Contributors: Dr. Laura Barron (MT), dr. Martin Brooks (NY), Dr. Eric King (IL), Dr. John Erickson (WA), Dr. Ruben Alejandro (TX), and Dr. Frank Hewins (WA). Edited by Dr. Jack McKay, Executive Director of the Horace Mann League of the USA. Students
1. What is the percentage of students regularly engaged with their teachers for each school during the shutdown?
2. How are the teachers following up on students that are not engaged in learning activities?
3. What are some of the strategies that the teachers have found to be effective in having students engaged in learning?
4. What are some of the successes with remote learning? Why are they successful?
5. What long-term strategies are you thinking about to lessen the loss of learning for students during the next couple of months? Any sense of what strategies will be most effective?
6. What are some alternatives to carry out the graduation ceremony for the seniors? Who is involved in the planning?
7. What does you school board anticipate to be the major issues facing students for the remainder of this school year? How is your school board dealing with those significant issues?
8. What are some anticipated and unanticipated challenges your school board are facing during the shutdown of the schools? What is being done to resolve those challenges?
9. What percentage of your students have internet access at home? Of those who have internet access at home, what percentage have a device capable of assisting them with online remote learning?
10. Is your district providing devices to students who do not have one? If so, how many devices have loaned to students, and what percentage of the student population does this represent?
11. The literature continues to highlight a concern for addressing the needs of special populations during these times of remote learning. Has your district had any of these challenges, and what is your school board doing to resolve them? How does your school board plan to make sure that the transition to a new normal?
12. What steps are in place to sustain the level of hygiene expected when school reopens next fall?
Teachers?
1. What strategies have your school board used to follow-up on the level of success of remote learning? What evidence is your school board using to measure success?
2. Of all the variabilities that impact on student learning, particularly during the shutdown, what seems to be the most challenging to resolve or reduce? What additional resources need to be available to reduce the impact of that particular variable?
3. What are some of the major issues facing the teachers during the shutdown? How is youir school board planning on mitigating those issues?
4. How have teachers in your district addressed the needs of classified students whose educational programs are guided by IEPs requiring specific services?
5. How are teachers trying to balance asynchronous learning with synchronous lessons with students? What method works and why?
6. Have there been any benefits to remote learning? For example, some teachers have reported that it has been more comfortable for them to differentiate lessons for individuals or small groups of students?
7. What changes, if any, does your school board anticipate teachers will make in their instructional practice as a result of this experience?
8. What percentage of your teaching staff is working from home? With social distancing, how are you continuing to meet with staff and provide them support regarding remote learning?
9. How are teachers in your district dealing with equity, poverty, and access to the technology required for distance learning?
10. How will your district be serving your students with disabilities and other individual needs?
11. How will teachers in your district be evaluated during the shutdown? What criteria will be used to measure performance?
12 During the school shut down, what are the guidelines for teacher engagement with students for the different grade levels? Do those guidelines or expectations require a negotiated and amended agreement with the teacher’s association? If so, does the negotiated agreement about guidelines or expectations for engagement require your school board’s approval?
Parents and the Community
1. What methods of communication will your school board consider to reduce the anxiety of students and parents during the shutdown?
2. What methods has your school board used to communicate with parents, and to what level have they been effective?
3. What methods has your school board used to communicate with citizens, and to what level have they been effective?
4. What impact, if any, will the school shut down experience have on the role that parents play in the education of their children going forward?
5. How will your school board maintain parent communication and involvement?
6. How will your school board be communicating what teachers are doing to continue student learning to combat the rumor that teachers are getting paid, but there is no school?
Superintendent
1. What are the challenges is your school board facing now and in the next couple of months? How is your school board trying to solve them?
2. What do you see as ways that your school board could and should help during these days and weeks of the shutdown?
3. Is your school district providing breakfast and/or lunch during school closures? If so, what percentage of students have taken advantage of breakfast? If so, what percentage of students have taken advantage of lunch? If so, how is the district funding these meal services?
4. Are there any aspects of remote learning does your school board intend to carry over once schools reopen?
5. Has this experience made your school board think about changing some of the norms and structures embedded in the culture of your district – e.g., homework, bell schedules, grading, reporting to parents, discipline, the role of student voice, etc.?
6. An entire education system, thought to be monolithic and immovable, was transformed in a matter of weeks. What lessons did your school board learn about change and leadership through this experience?
7. With social distancing, how is your school board ensuring the business of the district continues with communications with the board and business meetings with the board? How is your school board ensuring public access to these meetings?
8. What is your school board doing right now to prepare for a new year after COVID-19 has passed?
9. COVID-19 has, in a sense, revolutionized education as we know it. Who are the stakeholders that your school board will bring together to develop a Strategic Plan to address a new way of providing instruction?
10. What strategies is your school board using to ensuring that citizens without children in school (about 75%) are being kept up to date about how their taxes are being used to sustain student learning? How effective are these strategies?