Inclusive Education Initiative Newsletter #3

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Newsletter
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Transforming Education for Children with Disabilities 
 

May, 2020 | Issue #3
 
Dear Inclusive Education Initiative (IEI) Disability-Inclusive Education Community of Practice Members,

We hope this third issue of our newsletter finds you healthy and well during this extraordinary time. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have wide-reaching impacts across the globe, and as we mentioned in our last newsletter, one of the most significant impacts has been the school closures that have put so many of the world’s student population out of school for an undetermined amount of time and at risk to not returning when they do begin to reopen. Children with disabilities are at more of a risk to getting left behind during this crisis as the mainstream solutions to distance learning often neglect their needs.

The IEI is working hard to address the educational impacts of COVID-19 on children with disabilities in a variety of ways including:
  • An issues paper that is being produced on the disability-inclusive education COVID-19 response. The paper will outline specific COVID-19 related barriers for education of children with disabilities and offer a solutions menu. It will also offer guidance on mainstreaming disability inclusion within additional financing modalities.
  • A survey for caregivers of children with disabilities, teachers for children with disabilities, and persons with disabilities to understand if learners with disabilities are accessing the supports they need to continue their education while schools are closed. This survey was available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian and we received over 4,000 responses! While we have closed the survey, we look forward to sharing those findings with you in coming weeks after we have analyzed all the data.
As always, we want to hear from you! Please share papers, project news, blogs, and any relevant information and materials that you feel would benefit our community and stay in touch.

You can either email us at iei@worldbank.org or join our LinkedIn Group and post directly there.

Especially during a time like this, community is key. We are excited to see this community continue to grow (we have close to 500 members on our LinkedIn group now) and we know that it will continue to add value to our work, only with your active participation. We welcome your feedback, questions, and own work that will encourage further discussion.
 
With best wishes,

The Inclusive Education Initiative Team
 
NEWS AND EVENTS
The global launch of the 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report: Inclusion and Education: All Means All will take place on the 23rd of June 2020. The 2020 GEM Report assesses progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education and its ten targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda. The Report also addresses inclusion in education, drawing attention to all those excluded from education, because of background or disability. A concept note for the report can be found here.  As soon as we have details for the launch we will share them with you on the LinkedIn page.
Two days after the Report’s global launch, the World Bank and GEM Report will co-host a webinar, #AllmeansAll: Fulfilling everybody’s potential from 9 am- 10:30 am EST. This will be a high-level dialogue to examine ongoing efforts to strengthen inclusion and education.
Deaf Child Worldwide, eKitabu, and Royal Dutch Kentalis will be hosting a webinar: “Language before Literacy: The importance of language acquisition and communication first approaches for Deaf and hard of hearing” on Thursday, June 4th, 2020 from 9:30 am to 11 am EST (UK 2:30-4pm; EU 3:30-5pm; Kenya 4:30-6 pm; India 6.30-8pm). International Sign Language and Text-to-Speech will be provided.
Photo: Royal Dutch Kentalis
If you haven’t seen Netflix’s Crip Camp, check it out (find the trailer here). In addition to watching this incredible documentary about the disability rights movement, there is a Virtual Experience taking place every Sunday afternoon for the next two months that invites grassroots activists and advocates to join a myriad of speakers from the disability community. While not focused on inclusive education, this is a great place to start to learn more about the disability rights movement and how to include persons with disabilities in all we do. August 2nd is focused on education for persons with disabilities and we will send out more information as that date gets closer.
FROM OUR MEMBERS
Our LinkedIn group is growing fast! With close to 500 members now actively involved, the IEI Disability-Inclusive Education Community of Practice is growing stronger every day! This CoP is for anyone who is passionate about making sure disability inclusive education is being taken up across the globe. We recognize that the value of the CoP is in the vast experience you all bring, but also extend an invitation to those of you just getting into the field or interested in the topic.

Check out some of our latest posts:
If you are not on LinkedIn, please send us an e-mail at: iei@worldbank.org, and we will repost your questions or comments.
KNOWLEDGE HUB
Measuring literacy outcomes for the blind and for the deaf: Nationally representative results from Kenya
Recently the Education Equity Research Initiative's Disability Task Team was folded into the Inclusive Education Initiative's CoP. They have been doing some great research over the past year on disability inclusive education and we want to share one of those articles. Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International recently published a nationally representative analysis of learning outcomes for two different groups of learners with disabilities. 

Photo: Jenny Matthews-Leonard Cheshire Disability
 
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