Community health, vaccination policies & local preference: How 100 districts are reopening after COVID-19 shutdowns
Urban districts across the country have taken a sharp turn toward in-person and hybrid learning in the start of 2021.
Announcing a new initiative to support district- and community-led innovation through learning hubs
We are honored to announce a set of grants to help school districts and their community partners launch learning hubs.
To make up for lost learning time, set priorities
For students not to fall perpetually behind because of school closures and the difficulties of virtual learning, schools and districts must set priorities. Students need to catch up as quickly as possible on the core ideas and skills that are prerequisites to the material that will come next year. Schools may need to add tutors […]
Reopening schools hinges upon trust that must be built from the ground up
Trust, a societal resource that has been steadily bleeding away, is indispensable for schooling. As the classic book by Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider showed, a school can’t be good, and can’t improve, without trust all around. Teachers must trust one another and show respect for parents and loving concern for children. Parents must trust […]
It takes a village: The pandemic learning pod movement, one year in
Since the spring of 2020, learning pods have evolved from a new idea to a significant feature of the pandemic learning landscape. As the pod movement grows in real-time through the current school year and morphs into new models and approaches, the work of learning is moving beyond the four walls of the school building […]
Vanishing in plain sight: Districts face barriers identifying and serving students experiencing homelessness
Students who are unhoused or in housing transition, an already vulnerable population before the pandemic, are falling even further out of sight in the 2020–21 school year. This summer, CRPE conducted a deep dive into the supports districts offered to their students experiencing homelessness. We found that unhoused students were largely unmentioned in districts’ fall […]
In the future, diverse approaches to schooling
This article originally ran in the November 2010 edition of the Phi Delta Kappan. We’re republishing it here because many of the ideas it describes are now being tested in real time on a large scale, as school systems across the country experiment with new structures that allow them to support remote learning. Critics of […]
Don’t force square-peg students back into wrong-shaped holes
While President Biden has promised to have most public schools open within his first 100 days, new data indicate it will be a daunting challenge. Spiking virus rates and intense opposition from teachers unions is causing many school districts to revert to all-remote instruction. The benefits of in-person contact with friends and teachers are real. […]
Five lessons on how community-driven learning hubs could change school districts long-term
In the final months of 2020, we sat in on nearly three dozen conversations with teams of district leaders and community-based nonprofits that are collaborating to run learning hubs. Learning hubs provide in-person learning environments or intensive virtual support to students—often in small groups. They offer school systems promising opportunities to rethink how they work […]
What does ‘attendance’ mean for remote learners in a pandemic? How 106 districts are dealing with absenteeism, student engagement & grades
Our analysis of reopening plans in 106 large, high-profile districts finds that they have taken student engagement and attendance far more seriously this fall than they did after schools first closed last spring. But many school systems have struggled to create consistent rules, especially for remote learners.
