Have a stake in K-12 education? Help us highlight education (re)opening solutions!

March 19, 2021

Calling everyone with a stake in K-12 education as school sites navigate the pandemic and reopen in-person! Join The Education (Re)Open, and show us your solution to the question:

How might we strengthen school communities, as sites reopen, by highlighting solutions that reconnect people and enhance collective wellbeing, teaching, and learning?

As we socially distanced to keep each other safe, other gaps grew — in learning losses, inequities, between communities and individuals. Isolation and overwhelm became familiar states for too many. Yet, the ingenuity of school communities not only persisted — but flourished.

Help us spotlight, share, and scale this ingenuity!

IDEO, in partnership with USC Center Edge and Andrew Nikou Foundation, is launching a five-week sprint. While we’re especially interested in solutions for the Los Angeles area — a region rich in diversity and imagination, but also severely impacted by COVID-19 — we’re also focused on ones with nationwide impact.

Have you discovered something that helps everyone be more connected or empowered, despite social distancing or remote learning? Do you have a brilliant idea for helping people feel better, learn better, or teach better? Could your solution help all types of learners,
in all zip codes? Have you made exciting partnerships across sectors that inspire revolutionary approaches?

High-quality solutions will be globally accessible in a searchable bank for widespread sharing, and may be implemented as early as August across Los Angeles and beyond. In addition, select submissions receive a share of funding, professional learning, and technology support through TED Masterclass.

All education professional participants receive a 3-month Heartbeat subscription. The Education (Re)Open is a chance to reconnect school communities for the better — in this moment and beyond.

USC Center EDGE, Andrew Nikou Foundation, and IDEO came together to elevate solutions that can support school communities to reconnect and enhance collective wellbeing, teaching, and learning as sites reopen. Together we’re inviting solutions from everyone navigating the challenges facing school communities during the pandemic and beyond— especially from those in the greater Los Angeles region. Our hope is this inaugural (Re)Open invitation framework helps galvanize other districts/regions to surface working solutions that may benefit larger communities. The solutions with the greatest potential to meet the needs of school communities as sites reopen will be featured in a searchable, public Solutions Exchange, launching in time to help school communities prepare for the upcoming school year. The Education (Re)Open is more than an open call for solutions; it’s a chance to reconnect people and enhance collective wellbeing, teaching, and learning—for this moment and into the future.

Call launches March 23. Sign up here to follow the journey!