Learning List, the Texas Association of Supervisors for Curriculum Development (TX ASCD), Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) and the Instructional Materials Coordinators Association of Texas (IMCAT) are working together to help districts replace instructional materials that were damaged during Hurricane Harvey.
A jointly signed email went out to over 230 publishing companies across the country asking each to provide contact information for their Texas representative(s). The email also invited publishers to list the title(s) and quantities of any materials their company is willing to donate to districts affected by Hurricane Harvey. Given districts’ urgent needs, publishers were only afforded a few days to complete the form. Forty publishers submitted information by the deadline; additional publishers continue to add their information as their companies determine how best to help. [Read more…]
The three partnering membership organizations then emailed a link to the “Harvey Recovery – Publisher Contact Information and Resources” document to the curriculum director, technology director and instructional materials coordinator in the school districts located in the 58 counties included in the Governor’s disaster declaration. To help inform districts’ selection decisions, Learning List offered to provide free of charge to any requesting district a customized comparison of key information for up to three materials that we have reviewed.
As publishers completed the form, several shared information about inspiring acts of kindness their companies have undertaken. Some are donating funds; several are donating or deeply discounting their materials for affected districts. One publisher provided their company’s trade show minivan to a family that lost their car in the Harvey floods so that they could take their son to school. That company is also deeply discounting their “acceleration” materials for districts that have been closed for one or more weeks. A Houston-based publisher whose building was flooded and rendered uninhabitable by Harvey responded immediately with the following, “Compared to the devastation throughout Houston and surrounding areas, we have merely been inconvenienced. We will be doing whatever we can to help schools and students that use or are interested in using our materials.”
We hope the fruits of this partnership will help ease, even if only slightly, the unimaginable burdens of our friends and colleagues in Harvey-ravaged districts. Please contact us if we can be of assistance to you in any other way.