"Since we cannot yet predict what September will look like, we can-and we must-be prepared for a range of possibilities," New York City schools chancellor Richard Carranza wrote in a memo to school administrators in early June.
"Nimble" isn't a word typically associated with the city's Department of Education, a behemoth that educates more than 1.1 million children in 1,800 schools.
As the 2019-20 school year limped to its conclusion, fully 94 percent of school districts nationwide had yet to announce plans for reopening in the fall, according to a School Superintendents Association survey.
It could lead some schools to cut back to a skeleton staff of teachers, with the result looking more like a loosely organized day-care center than a school.
Even students at well-run schools will suffer, the longer this goes on.
"I certainly see nothing good for low-SES kids' literacy in everything that has gone on since the Covid-19 pandemic," said University of Illinois at Chicago reading expert Tim Shanahan, who cited closed schools, unevenly available instructional resources, shallow instruction, and the looming possibility of not opening schools in the fall or doing so part-time.
"The losses experienced by kids in the worst schools may not be as bad as you would fear because they aren't getting that much education in those schools anyway ... and the losses can be overcome if actions are taken to intensify and raise the quality of the education that they eventually receive," he concluded.
"Nimble" isn't a word typically associated with the city's Department of Education, a behemoth that educates more than 1.1 million children in 1,800 schools.
As the 2019-20 school year limped to its conclusion, fully 94 percent of school districts nationwide had yet to announce plans for reopening in the fall, according to a School Superintendents Association survey.
It could lead some schools to cut back to a skeleton staff of teachers, with the result looking more like a loosely organized day-care center than a school.
Even students at well-run schools will suffer, the longer this goes on.
"I certainly see nothing good for low-SES kids' literacy in everything that has gone on since the Covid-19 pandemic," said University of Illinois at Chicago reading expert Tim Shanahan, who cited closed schools, unevenly available instructional resources, shallow instruction, and the looming possibility of not opening schools in the fall or doing so part-time.
"The losses experienced by kids in the worst schools may not be as bad as you would fear because they aren't getting that much education in those schools anyway ... and the losses can be overcome if actions are taken to intensify and raise the quality of the education that they eventually receive," he concluded.
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