A Partnership Among Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Johnson College, Keystone College, Lackawanna College, Luzerne County Community College, Marywood University, Misericordia University, Penn State Scranton, Penn State Wilkes-Barre, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, University of Scranton & Wilkes University Institute Insights: Impact of COVID-19 on K-12 Education in Our Region Part 1: Spring 2020 August 2020 Education plans posted on school district websites or Introduction obtained from school administrators, and This research was underwritten by the Greater supplemented with information from published Scranton Chamber of Commerce, and UGI media reports. In a few cases, school districts’ Utilities and with support from the Luzerne Continuity of Education plans were no longer County COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund of available on district websites, and were unable to be obtained upon request by The Institute, limiting the The Luzerne Foundation, the Scranton Area information that could be collected regarding their Community Foundation COVID 19 Fund and approach. the Wells Fargo Foundation. This report was developed to examine the impact of Spring 2020 Learning Approaches the COVID-19 pandemic on public school education School districts in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties in our region for Kindergarten through 12th grade. used two approaches for providing continuity of This iterative study will involve several components. education to students in the spring of 2020 following The first part of this analysis examines the school closures. All districts in both Lackawanna and approaches used by school districts in Lackawanna Luzerne Counties initially offered Enrichment and and Luzerne Counties to provide Continuity of Review opportunities. These consisted of informal Education to students in the spring of 2020 following activities designed to reinforce or extend students’ the mandated closure of all Pennsylvania schools prior learning. School districts also had the option to beginning in mid-March to mitigate the spread of transition to Planned Instruction, using planned the virus. courses of instruction of new concepts and skill aligned to grade levels. Just over one-third of the As schools were ordered to remain closed for the eleven school districts in Luzerne County remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year, the transitioned to Planned Instruction in mid to late Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) April following the determination that schools would strongly encouraged school districts to provide remained closed through the end of the academic continuity of education for all students in the most year.1 In Lackawanna County, nearly three-quarters appropriate and accessible ways possible. Continuity of the eleven school districts made the transition to of education is the overarching term for educational Planned Instruction.2 practices that occur in the event of a prolonged school closure. School districts were encouraged to develop Continuity of Education Plans at the local level based on feasibility, availability of resources, local student needs, access and equity considerations, and social distancing guidance. The matrix included in the Appendix identifies the approaches used by each public school district in Lackawanna and Luzerne County, including the types of online or distance learning resources that were used, the grading and attendance policies that were followed, and other resources that were made available to students, including meal distribution. This information was compiled from Continuity of 1 Luzerne County School Districts include: Crestwood, Dallas, Valley, North Pocono, Old Forge, Riverside, Scranton and Valley Greater Nanticoke Area, Hanover Area, Hazleton Area, Lake View. Although Lackawanna Trail is within Wyoming County, it Lehman, Northwest Area, Pittston Area, Wilkes-Barre Area, was included in Lackawanna County’s totals for the purposes of Wyoming Area and Wyoming Valley West. this analysis. 2 Lackawanna County School Districts include: Abington Heights, Carbondale Area, Dunmore, Lackawanna Trail, Lakeland, Mid 2 Availability of Devices for Students Take-Home Packets Many School districts tried to provide assistance to Nearly three-quarters of school districts in students and families who did not have computers Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties had packets of or other electronic devices needed to access remote learning materials available for students who did not learning materials. About one-quarter of school have access to an electronic device. In some districts, districts in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties packets were only combined had limited availability of devices to loan available in to students, while half were able to loan devices to isolated students upon request, and did not specify circumstances or limitations on the quantities available in their for certain grade Continuity of Education plans. Nine percent, or two levels, typically at school districts in total, had devices available for all the elementary students. Northwest Area school district in Luzerne level. Distribution County had Chromebooks for all students, and Lake of the packets Lehman had devices available to all students in varied. Some grades 3 through 12, and upon request to students school districts in kindergarten through grade 2. Chromebooks were had designated pickup times, often coinciding with the most common types of devices made available scheduled distributions of food. One district (Pittston to students. Area) mailed packets to all students in kindergarten and 1st grade and to other students upon request. Two districts in Lackawanna County, Carbondale Northwest Area used district vans to deliver packets Area and Lackawanna Trail, were not able to provide to students in need. devices to students, according to their initial Continuity of Education plans. As school districts Remote Instruction Methods outline their plans for re-opening in the fall, all are Nearly all school districts in Lackawanna and Luzerne relying on at least partial a virtual learning Counties used asynchronous remote instruction component. Student access to electronic devices will methods to deliver educational materials to continue to be a necessity, and many families will students. This self-guided content could include remain in need of assistance. lessons delivered through posted video content, message boards, or other resources that gave students the flexibility to complete assignments at their own pace. Synchronous lessons, or lessons delivered in real-time through virtual meeting technologies such as Zoom and Google Meet, were offered much less frequently. In Luzerne County, about one-quarter of school districts offered synchronous classes, while just over half of Lackawanna County school districts offered this method. Those districts offering synchronous lessons typically used a combined approach that also included asynchronous materials, and also the ability for students to watch a recording of the lesson at a later time. 3 Participation and Attendance Policies School districts outlined students’ attendance and accountability expectations in their Continuity of Education plans. In some cases, this expectations shifted when school districts that offered Planned Instruction began that phase. The following chart reflects that policies that were in place as of the end of the school year. In both Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties, about two-thirds of school districts encouraged students to participate. However, some school districts noted that although students were encouraged to participate, they were not required to participate. One district, Greater Nanticoke Area, Instructional Technologies noted that “Students are highly encouraged to School districts used a variety of instructional participate in review and enrichment but due to technologies to communicate with students and limitations with technology and internet connectivity 3 present lessons in the remote learning students’ participation is voluntary.” environments, according to their Continuity of Education plans. Google Classroom was used most frequently, by 91 percent of school districts in the two counties combined. Over one-third of school districts included the option to use the Zoom meeting platform to meet virtually with students, while nine percent used Microsoft Teams. The Class Dojo app, a school communication platform, was used by 36 percent of districts within their primary schools to connect teachers, students, and families. Other tools used included: Edmentum’s Study Island reading and math resources (23 percent), Think Central, Odyssey-ware, Edgenuity and Khan Academy (14 percent), Moby Max (9 percent), and a Around one-third (36 percent) of school districts in variety of other resources (68 percent). Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties required or mandated student participation. These districts also had electronic devices available to students upon request, or available to all students. This reinforces the importance of access to electronic devices in order for students to participate in virtual learning environments. School districts’ policies regarding recording of student attendance varied, and were often tied to participation requirements. Attendance was recorded in all cases where student participation was mandated. Some school districts that encouraged, but did not require, participation recorded attendance, and used it in the grading criteria. One of these districts, Pittston Area, noted 3 (Grevera, 2020) 4 in their grading