Nobody ever expected what happened to America’s schools in March of 2020.
Many let out for spring break, and by the time they were due to come back, the onset of the American coronavirus pandemic had shut down the whole country. School teachers and administrators had but a short few weeks to figure out how to do school completely remote. In that way, some doing better than others, school communities hobbled through the end of the year, heartbreakingly without any of the milestones they had planned for the spring–sports competitions, trips, proms, graduations.
As summer “vacations” were beginning, the country then exploded into a moral crisis around race relations and America’s history, driving the populace into deeper and deeper division.
By the time the fall semester arrived, the United States had made no progress in stemming the spread of the coronavirus, and in fact, were still seeing rising numbers. The White House hadn’t produced a cohesive strategy or even guidance on how to proceed with re-opening schools either. So now, those school communities, minus a significant number of students, are hobbling through a full semester, expecting to keep at it for the rest of the year at least.
In this Chalkbeat article, Emily Freitag, co-founder and CEO of Instruction Partners, discusses the potential perils and potential opportunities 2020 has handed our schools, and an educator’s vision for navigating them.
-Maude
November 7, 2020