Education

How One School Network’s Focus On Student Agency Has Prepared Students For At-Home Learning Amid COVID-19


Though the COVID-19 pandemic is causing an unprecedented crisis across the globe, the disruption is perhaps nowhere more acute than in the pre-K-12 community. More than 121,000 public and private schools in the U.S. have had to shut down, leaving administrators and teachers—and families—with the weighty task of providing remote instruction to at least 54.5 million students.

While none of us could have prepared for the sea of change that COVID-19 has brought, Distinctive Schools—a network of eight charter schools in Chicago and Detroit—has been boldly weathering the storm, seizing the disruption as an opportunity to build students’ muscle for outside-the-classroom learning.

Across the country, many districts have been, understandably, overwhelmed by the transition at hand. Our school systems have become reliant on a rigid, one-size-fits-all classroom structure that requires all students be seated together, in neat rows, to learn. For most educators, creating an environment that is flexible to a student’s unique abilities or preferences, fostering a student’s agency and ownership or tailoring content to fuel a student’s curiosity is just a pipe dream in today’s system. But that isn’t the case at Distinctive Schools.

Long before COVID-19 spread across the U.S., Distinctive Schools was working to create student-directed learning pathways. When I founded LEAP Innovations in 2014, Distinctive was one of the first schools I partnered with to help us reimagine what school could be. Together, we collaborated with the network’s educators to reframe pedagogy to engage students individually, with empathy—and rigorously challenge every student, every day, to meet and exceed expectations. Their schools have become exemplar models for serving Black and Latinx students to create fully engaged, student-centered learning environments. Whenever I visit their campuses here in Chicago—like Chicago International Charter School (CICS) West Belden, Irving Park, Prairie or Bucktown—I meet students who are excited and joyful about their learning, and educators who are constantly adapting their practice to be more student-driven.

They are living out their mission to enable each student in becoming an “engaged and curious learner, a confident self-advocate, and a creative problem solver.”

It is on that foundation that they entered this crisis—with a robust infrastructure and strong learning culture—and have been able to bring rigorous learning experiences to students’ homes. 

Before shutting down in mid-March, the network sent students home with a laptop or tablet (they all already have access to a device while in school), quickly identified which families lacked internet access and made a plan to address that. And because Distinctive emphasizes flexible learning environments and customized learning paths, its teachers and students had already built up the skills necessary to combine independent work with collaborative check-ins.

I spoke with Scott Frauenheim, CEO of Distinctive Schools, to hear how his teachers and students have fared during the closures, and what lessons he may have for others.

Phyllis Lockett: First, how are your students adapting to remote learning?

Scott Frauenheim: It has been incredible to watch. Our schools are rooted in the belief that learning is not about what happens in a building. It can take place in any environment—because our students are in the driver’s seat of their learning. We’re really putting that philosophy to test right now.

The transition hasn’t been perfect, but it’s going well, and I think that speaks to the way our teachers have built relationships with our students and families, and our schools’ learning environment pre-pandemic. Our goal of tailoring the educational experience to the unique needs, strengths and interests of our learners creates a much more active learning environment. Our educational model gives students agency over their learning, so our students understand their goals for the day and work toward them, in partnership with their teacher and often their peers. They’re accustomed to technology being embedded into their coursework. 

Lockett: How are your teachers handling the transition?

Frauenheim: Collaboration and agility are at the heart of our culture—and that’s really playing out right now. Everyone at every level of the organization is “all hands on deck” to serve students. In our “normal” scenario, teams of staff and educators are coming together all the time to troubleshoot, brainstorm and iterate. These meetings are happening remotely now, and our teachers are still working together to constantly reflect on how we create the best learning opportunities possible for our students. Many educators are jumping in to help peers create courses, even if it’s not “their job.” I’m really proud of the work, and I think it reflects the future of the teaching workforce—where educators can lend their expertise at scale, beyond their individual classrooms.

Beyond their assigned roles and classes, every Distinctive Schools educator also serves as a student mentor. So we are leveraging our middle school mentorship structures to provide students with individual and small group sessions on a daily basis. Relationships are central to the academic progress they are able to make each day. So our mentors engage each student personally in open discussions about their feelings, challenges and goals for learning virtually.

Lockett: What was your initial focus when you first created a learn-from-home strategy?

Frauenheim: Our teams focused on ensuring that students have a sense of normalcy, maintaining routine, as much as possible. Routine is so important for children, especially when they are experiencing scary and confusing changes in their day-to-day schedules. We wanted to build a routine that provides some stability in their lives—and for their parents, too.

For example, teachers facilitate virtual morning meetings with their classrooms, which allows students to start the day by seeing each other. All teachers have one-on-one check-ins with their students, and reading, math, art and music classes are being held virtually each day. With everything changing at such a rapid pace, we also recognize that flexibility for ourselves and our students is key.

Lockett: How have the schools handled the technology challenges that accompany online learning?

Frauenheim: During our contingency planning, we anticipated the need to have technology at home, so we surveyed parents to learn about Broadband access issues. Also, all Distinctive Schools have a 1:1 technology model, so every student has their own device—and we have, of course, lifted all take-home restrictions. Our students have taken this challenge as an opportunity to show us that they are independently motivated, autonomous learners capable of engaging with content without the structure of a traditional classroom.

Across all our schools, we are seeing our students engage with education technology and online content at really impressive rates—compared to a regular school day, 83% of all our Elementary School students are logging into their work and an astounding 98% of our Middle School students are doing the same. So rather than reminding and encouraging our students just to access the content, the energy of our educators is more deeply focused on proctoring and the instruction of individual students.

Lockett: So what does a day in the life of your students look like now?

Frauenheim: Here’s what a fourth grader’s day looked like this week.

First thing in the morning, our students joined a daily morning meeting with their teacher and peers on Zoom, to connect and get learning in motion for the day. The teacher greeted the class, facilitated a brief group activity and then shared the agenda for the day and work that needs to be completed.

After saying goodbye to her teacher and her classmates in the morning meeting, the student logged into Google Classroom to respond to the “question of the day” posed in the morning meeting—for example, “What do you miss about school?”

At 9 a.m., she joined a guided reading Zoom group with a teacher and seven other students. Students are assigned to different teachers and small groups every day. In this group, they read about tsunamis and had a great discussion.

Come 10 a.m., there was yoga. With the help of video content, our dance enrichment instructor led some activities to keep students moving.

Next, this fourth grader joined a quick Zoom call with her teacher and classmates to go over the reading comprehension skill for the week, and then proceeded to dive into online literacy programs with Lexia learning. 

After a good lunch break, she turned to math, logging into Zearn to watch the lesson from the day before. The teacher went over the lesson for their math group time at 1:15, where they joined a Zoom discussion to go over the problems. At the end, each student took a picture of their answer and posted it to Google Classroom.

Prodigy math and science came next. One day, there was a class competition to try to do as many math problems as possible. We saw a lot of students get excited, checking in with their peers to see how they were doing. And then before the end of the day, Ms. Pearson, the music teacher, posted a singing lesson for our fourth grader to try before logging off for the day at 3.

So a really busy and productive day!

Lockett: What education technology tools are you using—and would you recommend them to other schools and parents?

Frauenheim: For instruction, we use a range of programs and tools that are tailored to different grade bands. These include ST Math, Zearn, Lexia, DeansList, Benchmark Education, Engage New York online resources, IXL, Summit Learning Platform, and Seesaw. And for mobilizing our communications with students, parents and our teachers, now we have especially relied upon Zoom, Google Hangouts, Chat Features and ClassDojo.   

Lockett: What advice do you have for other educators and districts right now?

Frauenheim: Overall, take risks and lean forward—for example, by opening up chat features and video options for kids. This is our opportunity to test, pilot and prototype. If we hide behind policies meant for in-classroom learning, we will lose opportunities for equity.

Check in with your team regularly—however you can. And make sure they continue to have professional development, resources and time to plan. Think about flipping a day or a half day per week to let teachers have the time they need. Ensure balance. Teachers are juggling a lot at home right now, and they need the trust and the open boundaries to do what they need to do when they can do it.

Listen deeply to leaders, teachers, staff, students and families. Respond and communicate as often as you can. Our families, staff and students are deeply engaged with us and connected to our communities, and they especially need protection, direction and order in this time. Even though it feels like a lot, they need to hear from us.

Celebrate successes! This is such an emotional time right now and we need to keep positivity and culture at the forefront.

Lockett: I know Distinctive puts a big emphasis on relationships between students and educators—your educators put a tremendous amount of time and attention into getting to know their students. How are those relationships being sustained?

Frauenheim: Yes, actually, by doubling down on our cultural commitment to what we call the Joy Factor. Our teams intentionally curate a positive, cheerful presence in our classrooms, which now happen to be online. This is especially important to maintain as students begin to realize the impact of the pandemic on their families and the world. We have prioritized our cultural focus on emotional and physical wellbeing throughout each day.

Our teachers are doing a great job of making their interactions with students as joyful as possible. Just like the students, teachers were already used to incorporating technology into the curriculum, which has made this transition—while still a difficult adjustment—a less burdensome shift for our schools.  

We’re maintaining some of the structures that take place in a physical school. Our enrichment team has created online music and drawing classes. Our PE teachers are leading virtual workouts, and sharing ideas for keeping kids engaged with everyday items incorporated in lessons. And we will have recess! That gives students another way to express their feelings while also boosting their creativity.  

Our teachers are used to taking risks in the classroom—they know that we support their innovative ideas. This is probably the largest leap we’ve taken collectively, but I am beyond proud of the work our staff, teachers, leaders and students are doing during this transition.

Lockett: U.S. companies think a lot about business resiliency. It’s high time we think about “learning” resiliency. The kind of joyful, highly personalized and learner-driven experience the Distinctive Schools faculty has enabled for its students and families is what we want and need for every student—especially during this crisis. Imagine: How resilient could learning be for every student across America if this model was the norm?

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.



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