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Education Dive
Districts embrace in-person learning pods for marginalized students
Naaz Modan
Sept. 15, 2020
Dive Brief:
An increasing number of school districts are adopting in-person
learning pods for lower-income families and vulnerable populations,
according to Robin Lake, director for the Center on Reinventing Public
Education, who hosted a virtual panel on the trend last week.
Indianapolis School District, for example, repurposed funds it would
have used for in-person learning to get the learning hub sites off the
ground before the start of the school year. The district oriented its
efforts around special needs students and homeless populations.
Students who qualify for the services are provided with transportation
to the hubs, which are hosted in school buildings, and meals. Every
site is staffed with a nurse, social worker and instructional support
staff and practices personal protective measures.
Dive Insight:
When the federal government first pressured schools to reopen,
emphasizing the role schools play for the social and mental wellbeing
of students, Deborah Temkin, the vice president for youth development
and education research at Child Trends, said school-facilitated
learning bubbles could serve as a "bridge" between in-person and
isolated learning for students without the ability to form pods on
their own.
But when learning pods first cropped up in light of COVID-19 closures,
there was concern the trend would exacerbate already-existing gaps as
affluent families leveraged their time and resources to organize them.
The Denver Public Schools Board of Education, for example, released a
statement in August suggesting learning pods could have "equity
implications" and "long-term negative implications for public education
and social justice."
Now, some are reimagining the potential of pods as a way to serve the
most marginalized students instead. Mind Trust, an Indianapolis equity
nonprofit organization, is working with trusted local partners, like
churches, to provide learning sites for students.
The organization expects to be able to sustain the program until
mid-October, but CEO Brandon Brown, who spoke on the CRPE panel, said
federal support will be needed to maintain it in the long term. Another
obstacle the organization faced was dealing with local regulations that
would make pods illegal, but Brown suggested that schools work with
policy leaders to temporarily find workarounds.
For Indiana Public Schools Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, who also
took part in CRPE's event, getting the program off the ground included:
- Immense logistical planning, such as overlapping student schedules with the daily flow of the pods.
- Making phone calls to parents.
- Basic software training for on-site staff so they can support teacher instruction, which is still conducted virtually.
- Coordination between site coordinators (often school-facing central
office members), the on-site team and the building principal in charge
of the space being used.
- Other districts are spearheading similar efforts, such as in
Tennessee and Colorado. According to YouthToday, YMCAs in at least 45
states are offering virtual learning centers.
Brown said not only are some of these centers providing support during
the school day, but they also extend past school hours and provide
enrichment activities. This design was made specifically with parents'
working hours in mind, which often extend beyond the typical school
schedule, he said.
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