SPECIAL REPORT: WEATHERING THE COVID-19 STORM K-12 EDUCATION
COVID-19 brought challenges, opportunities to education
More flexibility and personalization could be the lasting impact of a year of learning during a pandemic BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY
“Disruption” and “uncertainty” have been the themes of education during the COVID-19 pandemic, said state superintendent Paolo DeMaria. But the ways educators and administrators rose to the challenge, from getting meals to students to adapting to remote learning, demonstrated their commitment and creativity, he said. And DeMaria thinks the lessons educators learned about remote or technology-enabled learning have a lot of potential going forward. The Akron Public Schools had an advantage when the pandemic started, in that the district already had a one-to-one technology program that matched each student with a Chromebook. Because the infrastructure already was in place, the district has seen strong engagement and attendance numbers even remotely, said chief academic officer Ellen McWilliams-Woods. COVID-19 was a “hardship,” McWilliams-Woods said, but the pandemic also served as an “innovative, positive disruption” for education. This past year was about flexibility from some of the usual institutional barriers, about re-envisioning education. And that means McWilliams-Woods sees a lot of possibilities from this year going forward. Remote learning could be used to connect students at different buildings, essentially creating a large enough class to fill a particular course. Or high school students participating in internships and job shadowing experiences might be able to use technology to check in with teachers or mentors back at the school building. Scheduling could become less of a restriction. Remote learning could be a way to
The Akron Public Schools distributed grab-and-go meals daily during the pandemic. | CONTRIBUTED
“WE CAN’T USE AN ALL-ORNONE STRATEGY THAT WE OFTEN LIKE TO AND PAINT THE PICTURE AS UNIVERSALLY BLEAK OR UNIVERSALLY BRIGHT, BUT IN FACT HAVE TO LOOK AT DIFFERENCES.” — Eric Gordon, superintendent and CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District
help address students’ different needs, academically and otherwise. DeMaria gave the example of a high school student who is responsible for getting their younger sibling to school. That responsibility consistently makes them late to their own building.
“Let’s accommodate that,” he said. Instead of framing it as a problem, schools could offer a remote class that the student could take at a time that worked better for them. DeMaria said the pandemic helped teachers get to know their students better as they worked to personalize the learning experience. He thinks the governor’s request for extended learning plans, or plans districts can create to help students fill gaps created during the pandemic, will depend on knowing where students are. Those plans can include measures such as a later end to the school year, longer school days or summer programming. Post-pandemic, students need more time for “rich learning experiences,” said Eric Gordon, superintendent and CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The pandemic has shown that education needs to be more varied and personalized. The district will soon an-
nounce plans for more out-of-school programming designed to give students and their families more options. The pandemic brought existing problems, like food scarcity and the digital divide, into the light and exacerbated them, Gordon said. These basic needs have to be in place for students to succeed academically. But in meeting those needs, there have been bright spots, Gordon said. Every student in the district now has a device; teachers learned new digital skills. And some students have “thrived” in remote learning, he said. “We have to pay attention to those things,” Gordon said. “We can’t use an all-or-none strategy that we often like to and paint the picture as universally bleak or universally bright, but in fact have to look at differences.” The pandemic brought some unique challenges to light, as well,
that districts will be addressing in the years to come. DeMaria said enrollment rates in preschool and kindergarten dropped, which likely will lead to larger classes in the coming year. On the other end of the educational journey, there are a number of factors that have led more high school students to be “disengaged” this year, he said. Some needed to get a job to help support their families after a parent lost theirs; others found themselves as the primary caretaker for siblings. Ultimately, the reasons that usually lead students to drop out were “amplified” during the pandemic, DeMaria said. Addressing the issues raised by the pandemic will take flexibility. But Gordon said there’s an opportunity to make the system more equitable by meeting students where they are. At the youngest ages, Gordon said the Cleveland schools plan to offer mixed-age kindergarten so students whose families opted not to enroll them during the pandemic can still get that first school experience. Breaking down the traditional agegrade boundaries could benefit students in other grades, too. For students who struggled to keep pace during the pandemic, it may be time to look at milestones instead of “time-bound grades,” Gordon said. And increased flexibility could help the district better serve students who dropped out this year. A credit-based system like those offered by colleges could remove some of the stigma that having to repeat a grade often carries. “These are places where the adults have to behave differently if we’re really going to serve the young people counting on us well,” Gordon said. Rachel Abbey McCafferty: (216) 771-5379, rmccafferty@crain.com
HIGHER EDUCATION
Pandemic-related enrollment drops are steep for Black men Several local community colleges experienced declines even larger than the national rates BY AMY MORONA
Community colleges are the workhorse of many higher-ed systems, attracting students with greater flexibility and lower prices. They also serve people whose lives have been severely disrupted by the pandemic — and that’s led to an enrollment nosedive. Fall enrollment at two-year public colleges dropped about 10% compared with the year before — nearly five times the shift for four-year public and private universities. The enrollment of male students, already on the decline, took the brunt of it. Things were especially bad for Black men at community colleges. Their national enrollment fell 19%. Only Native American men saw a bigger decrease. The rates were even worse for some of Northeast Ohio’s institutions. Black male enrollment fell 33%, to about 1,360 students, at Cleveland’s
“STUDENTS SAID, ‘I’LL BE BACK WHEN YOU ALL COME BACK, WE’LL BE BACK WHEN YOU HAVE MORE CLASSES ON GROUND.” — Angela Johnson, Tri- C’s vice president of enrollment management
Cuyahoga Community College. Other community colleges, while enrolling fewer Black men, still saw their numbers fall sharply from the previous year — Lakeland at 26%, Stark State at 13% and Lorain County at 6.5%. No group of people are a monolith. But for some Black male students, this past year may turn out to be merely a pause. Yet others, who left because of the pandemic, may never return.
“I think everyone in the higher education sector is worried about what’s being called a lost generation,” said Denise Douglas, Lorain County Community College’s dean of social sciences and human services . That fear, she believes, centers more on students who typically enroll straight out of high school. The freshmen enrollment of Black male and female community college students fell by nearly one-third nationwide last fall, far higher than the 19% of their two-year peers overall and a 10.5% total drop at public four-year institutions. Most Black men at community colleges, though, enroll somewhere in their mid-to-late 20s, typically after having a job or joining the military. That’s according to Frank Harris III, the co-director at San Diego State University’s Community College Equity Assessment Lab. This group may be more likely to return to the workforce instead of taking classes.
“For those students, they’ve already had a taste of what it’s like to make ends meet without college,” he said. “It’s not easy, it’s not desirable, but they have the capacity to do it.” Harris pointed out Black men also have dealt with barriers to higher education that existed way before the pandemic. “There are microaggressions, there are stereotypes,” he said. “They are treated as though they don’t belong there.” Last year exposed more, including a reckoning on race and a pandemic that disproportionately impacted Black and brown communities in many ways, including economically and from a health standpoint. With the shift to a majority of online classes, the year also further underscored the digital divide. In an April survey of about 13,000 community college students nationwide, nearly half of Black students said they had to share a computer with a
family member. Close to one-third said they lacked consistent internet access. Even though many institutions provided devices and hot spots, the transition was tough. “Students said, ‘I’ll be back when you all come back, we’ll be back when you have more classes on ground,’ ” said Angela Johnson, TriC’s vice president of enrollment management. Johnson said the biggest challenge for Black male students who left revolved around finances. Layoff notices came in, hours got cut. Some turned toward Amazon warehouse positions and gig economy jobs. Going to school slid to the back-burner. “They really had to find opportunities that really could sustain them financially,” she said. “They felt like they had lots of family financial commitments that as a male, they’re the supporter, they are the provider.” See ENROLLMENT on Page 23
March 22, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 3
