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Education Dive
Coronavirus closures present districts opportunities to rethink schedules
Shawna De La Rosa
March 30, 2020
Dive Brief:
Widespread school closures as a result of novel coronavirus provide an
opportunity for districts to reorganize the school day and bell
schedule, District Administration reports. A report from Always Be
Learning's Unlocking Time project found 72% of schools have periods
under 60 minutes, and 74% arrange classes into short, same-length
periods.
The research indicates most secondary schools start between 7:30 and
8:30, and that elementary schools still start later than secondary
schools despite data suggesting teenagers benefit from later start
times. The survey shows 95% of administrators use late start or early
dismissal for teacher collaboration.
Daniel Pink, author and productivity expert, said in a keynote address
at this year's Future of Education Technology Conference that
reorganizing high school schedules to start after 8:30, with academic
classes earlier in day, makes pedagogical sense.
Dive Insight:
The sudden closure of schools due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic
creates both challenges and opportunities for districts. At this point,
few states indicate schools will reopen before the end of the school
year. The lengthy break will likely lead to learning loss, experts warn.
In an episode of Harvard EdCast, Jennifer McCombs, a senior policy
researcher for RAND Corporation, said students from low-income families
and those performing below grade-level are at the highest risk. These
at-risk students may fall further behind as schools switch to online
learning platforms. Some IEP plans, for example, can’t easily transfer
online. For many, however, some online learning is better than no
learning at all.
There are many problems with schools switching to online learning,
McCombs said. Many parents are dealing with their own life changes amid
the pandemic, whether working from home or dealing with a job loss. For
students, online learning may fill the education gap, but social lives
are disrupted, sports are canceled and extracurricular activities are
put on hold.
For seniors, the prospect of an abrupt end to school is particularly
gut-wrenching, McCombs said. These students face disruptions to a
number of milestones, including graduation and prom. On the positive
side, the new school schedules may be helpful for teenagers, who tend
to do better when allowed to sleep in.
For early-childhood learning, the closures may also impact reading
progress. On this front, Save the Children has collected resources for
parents with children in pre-K to 6th grade. Younger kids do better
with a regular schedule that maintains typical waking and eating times,
Betsy Zorio, the organization's vice president of U.S. programs and
advocacy, told CityBeat. And though schools will provide opportunities
for students to make up for lost time when the crisis is over, keeping
students engaged in reading is particularly critical.
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