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Jessica Greer, math LEAP Leader at Truesdell Education Campus, at the first district-wide LEAP Summer Intensive, which Leading Educators supported

Why Scaling Cost-Effective Professional Learning Is Critical During Covid

In recent years, more and more proof points have emerged that well-designed, externally-provided professional learning can drive significant improvements in both teacher and student-level outcomes, and do so at a fraction of the cost of the average school system’s annual spend on professional development. We explore why scaling this type of professional learning for educators is critical, the impact it can have on student learning, and what still remains to be learned.

Why Funding Family STEM Is More Important Than Ever

In 2021, Overdeck Family Foundation made grants totaling $3.75 million to organizations that support family STEM. This post explores the importance of engaging families in their children's STEM learning and highlights three organizations that are leading the way.

Supporting Kindergarten Readiness and Early School Success in a Pandemic Year

The Early Impact portfolio at Overdeck Family Foundation funds programs that support school readiness both in and out of "school," ensuring that every child has the opportunity for a strong start. This year, with the many challenges and setbacks created by the pandemic, that work is more critical than ever. This post highlights some of our grantee organizations engaging in this important work.

Summer 2021: An Opportunity for STEM Engagement and Learning

This summer presents a unique opportunity to both re-engage disconnected students and help those who have fallen behind get to grade level. In this post, we spotlight four organizations that take diverse evidence-based approaches to summer STEM, all focused on student engagement, social emotional learning, and STEM mindset development.

Tech-Enabled Math Solutions: Investing in the Growth and Continued Innovation of Two High-Quality Math Platforms

The pandemic put the benefits of tech-enabled solutions front and center. While traditional math curriculum providers struggled to adapt, digital and tech-enabled curriculum and solution providers were able to quickly respond to student needs, decreasing the amount of interrupted learning that students experienced. In this post, we highlight two solutions that measurably accelerate math learning: Zearn and ST Math.