Five key takeaways for the 2020-21 school year in California - CalMatters

As more than 6 million California students head back to school this fall, this year isn’t about fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils and new backpacks. Students, parents and educators are

navigating a new world of virtual learning, with the vast majority of California schools remaining online. CalMatters K-12 education reporter Ricardo Cano moderated a PolicyMatters

discussion on August 13 that addressed how the struggles of moving to virtual learning have altered California’s education landscape. 

Panelists included educators, researchers, students and parents. Don Austin, superintendent of Palo Alto Unified School District, shared his perspective as a district administrator, while

Heather Hough, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education, gave a high level overview of teaching and learning. Lakisha Young, the founder and executive director of

Oakland Reach, a parent-run, parent-led group, discussed how families have struggled with online learning. Elijah Tsai, a senior at Lincoln High School in Stockton, and state president of

the California Association of Student Councils, provided first-hand insight into what he and his peers experienced with remote learning this spring. 

Everyone on the panel agreed that students are not learning as well online as they did in person. Hough said that collaboration and interaction with teachers and peers is the most important

part of instruction and that while schools need to implement interactive teaching methods at all grade levels, it’s especially important for younger students with smaller attention spans. 

“There’s no doubt that it’s harder to do that in a virtual setting, but it’s not impossible,” she said.

Distance learning should be the primary teaching method, according to Hough. She said that reopening schools to every student isn’t feasible and instead, in-person instruction should be used

for students with special needs and students without reliable internet, housing, or food.

Austin said students with special needs will be prioritized during reopening, and that his  district is trying to find safe ways to provide one-on-one support to special needs students who

are accustomed to having that individualized assistance in class.

Meanwhile, Oakland REACH has created a virtual learning hub to support live learning with teachers. The organization fundraised to provide internet hotspots for students without reliable

internet, and Young said they plan to provide additional learning loss support in the future. In addition, the organization has offered professional development for teachers. 

While outdoor learning sounds like a safe alternative because COVID-19 transmission is lower, Austin said it’s much more complicated. Schools would have to negotiate with teacher

associations and schools would have to deal with weather and other outdoor variables, like allergies, that could get in the way. But, he said teachers should occasionally take their classes

outside to take advantage of California weather.

“Is outdoor healthy and something we should embrace in California? Absolutely,” Austin said. “Does it make sense to set up tents and move everything outside? No, I wouldn’t explore that.”

California schools have fewer educators than other states and are ranked poorly for providing access to mental and physical health services.

Hough said schools need to implement “economies of scale” by centralizing resources like videos and lesson plans to allow teachers to spend more time interacting with students in small

groups, but lack of funding means that schools don’t have enough staff to implement those practices.

“We were in an education crisis prior to a health crisis,” Young said. She said that even before the pandemic, the schools were failing to provide underrepresented communities with access to

a quality education, and she hopes that schools will improve at centering the needs of students from those communities.

Tsai said that administrators need to provide more ways to include student voices and learn about student experiences. “I am one student, and this state is huge,” he said. “There’s 6 million

students, and they’re all experiencing different things because of local control.”

Austin said Palo Alto schools have taken this opportunity to adjust school schedules, ensuring that secondary schools don’t start before 9 am, and he’s worked to collaborate with schools and

districts across the state. He said schools should work together to solve problems instead of solving them individually.

“Everyone is dealing with exactly the same problems; they might look a little different in your community but the topics are the same,” Austin said. That means now is “a great time for us to

try to solve problems together instead of a thousand different approaches to it.”

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