ALK-8 RESHAPES THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION IN OREGON

SYNOPSIS:

The College of Education, in partnership with the Oregon Department of Education, concludes a wide-reaching project to study, identify and address inequities in the public school system.

Published September 26, 2024

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In early 2020, Oregon — and the world — became a very quiet place. Businesses shut their doors, public spaces grew empty, and families retreated indoors. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted nearly every aspect of our daily lives, but its effect on schoolchildren was particularly profound as educators and parents struggled to find ways to keep kids learning under unprecedented circumstances. The pandemic also affected students in very different ways based on resources within their communities, schools, and homes.

Thanks to a $6.9 million contract funded by the American Rescue Plan (ESSER III) through the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), the College of Education took the lead on addressing areas where the pandemic greatly impacted learning for Oregon’s kindergarten through eighth-grade students, especially multilingual learners, and students experiencing disabilities.

A UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP

A new partnership between Oregon State University’s College of Education and the Oregon Department of Education will attempt to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Oregon's schoolchildren. Participants will identify problems of practice and co-design practical solutions to support teaching and learning for all students.

 

Known as Equitable Accelerated Learning in K-8 Literacies and Mathematics (or ALK-8), the program built collaboration among K-8 instructional leaders, state policy-makers, OSU education faculty, and other experts. Public school educators identified problems or challenges that they wanted to address and formed Working Groups of peers and other experts to study, identify and implement research-based solutions.

Over the 2023-2024 school year, sixteen Working Groups, led by teacher leaders, co-designed educational solutions that directly supported students, teachers, and schools to mitigate inequities and accelerate learning. 

FINDING JOY & CREATIVITY IN MATHEMATICS

Tia Knuth shows how she's helping recreate math education for second graders to make the process more joyful and creative. Tia and her teaching partner, Matthew Marchyok, are Leads in an ALK-8 Working Group and presented at the statewide Oregon Educators' Summit on August 6-7, 2024.

 

As a culmination of the work, over 700 educators from around Oregon joined OSU and ODE representatives at the Oregon Educators’ Summit. held on August 6 and 7, 2024. The summit offered networking opportunities, inspirational plenary talks and a variety of workshops focused on professional development. Working Group members presented their innovative, field-initiated, and classroom-based resources and professional development directly to those who would be using them; and their work was supplemented by sessions by other local, state, and national experts.

Participants chose workshops and learning tracks based on content or grade level — and returned to their home schools and classrooms with new classroom teaching strategies they could put into immediate use.

For those unable to make the summit, all resources developed by the Working Groups will be made available through the ODE website soon.