Scattered thoughts about school reopenings in Arizona

Some changes could help families cope more easily

Gov. Doug Ducey has delayed the physical opening of schools until Aug. 17, although they can commence distance learning earlier than that.

President Donald Trump is agitating for schools across the nation to open this fall and threatening to tie federal funding to doing so.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 outbreak is far from stabilized, in Arizona and in many other parts of the country.

In light of all this, some scattered thoughts about reopening schools in Arizona.

❚ First, push the start of school, for inclassroom and distancing learning both, to after Labor Day.

The COVID-19 situation in Arizona is too unstable, the future course too uncertain, for anyone – policymakers, school administrators, teachers, parents and their students – to make informed decisions regarding what to do about reopening schools over the course of the next few weeks. Opening schools in early August, in any manner, is highly likely to be a disaster.

It is possible that things won’t be extremely clearer after Labor Day. But an extra month to monitor things and prepare could make a world of difference.

Starting school in August in Arizona doesn’t make any sense anyway. July is the only competition August would have for being the worst month of the year to have schools open in most of Arizona.

The usual school year in Arizona used to start after Labor Day and run into

June. If there’s to be a long summer school vacation, about which a dissent below, that’s the schedule that best fits the state. The current schedule basically trades June for August for being in school, a bum exchange. What makes compelling sense this year to cope with COVID should actually be permanent.

❚ Second, in making decisions about when and how to open schools, don’t assume that social distancing among students will be possible. It won’t for students of any age, from kindergartners to high school seniors.

Even if schools can be reconfigured to accommodate social distancing, through physical spacing and scheduling changes, students aren’t going to conform. They are going to interact intimately. And good luck enforcing a mask requirement.

Decisions about reopening schools shouldn’t be based on the assumption that kids are not going to be kids.

❚ Third, until COVID-19 has been sharply contained, people shouldn’t be forced into activities that make them uncomfortable. That includes administrators, teachers, other school staff, parents and students.

Ducey and school superintendent Kathy Hoffman seem sensitive to this. Ducey is using federal funds to ensure that schools don’t lose money from distance learning or an attendance drop. Hoffman has developed school reopening guidelines that stress flexibility.

The key to making flexibility work will be added vigor and accountability in distance learning, which were sorely missing at the end of last school year. Ducey and Hoffman seem alert to this as well, and point toward added vigor in executive orders and the reopening guidelines. But school administrators will have the heavy lift in making it a reality.

❚ Finally, while things are paused, how about a fundamental reengineering of the school day and year? The current ones don’t fit today’s family life and poorly serve students, particularly those on the short end of the achievement gap.

In most cases, the parents of students are working. So, why not make the school day coextensive with the work day? Make the school day 8 to 5.

Classroom instruction time would remain as is. But make the rest of the school day a study hall, where students do their out-of-classroom work with tutors available to help. No actual homework. Evenings with family would be free.

That would be better for family life. All students would learn more. And family circumstances would be somewhat less of a factor in student achievement.

The prevailing school year, with the long summer vacation, also doesn’t fit modern family life. Few families have a field to harvest. Few have a parent not working who can be the summer recreational director.

We know that fade out during school interruptions is a big learning problem, again particularly among those on the short side of the achievement gap. Year-round school is long overdue.