When schools throughout the country went remote in spring of 2020, most parents and students probably didn’t expect we would still be dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic this fall.
Yet, instead of returning to “normal” after a few weeks out of classrooms, students and educators have seen how the pandemic has reshaped education altogether. Though some of the changes – such as contact tracing, quarantines and fights over mask mandates – should fade away eventually, others are likely permanent.
“Normal shouldn't be what we used to have, because what we used to have was inadequate,” explained Paul Reville, a professor at Harvard University who directs the Education Redesign Lab, according to USA Today. Schools have seen “some terrific adaptations during the pandemic that previously we'd been unwilling to embrace,” he added.
Other experts agree that pandemic-related changes, including remote learning, different classroom setups and flexible schedules, have brought education into a more personalized, modern and responsive era, said USA Today. This new path could mean more success for more students.
For example, many schools are now doing away with snow days and other instruction interruptions in favor of remote learning when kids can’t make it into classrooms. After more than a century of placing students in rows of desks pointed at a lecturing teacher, the use of personal electronic devices and the need for social distancing has broken up the old model.
In some districts, including Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools, full remote learning continues to be an option for students.
“If anything, that we’ve learned over the past year and a half, it's that flexibility needs to be part of our toolbox,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the outlet in June.
However, students who were learning remotely last year on average lost more ground in math and reading compared with kids who spent more time learning in person. A recent USA Today/Ipsos poll found that 55 percent of parents said that online learning had caused their child to fall behind in class.
Chris Dede, a Harvard professor who studies how learning happens alongside technology, explained that online school works better for some students and some subjects than others. Experts also say that in-person social emotional learning is beneficial for students and more than half of parents in a recent poll said their child fell behind during remote learning.
As of this fall, around 28 percent of parents said their child's biggest struggle during the pandemic was mental health and 37 percent said it was making and maintaining friendships was their child's biggest, according to the USA TODAY/Ipsos poll.
“Ideally, all teachers will continue to teach in a blended manner, and going online won't be dictated only by necessity,” Dede said.
So far, Michigan has allowed schools to adopt a year-round program this year; public schools in Des Moines, Iowa, added learning time over lunch to make up for lost hours of in-person instruction and school districts in Wisconsin requested state approval to start early this school year.
Massachusetts’ Phoenix Charter Academy Network, a system that helps disadvantaged youth complete their high school studies, is allowing students to take on flexible schedules with a mix of in-person and online class. During the pandemic, many of the students were not able to engage with distance learning because they had to take on full-time jobs or care for their own children.
“The pandemic allowed us an opening to do things differently,” said Phoenix CEO Beth Anderson. “We often went from 9 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., and we realized we needed to do something different with the schedule. We had to figure out how to build schools around kids.”
Going forward, home and school will be more connected than ever before, and virtual learning has helped bring parents into the fold, said USA Today. Many parents and guardians also looked to find programs that fit their kids better during the pandemic.
According to USA Today, around 90 percent of families sent their children to public school before the pandemic. Now, 13 percent of families opted for private schools, 6 percent sent their children to charter schools and another 4 percent said their child was in a non-traditional program.
One example of a non-traditional program is Embark Education, a Denver middle school where 30 students learn by operating a real-life bike shop and café. Students there decide when to schedule their hours assisting at the shops and learn through activities such as deciding ingredients in a latte.
“We all like the more personalized learning and attention we get from teachers,” said Olive Randall, 12.
Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research group at the University of Washington, said parents of color who switched to homeschooling since the pandemic started have looked for an experience focused on racial affirmation.
For students of color and low-income students who stayed in traditional classrooms, extracurricular programs and tutoring have also helped bolster learning gaps caused by the pandemic. For example, Reconstruction, a technology company that launched last September, offers “unapologetically Black education” to students at home, through virtual lessons taught by experts vetted by the company.
“Families say they love the content, because their child isn't getting it in school. They love the tutor, and they love being in conversations with kids around the country,” said Reconstruction CEO Kaya Henderson, the former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools.
Apart from breaking down the barriers between home and school, the pandemic-related changes have also thrown a harsh light on standardized tests, which were paused while students learned remotely. In the past, teachers have said the federally-required tests take away from valuable instruction time.
“We've been dangerously out of balance when it comes to our emphasis on test scores over and above physical health and mental health,” Andrew Ho, a Harvard professor and director of the National Council on Measurement in Education, said in an education webinar last month.
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