free to everyone; for a small fee, TNTP can help administer the survey and provide a dashboard with the results.
Partnering With Families Virtually: Now more than ever, it’s crucial for schools to work with families as authentic partners, so that students can stay on track for their academic and life goals even while schools are closed. This guide offers tips for strengthening relationships with families and students using virtual tools.
Teacher Hiring/Staffing
Virtual Talent Guide: With social distancing measures in place for the foreseeable future, schools need to quickly shift to virtual recruitment and staffing tools to avoid a shortage of teachers at a time when students can least afford one. Fortunately, it is possible to build strong, diverse teams of teachers and other school staff virtually—and this guide offers resources and tips for doing just that.
At-Home Learning
Roadmap for Shifting to At-Home Learning: This guide can help school systems provide high-quality learning at home during extended school closures, whether they’re still in the early stages of planning or well into implementation. We start with five guiding principles, and then detail a four-phase process, from planning through assessing and improving at-home instruction. We also outline the role different stakeholders should play in each phase, including families, teachers, school leaders, and district leaders.
Schedule Guide for At-Home Learning: We’ve created sample schedules for different grade levels that can help structure at-home learning for teachers, students, and families.
Technology Resources for At-Home Learning: Nearly one in five K-12 students don’t have computers or broadband internet connections at home—which can make it especially challenging to provide equitable access to at-home instruction. This guide offers tips and resources school systems can use to bridge that digital divide as they plan for at-home learning.
Instructional Resources for At-Home Learning: We’ve curated a listed of online resources schools can offer as standalone options to families or use to teach their existing curricula virtually.
At-Home Supports for Students With Diverse Learning Needs: This guide provides strategies and resources for ensuring the most vulnerable students—including English Language Learners, students with disabilities, and students with learning and thinking differences—receive the supports they need as part of at-home learning plans.
At-Home Supports for English Language Learners and Multilingual Learners: It’s crucial that English Language Learners (ELLs) and Multilingual Learners (MLLs)—especially those at the beginning proficiency levels—have continued access to materials in their home languages while schools are closed to continue their literacy and language development. This guide offers recommendations and resources to help make that happen.
State/Federal Policy
Teacher Preparation and Licensure: Without clear guidance and smart changes to policy around certification and licensure, aspiring teachers could be forced to wait at least a semester, if not a full school year, before they are able to pursue a full-time teaching position, and current teachers with licenses that will expire at the end of this school could be forced to temporarily step away from the classroom. This guide offers recommendations to help state leaders address these issues.
Recommendations for the Next Federal Stimulus Bill: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided approximately $13.5 billion in emergency relief for K-12 schools. While this funding was an important first step, we believe it falls far short of what’s necessary to ensure schools can meet their students’ needs in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and its economic aftermath. We offer recommendations for additional federal funding focused on four key areas.
Terms of Use
These tools and resources are provided for informational or educational use only and are not intended as a service.
Unless otherwise indicated, the resources provided are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license and are subject to the copyright rules under that license.
Commercial use of the materials is not allowed without explicit written permission from TNTP, Inc. Unless otherwise noted, any distribution of materials posted on this website must credit TNTP, Inc. as follows:
From the TNTP Blog (2020) by TNTP, Inc., available at https://tntp.org/blog/post/resources-for-schools-during-the-covid-19-crisis.
Permission to copy, use and distribute materials as described above shall not extend to information housed on the TNTP Blog and credited to other sources, or information on websites to which this site links.
