Renaissance® Blog
Shareable tips and insightful thoughts on K–12 education. Subscribe to the Renaissance Newsletter and get the latest posts delivered straight to your inbox.
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February 19, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on education, from widespread building closures to concerns over the scale of learning loss caused by the disruptions. As of February 19, 2021, the federal government has passed two pieces of legislation—CRRSA […]
February 12, 2021
Each year, Renaissance’s What Kids Are Reading report lists the most popular books at every grade level, and also provides new insights into K–12 students’ reading habits. With the 2021 report arriving on March 2, we wanted to look back […]
January 29, 2021
Last November, we released our How Kids Are Performing report, which uses data from five million student assessments to quantify the impact of COVID-related disruptions. While most students experienced modest declines in reading performance, math performance was impacted more significantly, […]
January 22, 2021
By Dr. Gene Kerns, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Over the last nine months, conversations about the scale of COVID-related learning loss have dominated K–12 education. These began last spring, when various predictions and projections about the “COVID-19 Slide” […]
January 15, 2021
COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of K–12 education, from familiar classroom routines to when and how we assess our students. With thousands of buildings closed and millions of students learning remotely, educational data is playing a more important role than […]
January 8, 2021
By Dr. Gene Kerns, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Like nearly all children in the 1970s and 80s, I fully embraced the early video games of that era. For many, the only access to these was at video arcades. […]
December 11, 2020
With learning models shifting—in some cases, multiple times—this school year, educators have shown us just how resilient (in fact, superheroic) they really are. But these shifts haven’t been without challenges, especially when it comes to gathering student data to inform […]
December 4, 2020
By Dr. Gene Kerns, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Last spring, the word that kept coming to mind amid the COVID-19 disruptions was surreal. Things seemed so unbelievable that one had to ask, Is this real? Is this actually […]
November 20, 2020
By Dr. Jan K. Bryan, Vice President and National Education Officer Note: This is the second in a series of blogs about the new book Literacy Reframed. You can read the first blog in the series by clicking here. Several […]
November 13, 2020
By Dr. Scott McConnell, Director of Assessment Innovation As educators, we were thrown a curve ball last spring, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread school closures and a quick pivot to remote education. Back then, many of us hoped […]
November 6, 2020
By Dr. Gene Kerns, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Emerson wrote that “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” For me, this is the case when I read particularly insightful books. The […]
October 22, 2020
Back-to-School looked a lot different this year, with many schools and districts providing instruction remotely either full or part time. While it’s certainly possible for students to thrive in remote- and hybrid-learning environments, educators also face new challenges. Do all […]