Katie is a Legislative Director for ExcelinEd in Action. In this role, she works with leaders and policymakers from the western states to promote student-centered solutions focused on educational quality, innovation and opportunity.
While it is easy to be overwhelmed by the challenges the pandemic created in education, Arizona is taking a bold step to identify the possibilities for education improvements. House Bill 2862 is an example of how Arizona policymakers quickly identified flexibilities that could be provided to districts and schools during the pandemic to better meet the needs of all students across the state.
House Bill 2862, co-sponsored by both House and Senate Education Committee Chairs Representative Michelle Udall and Senator Paul Boyer, currently pending with the Senate Rules Committee, provides schools with flexibility in their instructional time models. The bill does not remove the requirement for meeting instructional hours. Instead, it creates the opportunity for school districts and public charter schools to develop innovative ways to meet the instructional hours. This can be accomplished through a combination of instructional approaches beyond direct instruction, such as project-based learning, independent learning, mastery-based learning and remote instruction.
Education leaders engaged in conversations with school leaders across the state to identify and inform the flexibilities that are important to preserve, which helped shape House Bill 2862. Several testified in support during the House Education Committee hearing.
“The pandemic accelerated the urgency to do things differently. Schools were provided flexibility around attendance, which allowed teachers to be responsive in new ways and promote learning and provide instruction. House Bill 2862 provides a mechanism to build upon lessons learned in the pandemic to better serve our students. Looking to the next school year, we know that we need to personalize learning to fill gaps and allow for learning acceleration. Removing seat time gives teachers the flexibility to get students the instruction they need.”
Jennifer Echols, Director of Personalized Learning, Mesa Public Schools
“A for Arizona heard consistent feedback from district leaders about the need to preserve the best ideas that came from the pandemic. In the past year, schools and systems have been empowered to make more locally driven school design decisions than ever before. In a lot of cases, this led to more engaged learners and allowed students to take deeper ownership of their learning. It led to school redesigns and new models. This flexibility must continue for the schools that want it. Seat time requirements are the biggest barrier to this flexibility.”
Emily Anne Gullickson, Founder, Great Leaders Strong Schools
Providing flexibility from the traditional one-size-fits-all, seat-time requirement supports the design and implementation of personalized learning models. This empowers schools to be innovative in their continuous improvements in shaping education to better reflect their student and community needs.
House Bill 2862 would be transformational in empowering Arizona schools to design an education that prepares all students for success in college, career and life.