Restarting and Reinventing School
Learning in the Time of COVID and Beyond
Published August 2020
Across the United States, state education agencies and school districts face daunting challenges and difficult decisions for restarting schools as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. As state and district leaders prepare for what schooling will look like in 2020 and beyond, there is an opportunity to identify evidence-based policies and practices that will enable them to seize this moment to rethink school in ways that can transform learning opportunities for students and teachers alike.
Our current system took shape almost exactly a century ago, when school designs and funding were established to implement mass education on an assembly-line model organized to prepare students for their “places in life”—judgments that were enacted within contexts of deep-seated racial, ethnic, economic, and cultural prejudices. In a historical moment when we have more knowledge about human development and learning, when society and the economy demand a more challenging set of skills, and when—at least in our rhetoric—there is a greater social commitment to equitable education, it is time to use the huge disruptions caused by this pandemic to reinvent our systems of education. The question is: How we can harness these understandings as we necessarily redesign school? How can we transform what has not been working for children and for our society into a more equitable and empowering future?
This report provides an overarching framework that focuses on how policymakers as well as educators can support equitable, effective teaching and learning regardless of the medium through which that takes place. This framework provides research, state and local examples, and policy recommendations in 10 key areas that speak both to transforming learning and to closing opportunity and achievement gaps. Each of these 10 policy priorities will help schools reinvent themselves around principles of equity, authentic learning, and stronger relationships, and they require shifts from policymakers and educators alike.
Authors
Linda Darling-Hammond, Abby Schachner, Adam Edgerton, Aneesha Badrinarayan, Jessica Cardichon, Peter W. Cookson, Jr., Michael Griffith, Sarah Klevan, Anna Maier, Monica Martinez, Hanna Melnick, Natalie Truong, Steve Wojcikiewicz
Disclaimer / Descargo de responsabilidad
This Spanish-language version was developed by Tu clase, tu país, an organization based in Santiago Chile that provides professional development for educators in seven countries in Latin America. The report has been edited for relevance to Latin American audiences by adding data and some examples of practices from Chile and neighboring countries.
Esta versión en español fue desarrollada por Tu clase, tu país, una organización radicada en Santiago de Chile que ofrece desarrollo profesional para educadores en siete países de América Latina. Para que sea relevante para las audiencias latinoamericanas, el informe ha sido editado agregándole datos y algunos ejemplos de prácticas de Chile y de países vecinos.