I have written a lot about high schools in the times of COVID. There is tremendous energy locally and beyond to hold some of the new structures from the last eighteen months, as we have found some new models that connected with students in powerful ways. But what about elementary schools? There have been far fewer conversations about the lessons of COVID coming out of schools for our younger learners.
I am left with the general impression that COVID has been an accelerant for changes in high schools, in elementary schools, the dominant feeling is that we want to return largely to how things were before the pandemic.
This really should come as no surprise. Pre-pandemic there was general satisfaction with elementary school education. Most jurisdictions had made great strides to adopt a play-based approach in K-3, there were efforts to better connect with pre-schools and pre-K education providers, and assessment and evaluation had evolved. Most elementary schools, at least in British Columbia had moved away from letter grades, and real conversations on the necessity of homework have been happening. Now, not to make this picture too Pollyanna, there are always opportunities for change and growth, and shifts are not universal, but the calls that we see in high school for more flexibility, greater access to online learning, more relevance in courses, and changes to assessment practices have just not been as loud in elementary schools. One exception to this overly broad summary would be the move to more outdoor learning which has happened at K-7 seems destined to stick.
Of course, this is all kind of a gut feel. That is why it is interesting to see some of the research coming out in British Columbia on experiences during the pandemic. I have written before about work that Dean Shareski pulled together with secondary school administrators from across Metro Vancouver – Pandemic Shifts – Considerations for British Columbia Secondary Schools and a more system approached paper from a national perspective – School Beyond COVID-19 – Accelerating the Changes that Matter for K-12 Learners in Canada. A third piece of research that came out in December comes from a partnership between the University of British Columbia and the BC School Superintendents Association – District Approaches to Learning in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is this third piece of research that I want to focus on.
While most of what I have seen written on pandemic experiences looks at school systems or focuses specifically on high school learners, the UBC / BCSSA project focused primarily on the elementary grades in the 2020-21 school year. To give the context of BC during this time, the majority of students were learning in-class, with students engaged in blended and online learning as well as transitional learning (students who were moving back to full-time class instruction but not immediately at the start of the year). This research looks specifically at this transitional program experiences.
So, what were the relative strengths across districts?
- Leveraging already existing structures and platforms (Microsoft Teams, Canvas)
- Transitional learning provided a sense of safety for families amidst the pandemic (flexibility of choosing when to return to school)
- Ability to adapt to the demand of the pandemic (exceptional admin leadership, and responsive and supportive orientation of all staff)
- Support for vulnerable groups of learners (programs to ensure access with technology and food security, unique supports for students with diverse learning needs)
- Professional development (increased opportunities for collaboration)
And what were the relative challenges across districts?
- Parental Support (multiple students per household, daycare, software literacy)
- Student (lack of peer and teacher connections, online engagement, mental health concerns)
- Teachers (new teaching modalities, varying levels of acceptance, increased workload)
- Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (increased demand for food services, online challenges for ELL learners, limited supports to vulnerable learners, more challenging for low-SES students and families)
In checking with those who led the transitional learning option in our district, they highlighted the amazing flexibility of the staff and willingness to to take on new and somewhat foreign roles.
What strikes me about the research on the elementary experience is that there is not the same sense of building on leveraging the learning of the pandemic for a changed system going forward. The stronger feeling is trying to return to pre-pandemic. It is an interesting contrast and speaks to differences about flexibility, choice, technology use among other topics between younger and older learners. While the pandemic was a test-run for some ideas that may guide the future of our high schools, in our elementary schools it was truly emergency remote and transitional learning, and the more widely held goal is to return to a pre-pandemic system with fewer changes than most hope for in our high schools.
Of course, I am sure some of you might see it differently.
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