Special Topic: COVID-19

Richard Ingersoll expressed concern about lowering the bar for teachers. “Remote sometimes might be much more preferable to getting some substitute in there who’s basically babysitting,” he said.

Michael Gottfried said COVID-19-related school absences may disrupt all students’ learning. “Part of me is just like let’s just go back to Zoom for everyone,” he said. “I want to be in person more than anyone else. That is, the last thing I want to do is sit on Zoom and teach. So I feel for these kids. But what kind of learning is it going to be without a real fallback plan in place?”

Richard Ingersoll comments on teachers leaving the profession if the economy continues to improve and they continue to feel stress. “Typically we find that employees across the economy tend to quit less during economic downtimes,” he said. “There’s a lot of indications that in fact, during the pandemic, teacher turnover and teacher retirements may have even gone down.”

"There might be a whole lot of pent up frustration and the retiring, quitting can go up dramatically starting this summer." — Richard Ingersoll

Annie McKee offered tips for adjusting to the return to in-person work, such as reconnecting with coworkers. “We've all changed as a result of the pandemic,” she said. “Get to know people again and give yourself the permission to … care about each other.”

Caroline Watts, Diane Waff, Zachary Herrmann, Marsha Richardson, and Regina Bynum were selected to implement their initiative “Bridging Gaps and Building Capacity: Student and Educator Supports for School Reopening in Learning Network 2.” The initative will provide evidence-based programming and professional development at one to two summer learning sites in West Philadelphia, followed by network-wide professional learning supports throughout the 2021-22 academic year.

Ryan Baker is quoted on how the pandemic has necessitated innovation in remote learning, noting that, “There’s been a move to using high-quality interactive online learning environments.”

Pam Grossman proposes rethinking schooling to give students more time to learn. “Let’s use the pandemic to rethink how we expand and enrich learning time for children, especially those most impacted by COVID-19-related disruption.”

Yasmin Kafai and professors across several departments at Utah State University have partnered to create an imaginary virus, allowing students to virtually explore many aspects of living in a pandemic. Children can play in this risk-free environment with more control than they often have in the real world.

Michael Gottfried said it’s difficult to quantify how school is going for students amid the pandemic. “We’re sort of building the plane as we fly it,” he said. “Everything’s up in the air now. Everything’s been disrupted just from the measurement side.”

Peter Eckel and Aida Sagintayeva virtually brought together higher ed leaders from across 15 time zones to talk about a way forward.

Richard Ingersoll said it’s too early to know if the pandemic will worsen teacher shortages. “Traditionally, employees in general across industries and occupations quit at higher rates in good economic times and at lower rates in bad economic times," he said. "The reason is simple—even if someone dislikes their job, they are loath to quit if there is financial uncertainty, or if there are not other jobs available.” 

“Even if you don’t like your job, if there aren’t other options out there, you’re going to be loath to leave. There aren’t a lot of options out there,” said Richard Ingersoll.

Steve Piltch said private school enrollment has declined during the last decade. “Whatever the classes were there to begin with, they were smaller than most of the public schools are,” he said. 

Ryan Baker led a team that analyzed the results of a survey about the challenges of remote learning. “School districts’ IT were never prepared for this to happen,” Baker said. 

Karen Weaver discussed how enrollment totals may impact sports budgets for colleges and universities.

Caroline Watts commented on the six weeks it took for the Philadelphia school district to distribute laptops to its students after Gov. Wolf ordered schools to close. “The greater the lag in the time off, the harder it is to engage students,” said Watts. 

Karen Weaver talks about the importance of college sports on campuses and the impact on college athletics from the pandemic.

Peter Eckel said, “Part of the challenge is the complexity of the issues that university boards are facing. There is also a degree of unpredictability regarding short-term challenges, like enrollment and finances, endowments and financial resources, but also safety and security in the future. We don’t know if there’s going to be a new normal, a next normal, or return to normal.”

In his book The College Stress Test, Robert Zemsky predicted that 10% of private, liberal arts colleges in the U.S. were likely to close within the next five years. Now, with the pandemic’s damaging effects on school finances, his prediction has changed to 200 schools in the next year alone. 

Robert Zemsky said that “dislodging events,” such as COVID-19, can force needed changes in education. 

Jonathan Zimmerman writes, “Schools are always implicated in national crises, always,” pointing to schools’ role selling war bonds during World War I and cultivating victory gardens in World War II. “But in prior crises, they were engaged in the struggle, because it was a struggle against a human enemy rather than a biological one. This is a struggle against a biological one that requires schools not to step up, but to stand down.”