The Akribos Group has reposted my article,

Coronavirus, Children, Parents and Schools: What Parents Can Do?

https://www.akribosgroup.com/sys/content/blogpost/0a603bcdeb1b47ea9e48309f0449b277

When Reopening Schools, There Are A Huge Number Of Unanswered Questions.

We seem to be in a rush to open schools without making adequate plans regarding the safety of students, staff and educators. There are complex challenges of prioritization in determining how to open schools comparing competing needs while also preserving life.  The White House wants schools to reopen in order to get parents back to work and open the economy. Parents and educators want it to be done safely. In an Axios poll, 71 percent of parents call it risky. The Federal Government has not provided a national strategy; just mandates, threats and demands. As cities, states and school districts grapple with reopening schools “safely,  there aren’t many “good” choices. The choices include ““ all online, hybrid -on-line and in-person or all in-person. All of them present problems which remain unanswered. The reality is that remote learning is not an ideal substitute for in-person learning. It’s one advantage is that it is safer for both children, staff and educators

There are a large number of unanswered questions. Let’s address some of them:

When schools reopen, what precautions will be implemented?

Questions to Be Asked and Answered by Parents and School Staff

 Getting To & From School

• Will schools/districts have sufficient number of buses and bus drivers?
• Will schools/districts have a sufficient number of replacement drivers in case one or more drivers develops the virus?
  • Will bus drivers be wearing masks and shields?
  • Will there be sufficient number of buses available?
• Will students social distance while waiting for buses?
• Will there be bus monitors before students board the bus to:
  • take students’ temperatures before they board the bus?
  • insure that students social distance on the bus?
  • insure that each student is wearing a mask, and provide students with  masks in case they forget to bring one?
  • insure that students social distance on the bus?

 

When schools/districts use hybrid or face to face education

Entering and Leaving The School

• Will students, teachers and staff have their temperature taken before they enter the building?
• Will everyone entering the building be wearing a  mask?
• Will students social distance before entering the building?
• In middle and high schools, will students social distance when changing classrooms?
• Will students social distance when leaving the building and while waiting for buses?

 

In the School

• Will teachers be given additional training in developing lessons for distance learning?
• Textbooks are now on paper, how will they be digitized?
• Will portable electronics be provide to every student? What will happen if one breaks?
• What provisions have been made for students who do not have internet or a stable internet service?
• How do we keep children from taking off their face coverings?
• How are young children expected to keep social distances of 6 feet in classroom?
• How are children to be taught not to share toys, crayons or tools?
• What happens if a child contracts the virus, will everyone in the class be quarantined for 14 days?
• If a teacher catches the virus, will schools be closed?
• Where will students have lunch?
• Will every school have a nurse? According to the National Association of School Nurses, in 2018, more than 60 percent of schools didn’t have a full or part-time school nurse, less than 50 percent have a full-time nurse, more than 30 percent only had a part-time nurse, and 25 percent don’t have any nurse. What happens to a student who takes ill?
• How will schools/districts find a sufficient number of teachers if class sizes are shrunk in order to accommodate social distancing?
• If a teacher catches the virus, will school be closed?
• How will schools/districts pay for the extra buses, custodians, cleaning supplies?
• What provisions are being made for students with special needs?
• Will school filtration systems be upgraded?

Our schools continue to operate on a calendar which is agriculturally based, closing during summer months so that students can plant and harvest. Schools are closed during a Fall break (Thanksgiving to Christmas or through New Year’s). and again in the Spring (Easter). Research and data that show that there is a learning loss during those periods.

Most school districts are working what used to be called “banker’s hours” – 9AM to 3PM. Banks are now open 24/7/365. Students use social media and the Internet 24/7/365. Schools need to revise their calendars to take advantage of the new realities of lifelong learning. School calendar adjustments can be made available for children to learn on a year long basis.

 

We Need to Treat K-12 Public Schools As An Essential Service

For the past 6 months, policymakers and the U.S. public have weighed economic against public health considerations in debating what limits to set on individuals and collective behaviors in attempting to control the Covid-19 pandemic. The New England Journal of Medicine, July 29, 2020

America has rarely treated its public schools as an essential service (like police, firemen, sanitation, hospitals and grocery stores).  Governments have traditionally underfunded schools particularly those in inner cities and rural areas, those dealing with minority and native American populations and in poor communities. According to the ASCE(American Society of Civil Engineers) Infrastructure Report Card gives schools a grade of D+. Every school day, nearly 27 million K-6 students and six million adults occupy close to 100,000 public school buildings. The nation continues to underinvest in school facilities, leaving an estimated $38 billion annual gap between what they are given and what they need. As a result, 24% of public-school buildings were rated as being in fair or poor condition.

According to the National Center For Educational Statistics (NCES) “In 1998, the average age of America’s Public Schools was 42 years old.” Thirty-one percent had “temporary” buildings. Overall conditions were excellent in 6 percent, good in 49 percent, fair in 36 percent and poor in 9 percent. Some “temporary” buildings lack heat, air-conditioning and even toilets. According to Education Week, “42 percent of America’s Public Schools lacked adequate air conditioning.” How can children learn, and teachers teach in 2020 in non-air-conditioned or properly heated buildings or buildings with adequate air filtration systems? There are 5 public schools in West Virginia and 4 in Cumberland, Maryland that are heated with coal. According to the National Air Filtration Association,  “53 million school children and 6 million teachers, administrators and others walk into 120,000 school buildings every day ““ at least 50% of these schools have been diagnosed with indoor air quality problems. The American Lung Association’s statistics show that asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates approximately 14 Million school days per year lost because of asthma exacerbated by poor indoor air quality in schools.

 

Part of the responsibility of the President and Secretary of Education is to create national educational policy and provide the resources necessary to achieve them. They have failed in both of these functions. They have failed to consult with local authorities, mayors, school boards and unions. They have failed to consult those responsible for implementing those policies – teachers and school administrators.  A recent poll of school leaders found that just 35 percent of elementary school principals say they know “a lot” on their district’s reopening pre-planning process. Nine percent said they knew nothing about their district plans according to the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAASP). The White House and The U.S. Secretary  of Education have not provided a clear national educational policy only threatening to withhold funding if their directives were not followed. By their inaction, they have left a patchwork of fifty states with fifty reopening plans interpreted by thousands of superintendents and principals with varying degrees of parental and political  pressure to fully open schools so that parents can return to work and get the economy moving. Their guidance emphasizes the “critical” importance of opening schools in person. They have not provided clear guidance or safety assurances. On July 8, Trump tweeted that he might withhold funding from schools that didn’t reopen insisting that schools needed to reopen in person. They have left unanswered questions if teachers or students caught the  virus and schools had to reclose.

Principals have the responsibility for keeping teachers, students and staff safe. They also have the responsibility of ensuring that teachers have the knowledge to deliver high-quality instruction. Students and teachers must also be provided with computers and internet access both in schools an at home and that the access Schools can only be closed if there was “widespread virus transmission.” A lack of personnel in the schools, unaddressed safety concerns, faulty and inadequate instructions models, antiquated air circulation.  The “wrong” decision will result in school staff member and children dying. Trump quotes the American Academy of Pediatrics on the physical, social and emotional risk to children of school closures and also talked about learning loss and food security issues. The association said schools should reopen only when safe.  This has produced a patchwork quilt of a variety of statewide policies. On one side of  the scale, continuing an economic recovery, on the other side the safety of students and staffs.

I am trying to reconcile why America has the money to bail out airlines, car manufacturers and big businesses but lacks the capacity to air condition schools or stop heating buildings with coal making it difficult for children to learn. Some states have spent monies they do not have and are considering cutting the number of teachers.

How can the government afford to bail out Kanye West’s Yeezy sneaker company for $2 million dollars or a loan to the Girls Scouts between $2 and $5 million but not have enough money to bail out our public schools? An Indianapolis company partly owned by Education Secretary got a government loan of at least $6 million.

States have burned through money in order to prevent the spread of the virus. New York City has a $9 billion deficit this fiscal year and projects serious deficits over the next few years resulting in teacher layoffs, unemployment, a loss of services, a dramatic increase in homelessness. While the contagion rate (the number of positive tests) remains low in New York City, it is surging in states across the country.

Schools provide things other than education. They feed 30 million children daily. They provide socialization skills.  Vaccination rates for various dangerous diseases, typically required before students can attend school, have plummeted. Isolating children from their peers exacts social and emotional costs, which differ by age group and are nearly impossible to quantify. By reopening, schools will allow parents to go back to work will increase tax revenues and lower the impact of municipal and state deficits .I know that schools need to reopen. But they need to do so ““ SAFELY ““ insuring the health and safety of students, staff and educators and communities.

 

 

Opening schools during a pandemic is complicated. Here is a clinical perspective guide.

I am indebted to my friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen R. Sroka for making me aware of this excellent pamphlet by posting it on his website, ww.Dr.StephenSroka.com

Stephen is  an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine. He is also a Covid-19 expert.

https://www.uhhospitals.org/-/media/Files/Coronavirus/UH-Rainbow-Healthy-Restart-School-Playbook.pdf?la=en&hash=42B9125CF14E840260E475A5DAEF76EC83E17A0A

I am indebted to my friend and colleague, Charles Sosnik for granting me permission to republish this article which was first published by Learning Counsel.

Remember: The Only Thing We Have to Fear is”¦ 

By Charles Sosnik

 “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

     –George Santayana

 

This is one of my favorite quotes, but with so many variables happening today, I am finding it difficult to place things into context. As a student of History, I find a certain amount of comfort in being able to recognize or even predict reactions to events. Somehow, if we have been through something before, the familiarity, no matter what the event, helps the event make sense.

My generation went through the Cold War and contemplated, no matter how remotely, the possibility of nuclear annihilation. As a child in the early 60s, we had fallout shelters in my town (and every town) and we still practiced Duck and Cover in school. Things heated up again in the 80s with the arrival of a tough-minded president who stood up to the rhetoric of the Soviet Union. And once again, we were able to imagine loss of life on a massive scale.

There are points in History that can be compared to our current coronavirus pandemic. Some were relatively recent, like the 1918 (H1N1) viral pandemic known as the Spanish Flu. It is estimated that 500 million people were infected by the illness. At least 50 million people succumbed worldwide, with nearly 675,000 people dying right here at home.  But that was a hundred years ago, and we tend to think of that as ancient history.

In the mid-1300s, the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, devastated parts of Asia and Europe. Three different strains of the disease wiped out nearly half the population of the European continent, being spread primarily by fleas that traveled on ships and through towns, courtesy of a very large rat population. In fact, if it weren’t for the heroism of a domesticated species of small carnivorous mammal, Felis Catus, nearly the entire population of Europe could have been lost.

 

In recent times, the HIV virus has wiped out millions, but we know the way it is transmitted and most of us in the United States can limit our exposure, so the danger to us is practically non-existent. Intellectually, we can compare COVID-19 to these other historic events, but this still doesn’t prepare us emotionally for the realities of living through our historic event. At this point, most of us know someone, possibly a loved one, that has been infected. We can also not escape the wholesale changes to our lives.

For those of us working in education, the coronavirus pandemic is an unwanted gift that seems to never stop giving. The emotional turmoil we are feeling is hitting us on all fronts. First, we have the fear of contracting the virus. For those of us over 50 and/or with underlying health conditions, even going to the grocery store feels like a near brush with death. The thought of going back to work alongside hundreds of students from every corner of our communities feels like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun. And if we are over 50, chances are we have a spouse that is over 50 as well. We love our careers, but it is beginning to feel like maybe we didn’t sign up for this.

Our Greatest Fear

But the fear of personal injury is secondary to our greatest fear. Our students are precious. So precious that we cannot imagine putting even one in harm’s way. We fully understand the arguments for opening schools. Much of learning builds upon itself and is affected either positively or negatively by momentum (or lack thereof). Months or possibly years being ripped from their learning environments can have a devastating effect on the well-being of our children. For our younger children, the casualty caused by the interruption of their schooling can obliterate their social development and their executive functioning skills. From a practical and economic standpoint, tens of millions of families will have their employment situations shattered.

Little Johnny or Janie simply cannot stay home by themselves, and at least one of their parents or adult family members will be forced to stay home with them. For lower-income families who depend on place-based employment and cannot work remotely, staying home will cause them to lose their employment. At best, that means the federal government will have to borrow and service $ Trillions in unemployment compensation, food subsidies and healthcare for an indeterminate amount of time. At worst, children and families will go hungry, lose their homes and become part of a permanent underclass of our citizenry.

So, what’s the answer to this dark and stormy COVID-19 cloud hanging over our lives and the lives of our children? How do we place this situation into context? How can we find the comfort of historical repetition, and is there a silver lining to this cloud of discontent?

The Silver Lining

For a long time, those of us in the education world have been faced with the knowledge that our current method of instruction has been woefully inadequate for the times. Prior to the pandemic, I and many of my contemporaries have had numerous discussions about the need to recreate our education system. We have argued for the need to modernize the industry of education. We lamented the fact that we have been operating under a system of education that was created to mirror the industrial revolution, with its assembly line model and goal of standardizing the “product.” We bemoaned the fact that creativity was no longer expected in education, and was in fact, discouraged. We agreed that the time for change was now, yet there were so many obstacles: Local and state governments. Unions. Parents. Teachers. Us. And them.

Historically, education has been the last industry to accept the market pressures that would lead to change. I knew it. My friends knew it. Their friends knew it. And so did those in local and state governments, the teachers’ unions, the parents. Even the students knew it. It was easy to talk about the needed changes. Making the changes was much harder. Like it or not, our discontent had become our comfort level. We lacked the courage to make the changes that we all knew had to be done. What we needed was something that would scare the hell out of us. And that is the silver lining to the dark and stormy COVID-19 cloud hanging over our lives and the lives of our children.

There is no such thing as a comfort level anymore. Inaction is no longer an option. Because of the historic, life-altering coronavirus pandemic, it is no longer a question of if we can make changes to our education system. Big thinkers are becoming big doers. We no longer have the option of lamenting the Horace Mann influence on our current education system. We no longer have the luxury of bemoaning the loss of creativity. My friends and I, the self-described big thinkers in education, now need to get up off our brains and save our children.

We have the tools that we need. The talent in the EdTech space is amazing and growing more amazing by the minute. And the people working in education, teachers and principals and technologists and curriculum directors and superintendents, are highly creative, highly intelligent, and willing to sacrifice everything for their learners.

These are frightening times. Historically frightening. But fortunately, I remember my history. I remember the times in our nation when we rose to the occasion. I remember when our very existence was called into question. And because of that, I know we’ll get through the pandemic, just like we have in every other challenging situation. Because I remember my history, I understand. I am comforted by the certainty that as a nation, we will not only survive the COVID-19 crisis, we will thrive. Our education system will become modernized, and the assembly line mentality will be forever replaced by one of creativity, student-driven learning and a thirst for what’s next.

And I am not afraid.

 

About the author

Charles Sosnik is an education journalist and editor and serves as Editor in Chief at the Learning Counsel. An EP3 Education Fellow, he uses his deep roots in the education community to add context to the education narrative. Charles is a frequent writer and columnist for some of the most influential media in education, including the Learning Counsel, EdNews Daily, EdTech Digest and edCircuit. Unabashedly Southern, Charles likes to say he is an editor by trade and Southern by the Grace of God.

 

Learning Counsel is a research institute and news media hub with 215,000 readers that provides context for schools in digital transition from a deep understanding of tech user experience, systems, and organization. Our mission-based organization was the first to develop a thesis of education’s future based on technology’s evolution — and start helping schools advance systematically. Our EduJedi Leadership Society is a membership organization created for community amongst educators with change management professional development. Our Learning Groups on important tech topics and digital curriculum standards convene inside our social media site, Knowstory.

© 2020 the Learning Counsel.

Used with permission

 

 

In earlier days, coal miners would carry caged canaries down into the mine with them to see if dangerous gases like carbon monoxide had collected in the mine. The gas would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning that the mine was not safe to enter.  Source: Smithsonian Magazine.

Everyone wants schools to reopen safely.  Parents want to return to work. Children miss their friends, want to resume face to face learning, and are looking forward to going outside to play and exercise. Classroom educators miss their students and know that face-to-face education is far more efficient and far more effective than distance learning. Businesses want their employees to return to work to get the economy moving again. Everyone wants to get back to life as it was. Nobody disagrees with the goal. But nobody wants children or educators to die because schools reopen. President Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have politicized the return to school by threating schools and states with a loss of federal funds if schools do not reopen. I understand why. In order to get the country and the economy moving, we need parents back in the workforce. But there are too many unanswered questions.

• Will all student and adult entry to the school require a temperature check?
• Will all adults and students in the building require a daily/weekly COVID test?
• What are the protocols if students or adults in the school test positive?
• Will alternative child daycare be available? Will it be available for teachers who are also parents?
• Schools have lacked adequate funding for school supplies. Since schools are unable to supply necessary learning tools like pens, paper and pencils, will teachers have to supply adequate health supplies like PPE, cleaning supplies and Clorox wipes?
• How can we expect children to sit at their desks for 7 hours a day?
• Will teachers have to use their own sick leave if they need to quarantine due to exposure?
• Where will we find substitute teachers to replace someone who is ill or in quarantine?
• How do parents with multiple children at different grade levels provide for children in a hybrid environment?
• If class size is 20 to 30 children in a class and the school/state require social distancing, how will get the rooms and teachers for the excess numbers of children?
• Who will watch the children of teachers if their children are not on the same schedule?
• How do we deal with young children wearing face mask for an entire school day?
• What happens to the children of educators when their parents have to quarantine?
• Who is responsible for online learning when teachers are working face-to-face all day?
• How will schools/districts provide specialized instruction for children with Individual Learning Plans?

Some material drawn from Ed in the Apple by Peter Goodman. Used with permission.

Now is not the time to suddenly realize that schools are an essential service to the economy after they have been inadequately financed.

I want children back in school, but I want it to be done safely. According to CNN, 1.5 million teachers or 1 in 4 teachers are vulnerable . One student death from COVID-19 is one too many. One adult death from COVID-19 upon reopening schools is one too many. The plans to reopen schools have not been sufficiently thought through and contingency plans haven’t been developed. The President and Secretary of Education are out of step with the realities of public schools and education.

 

It’s no secret that teachers love children and love their job They put up with low salaries, lack of respect, school violence, decaying buildings, lack of air conditioning, overcrowding and budget cuts.

Now, as a result of the coronavirus there are an increasing percentage of parents who appreciate that teaching children is more difficult than it looks. Movies like “Kindergarten Teacher,” and “Bad Teacher” make it appear that anyone with limited or no training can go into classrooms and become a star. Teachers make the job look easy.

It appears that politicians and bureaucrats have a lack of understanding or appreciation of what teachers do, but teachers are not doing it for them. Rather they are doing it for the children, their parents and their communities.

Teachers are providing instruction in uncharted waters. They have been delivering lessons online and food to students’ homes along with computer equipment. They have been engaging their students and are a lifeline to the world outside of the home. They worry about the mental health of their students. Teachers represent the front line of support outside the family. They continually reach out to students who are not “attending” or interacting. They are trying to figure out how to develop lessons for students with disabilities and ensuring they have the supports they need. Teachers have devised Zoom lessons “get togethers” so that students can see and talk to one another, seeing each other’s pets, younger siblings, parents and grandparents. Educators are doing this all the while going through personal hardship with their own families, some of whom may have the coronavirus.

They are essential workers.

They are Supermen and Wonder Women.

 

This posting has been written by my friend and colleague, Dr. Lee Jenkins. Lee is a former school superintendent from California who is an expert one school improvement. I am honored to post this.

In his book, Who Will Teach the Children, Franklin Schargel eloquently discussed the current shortage of teachers. As fast as universities credential new teachers, current teachers leave for different occupations. Few educators encourage their children and grandchildren to become teachers. They do not wish the stress and dishonor associated with this career choice upon their loved ones. W. Edwards Deming shared 4 Levels of Management to explain one reason teachers are unhappy in their career field. Poor management of students and teachers may be one reason teachers flee the education field.

Level 1:  Teachers do the work themselves because there is not enough time to adequately explain methods to students.

Level 2: Students are expected to blindly follow teacher’s directions.

Level 3: Management by Objectives. Employees tell their boss what they intend to accomplish for the year’s activities. At the end of the year, the employee meets with the boss to prove they accomplished what they said they would do.

Level 4: Administrators, teachers and students work together toward a common goal.

Most classrooms operate at Level 2, slipping too often into Level 1 ““ due to limited time to teach the students how to complete the work, the teacher assumes all responsibility for teaching and data completion.

Most administrators once operated at Level 3. However, as a result of No Child Left Behind and overwhelming teacher evaluations mandated by Race to the Top initiatives, administrators typically operate at the second level. Teachers are just as unhappy as students.

The solution is Level 4 ““ Teamwork. The essence of How to Create a Perfect School consists of establishing teams of students and teachers, plus teams of teachers and administrators. It is called collective efficacy. It is the highest researched influence upon learning out of the 250 influences studied by John Hattie with his Visible Learning research. Collective Efficacy is NOT a pep rally; it is evidence of improvement and knowledge of how the improvement was accomplished, plus faith that together administrators, teachers and students will continue to improve. Success becomes important to all parties involved.

Level 4 Management of classrooms, schools and school systems can create such a buzz that teacher shortage will be in the rear-view mirror.

Lee Jenkins, [email protected], www.LBellJ.com/speaking, is author of How to Create a Perfect School, Optimize Your School, Permission to Forget and From Systems Thinking to Systemic Action. He resides in Scottsdale, Arizona with his wife Sandy.