After the Storm: What Next?

By Anthony Muhammad, Ph.D.

March of 2020 changed life forever.  The Covid-19 virus sparked a global pandemic, and all of the typical norms of life were redrawn.  Fear of catching this deadly virus altered every aspect of our lives for over two years.  Schools were not spared this experience.  No one had a playbook for this event and the most dominant question that I heard from anxious and concerned educators between 2020 – 2023 was “What’s Next?”

Surveying the Damage

It would be less than wise to not take a moment and examine how this major disruption in our lives and our profession affected us.  Under normal circumstances, teaching is a challenging and difficult profession, but educating students during a pandemic was a task that none of us were prepared to confront.

Merrimack College prepares an annual report on the state of the teaching profession.  For obvious reasons, they did not release their report in 2020 or 2021 because of the instability caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic.  The reconvened the report in 2022 and the results were devastating.  As of April of 2022, only 12% of American teachers reported being satisfied with their job (Will 2022).  This mark was a record low in the history of this report.  According to psychology professor Serge Doublet (Doublet 2000), stress has a debilitating psychological effect on human beings. When people improperly process stress, they tend to gravitate toward others to vent their discontent and validate their behavioral reactions. Instead of leaning into the advice and empirical research, many educators turned to one another to vent and seek validation of their dissatisfaction with pandemic education.

No platform served as a greater host to this activity than social media.

A 2022 study found that teachers’ professional and social habits changed significantly during pandemic education; their social interaction habits were negatively impacted in three ways (Jones, Camburn et al. 2022).

1. The distancing requirements made it difficult to engage in physical human interaction and created social isolation among peers.

2. The struggle of virtual instruction or mitigated face-to-face instruction raised professional anxiety and stress.

3. Social media became an outlet to share professional frustration, and social media algorithms matched frustrated educators with thousands of others experiencing the same stress and anxiety.

The study found that these three realities resulted in higher rates of teacher sick days, resignations, and generally unpleasant behavior, like irritability and impatience, during the pandemic.   In many cases, the stress of teaching during a pandemic caused many teachers to leave the profession altogether and we currently face one of the greatest teacher shortages in the history of American education (Sparks 2022).

How has the pandemic affected students? 

Achievement gaps existed before Covid-19, but the realities of inequity in student learning outcomes were enhanced during the pandemic. One of the major barriers to quality instruction and learning during the pandemic was virtual instruction. A challenge of virtual instruction is the limitation it introduces for engagement. At best, direct virtual instruction can be three dimensional (Natason and Meckler 2020).

1. Using sight: Participants see one another physically through a livestream using their web cameras.

2. Using sound: Participants hear one another through the audio stream.

3. Using writing: Participants share their thoughts in writing through the chat or writing feature of the videoconferencing platform.

These three dimensions are possible if all participants use the videoconferencing features. What often happened fell well short of this description. Often, students attended reluctantly, and since no protocol for engagement in virtual learning was developed before COVID-19, it was common for students to (1) never turn on their video camera so you never knew if they were present, (2) mute their audio feature and never say a word during the entire experience, and (3) never use the chat feature to share thoughts and impressions in writing (Goldhaber, Kane et al. 2022).

As we give educators well deserved grace because of the abrupt nature of the global pandemic, I think it is important to give leaders and policy makers some grace for some of their decisions, which in hindsight did damage to students and educators.  We were all in this quandary together and I would like to believe that all involved had good intentions, including mandates for virtual instruction.

We learned that students of poverty suffered more than others during the pandemic both emotionally and academically because of the lack of resources to keep up with the pace of virtual and independent learning and challenging living conditions (Camera 2021).  The U.S. Department of Education periodically assesses America’s students with an assessment known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).  The 2022 NAEP results showed the alarming effects of the pandemic on students academically with record decreases in both math and reading across all student demographic groups (Jiminez 2022).

Finally, one of the nation’s most trusted college admissions exams, The American College Testing (ACT) reported that the composite performance of American high school students reached a record low for this century at 19.5 out of a possible 36, with 43% of all test-takers not meeting college readiness benchmarks in math, reading, writing, or science (Jones and Kallingall 2023).

In conclusion (to surveying the damage), both teachers and students came out of the pandemic wounded both emotionally and academically.  Not only did we not have a plan of action before the pandemic, but many are also struggling to figure out how to pick up the pieces and move on after the storm clouds have passed.  What if the solution was always in front of us? What if this tragic lesson could be a springboard for a much brighter future?  Tragedies are painful, but it is even more tragic to not learn and grow from the experience if you are fortunate enough to survive it.

From Tragedy to Opportunity

Pandemics are very interesting phenomena, and they are not new to humanity. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was even deadlier than COVID-19, and the disruptions to daily life were equally or more significant. As we prepare for this post-COVID reality, wouldn’t it be wise to learn from the past so that we can plan for a brighter future?

In a 2021 article for the CNN website, Kristen Rogers writes that pandemics cause “a widespread sense that time has split into two—or pandemics creating a ‘before’ and ‘after’—is an experience that’s associated with many traumatic events.” She points out that this feeling can give people permission to engage in critical changes to their lives and their societies that would not have been plausible under normal circumstances. She documents that the post–Spanish flu era brought about the following social improvements (Rogers 2021).

1. Improvement in personal hygiene and preventive disease behavior.

2. Advancement in medical research in the study of viruses.

3. Increased opportunities for women to enter the workforce due to labor shortages after the pandemic.

So, I think it is logical to ask, are there improvements this post-pandemic window of time will give us the courage to implement?

Should we look at post-pandemic life as a reset, or an opportunity to seize the moment for critical shifts in our profession? Issues like student achievement gaps, poor assessment practices, counterproductive public policies, and teacher preparation and retention were problematic long before March 2020. I propose that, like after the Spanish flu pandemic, we can take advantage of this transition from old-to-new to address some critical improvements to the field of education, and the PLC at Work process can serve as a pathway to a better future.

The PLC at Work process, first introduced in 1998 by Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker, proposes that schools make student learning their focus, operate collaboratively, and take collective responsibility for student learning. Many educators have heard this message.

But many have viewed it as a luxury as opposed to a necessity.

The PLC at Work process has six critical tenets (DuFour and Eaker 1998).

1. Educators work collaboratively, instead of individually, and take collective    responsibility for student learning.

2. Educators agree to work on collaborative teams and engage in work that helps   improve student learning.

3. Educators clarify what’s essential for every student to learn, unit by unit, regardless of the teacher students are assigned.

4. Educators agree to administer frequent common formative assessments to gather evidence of student progress toward what the team has deemed essential.

5. Educators agree to use the evidence gathered by their common formative assessments to provide extra time and support for students who are falling short of the target of proficiency and arrange opportunities to extend learning for those students who have demonstrated proficiency.

6. Educators agree to use evidence of student learning to guide their individual and collective practice.

Before COVID-19, many schools heard this message, but not nearly enough engaged deeply in the process. Though these practices make practical sense, the schools feared that, without a sense of urgency, educators would reject these critical shifts in practice because of the disruptive nature of change and a general sense of complacency.

Many schools, pre-COVID, adopted elements of the PLC at Work process, but not an all-encompassing commitment to all the tenets. PLC implementation experts refer to partial commitment to the PLC at Work process as PLC Lite. PLC Lite best describes the current state of most professional learning communities around the country:

Educators rename their traditional faculty or department meetings as PLC meetings, engage in book studies that result in no action, or devote collaborative time to topics that have no effect on student achievement—all in the name of the PLC process (DuFour and Reeves 2016) pg. 69.

Our collective response to the COVID-19 proved that we could make swift and substantive shifts to our practice when necessary. Many schools transitioned their traditional face-to-face instruction into a virtual platform in a matter of months. Teachers scaled down curriculum and focused on what was essential given their limited access to students and the collective trauma felt by both teachers and students. Educators found ways to connect and maintain some sense of social engagement, even though we could not be physically together.

We proved that when the situation was urgent, we could band together and change. 

In fact, the best minds in our profession, including Dr. John Hattie, suggested that educators reinforce the tenants of the PLC at Work process to thrive during the pandemic because it offered the best pathway to mitigate the potentially devastating academic impact (Hattie 2020).  States like Arkansas, focused and invested deeply in the PLC at Work process as a response to the pandemic.  Many of their schools not only survived, but thrived in many areas academically and emotionally (Key and Eaker 2023).  Change is important, but the right change is even more important.

Recommitment

Since pandemics give us a window of time to change important elements in our society, why not use this period of stability to truly commit to PLC at Work.  There is no strategy more promising in improving student achievement than the collective commitment of a faculty to fully implement the essential elements of a PLC at Work.  In 2009, teachers led a grassroots education reform movement in Singapore called “Singapore Teachers Lead, Care, Inspire! The Future of Our Nation Passes Through Our Hands”.  The foundation of this movement was the universal adoption of the PLC at Work model designed by Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker in 1998 (Hairon, Goh et al. 2014). 

This movement was so transformative, that Singapore has emerged as a model of educational excellence because of the professional and effectiveness of their educators and the performance of their students on academic assessments.  Since 2014, Singapore has outperformed all nations on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) since 2014. 

It did not require a pandemic for them to move into action, but a grave concern for the future of their students and their nation.  I believe that the time is ripe for that type of movement to take shape in the United States of America. We need to pull ourselves together for the sake of our students, our nation, and our world. 

Just Get Started and Stay the Course!

The architects of this concept operated under one simple premise, “We learn best by doing” (DuFour, DuFour et al. 2016) pg. 1.  The only way to make real change is to take the first step and get started!  It is within our sphere of influence to do the following things to secure a brighter future for our students.

1. Organize a leadership team, or guiding coalition, that creates the conditions for strong collaborative teams to thrive in the PLC at Work process.  This team should be diverse and embody the tenants of shared leadership.  They should meet regularly to model, organize, and monitor the full implementation of the PLC at Work process.

2. Create the conditions in your school for every professional to belong to a meaningful and productive team.  These teams should meet regularly and focus solely on making a positive impact on students academically and behaviorally.  These teams should use evidence of student learning to find and share promising practices to improve their professional effectiveness individually and collectively.

3. The work of the teams should be organized within the parameters of the four critical PLC Questions.

Don’t think about it, don’t try it, just do it!  If a grassroots effort of a group of teachers in Singapore could lead to international respect and prominence, imagine what could be done with the resources and talent present in the American school system.  Get on the journey and stay on the journey!  We might just find that the solutions to our problems have been in our midst since 1998.

The Alchemist (Coelho 1993) is an epic tale of the journey of a Spanish shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago has a recurring dream of a treasure awaiting him at the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. He has no idea how to get to the pyramids, nor does he know exactly where his treasure is buried, but his vision is so compelling that it is worth pursuing. So, Santiago sells his sheep and takes a turbulent journey to Egypt to find his treasure. Along the way, he has many challenges, some even life-threatening. The temptation to give up and return to the life he knew before is common as Santiago confronts and conquers one challenge after another. Along his journey, he is robbed, beaten, and nearly killed. He also experiences some triumphs that are almost seductive enough to make him stop short of his ultimate goal. Through many trials and challenges, Santiago arrives at the pyramids only to find that his treasure is buried at a spot back in Spain where he would sleep almost every night. He had to go through a painful journey just to find out the treasure had been beneath his feet the entire time. Santiago returns to Spain, digs up the treasure, and finds it is greater than he could have ever imagined. 

We have been on a journey like Santiago.  We all come to this profession looking to make a deep impact on the lives of children.  Along the way, there are many challenges that can make us complacent, and it some cases they make us want to surrender and give up.  But, like Santiago, our desire to see students thrive must be bigger than the pain of the journey.  We are the gatekeepers of the future.  PLC at Work is that tool that will help us unearth our treasure.  All we have to do is embrace what is right in front of us.

 Resources

Camera, L. (2021). The Looming Crisis of Kids and Covid. U.S. News and World Report.

Coelho, P. (1993). The Alchemist. New York, NY, Harper Collins.

Doublet, S. (2000). The Stress Myth. Chesterfield, MO, Science and Humanities Press.

DuFour, R., et al. (2016). Learning By Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work 3rd Edition. Bloomington, IN, Solution Tree Press.

DuFour, R. and R. Eaker (1998). Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, Indiana, Solution Tree.

DuFour, R. and D. Reeves (2016). "The Futility of PLC Lite." Phi Delta Kappan 97(6): 69-71.

Goldhaber, D., et al. (2022). The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During the Pandemic. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Center for Educational Policy Research.

Hairon, S., et al. (2014). Challenges to PLC Enactment in Singapore Hierarchical School System. N. I. o. Education. Singapore, Nanyang Technical University.

Hattie, J. (2020) Visible Learning Effect Sizes When Schools are Closed: What Matters and What Does Not. https://corwin-connect.com/2020/04/visible-learning-effect-sizes-when-schools-are-closed-what-matters-and-what-does-not/#.XrWiW1mhkO0.email 

Jiminez, K. (2022). Reading and Math Test Scores Fall Across U.S. During Pandemic. USA Today.

Jones, A. and N. Kallingall (2023) ACT reports record low scores on college readiness exams. Cnn.com 

Jones, N., et al. (2022). "Teachers' Time Use and Affect Before and After Covid 19 School Closures." AERA Open 8.

Key, J. and R. Eaker (2023). Does Arkansas Have the Solution to America's Public Education Crisis. New York Times. New York, NY.

Natason and Meckler (2020). Remote Schooling is Leaving Children Sad and Angry. The Washington Post.

Rogers, K. (2021) Life after the 1918 flu has lessons for our post-pandemic world. Cnn.com 

Sparks, S. (2022). Teacher and Student Absenteeism is Getting Worse. Education Week.

Will, M. (2022). Teacher Job Satisfaction Hit an All-Time Low. Education Week.