A new, $7.5 million partnership will help the state’s K-12 teachers deliver quality instruction and support for online and blended learning environments as Arizona grapples with the challenges of starting a school year during a global pandemic.
In August 2020, ASU launched an emergency effort to train Arizona teachers to support them through the unprecedented professional challenge of large-scale remote and hybrid learning. A year later, educators are looking ahead to a learning landscape that will never be the same.
The Arizona Department of Education building in downtown Phoenix.
The Arizona Department of Education is allocating an additional $16 million of its discretionary COVID-19 relief funds, it announced Tuesday. The money is part of the $135.5 million in discretionary funds that the department received from two federal COVID-19 relief packages. With these new allocations, the department has now allocated $116 million of these funds.
The $16 million will be invested into efforts focused on student equity and achievement, teacher recruitment and retention, and college access and attainment. This includes a partnership on an ASU summer math program for K-12 students, and a laptop and hotspot partnership with the city of Phoenix.
Free program helping teachers boost their virtual instruction skills
AZ Virtual teacher institute has helped more than 5,000 teachers since Spring.
and last updated 2020-12-13 18:06:26-05
The pandemic, making it clear that remote learning is here to stay. Now, a free resource is helping teachers improve their virtual instruction skills.
The Arizona Virtual Teacher Institute through ASU Prep Digital offers all sorts of training opportunities. Since launching in the spring, the program has already served nearly 5,000 teachers from more than 800 schools in Arizona. It s a science, said Betsy Fowler, who oversees the AZ Virtual Teacher Institute for ASU Prep Digital. There s a lot of thought and planning that needs to go around this transition and that s exactly what we re here to do, is to offer that support.