COVID-19 and How Schools can Strategically Develop from this Crisis
How will pedagogical beliefs and practices change this fall now that everyone has been forced out of their comfort zone? Would returning to 'business as usual' be acceptable?
COVID-19 has shined a light into the darkest recesses of our pedagogical practices. For all schools, both public and private, to some degree it exposed:
a need for education continuity planning;
an inability to effectively differentiate teaching and learning practices; and
an inability to effectively demonstrate 21st Century Learning.
But, during this tumultuous time it did free a number of educators to be more innovative in how they ensured students could access the curriculum. It also freed students to access the curriculum in a way that they are more comfortable with. The key question I want to provoke all educators to consider is:
Are you ready to develop and implement a strategy to improve how students access curriculum in the absence of a classroom, and do this within 6-months?
This article is intended to build on the arguments I made in my last article, Now is the Time to Pivot from Crisis Management to Strategic Planning, and provide practical guidance on how to use Richard Rumelt’s model for creating good strategy, which he calls the kernel:
The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstacles called out in the diagnosis...Coherent actions are feasible coordinated policies, resource commitments, and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy
In this article I will be focusing mainly on the diagnosis element, as well as making a case for schools to abandon their current strategic plans and mobilize their staff and communities to take immediate and coherent action. The coherent action I recommend is not to be reactive and manage the current crisis, but to seize this as an opportunity to develop good strategy. Strategy that will free educators and students from the decades old pedagogical practices that undermine 21st Century Teaching and Learning.
To develop good strategy we need leaders that can call attention to a few critical factors that not only address the deficiencies surfaced during this current crisis, but also when addressed will act as pivot points to multiply the effectiveness of effort. The educators and students thriving during this period are the pivot points that good strategy relies on to ensure leverage over desired outcomes. The leader's next most important role is to then focus and concentrate action and resources on them.
This is where good strategy begins, with a simple, yet honest observation: "...my humanity and that of the people close to me has been elevated in ways that I haven't fully processed. My youngest daughter, who is a 2nd grader, has been clinging to me in ways that feel natural and good, and are also different from our pre-COVID-19 reality and all of our hustle-bustle. All three of my children seem more at peace and joyful in this new phase, which really provokes for me additional interrogation of our education system with particular focus on the student and family experience." Dr. Cheryl Camacho, the Chief of the South Bend Empowerment Zone in South Bend, Indiana, expressed this sentiment in a recent Forbes article on how educational leaders of color are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Camacho now needs to distil her observation, and subsequent interrogation, into a simple narrative that calls attention to the critical factors. This will be the start of good strategy, an honest acknowledgement that simplifies the overwhelming complexity of reality.
Building on the student experience as a critical factor for this developing diagnosis I want to introduce Veronique Mintz, a middle schooler in New York. Veronique has benefitted handsomely from remote learning and probably dreads a return to normal. She made a very compelling argument for why we should continue to use remote learning in this New York Times Op-Ed. Remote learning has enabled Veronique to have more time to process and develop meaningful inquiries. This period of remote learning has also given her the opportunity and time to meet with classmates in smaller groups to affirm their understanding and apply learning concepts. She is an agentic learner and represents the holy grail of inquiry based learning. If it wasn't for this pandemic she may not have found her voice.
Remote learning has not only forced educators to create content that students like Veronique can master, but also forced students to collaborate outside of class, where many are expressing being more comfortable. Again, it should seem so obvious that kids would rather collaborate online and outside of the classroom. Their time and attention is constantly consumed by conversations happening online. Many students are also more likely to search for information online than ask their teacher, especially if they are having difficulty engaging with the classroom learning. But, despite all the 21st Century Learning rhetoric, schools are struggling to demonstrate 21st Century Learning: collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
Unfortunately, though, too many educational leaders in independent schools are anxious to have things return to 'normal'. Partly because of all the abuse they got from parents during this period, as well as a belief that the tools they were forced to rely on couldn't possibly be better than classroom instruction. When these school leaders get that opportunity to return to 'normal', how will the students and teachers that excelled during this period fare? Or conversely, if schools underperformed during this period, how can they better prepare for the next wave of inevitable school closures? Acting strategically in either case is a growth opportunity.
Engaging and staying engaged with your key constituencies is critical for the development of good diagnoses. Dr. Camacho demonstrated that her districts response to COVID-19 was a Strategic Imperative by taking these initial steps:
I'm continually asking: "how will a student/family experience this policy? practice? response?" It's also important to consider that what is "mainstream" or captured via certain data collection methods (like a survey emailed to parents) may not comprehensively capture their experiences. Let's ground our response in real data. Qualitative methods help us do this. Our Empowerment Zone has really worked to ground our strategy and approach in qualitative data by interviewing 50 families/week per school.
79% of Dr. Camacho's students qualify for free and reduced lunch, which would seem obvious why her colleagues need to interview parents directly, but the result of this is where transformative change begins to develop. I facilitate strategic planning for a lot of schools that initially welcome my approach inspired by Richard Rumelt's book Good Strategy Bad Strategy, until I ask them who is representing the parents and students. Then begins a cascade of reasons why some people should be excluded during the Diagnosis stage until 'we' are sure of the direction the school is moving in. This fear of 'some people' is really an insecurity that tuition based schools have about involving their 'customers' in shaping school policy and strategy.
Another belief I would like to dispel is that the constituencies of public and independent schools are different, therefore you can't compare them. But are they, really? Their expectations for attainment and resources may vary, and therefore operationally schools will have to deploy resources differently. But when I reflect on all the grief independent schools have gotten during this period, especially Primary, it is largely because parents weren't engaged in the same level of dialog that Dr. Camacho's staff engaged her community. Dialog, not surveys and newsletters.
To be fair, there are independent schools that include faculty, students and parents during the SWOT Analyses and Visioning stages typically associated with ‘good school strategic planning’, but these schools in an effort to satisfy too many stakeholders will end with a watered down diagnosis and vague guiding policies that lead to 5 to 10 domains for action.
One last question: Does a strategic plan need to be 3, 5 or 10 years? Why can't it be 6 months? Why can't we dramatically improve student learning across a whole school in 6 months? To answer this let’s look outside of education for inspiration, and specifically the existential threat Intel faced in 1979. In 1979 Intel's sales force rang alarm bells about Motorola’s more powerful and user friendly micro chips. The events that unfolded from a single memo would unleash a force that propelled Intel to global dominance. Motorola was Goliath and Intel was David. Intel wouldn't be able to compete head-to-head, technologically. This didn't mean they couldn't compete, they just needed to confront the reality and develop a strategy, and from this realization Operation Crush was born. Staff throughout the company aligned their activities in line with key strategic objectives and Intel's representatives engaged their clients in much more meaningful dialog.
Based on this case, here is an outline for how schools should be responding, strategically:
When faced with an existential threat we need to honestly acknowledge our capacity to address it.
We need to engage all stakeholders and stay engaged with them.
We need a diagnosis that defines a domain of action and identifies the pivot points to ensure leverage over outcomes.
Senior leaderships’ role is to develop Guiding Policies that clearly state what needs to be done and how teams across the organization should mobilize.
Middle Leaderships’ role is to mobilize teams to identify goals that align with the guiding policies and ensure coherence of action.
COVID-19 is an existential threat to the development of our children, very similar to the numerous natural disasters or wars that have disrupted learning for millions of children over the past decade. Natural disasters and wars, though, have done little in the way of improving mankind's ability to ensure continuity in education. This time, no one has been spared from the disruption that COVID-19 caused. We have the technological means and ample anecdotal evidence to suggest we can come out of this crisis stronger. Better yet, everyone, rich and poor, have had to experience what 21st Century Learning really entails. Don’t miss this opportunity to revolutionize teaching and learning!
