Four ways that education has changed, possibly forever
For students and teachers, change came swift and hit hard as a result of COVID-19.
Last spring, students moved out of their classrooms and educators adapted. The ensuing months have demanded resiliency and dexterity from all sides, as the pandemic, and our understanding of it, evolved.
It’s been a difficult road, but educators and experts say we may emerge from the public health crisis even stronger.
Digital teaching/learning
The most visible change in education has been the move from in-person to remote learning.
Disproportionately, this shift had a negative impact on poorer, non-white students. Lack of access to Internet, or lack of child care or at-home assistance remain critical issues. And teachers often found the task of corralling a diffuse classroom of distance learners a challenge. But remote learning also conferred some benefits, and aspects of it may be here to stay.
In a way, the pandemic accelerated the existing trend of investment in online learning, said Robin Cautin, dean of the College of Arts & Science at Sacred Heart University.
“My view is that this investment will serve institutions well beyond the pandemic, as demand for online education, particularly at the graduate level, will likely continue,” Cautin said.
In public schools, too,
the state and private donors made large-scale investments to put technology in the hands of students, especially those with high needs, and enable distance learning.
“We enhanced those capabilities, put devices in the hands of students,” said Jeff Leake, president of the Connecticut Education Association, a large teachers’ union. “But we’re not finished. We know there’s lots more to do.”
Special education
Many students with disabilities fared poorly during the pandemic, according to special education advocate Christine Lai, executive director and founder of the Greenwichbased Special Education Legal Fund. Already large educational gaps have been widened with remote learning, she said.
“Many students who are in special education simply
cannot learn without direct instruction and support,” Lai said. “They can’t work independently on assignments or packets that have been emailed to their parents. Many special education students find remote learning to be profoundly stressful and difficult, and for those students, the need to learn online has created academic and behavioral issues that did not previously exist.”
In addition, crucial steps in the special education process, like evaluating students and observing classrooms, have been hamstrung by the pandemic.
Communication
Communication, too, was hampered. According to Lai, communication specific to special education students families was without question made worse.
As schools and related business shifted to remote in the spring, mandatory meetings were canceled, then became backlogged. The pandemic forced districts to be agile to meet the needs of all students, particularly those with special needs, and many are still struggling.
Teachers, too, have often complained of a break in trust between central office and staff. In Greenwich and Stamford, criticisms from school staff over the communication of positive cases and quarantine policy have been frequent.
Graduations
How to celebrate outgoing seniors also proved challenging. In Ansonia, as in many other Connecticut municipalities, a compromise was found.
Superintendent of Schools Joseph DiBacco and his district opted for a “drive-up” graduation, in which students and their families picked up diplomas via their personal vehicles.
The results were surprisingly positive, and DiBacco said a second “drive-up” is possible. It’s perhaps just one example of how, out of the tragedy, positive innovations can be made.
“We have had to take a very negative situation and try to see if we can make it positive,” DiBacco said. “We’re hoping we definitely take another look at what school looks like. It doesn’t have to look the same way anymore. Everything else has evolved and maybe this is the time to say we have to evolve.”