"Disruption" and "uncertainty" have been the themes of education during the COVID-19 pandemic, said state superintendent Paolo DeMaria.
But the ways educators and administrators rose to the challenge, from getting meals to students to adapting to remote learning, demonstrated their commitment and creativity, he said.
And DeMaria thinks the lessons educators learned about remote or technology-enabled learning have a lot of potential going forward.
The Akron Public Schools had an advantage when the pandemic started, in that the district already had a one-to-one technology program that matched each student with a Chromebook. Because the infrastructure already was in place, the district has seen strong engagement and attendance numbers even remotely, said chief academic officer Ellen McWilliams-Woods.
COVID-19 was a "hardship," McWilliams-Woods said, but the pandemic also served as an "innovative, positive disruption" for education. This past year was about flexibility from some of the usual institutional barriers, about re-envisioning education.
And that means McWilliams-Woods sees a lot of possibilities from this year going forward. Remote learning could be used to connect students at different buildings, essentially creating a large enough class to fill a particular course. Or high school students participating in internships and job shadowing experiences might be able to use technology to check in with teachers or mentors back at the school building. Scheduling could become less of a restriction.
Remote learning could be a way to help address students' different needs, academically and otherwise. DeMaria gave the example of a high school student who is responsible for getting their younger sibling to school. That responsibility consistently makes them late to their own building.
"Let's accommodate that," he said.
Instead of framing it as a problem, schools could offer a remote class that the student could take at a time that worked better for them.
DeMaria said the pandemic helped teachers get to know their students better as they worked to personalize the learning experience. He thinks the governor's request for extended learning plans, or plans districts can create to help students fill gaps created during the pandemic, will depend on knowing where students are. Those plans can include measures such as a later end to the school year, longer school days or summer programming.
Post-pandemic, students need more time for "rich learning experiences," said Eric Gordon, superintendent and CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The pandemic has shown that education needs to be more varied and personalized. The district will soon announce plans for more out-of-school programming designed to give students and their families more options.
The pandemic brought existing problems, like food scarcity and the digital divide, into the light and exacerbated them, Gordon said. These basic needs have to be in place for students to succeed academically.
But in meeting those needs, there have been bright spots, Gordon said. Every student in the district now has a device; teachers learned new digital skills. And some students have "thrived" in remote learning, he said.
"We have to pay attention to those things," Gordon said. "We can't use an all-or-none strategy that we often like to and paint the picture as universally bleak or universally bright, but in fact have to look at differences."
The pandemic brought some unique challenges to light, as well, that districts will be addressing in the years to come.
DeMaria said enrollment rates in preschool and kindergarten dropped, which likely will lead to larger classes in the coming year. On the other end of the educational journey, there are a number of factors that have led more high school students to be "disengaged" this year, he said. Some needed to get a job to help support their families after a parent lost theirs; others found themselves as the primary caretaker for siblings. Ultimately, the reasons that usually lead students to drop out were "amplified" during the pandemic, DeMaria said.
Addressing the issues raised by the pandemic will take flexibility. But Gordon said there's an opportunity to make the system more equitable by meeting students where they are.
At the youngest ages, Gordon said the Cleveland schools plan to offer mixed-age kindergarten so students whose families opted not to enroll them during the pandemic can still get that first school experience. Breaking down the traditional age-grade boundaries could benefit students in other grades, too. For students who struggled to keep pace during the pandemic, it may be time to look at milestones instead of "time-bound grades," Gordon said.
And increased flexibility could help the district better serve students who dropped out this year. A credit-based system like those offered by colleges could remove some of the stigma that having to repeat a grade often carries.
"These are places where the adults have to behave differently if we're really going to serve the young people counting on us well," Gordon said.
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March 21, 2021 at 03:00PM
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More flexibility and personalization could be lasting impacts from year of learning during COVID-19 - Crain's Cleveland Business
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