The Challenge
The emergence of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, created challenging and disruptive changes to schools in St. Louis. Entire districts shut down in-person instruction and moved to virtual learning. Families and teachers scrambled to adjust. While school leaders planned over the summer for re-entry in fall of 2020, they knew they needed to understand the past and potential impact of COVID-19 on teachers, staff, and their students.
The Approach
To understand and record the experiences of teachers and staff during the pandemic, the Consortium Partnership Network (CPN), part of St. Louis Public Schools, and Meramec and Ashland Elementary Schools partnered with SKIP to conduct interviews with teachers and school staff members during April 2020.
SKIP met with the head of the CPN and the principals of Ashland and Meramec to develop an interview guide to answer key questions regarding teachers and staff experience with COVID-19. SKIP then conducted 24, 30-minute interviews with teachers and staff over the course of two weeks. All responses were kept anonymous to ensure staff felt comfortable sharing their experiences and insights. SKIP applied qualitative coding using grounded theory to examine for common themes.
CORE STRATEGY: UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
School leaders needed to understand the challenges teachers and staff faced as a result of COVID-19 in order to plan for the future.
Project Outcomes
Five major themes emerged through the research process:
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Teachers noted that many students did not log during remote learning in the spring. The schools needed to understand why students were not logging on in order to prepare for the return of remote learning.
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Teachers saw technology as an opportunity to innovate. They hoped to continue utilizing technology post-COVID-19. To do this effectively, teachers expressed a need for professional development and for each student to have their own devices.
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Teachers expressed the need for increased coordination and communication between the district, schools, and families to ease the return to school in the fall.
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Teachers forecasted that they would have to catch students up in conjunction with teaching the required curriculum for that grade. They noted guidance would be needed to assess and differentiate instruction, given the larger variation in student progress due to COVID-19.
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To foster learning and growth in students, teachers pointed out that parents need support in using technology, developing skills to reinforce learning outside of the classroom, and meeting basic needs. By addressing the needs of the family as a whole, schools could ensure students have an environment in and out of the school building in which they can thrive.
SKIP shared the results back with the head of the CPN, the principals of Meramec and Ashland, and other district leadership, who used the results to plan for the upcoming year with their teacher leadership teams.