Educational Strategies Can Help Us Overcome Pandemic Disruptions

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

 Virtually every aspect of formal public education has been catastrophically affected by the pandemic over the last two years   The Covid variant Omicron continues to generate massive logistical and educational complications for schools traditionally accustomed to bureaucratic stability.

 What worries us is being forced into a reactive posture as we respond to competing or confusing health linked policies imposed by different governmental authorities.  It is hard to anticipate and reverse the scale of educational damage that will play out over the lifetimes of our youth.

 Most schools have persisted in remaining open despite temporary setbacks over the last few weeks.  Most have implemented virus testing procedures that allow children to stay in school despite exposure unless they show symptoms or test positive for the virus.  This is definitely helpful!  

  But what about sharpening our focus on educational program initiatives that could help us preserve or improve the quality of learning and instruction?  Prospects for enhanced state and federal aid are promising.  Here are five proven strategies we can build on right away.         

 First, revise local and regional curriculum to create more project-based learning opportunities designed to extend across school vacations and into next summer.   Such learning can be coordinated between classroom teachers and external sponsors and evaluators.  Continuity of progress can be achieved with applications of technology and use of widely available performance rubrics.

 Second, begin planning now for alternative assessments that will depend less on state proficiency testing and more from flexible portfolios that demonstrate multi-disciplinary criteria.  Highly successful portfolio models can be found in the Erie I BOCES College and Career program or in the thirty-year-old work of the downstate area State Performance Standards Consortium.

  One way or another, the time is ripe to blend separate academic disciplines and base progress on formative narrative feedback.  Teachers must recognize the need to slow down, streamline lessons, and focus more on critical thinking. 

 Third, since about 90 percent of all schools have provided laptops or other devices to students who need them, with wi-fi widely available, accelerate the use of instructional technology that encourages independent or individual learning, reinforced or enriched by teacher-guided instruction.

Fourth, engage parents in optional on-site or technology-based sessions to help them discuss and understand curricular issues, in particular the ones most vulnerable to misunderstanding.   The key is to involve students as presenters and explainers.

 Finally, renew and extend events, celebrations, slogans and symbols that will draw school community members together in support of collective social and emotional wellbeing.  Mental health counseling and referrals are essential, but we also need activity that nurtures an inclusive team spirit.

 At a time when so many children have confronted disruptions in their educational experience, and traumas associated with trying to balance strange home-school linkages, now more than ever the schools should place priority on visibly and vocally demonstrating unity and shared concern.