Pressure to reopen classrooms intensifies
Nearly a year after schools closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19, as many as half of Pennsylvania’s children have not returned to their classrooms.
More likely will head back soon, though, as school employees receive COVID19 vaccinations, virus case numbersdecline and health and education officials say it can be done safely.
But with time running out in the 2020 21 academic year, schools that remain in a remote model must quickly if they are to get students a meaningful amount of in-person instruction. And with little more than a quarter of the year left before summer break, should schools even bother?
Experts and advocates said there is value in getting students back into their buildings.
“We definitely think it is worth it to send students back, no matter when the timeline would be,” said Jamie Baxter, education policy director at Allies for Children, an organization focused on the well-being of children in Allegheny County.
“There’s more than enough time to get them back in and assess their needs, and it really can give the districts an opportunity to prepare for whatever remediation or other services need to occur in the summer and then also going into the next school year.”
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Regardless of the benefit, the push to reopen schools is in full bloom as spring approaches.
Education equity advocates have stressed the importance of in-person learning for students — especially the most vulnerable children — sinceearly in the pandemic.
Many politicians want schools to reopen so parents who have had to supervise their children in remote instruction can return to the workforce. And parents worried about the quality of education their children are getting online have called on schools to open their doors.
Those efforts have been bolstered by health officials at various levels of government who have said schools can reopen safely if they follow scientific guidance and the new availability of vaccines for school staffers. Gov. Tom Wolf has said the state will not force teachers to return to their buildings in order to obtain the vaccine, but he expects they will be willing to go back.
For parents who are worried about their children going back, most districts will continue to offer virtual instruction for this school year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report last month that said schools could reopen— regardless of whether teachers were vaccinated — if they, among other things, institute mask wearing, enforce social distancing and have adequate ventilation. Other federal, state and local health officials have made similarsuggestions.
Parentsrallied last week to demand a full reopening of thePine-Richland School District, where only students in kindergarten through third grade are currently getting in-person instruction. The district’s school board has a planto bring back students in higher grades later this month and in April, but some believe that is too slow.
“The science supports [schools reopening],” said Lisa Lane, whose daughter, Abby, is a junior in the district.“Students are ready.”
As the wait to return continues, parents said, their childrensuffer academically.
Jen Neill, whose son is a Pine-Richland senior, said his grade point average has dropped“significantly.”
“He tells me, ‘I can’t learn like this,’ ” she said at the rally Monday in front of the district administrative offices. “I finally we were going to stop waiting and take it into ourown hands.”
Pressure on Pittsburgh
Many parents of Pittsburgh Public Schools students have also asked the district to reopen its buildings, which have been closed since March 2020. The city school district is one of three in Allegheny County that have not reopened.
The school system expects to bring back students using a phasedapproachbeginningin early April. The district briefly tried to hold in-person instruction in November, but the attempt ended in less than a week as COVID-19 case numbers spiked in Allegheny Countyand beyond.
In February, Pittsburgh City Council passed a measure declaring an “educational emergency” as council members expressed concerns over schools staying closed while student achievement dipped and equity issues grew.
While district administration has maintained it has been ready for students to return since early in the year, school board members worried about potential shortages of teachers and bus drivers. A large number of teachers said they did not want to return until they were vaccinated,
and an already existing problem of bus driver shortages got worse during the pandemic. Some left over health concerns, and others foundmore steady work.
Now, the district said it wants all school-based staff to return by March 22 as it moves forward with a phased approach to reopening that also includes maskwearing and social distancing. Students will return April 6 and April 26, based on the district’s phased-in approach to reopening.
In the Woodland Hills School District, most students likely will enter a school building for the first time this school year later this month. Aside from about 100 students with special needs, students in Woodland Hills have been instructed virtually all year. Pending school board approval, the district plans to bring elementary students back two days per week on a hybrid schedule starting March 15, followed by middle and high schoolstudents March 29.
The school district had considered bringing students back in October but reassessed after cases spiked. As they watched the 14-day case averages drop, they decided to try to implement a hybrid schedule. Half the hybrid studentswill attend Monday and
Thursday, and the other half will come into the buildings Tuesday and Friday. Students can also choose to remain virtual.
“We have a window of opportunity, and we should take advantage of that by bringing students into the building as much as we can,” said Superintendent James Harris. “We’re being cautious, but we do realize that students and staff need to get used to coming back into the building and building those relationships again.”
Not much time
With the students who are participating in the hybrid program coming into the buildings only two days per week, elementary students will have about 20 days in the building before the school year ends; middle and high school students will have about18 days.
“We feel like something is better than nothing,” said Mr. Harris, “not just academically but also social and emotionally.”
Teachers will use those days in the classroom to identify students who would benefit from a summer school program the district is planning that will feature five weeks of fivedays per week instruction for450 students.
While it is too early to completely understand the impact a full year of remote instruction has had on students, education experts, school officials and lawmakers said they fear substantial learning loss and devastating consequences for the social and emotional welfare of children.
Researchers are able to model what learning loss may look like across a cohort or population of students, but what may be more important is how remote learning impacted individuals. That can beassessed only once students returnto the classroom.
“[It’s important] to get in with students and understand what they now know and can do and begin to chart out a path for individual students for how they can begin to recover whenever learning might have been lost during this period,” said Chase Nordengren, a research scientist with Portland, Ore.,based education assessment groupNWEA.
The amount of learning loss over the past year has not been as significant as researchers anticipated, Mr. Nordengren said. He credits teachers for doing “extraordinary things with the tools and the circumstances they’ve beengiven.”
More than learning lost
But the closure of buildings affected more than student learning — it also took away their sense of normalcy, from losing contact with friends, to missing out on some of the resources provided by schools, such as books and extracurricular activities.
“We’ve noticed anecdotally — and, I think, empirically — some really hard impacts on a lot of kids,” Mr. Nordengren said. “So, the most expediently we can help them get back to that sense of normal, of the day-to-day of schooling, the better.”
Schools have been able to maintain some of their other important roles. Meal distribution and mental health services have continued, but that doesn’t mean everyone has been able to utilize them as they often require access to transportation and internet connectivity.
Because of these and other factors, school officials agree with education experts and researchers that getting students back into buildings as soon as possible is vital. Amid the pandemic, the key is doing it safely.
Students in the Shaler Area School District have been in and out of their buildings all year. Many started the school year all virtual, then went to a two-day-perweek hybrid model in October, back to virtual in late November and then back to the two-day hybrid model in midJanuary. About 25% of students have chosen to remain entirely virtual.
On Monday, the district plans to increase its kindergarten through third grade classes to four days per week in person, followed by its fourth through sixth grade classes a week later. The change means, for the first time this school year, all students who attend in person will be in the building at the same time.
The district is watching casecount and positivity rates for the county and the school district before setting a date for its intermediate and high school students to increase inpersondays to four per week.
“We don’t have a specific date, but there’s a lot of discussion about getting those students back,” Superintendent Sean Aiken said. “The struggle is significant with students’ social and emotional health and academic standing. It’s important that we get them back in.”