How Do We School With the Coronavirus?
by Kyle McGlotten
As a high school teacher and college professor the question about what we do about school during the coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak has come up often. The reopening decisions that local, county, state and federal governments make are written in pencil with heavy duty erasers located within arm distance. This is understandable since our working knowledge on the Covid-19 virus is still in its early stages. However, school is supposed to start in many states in a few weeks.
So How Do We School?
Parents
The goal is to keep everyone safe, but what are parents supposed to do if they have to work. For example, let’s just consider single parent households. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019 there were 11 million single parent households in the United States.
What are these parents supposed to do? Schools help in the education of the next generation, but they are also daycare for millions of Americans. These parents will not be able to support their families if they are not able to go to work.
So what are we to do?
Students
First off let’s look at some of what we do know. Here is a chart of the US mortality rates from February 1, 2020 to July 4, 2020 broken down by various age groups:
One piece of data that confirms what has been said by many news outlets is that the mortality rate for young people is low. The amount of deaths that have occurred among children 14 years of age and younger for influenza is 100, while for Covid-19 it is 29. There is still a lot that the medical community needs to learn in regards to young people being carriers of the disease to their families. However based on these current numbers children in this age range do not seem to be at an increased health risk to each other compared to other communicable diseases that schools have to deal with on a yearly basis. Therefore, there is a case to be made that students in the K — 8 grade levels can meet face-to-face using CDC guidance as a blueprint.
Now the mortality rate for high school aged students is still low, but it is three times higher than influenza. However this rate is lower than the 4 to 7 times mortality rate that the H1N1 virus had on this age group when compared to seasonal influenza [1]. As always we would prefer face-to-face interaction for all students, but high school students have a greater ability to function independently. Therefore utilizing multiple options such as virtual teachers in classrooms, online working from home by students and staggered face-to-face teaching would enable high schools to have extra social distancing and cleaning opportunities to help keep this age group safer.
But this does not take into account the teachers, custodians, food preparers, administrators, etc. who are 25 and older. Not to mention folks who have pre-existing conditions that make them orders of magnitude at greater mortality risk due to the virus.
Staff
How do we keep educational staff safe?
First at the local, county, state and federal level there must be an acknowledgement that there must be an additional investment of capital due to this new normal. Budgets that were done previously had no provisions for a pandemic. Money must be allocated to the best strategies that we currently have, but with the understanding that as we learn more there will be changes and additional funds may be needed.
Second we must give all staff the option of determining for themselves the risk that they are comfortable with. If there are some teachers who are not as yet comfortable coming into school for face-to-face sessions, we need to be creative with solutions that will enable them to teach from home. Use technology for teachers to teach from home over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meeting, GoTo Webinar, whatever platform the school system chooses. These sessions will be shown using a projector or a wide-screen monitor in the classroom for the students. Also, for teachers who are willing to come into school, have them teach their classes on these digital platforms as well. This will enable students whose parents are still not comfortable with them coming to school to participate in the learning.
This solution does not resolve the challenge when working with younger students. Pre-K and elementary school children need more in person interaction, especially at the younger ages. Teachers with many years of experience are at a much higher risk and may decide it is wise for them to stay at home, but using an exclusively digital platform for elementary aged students is a model which is impractical without adult support.
One suggestion, which will necessitate additional funding, has been suggested by John Podhoretz. Have a modified co-teaching arrangement where the experienced teacher video calls into the class every day, but also have a new, unseasoned teacher out of college who is face-to-face with the students. Co-teaching has been used for years in school systems and when done well the learning outcomes for the students are excellent.
Conclusion
The coronavirus situation in all areas of our lives right now is a moving target. There will not be a one size fits all solution for almost anything and definitely not for education. Every locality will need to do what is right for them. This will include planning and anticipating for change. Hopefully these ideas are food for thought in our own ongoing education of our new normal.
