A Welcome Opportunity for Redesigned Schooling

Executive Perspective

We are beginning the fourth academic year to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our lives have changed dramatically over that period by the unforeseen. Zoom, face masks, vaccines, six-foot distance markers on floors and the joy in seeing a friend in person again are now part of our daily lives.

Education also has changed. All of us have been under incredible strain. The exodus of education leaders from the profession is alarming and will have long-lasting effects. The education workforce is experiencing significant shortages. Many summer school programs were curtailed by the lack of staff.

As we begin this school year, the teacher shortage is impacting class size and course offerings. The lack of social workers and guidance counselors reduces the ability to provide the social and emotional support to students. The continuing slaughter by gunfire of so many of our students and teachers in school environments that are supposed to be the safest places for them to be adds to the stress.

And, as if what I have outlined were not enough, the threat of a world war and the economic turmoil we all face add to a nightmare from which we cannot seem to wake up.

A Bright Prospect

Perhaps there is a silver lining. Perhaps having our world turned upside down is the perfect opportunity to recreate an education system that is better aligned to the 21st century and best meets the current needs of students and staff. We can stop doing what we always have done and begin to get what we always wanted.

We can begin with the school calendar. The closing and opening of schools during the pandemic wrought havoc on school calendars. Most districts resorted to using summer months as the time for students to catch up with lost learning. Unlike the traditional summer school intended to remediate high school students who failed a course or two, recent summer programs are offered to all students — not to remediate but to accelerate.

This is the perfect opportunity to abandon the traditional school calendar and move to year-round programs. The students will benefit from accelerated learning and from avoiding the learning loss that typically follows a two-month absence from school. Teachers would benefit from greater pay from 12-month contracts rather than the typical 10 months. Vacation periods would be interspersed throughout the year.

Admittedly, virtual learning was not at its best during the early part of the pandemic. The education system was not ready for such an abrupt change. We have seen significant improvement this past year. Virtual learning never will be a replacement for in-person instruction. Students learn best when they are with a teacher who provides ongoing support and feedback through instruction.

In-class learning can be reinforced by online programming. Prior to the pandemic, many college and high school students already were getting credit for online coursework. After school, weekends, vacation periods and (let’s not forget) inclement weather days present perfect opportunities to accelerate and reinforce learning with online programming.

A Team Model

How we organize for learning is also in line for a significant change. The traditional model of a teacher in a classroom full of students is so 19th century. Assigning students to grades according to age harkens back to the Horace Mann days.

Children should be grouped for instruction according to ability, not age. Teaching a group of children at different ability levels the same thing at the same time never has worked, yet we continue to do it. Individualizing instruction for each student, supplemented by online programming, offered by a team of instructors using different grouping patterns, should be the 21st-century model.

The stress that teachers face daily, along with the teacher shortage and the lack of diversity in the education workforce, can be ad-dressed by creating teams that include instructional assistants, student teachers, other non-instructional personnel in schools and teachers who would be relieved of much of the non-instructional duties they have. This is a model that Arizona State University’s School of Education has been implementing in Arizona school districts. AASA has created a cohort of districts interested in pursuing this innovative approach.

The changes proposed here will not be easy to make. Traditional practices persist in 2022, but because change has been forced on us these past few years, now may be the time.