Growth Rings: Considerations to Restarting School

Growth Rings: Considerations for Restarting School

My thoughts and prayers are with students, parents, teachers, and administrators. What a spring all have been though! Beginning with the stress and emotions of the COVID-19 shut down, having to transition immediately to distant learning with little preparation, then design “on the run” an end for the 2019-20 school year, which included facilitating safely graduation for the class of 2020 during the ongoing global pandemic. No wonder everyone is exhausted and emotionally drained.  Now with 60 days to come up with plans on how to reopen school in the fall, and the pandemic continuing, there is little time to rest and recharge.

“Safely reopening the nation's public schools will be an expensive and Herculean task...  And, until schools do reopen, the nation's most vulnerable children will continue to be hardest hit — losing consistent access to meals, valuable learning time, and vital social-emotional support.” https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/10/874049532/senate-panel-asks-when-can-k-12-schools-safely-reopen

Throughout the United States, school leadership is working diligently to figure out how to reopen schools and keep students and staff safe during the continued global pandemic. Without a COVID-19 vaccine, starting school in the fall of 2020 will be extremely challenging to the some 56 million students effected. Parents are deeply concerned with the question of will their children be safe if they return to school in the fall? Many are seriously considering continuing to home school.  

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) recently reported that 65 percent of America’s parents believe that “schools should remain closed until they are certain there is no health risk, even if it means students fall farther behind.” And that “the American Association of School Administrators says that 94 percent of superintendents aren’t sure when their schools will reopen, while educational leaders insist that schools can’t reopen safely without more funds”.  The reality of reopening schools is complex, multifaceted, and brings not only big challenges, but also big opportunities. 

What is known today about reopening schools.

The easy part will be making recommendation for reopening, the hard part will be making the recommendation operational. It must be realized that each consideration, recommendation, and action is interconnected, with far reaching impacts. Plans for reopening schools must not be done in isolation, but in collaboration with state and local health officials. It must address state and federal mandates, privacy requirements and be communicated to all stakeholders.

The school day must be addressed with actions that respond to public health guidance. Social Distancing will impact every aspect of school, from classroom spaces, lunchrooms, transportation, and to the delivery of instruction. This will come with additional costs that will require additional financial resources.  

Social and Emotional supports need to be in place not only for students, but also for adult staff. From the stress of school closure, maybe losing a loved one to COVID-19, Social unrest, and challenges from the economic shut down, not to mention the political turmoil, many are hurting.  The global pandemic and ensuing shut down has also brought forward and amplified already existing conditions of domestic violence and abuse. In reviewing early released drafts of reopening plans, Mental Health is receiving little if any thought or consideration.  The priority seems to be focused on just getting schools open, not on healing, coping, or Mental Health.

There have been many comments from politicians saying schools must open in the fall to get the economy reopened and that kids are believed to be immune from COVID-19. The kids maybe, but many educators and support staff are vulnerable.  A suggestion was shared with me that staff in the vulnerable age group (60+) not be allowed to return to work or teach remotely this fall.  To say I was taken aback by this would be an understatement. Union Contracts, Age Discrimination lawsuits, and the suggestion that these at-risk groups of educators be the ones that teach/provide remote learning (with many of them not having the skill sets to do so and having to learn them in 60 days) is just is bad thinking.

Addressing the first responsibility of public education, academics, is a big political question. Disrupting the school year has created academic challenges. Teachers receiving students returning in the fall are faced with not only addressing COVID-19 induced trauma, but also academically assessing students and where to begin instruction.  This will force differentiated, individual instruction and totally disrupt pre COVID-19 procedures and practices. The school day, curriculum, and assessment will all need to be rethought.  It goes without saying that, with no COVID-19 vaccine, school must become adaptive and design a new continuum of learning that will address possible future closures.

The way forward.

“This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents, and administrators is already in: It was a failure.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-coronavirus-remote-learning-lockdown-tech-11591375078

The Wall Street Journal authors Hobbs and Hawkins got this wrong, it was not that remote learning failed, remote school did not work. Public schools, K-12, colleges and universities, were not prepared to respond to COVID-19 with remote learning. Lack of infrastructure, universal broadband internet access, devices, and staff with the skill sets to teach online at scale, were for the most part non-existent. Districts scrambled first to feed kids, then figure out strategies for instruction. The instructional pieces have yet to be resolved.

The fact of the matter is embedding technology into instruction and remote learning is here to stay and there is a crucial need to train teachers how to do this. 

Steps forward

With only 60 days until school supposedly starts, there is much to do, and actions need to be prioritized.  YES, the mechanics of how to get the kids on campus and transported safely is an important first step. Once on campus, trauma and stress need to be addressed then academic proficiency discerned. Running in the background of all this is providing training for teachers in this new modality of digital tools and strategies.  The kicker is teachers cannot be waiting until the preservice days for professional learning. Waiting will only exacerbate the problem, especially if schools are shut down again at some point.  Dedicated teachers are sharpening their skill sets NOW and not waiting.

Food for thought...

• Someone asked me “why do we have to begin school in the September? Who set the magic start date?” My answer was that in general it is set in code by State Legislatures.  His response was “how can they restart school when they only had 60 days to get ready for it and they can’t guarantee my kid will be safe?”

• I talked with a Middle School student and asked him how he liked learning online at home. He said “Mr. John I like it! Online I do my lessons, Zoom and email with my teacher.” He told me that he had more personal interactions and feedback with his online teacher than he ever did face to face. He shared that he could go a week at a time, face to face, and the only personal interaction he had with his teacher was a “hello” when he entered the classroom and a “good by” when he left.

• I was talking to a father whose son graduated this spring, Class of 2020. He shared with me that his son had not done any schoolwork since the school closed, and yet he still graduated. The father’s question to me was “I know my son did not do the schoolwork since school closed, so did he just get a diploma cause the clock ran out?”

• Because of COVID-19, it is estimated that between 20-25% of the students nationally may not return to school in the fall, and be home schooled because of safety concerns. Schools Districts are funded on head count enrollment. If true, this would greatly impact already tight school budgets.

• People do not realize that digital devices (e.g., Chromebooks, MacBooks, and other personal computers) for the most part are made oversees, in South East Asia, with many parts coming from China. Because of the global shut down and current trade war with China, the supply chain needed to build more computers, then transport by container ship to the United States has been disrupted. Your laptop is NOT made in America!

• We cannot lose sight what schools should be doing to prepare kids for their future. The fall’s incoming kindergarten class will graduate in 2036. The Future of Jobs Report 2018 says they will enter a world driven by ubiquitous high-speed mobile internet, Artificial intelligence, Big data analytics and Cloud technology. A Strategist's Guide to Industry 4.0 identifies jobs in fields of advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, sophisticated sensors, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, data capture and analytics, digital fabrication (including 3D printing) and software-as-a-service for 2036 graduates. It is crucial as we look to restart school these realities are part of our design thinking.

There is much work to be done and nobody has a complete picture of what that work is. It is important that there be enough time to be thoughtful, and strategically prepared. Yes, we will be flying and building the plane at the same time. The trick will be not to crash it.

We are indeed adding Growth Rings.