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More resources and trainings for teachers, school administrators, families and communities are on our Learning Goes On website. See Spanish-language version of this edition.

Across the country, students, families and school communities face numerous challenges to safely, effectively and equitably reopening schools. To meet these challenges, school districts across the South have developed innovative and collaborative strategies that may serve as examples to school districts across the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated longstanding disparities in engagement between schools and communities. Those that have focused on engagement use a number of strategies to not only understand the needs of their communities but also to provide corresponding support to meet those needs.

For example, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida conducted a survey of over 250,000 families and incorporated the feedback from those surveys into a plan that prioritized a variety of supports to help parents navigate the start of the school year. The plan featured a week of welcome, a parent academy, and resources focused on topics relevant to resuming learning, including navigating student and parent portals, accessing resources for mental and social-emotional wellness, and building organization and study skills. In addition, the district developed a range of communication tools to disseminate resources to parents and families, including the use of a Distance Learning Help Desk, a K-12 Help Desk, and a Mental Health Hotline.

Similarly, the Houston Independent School District (ISD) created a plan to engage parents based on the most common mediums that parents use. The plan uses a combination of social media, news media, guides, blog posts, in-person and virtual meetings, and the district’s website to communicate with parents.

As a result of the pandemic, schools were forced to rapidly switch to remote instruction and have been working to find and engage students from a distance. To address this challenge, districts have had to find ways to track students who have become disengaged and to provide resources to staff and educators to work together to support those students.

For example, San Antonio ISD launched a student interaction tracker app that helps the district track disengaged students. The app documents interactions between teachers, support staff and students as well as whether or not students are completing assignments. It allows all of the teachers and staff who work with an individual student to stay up to speed on their engagement and progress and when they need additional support or specific help.

School districts also are working to address additional resource gaps that create disconnections with students and families. For example, Guilford County Schools in North Carolina took several deliberate steps to expand access for families. The district purchased devices for nearly every student, teacher and instructional staff member. It also is addressing internet infrastructure by deploying 125 “smart buses” in high-need communities to help bridge the digital divide. In addition, the district is working with city officials in High Point to jointly identify more locations with city-owned and managed Wi-Fi that can be accessible to students and families. The district offers free-of-cost learning centers in targeted areas of the county for students to participate in remote learning as well.

These are but a few of the examples of innovative strategies being undertaken across the South to address the challenges presented by COVID-19. To ensure equitable outcomes for students this fall, education leaders should continue looking to their contemporaries across the region and adapt these strategies for the benefit of all students and families that they serve.

Since women of color are often overlooked in STEM subjects and grossly underrepresented in the field, IDRA’s STEM and gender equity specialist, Dr. Stephanie Garcia, has been showcasing a STEMinista (Latina in STEM) every day of Hispanic Heritage Month. Below are a few STEMinistas and a brief summary of their contribution in STEM. They are a few of many that serve as an inspiration and trailblazer in STEM.

Born in Puerto Rico, Olga D. González-Sanabria was granted a U.S. patent for her innovation. Her long cycle-life nickel-hydrogen battery helped power the International Space Station. She became the highest-ranking Hispanic at the NASA Glenn Research Center.

Frances Córdova earned her Ph.D. in physics from Cal State. She studied white dwarfs and pulsars at Los Alamos National Laboratory, authored more than 150 published articles, became chief scientist for NASA, president of Purdue University, and a director at the National Science Foundation.

Gabriela Mistral, literary pseudonym of Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, was South America's first Nobel Laureate. Her poems had many themes, but one was nature. She wrote about nature in the Poem of Chile. This is a great example of STEAM (art integrated in STEM).

Ynes Mexia is a famous Mexican American botanist who received her degree at U.C. Berkeley. She discovered two new plant genera and 500 new plant species.

Rebeca Guber is a famous computer scientist from Argentina. She taught at the University of Buenos Aires and co-authored Elements of Differential and Integral Calculus. She also co-developed the first computer in Argentina!

In 1944, Enriqueta González Baz became the first woman to graduate with a math degree in Mexico from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and she co-founded the Mexican Mathematical Society.

Dra. Helen Rodríguez Trías was the first Latina president of American Public Health Association. She brought national attention to the HIV and AIDS crisis and exposed inequities in healthcare. She was also an associate professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Ellen Ochoa is the first and only Hispanic female astronaut. She recently retired from her NASA director position in Houston. She was a mission specialist and a flight engineer, and she conducted robotics development.

These incredible contributions all connect to computer science, biology, mechanical engineering, aerospace and aviation, medicine and literature in STEM. Educators should find creative ways to acknowledge and authentically connect these mujeres pioneras (women pioneers) and their contributions to the STEM curriculum. This work is important because we want our future STEMinistas to see themselves in the field.

Said beautifully by Gloria Anzaldúa: “Do work that matters. Vale la pena.”

Antiracism in Science – Infographic

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, book by Gloria Anzaldúa

11 Women scientists who should be in the Texas K-12 science standards, just to get the ball rolling – Infographic

See more STEMinistas via Dr. Stephanie Garcia’s Twitter account @STEMinistx.