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The State Education Department released the Quality Remote/Hybrid Teaching: The Flexible Futures Instructional Framework (QRT) to provide educators across New York State with a tool to support instruction using technology, including for students in remote and hybrid learning environments, Commissioner Betty A. Rosa announced today. The QRT Framework provides resources for teachers, administrators, and educational leaders to inform high-quality, engaging instruction in any learning environment for all students. This framework results from nearly two years of work alongside educators and stakeholders through the Department’s Teaching in Remote Learning Environments (TRLE) project and input from more than 10,000 educators and other K-12 stakeholders.

Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr. said, “Creating connections to increase equity and access to high-quality programming and instruction has never been more attainable. From the adversity of the pandemic comes an imperative to innovate, using 21^st-century digital learning tools to expand existing teaching environments and look to the future of learning for all of New York’s students.�

Commissioner Rosa said, “We are dedicated to helping educators reimagine the boundaries of traditional classrooms using technology to create online and in-person collaborative learning spaces. While nothing can replace the importance of face-to-face instruction, we are working to effectively implement innovative, blended instructional approaches to meet the needs of all students no matter where they are, which will continue to be relevant across modalities for years to come.�

The QRT is a framework for statewide support and continuing success for teaching both in a remote/hybrid learning environment and to facilitate the use of technology in traditional classrooms, using lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic over the last three school years. It is intended to help teachers navigate the broad landscape of teaching, utilizing technology both in-person and online, and learning by first focusing attention on four key focus areas:

• Planning and Preparation;
• Learning Environment and Delivery;
• Assessment and Reflection; and
• Collaboration and Communication.

The framework features promising practices, including encouraging critical thinking, providing equity and access to rigorous instruction, and personalizing teaching and learning using technology at the core of high-quality pedagogy in any environment. These practices emerged from focus group discussions, reflections, in-depth interviews, and feedback from over 10,000 K-12 stakeholders in New York State. Educators will find elements for implementation with corresponding indicators of success for each promising practice.

Background Information

The Department saw that soon after the pandemic closed school buildings and forced students and educators to begin remote/hybrid learning that it needed to work closely with educators to seize the opportunity to share effective practices and examine lessons learned from remote and hybrid instruction in New York schools to benefit all students.

In the summer of 2020, New York was one of 11 states to be awarded Education Stabilization Fund-Rethink K12 Education Models Grant funds by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE)​. The nearly $20 million awarded through this initiative launched Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s TRLE project​, which would provide more than 190,000 teachers and educational leaders across the state with a combined 450,000 hours of professional support to implement effective practices in remote/hybrid teaching and learning which, in turn, will reach an estimated two million students.

Providing training and resources and utilizing partnerships to ensure these practices influence this and future generations of educators have been at the heart of this work.