LPI Blog

Districts play an essential role in the success of school principals, including by fostering a collaborative culture and ensuring that site leaders have needed resources and supports. These structures and practices are important all the time, and have become even more critical during the pandemic. This blog explores how the systems and practices set up by the San Diego Unified School District are supporting principals during the COVID-19 crisis.

More than 5 million children in the United States live in deep poverty, including nearly 1 in 5 Black children under the age of 5. These numbers will no doubt grow, given the explosion of the health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, school systems need a more robust, reliable, and valid measure of students experiencing deep poverty in order to align services and supports with student need.

Pandemic-related school closures have underscored the essential role that home-school partnerships play in supporting the needs and ongoing development of students. This is particularly true for students with disabilities, whose educational plans can include the provision and coordination of multiple services. Teachers and school district staff share how they are strengthening communication with families and tapping new tools and resources to support students with disabilities.

Cuts to school budgets as a result of the added costs and reduced revenue since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have not yet been as severe as originally predicted, but the evidence indicates that much more severe challenges lie ahead. This blog explains how COVID-19 has affected state education budgets—and explores the implications for public education funding this year and into the future.

The pandemic has forced policymakers and educators to rethink and retool in order to ensure continued student learning, despite school closures. The crisis of COVID-19 also creates an opportunity to build long-term capacity and enact new policies and practices to advance more equitable and student-centered school systems. This blog provides an overview of a comprehensive framework for restarting and reinventing school.

As U.S. schools closed their doors this past spring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a little-considered effect was the impact of school closures on the preparation of the next generation of educators. Leaders of educator preparation programs affiliated with EdPrepLab share how they have adapted to the changing landscape. The crisis has created opportunities for programs to innovate, while maintaining high standards and a commitment to equity.

COVID-19 hasn’t stopped teachers and students from engaging in powerful teaching and learning. As schools shifted to distance learning in the closing months of the 2019–20 school year, course adaptions created opportunities for students to make new discoveries about themselves and topics of interest. Through authentic projects and presentations of learning, students have demonstrated that they remain hungry for and capable of doing rigorous, meaningful work. 

As school and district leaders prepare to start school—whether in person or virtually—their work should be grounded in two essential questions: How can we address the acute needs of young people, who continue to grapple with the dual impacts of COVID 19 and systemic racism? And, how can we use this crisis as an opportunity to transform schools into nurturing communities that are committed to equity, diversity, and antiracism?

Educators with the Hawaiian-focused charter schools have adapted their practices, grounded in Hawaiian culture and students’ relationship and responsibility to natural environments, to the constraints brought on by COVID-19. While nothing can replace the ocean voyages, agricultural work, and community service activities that are central elements of their “typical” school year, staff have developed new virtual ʻāina-based (land-based) activities and assessments to respond to the new reality of distance learning.

The decision of when and how to reopen schools is one of the most critical of our times. To do so effectively, we would do well to look at what has worked—and what has not—around the world. Adequate federal funding is also necessary for the additional staff and equipment needed to make schools safe.