Responsding to Crisis

HOW PRIVATE SCHOOLS PRESERVEDOPTIONS, AUTONOMY, FLEXIBILITY AND RELATIONSHIPS DURING UNCERTAINTY

This crisis has revealed the essential role schools play in the daily life and livelihood of so many in our community. It has taught us that school is not merely where our children grow and pursue goals but where we all learn to live together. This last year has revealed concerns about the toll the pandemic may take on student achievement. But private schools have responded by looking beyond these immediate concerns to what may be possible for education on the other side of the pandemic. They have a strong focus on helping learners grow in a broad range of competencies and skills to ensure that they emerge stronger by preserving options, autonomy, flexibility, and most importantly-relationships.

Private Schools have become an attractive solution offering consistency through unique options and reopening plans. They have recognized and adapted to the learning that takes place beyond their walls and tailored opportunities to meet the needs of the entire family. There is finally merited recognition of the essential role schools play in the daily life of our society, not just for learners but also in the livelihoods of teachers, parents, and others in the community. According to the National Association of Independent Schools, as of late July, 40% of private schools were planning on full in-person reopening, 19% were preparing for entirely virtual instruction, and 41% were offering a hybrid option. Private schools were able able to achieve reopening safely through clear and frequent communication. They provided their constituents opportunities to provide feedback on processes and procedures for academic, social, and emotional support of in-person, virtual, and hybrid instruction. They offered clear responsiveness to what they heard from their community by implementing changes that empowered parents to support their child's education through choice and flexibility.

With more autonomy, private schools were also able to plan a more aggressive reopening. School autonomy, the freedom and capacity to act, has always been a topic of serious dialogue and debate when discussing performance and achievement. This form of selfgovernance grants schools the authority to make decisions aimed at improving student performance by choosing the best fitting course choices and using their funds to attract and hire the most qualified teachers. The pandemic has created autonomy opportunities not just for decision-making responsibilities at the school level but for resource allocation, curriculum and testing, and even the implementation of instructional, behavioral, and health-related interventions. The early adoption and aggressive mobilization of these opportunities will undoubtedly provide better outcomes for students.

Embracing flexibility and innovation, private schools prioritized engagement as they faced the many challenges of the pandemic. Education is most successful when it is responsive to student needs, circumstances, and experiences. Private schools realized that more options for learning would be beneficial. Almost seamlessly, private schools reimagined education, reinvented curriculum, and reshaped classrooms and campuses to provide holistic education, produce social-emotional competence, and protect the needs of the most vulnerable in their school ecosystem. This flexible response is best evidenced through personalized learning that starts with a partnership with parents. Teachers work one-on-one with families to know each child, understand their changing needs, and actively care for those needs. This response has focused not just on caring for their needs but also recognizing that their interests need to be stimulated. Another part of that success comes from smaller school communities where everybody’s ability to be flexible contributes to the mastery of collaboration, communication, content knowledge, critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and social-emotional learning and confidence. Private schools are education systems built on strong family and community relationships, centered to adapt to student needs as they change. The options and flexibility to explore new ways of learning have underscored the success of private schools during disruption and uncertainty.

Over the last several months, the schools that have functioned best are the ones that focused on fostering community-because for powerful learning to happen, relationships are critical. Decades of resilience research have taught us that supportive relationships are fundamental in helping children overcome adversity. To foster resilience, private schools responded by focusing on emotional support and community, bringing in a diverse team of experts to help support learning. These new allies reinforce, complement, and support teachers and parents to bring to life a more shared learning experience and cohesiveness of purpose. Schools brought in a range of experts from health personnel like nurses and psychologists to educational technology experts. These allies communicated often and early to align with teachers and collaborated with parents to support healthy mental and physical development.

Private schools have also worked hard to sustain involvement within their whole school community. They built and maintained routines, provided after-school and extracurricular programming, and continue to check in and make changes as the need arises. This pandemic has made clear that school autonomy is playing an important role in performance and achievement, directly impacting cohesiveness and resilience. Private schools have more flexibility when it comes to adhering to standards, especially when reopening. It is hard to imagine another point in history when the essential role of private schools in economic and social security is so obvious and well understood. The role of independent schools is even more significant now as they lay out a roadmap for education to emerge stronger from this global crisis. ▪