Key Best Practices for Schools and Teachers

In the spring of 2020, schools across America are challenged with a critical issue: How to continue to foster student learning given sudden, and often indefinite school closures. Though digital learning is now used widely across the K-12 landscape, understandably, educators vary considerably in their comfort with shifting rapidly to fully online instruction. Figuring out not only how to continue instruction, but how to continue instruction most effectively, is the key challenge educators everywhere are facing. In this context, experts from the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University highlight several key guidelines that schools and teachers might consider as they shift to online instruction. Grounded in the latest research on what makes for effective online teaching for K-12 students, this set of best practices can be used to guide educators as they shift to online teaching in the months ahead