LOS ANGELES – The USC Center for Engagement-Driven Global Education (Center EDGE), Andrew Nikou Foundation, and IDEO announced 56 selections, as part of a first-of-its-kind initiative to crowdsource solutions from educators, parents, and students to help schools navigate the many challenges they face returning this fall. These solutions, which came from across the world, will be featured on the Education Solutions Exchange — a public repository of ongoing, high-quality, achievable, and scalable ideas that can be implemented for free in schools as early as fall 2021.
Amidst the pandemic, entire education ecosystems have been upended locally, regionally, and globally. Fundamental defects and structural issues have been exposed and exacerbated by COVID-19, whether it be on teaching and learning, equity, or social-emotional fronts.
“From the digital divide to the massive learning losses due to the pandemic, the education system is being confronted with a host of challenges on a scale not seen in modern history,” said Alan Arkatov, founding director of Center EDGE. “The Education Solutions Exchange is an exciting outgrowth of what we learned early in the pandemic — that creative, relevant, and relatively simple solutions can bring a quantifiable voice to those on the frontlines of education, and can have impact in timely, effective, and efficient ways.”
In response to the historic challenges facing students, Center EDGE and its partners formed The Education (Re)Open this spring, an online challenge to prioritize the voices of key stakeholders, and solicit ideas from students, teachers, parents, and leaders from the public, independent and parochial school sectors, along with experts from across the globe. The Education (Re)Open not only solicited new ideas, but the submission of ideas that were working in classrooms, schools, or homes that could be effectively scaled across broader education ecosystems.
Through these partnerships and IDEO’s human centered design platform for The Education (Re)Open, the need for what started as a unique crowdsourcing opportunity for time-sensitive solutions has created a demand for a new type of education clearinghouse — the Education Solutions Exchange — that can provide high quality and implementable recommendations in simple and accessible ways.
The Education (Re)Open received hundreds of submissions from 42 states in the U.S. and 34 countries. After a vigorous two-month submission, vetting, coaching, refinement and judging process (more information can be found here), 56 solutions were identified to be part of the Education Solutions Exchange. Innovators whose solutions are featured on the site each received $1,000 for their participation and dedication to strengthening school communities.
Winning entries, chosen in part for their simplicity and ability to immediately impact students’ needs, include:
The program recognizes that students are anxious about returning to school, and yet they can be inspired to turn those feelings into something positive.
“The L.A. County Office of Education and the Greater L.A. Education are excited about crowdsourcing innovative solutions from those that know education best our educators, parents, and students,” said Dr. Debra Duardo, Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools. “We’re looking forward to working with our 80 superintendents and other district leaders throughout the country to give a real voice to our stakeholders, by curating and implementing selections from the Solutions Exchange that can improve teaching and learning outcomes.”
Award Sponsors
Lead funding and strategic support was provided by the Andrew Nikou Foundation with additional support provided by:
- Great Public Schools Now,
- Joseph Drown Foundation,
- The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation,
- Annenberg Learner,
- the Johnny Carson Foundation,
- Shmoop,
- Eva Stern,
- the Khayami Foundation, and the
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
To see all 56 selected solutions and learn more about the mission and future of this project, visit www.EducationSolutions.net
About Andrew Nikou Foundation
Driven by core values of connection, collaboration, and scale, the Andrew Nikou Foundation serves as a resource for big ideas that can improve the lives of people who are disconnected, oppressed, and left behind. A network of partnerships with diverse experts inform ANF’s approach to social inclusion, education innovation and financial inclusion.
About USC Rossier School of Education
About USC Rossier School of Education Center for Engagement-Driven Global Education (Center EDGE) Center EDGE fuels interdisciplinary collaboration to bring high quality, sustainable innovation to scale in the crucial area of educational engagement—the activities and techniques used to pique and grow student interests and motivation to learn both within and beyond the traditional school day.
About IDEO
IDEO is a global design firm creating positive impact through design. We are a community of designers, entrepreneurs, engineers, teachers, and researchers. Early leaders of human-centered design, we design for people first, always adapting to complex challenges. We build to learn, and learn as we build—through inspiration, ideation, and implementation.
