The interruption of in-person learning environments due to COVID-19 impacted everyone, but it particularly challenged those with specific learning needs.
In fact, equity became one of the top issues as the pandemic spread across the globe. Educators in every building acknowledged the continuing need to create more equitable education environments.
Students deserve the resources and support they need to fully engage in learning, and when you design for inclusion, everyone benefits.
Do you need to evaluate your district’s classroom accessibility? Check out this eSchool News webinar to learn how to develop and enable a more inclusively and accessibly designed classroom that provides each student the tools and supports they need – from built-in technology tools to making open education resources more accessible.
- Children learn best on paper: We need better technology, not less of it - July 13, 2026
- In districts, reaching readiness, retention, and success - March 5, 2026
- AI use is on the rise, but is guidance keeping pace? - January 2, 2026
More from eSchool News
When practice becomes data: Helping teachers respond to student misconceptions
A student can complete 20 questions and still leave a teacher with very little useful information. A score may show that something went wrong, but it does not always show which learning objective needs attention, whether the problem is a misunderstanding or a careless error, or what the student should practice next.
Why reading interventions plateau—and why New York’s new dyslexia center won’t change that
I’ve sat across from more than one district administrator staring at a dashboard full of reading intervention minutes and a flat progress line. The pattern is familiar: a student gets pulled for extra decoding practice, scores move for six or eight weeks, and then they stall — not because the student stopped trying, and not because the intervention stopped running.
Career readiness in the AI era needs decision practice, not just tool access
Schools are racing to teach students how to use AI. That is necessary, but it is not enough. The workplace advantage will increasingly belong to people who can decide when an AI output is useful, when it is incomplete and when it is wrong.
Building an everyday equitable practice for AI in schools
AI technology is advancing rapidly in schools, but research is increasingly showing that Large Language Models (LLMs) lack the common sense, morality, and knowledge of individual classroom dynamics needed to be truly equitable.
A new approach to middle school math data boosted our state test scores
Picture a group of middle school math teachers meeting to mull over a specific problem. Their eighth graders keep missing the same assessment question about graphing a system equation, and the educators’ assignment is to figure out why.
We stopped waiting for the teacher pipeline–we built our own
Every hiring season, school districts ask the same question: Where are the teachers? We stopped asking and started building.
A blanket screen-time ban won’t fix what’s broken in edtech
Many parents, policymakers, and educators are worried about screens in schools. They’ve observed the positive effects of cell phone bans and are wondering how edtech might contribute to real issues, including declining attention spans and learning loss.
Answering the question behind the question
Librarians and instructional designers have long understood that the first question someone asks is not always the question they need answered. In a library reference interview, a patron’s initial request is often just the starting point for uncovering the real information needed.
Students won’t remember every lesson, but here’s what’ll stick
For a lot of students, school can feel like a transaction: You do the work, you get the check mark, and then you move on. That model can unintentionally cap what students show us about what they know and can do.
Building inclusive school communities through integrated digital strategy
Clear, timely communication is the bedrock of the relationship between a school and its families. It is the invisible thread connecting a student’s classroom progress to the support they receive at home.