From Reopen to Reinvent. Michael B. Horn

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the buildings, which didn't happen until the spring. The team developed in-person options with rotating schedules for the students to reduce building density. They created mask rules. New air filtration systems were installed. They partnered with other districts to continue to offer a full-time virtual option for those whose parents for, whatever reason, didn't feel comfortable sending their children back in person at all. They built testing protocols, and they prioritized the most essential learning standards.

      And then they detailed all their efforts in a comprehensive 70-page reopening plan that they circulated to the community. The plan had sections on everything from health, safety, and well-being to facilities and from equity and student engagement to technology. There was a section detailing plans on school personnel and staffing, professional development, and family partnerships and supports. They held several feedback sessions and iterated more.

      The principals and central office staff even included a section on reimagining teaching and learning. In truth, however, Ball had always felt that that hadn't been the most urgent and immediate of their concerns—and the writing reflected that. There were a lot of buzz phrases about differentiation and equity but nothing concrete on how they would fulfill those aspirations.

      The whole effort, though, had been nothing short of Herculean. To get back to normal. Whatever that was.

      “Normal is good. Discuss,” she muttered.

      Her phone buzzed. It was a calendar alert, but it prompted a different thought. In the months after the start of the pandemic, Ball remembered how hard it had been to get in touch with some families. It had actually always been tough, if she was being honest.

      But then she remembered the day in early May when she and her team stopped trying to send long emails to every parent and guardian and instead she sent a couple short text messages to the parents. She remembered how Jeremy's mom, who had never come to any school events, had texted her back within minutes.

       Ball found the conversation. “Thank you,” Jeremy's mom had texted her in June. “It was so nice to have heard from the school.”

      But then when the district sent out the 70-page plan in the fall, Ball heard nothing from Jeremy's mom. Crickets.

      Why was that? Ball felt like they had been building a rapport.

       But never a peep from Jeremy's mom. Jeremy didn't return to in-person school until the year after that, sometime in November. What had happened all that time?

      Ball decided to text Jeremy's mom, when, seemingly out of nowhere, Julia's parents startled her by knocking on her office door.

      Now here were two parents from whom she had heard plenty. She blinked her eyes, straightened her jacket, and popped up from her desk wearing her biggest smile.

      How was that for a transition?, she thought. The text would have to wait.

       “Mr. and Mrs. Owens. It's so nice to see you again!”

       * * *

      In the wake of COVID-19 shattering the traditional routines and plans of so many schools nationwide, many understandably felt a great sense of loss. Their ways of life were under assault. The threat was clear.

      This work was important, but it was also insufficient.

      What much of the conversation missed was what should learning look like? That is, regardless of where students learn, how can schools innovate to move past an instructional model designed to standardize the way we teach and test that worked well for the industrial era but is a misfit for today's world?

      Why have schools remained stuck? How could they move beyond just focusing on logistics to asking deeper questions about the model of learning itself?

      Balancing multiple concerns amid limited resources, restrictive policies, and work contracts that often limit educators' responses helps explain some of the struggles to innovate. Research by Clark Gilbert, previously the president of Brigham Young University Pathway Worldwide and BYU-Idaho, suggests another important set of factors—as well as a pathway forward.

      But there's a further insight.

      Sound familiar?

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