When the historians write the final story how communities reacted to the coronavirus crisis, the teamwork that occurred behind the scenes at the Los Alamitos Unified School District to transform distance learning is likely worth a mention.
From what was thought to be a temporary interruption, the COVID-19 crisis exploded into a full-blown pandemic, shutting down communities and schools in the process.
Nothing was the same, certainly not school.
When it became clear that school was out for the rest of the school year, it also become clear to Supt. Dr. Andrew Pulver and his staff that they need to act, and fast.
Interviewed the day of the emergency board meeting to shut down the schools, Pulver said then that “two weeks is a long time” for schools to close.
In fact, the superintendent was so concerned about schools being closed for more than two weeks that he wrote it in the resolution that the board would be asked to consider.
On March 13, Pulver asked the board for authority for a two-week closure, and if needed, an additional two weeks. Neither he, nor the community could have known the enormity of what was to come.
When the Governor closed schools for the remainder of the school year, educators worked tirelessly to make critical adjustments to it’s distance learning.
“We said we would keep you well informed,” Pulver recently told the LAUSD board, as he explaining to them how the team managed a substantial turnaround in the distance learning program during lockdown.
“Although I’m the one communicating it,” said Pulver, “a lot of the times the big ideas” come from staff, he said, including Ondrea Reed, the Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services. He praised the dedication” demonstrated by administrators, teachers, and staff, throughout the system.
Under intense pressure, and with lightning speed, the staff first created an immediate feedback loop for policy making with teachers, principals and all key staff related to school instruction.
Though much of the second semester was over by the time students were separated from their schools, an elemental distance learning program needed to immediately be transformed.
Also, the system also had to choose a grading system that “would do no harm,” yet support the college bound students.
Introduced by Pulver, Reed took the board through its journey of how the staff was able to make changes to provide more focused instruction and how they eventually decided on a grading system.
The shutdown was so unexpected, said Reed, that teachers had to be trained how to use the online system. Dr. Pulver had arranged for laptops to be made available for students without one, and the staff worked with carriers to provide hundreds of mobile hotspots to accommodate students without broadband access.
Following an executive order of the Governor, March 13 was the last day of traditional instruction for the Los Alamitos School District (and all schools throughout the state).
According to Reed, “we spent March 16th and 17th training over 500 teachers and support staff across the district rolling out to nine schools.”
“We really thought we’d get staff on the same page on what we thought would be a 2-3-week emergency,” she said.
Reed said the online teaching platform was launched March 18.
Even then, she said, most still thought “this would be a temporary hold on instruction.”
Reed was in contact with the entire team of key school administrators, teachers and others connected to instruction. There was a strong focus on transitioning the distance learning system from temporary, short term goals to the “long-term goals of our students.”
Among other improvements, they arranged to have only 60-minutes of virtual office hours to at least 90-minutes per day of focused instruction, giving students an opportunity to “cover new material.”
Even as the system began to transform, “many of our teachers had already shifted,” said Reed.
Then, as parents learned the system had a choice of grading systems for the pandemic period, they began flooding teachers, Pulver, Reed and the board with messages.
Inside the system, Reed said she and Dr. Pulver had attended workshops for educators at the county level while they created no fewer than five surveys for key personnel within the system.
The staff researched the grades of the seniors and matched them against potential colleges they may attend. While issuing letter grades would require much more effort, they concluded, this was the best choice for the students.
“I know many members of the community shared interest input with board members, with Dr. Pulver and myself,” said Reed, who said they ultimately decided to honor the “academic grit” of their students.
“They get here at 14 (years-old) and stay until their 18,” said Reed, “and work really, really hard.”
“We wanted them to be recognized for the additional point they could receive in their GPA when they apply to state colleges,” the assistant superintendent said. “So, what we did agree on was a modified gradient scale to closeout spring of 2020.”
She also briefly presented the choices they had made for elementary and middle school will have varying degrees of subject grading, which meet the emergency provisions of the declaration that meet the requirement that no student be held back.
Even with the distance learning enhancements, said Reed, it is not lost on anyone that there will be some catching up to do at some point.
Reed said they are aggressively investigating ways to provide refresher courses in the summer or pre-session next fall, but with the crisis still in motion, they can only monitor and adapt.
During the presentation, she presented in great detail many of the educational metrics around each choice and why decisions were made.
Meg Cutuli, board president, thanked Reed for an “incredibly thorough” report. It was succinct and easy to follow,” she said.
Board member Marlys Davidson, a retired teacher, thanked Pulver and Reed for making the choices they have made.
“There is so much in that presentation that deserves applause,” said Davidson. “It would have been easy for the district to choose the other grading system (non letter grading),” said Davidson.
She marveled at how, during the crisis, the administration surveyed the teachers, “then when the informed changed, “you went right back into a second survey.”
Davidson said as a former teacher, she was proud of how emploees in the system were able to adapt at as team.
Pulver said while he remained in constant collaboration with the team, he too was proud what they had accomplished.
“None of this would have been possible without exceptional teachers, administrators and classified staff,” said Pulver.
“They were really thinking differently, trying to find new ways to connect with kids.”