The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) published a review of nearly 500 school’s COVID response plans from this past Spring, and the results were nerve-wracking. Here are some of the key findings included in the report:

• 2/3 of districts set low expectations for sustaining instruction. 

• 1/2 of the districts tracked students’ engagement in learning.

• The largest divide in access to instruction and progress monitoring was between urban and rural school districts.

• Affluent districts were twice as likely as high-poverty districts to require live instruction.

With the fall looming, parents are struggling to juggle their work, family rhythms, and their concerns around schools. What is the best solution for my child? For those who are financially stable and have managed to figure out a way to opt into a virtual program or homeschool, there are questions about lost opportunities for social development moments. But most parents are finding themselves in an unpredictable public school system conversation, and that’s where the CRPE report carries weight. Will ⅔ of districts do better this fall? It seems unlikely since exhausted teachers probably haven’t (and shouldn’t have) spent their only vacation time building out remote versions of their curriculum.

The main question highlighted by these stats is “What does the public education system value most?” Does the system simply value the system itself, or will the system value individual student learning?? The image of all the empty schools that were not tracking or sustaining instruction seems to argue for the former. 

Although many districts have not yet decided whether students will be returning, we haven’t heard of any districts that will stop paying administrators until classes resume. Can a school system actually continue to operate without teaching any students? Well, I am reminded of a story we wrote last year about a school that continued to run even though it did not have a single student enrolled.

At EEE, our goal is to keep students at the center of the conversation this fall. Do you feel like your school is doing its best to serve your students’ needs? We’d love to hear from you.