Rethinking Shelby County Schools after a year of remote learning
Now, after a year of remote instruction, we must urgently rethink all the old ways of doing things and reimagine new and innovative approaches to truly meet the needs of all students.
It has been exciting to see the social media posts of Memphis students returning to their classrooms and their teachers in recent days. The joy on the faces after so many months of remote learning is truly heart-warming.
We are deeply grateful to all of the teachers who have worked so hard this past year in maintaining their relationships with students, even while physically distant.
We also thank our district leaders for working to safely reopen our school buildings, and so many other elected officials and health professionals for ensuring our teachers and school leaders are vaccinated and protected from COVID-19.
While we should celebrate the reopening of schools, we must also be completely cleareyed about the incredibly steep hill that students and their teachers must now climb together.
Our students faced many challenges last year
Despite everyone’s best efforts, we know virtual learning has been challenging and, in most cases, insufficient to meet the needs of our most vulnerable students.. This means it is more important than ever that we support student assessments, so that parents and teachers clearly understand where each child is academically and what we need to do to catch them up.
Even before the pandemic, Shelby County had more of the state’s high-priority schools than any other district in the state.
Only one out of four SCS third-graders was reading on grade-level, and too few of our graduates were deemed college-ready at the end of high school, with more than half re
quiring remedial math before college.
That was before the pandemic. Now after a year of remote instruction, we must urgently rethink all the old ways of doing things and reimagine new and innovative approaches to truly meet the needs of all students. Returning to where we were before will not be enough.
The old normal may not be sufficient
Reimagining may mean intensive summer learning and tutoring programs or extending instructional time with a year-round school calendar. It may mean a new personalized learning approach for each student rather than traditional one-size-fits-all instruction. It may mean more school options and hybrid models that blend in-person and remote learning to put those personalized learning plans into action.
Although it is good to see the reopening of our classrooms after such a long time, we know student academic needs coming out of the pandemic, as well as their social and emotional needs, will offer challenges we've never even considered before.
Nothing should be off limits as we urgently refocus on student outcomes and boldly consider new ways to dramatically improve education in Shelby County.
Now is the time for all educators, parents, and community leaders to rally to the cause. It is time for us to step up and do even more to ensure each child in Shelby County, no matter the neighborhood or zip code, has the same opportunity for a great education and a great future.
It's time for all of us to lean in and leverage the crisis that has hit our community so very hard to rethink and rebuild around what equity and opportunity truly mean for each and every student.
If we don't do this now, we run the risk of losing many more students.
Our kids and our community are counting on us. Let's go to work to help every child in Memphis achieve their dreams and reach their full potential.