Notes from our database: The latest on 2021-22’s rocky return to school
The scramble to reopen schools, keep students safe, and keep them learning hasn’t abated.
Families delivered innovative solutions to pandemic-fueled education disruptions. Policymakers should support them to do so again
After an optimistic summer, Delta’s rise and an escalating public health situation has crushed many people’s hope for a quiet, even “normal” school year. Families worried about the risks presented by COVID-19 are increasingly stuck between a rock and a hard place: accept the risks that come with in-person instruction—often with inadequate mitigation measures—or face […]
More masks, more vaccines, more online learning, but what about quarantines? The latest on school district fall reopening
More school districts are requiring masks and vaccines, and remote learning plans are more detailed as the threat of the Delta variant looms.
Division or détente?
Divisions about mask and vaccine mandates, in-person vs. remote learning, student discipline, and racism and anti-racism in the curriculum will make it difficult for schools to serve anyone well this year. In some localities, district and school leaders face a multi-dimensional catch-22, as any move they make is sure to outrage some group of parents, […]
District update: Stronger health precautions, far more virtual options
School districts have stepped up health precautions and expanded virtual learning options as they prepare for students’ return to school.
State leaders must choose accountability over complacency in reopening plans
Schools around the country are once again scrambling to keep students learning in person against a rising tide of COVID-19 cases. Whether they succeed will hinge on how local officials are able to mount effective mitigation strategies that keep students and staff safe amid an escalating public health crisis. States have a critical role to […]
From crisis response to sustainable solution: What’s next for school district- and community-driven learning pods?
Over the past school year, CRPE has tracked how pandemic learning pods evolved from emergency responses to, in some cases, small, innovative, and personalized learning communities. This summer, as COVID-19 vaccinations increased, it seemed like the major impetus for these efforts was fading from view. We turned to our existing database of 372 school district- […]
A pandemic innovation: The power of national mentors to build teacher capacity everywhere
In TNTP’s 2018 report The Opportunity Myth, the consequences of low expectations endemic in America’s classrooms are laid bare. Students’ lives, the authors wrote, “were slipping further away each day, unbeknownst to them and their families—not because they couldn’t learn what they needed to reach them, but because they were rarely given a real chance […]
Systems upgrade: Central offices join the tech revolution
The COVID-19 pandemic forced decades of technological innovation on schools in the span of one year. As classes moved fully online and into hybrid modalities, teachers across the country adapted in a variety of ways: learning to instruct and facilitate collaboration over Zoom; hosting virtual parent-teacher conferences that enabled families to participate from any location; […]
Curricula on the cutting-room floor: What are we learning about high school priorities, scope, and goals?
This year has been an endless stream of hard choices for teachers. Perhaps the most consequential of these is what curriculum they will cover amid the year’s many distractions, shifting schedules, and the challenges of remote and hybrid learning. Teachers face pacing decisions every year, but this year they described facing a daunting tradeoff: press […]