Over the last year, Pivot Learning hosted a Bridge Professional Learning Network (PLN) sponsored by the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE). Building on the success of our 2017-19 PLN, this Bridge PLN focused on strengthening equity-focused continuous improvement efforts in three California school districts — Sanger Unified School District (SUSD), Monterey Peninsula Unified School District (MPUSD), and Lancaster Elementary School District (LSD).

When California’s schools reopen for the 2020–21 school year – whether in person, online, or some combination of the two – it will be critical that each student receives rigorous instruction and the academic, social, and emotional support needed to thrive. This new brief, whose authors include Dr. Arun Ramanathan, CEO, Pivot Learning, provides recommendations to policymakers on the appropriate state role in supporting teaching and learning as the pandemic continues. This report was published in partnership with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).

Pivot Learning and UnboundEd have created a free Equity Reset Toolkit that provides district leadership teams resources for a nine-week data collection and analysis process focused on equitable learning recovery in K-12 ELA and math. Watch our on-demand webinar to learn more about how to use the resources in the toolkit and how Pivot and UnboundEd can support your team as you work to create an equitable learning recovery plan.

This spring, local school districts scrambled to adapt to COVID-19 with a wide range of responses largely focused on securing delivery of online resources. Now is the time to shift the conversation back to the core purpose of school: learning. The state should establish a minimum amount of instructional time; create an instrument of diagnostic assessment and require its use; adopt instructional continuity plans; and advocate for and secure additional funding.

This webinar with the California Department of Education and CalCurriculum offers advice for implementing a data-driven plan for fall ELA and math instruction that provides access to high-quality materials to every student regardless of their distance learning situation.

In this report, we explore how educators in MLUSD used collaboration and targeted universalism to ensure that no child slipped through the cracks during the transition to remote learning. Learn how they have gone to great lengths to ensure every student in the rural district, especially their most vulnerable students, has access to healthy meals and resources to continue learning in the midst of this crisis.

This report explains how PVUSD created a crisis response that prioritized the needs of its large Spanish-, Mixteco bajo- and English-speaking communities while serving every student in the district. Key takeaways include practices the district created to increase family engagement and outreach and improve instructional access for English learners.

At the beginning of the week of May 25th, 2020, we released a brief statement condemning the murder of Mr. George Floyd. As the week has progressed, Pivot Learning CEO Arun Ramanathan shared some personal reflections. 

Find out during this on-demand webinar, presented by Pivot Learning and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). To aid in both local and state decision-making, Pivot Learning and PACE have been documenting promising practices at school districts in California. In this webinar, we’ll highlight how two districts, Pajaro Valley Unified and Mother Lode Union, initially addressed students’ immediate needs following school closures and how they are approaching strategic planning for the months ahead.

Nicodemus Ford writes about our work in districts, and the values that we and our partner districts are holding central in this time of upheaval and uncertainty.