Future Ready

Future Ready Schools is a free, bold effort to maximize digital learning opportunities and help school districts move quickly toward preparing students for success in college, a career, and citizenship. This effort comes at a critical time as districts embrace college and career readiness as the goal for all students and recognize the potential of digital tools to help teachers personalize learning for each student. While less than 30 percent of U.S. schools have the bandwidth, they need to teach using today’s technology, federal and state efforts are expanding this capacity to ensure that at least 99 percent of the nation’s students have access to high-speed internet in their schools within the next five years. Such connectivity, along with strategic planning by districts to maximize its availability, has the potential to transform the educational experiences of all students, regardless of their background.

District leaders must respond to these changes with thoughtful planning to align necessary technologies with instructional goals to support teaching and learning. The effort provides districts with resources and support to ensure that local technology and digital learning plans align with instructional best practices, are implemented by highly trained teachers, and lead to personalized learning experiences for all students, particularly those from traditionally under-served communities. The Alliance for Excellent Education and the U.S. Department of Education are leading this effort alongside a vast coalition of national organizations. Future Ready Schools can be found at www.futurereadyschools.org. Districts can download the Future Ready Schools fact sheet here.

In an effort to support superintendents and district leadership teams and to fulfill the Future Ready District Pledge and determine their readiness to do so The Alliance for Excellent Education has developed both the Future Ready Schools Framework and Future Ready Schools Interactive Planning Dashboard. The Future Ready Framework provides the roadmap for a successful digital transformation. With student learning at the center, a district must align each of the seven (7) key categories, called gears, plus leadership, in order to implement and sustain successful digital learning.

The 7 Gears of the Future Ready Schools Framework are as follows:

• Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
• Personalized Professional Learning
• Technology and Infrastructure
• Data and Privacy
• Community Partnerships
• Budget and Resources
• Use of Space and Time

The Future Ready Schools Interactive Planning Dashboard is a free, online tool to help district leadership teams plan systemically to use technology effectively to engage students, empower teachers, and improve learning outcomes. Through the dashboard, district leaders assess their digital readiness levels, identify gaps, obtain strategies, action plan and track their progress over time. Districts can download more information about the Dashboard here – Dashboard Instructions.