Expanded Professional Learning Opportunities to Support Remote and Hybrid Learning

NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 26, 2021

State education department announces expanded professional learning opportunities to effectively implement remote and hybrid learning

 

Expanded professional learning opportunities to support remote and hybrid learning are available for New York’s educators, State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa announced today. The expanded opportunities are being facilitated by the Department’s Teaching in Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments (TRLE) program and through a partnership with the New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education (NYSCATE). 

 

“The Board and I are committed to ensuring New York State educators have access to the resources they need to support students regardless of the instructional modality,” said Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr.  “While the pandemic has been difficult for teachers, administrators, students, and parents, it has also propelled some exciting advancements in the ways students learn. By supporting our teachers with these learning opportunities, I am confident that they will continue to rise to the challenge.”

 

“Seemingly overnight we went from an educational system where technology integration and proficiency were terms that we had heard but not necessarily fully embraced to a world where these are now the norm,” Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said.  “To support our educators in this rapidly changing paradigm, we have engaged with our partners at NYSCATE and established our TRLE program to assist educators and enhance remote and hybrid learning.”

 

Technology is an integral part of New York State students’ learning experience, and should be utilized in everyday instruction, across all subjects, to facilitate and enhance teaching and learning. Throughout the state, administrators, teachers, and school personnel have demonstrated extraordinary dedication, support, and commitment to students amidst the pandemic. The Department is committed to examining lessons learned from remote and hybrid instruction that can be used to improve in-class teaching and learning as it continues to work with schools and Districts to achieve the Regents’ goal, as stated in the 2010 Statewide Technology Plan, that “Multiple environments will exist for teaching and learning, unbound by place [or] time.”

 

New York was one of 11 states to be awarded Education Stabilization Fund-Rethink K12 Education Models Grant funds by the USDOE​. The nearly $20 million awarded through this initiative have launched NYSED’s TRLE program​. The purpose of the program is to build the capacity of teachers and educational leaders to effectively implement remote/hybrid learning for all students. This will provide more than 190,000 teachers and educational leaders across the State with a combined 450,000 hours of professional support to implement effective practices in remote/hybrid teaching and learning which, in turn, will reach an estimated two million students.

 

The first phase of the TRLE program focuses on rapid deployment of professional learning to the field in six core competencies:

Shifting to Teaching Online ​
Engaging Families as Partners in Remote/Hybrid Learning ​
Meeting the needs of SWDs through Remote/Hybrid Learning ​
Meeting the needs of ELLs/MLLs through Remote-Hybrid Learning  ​
Integrating Culturally-Responsive Sustaining Education (CRSE) in Remote Learning Environments ​
Integrating Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in Remote Learning Environments. 

 

To date, our partners at the Level 1 Centers throughout the state have delivered over 50 synchronous and asynchronous TRLE trainings, impacting at least 1000 educators. Each center has also developed their own website with a host of resources for educators to improve their capacity for high-quality and equitable remote/hybrid instruction.

Over the next two years, TRLE will also identify best practices in remote/hybrid environments that will continue to be relevant in the years to come across teaching modalities. Providing training and resources, and utilizing partnerships to ensure these practices influence this and future generations of educators will be at the heart of this work.

The Department is pleased to also be partnering with NYSCATE thanks to funding made available through the federal CARES Act 1, to offer professional development courses developed and facilitated by New York educators, aligned to New York State standards and expectations of quality, that reflect an understanding of New York’s regional variations and needs.  NYSCATE will also provide two webinar series, one for teachers and one for parents, on topics related to technology and remote learning.

 

NYSCATE, an organization for educational technology with a membership of more than 25,000 educators and administrators in New York State, is an affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN), and the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), three national leading organizations in educational technology. 

 

A calendar of TRLE learning opportunities can be found on the Department’s TRLE website. 

 

More information on professional development courses offered by NYSCATE can be found on the Department’s website or on the NYSCATE website.