JUDY WOODRUFF: Many schools -- speaking of schools -- around the country are changing
their plans, and they have decided to start the school year with distance learning. In
some cases, school districts have reversed course in just the past few weeks.
William Brangham is going to look at the dilemmas that school districts, teachers, parents and
public officials are all facing in two states.
But, first, let's hear from teachers, who have been grappling with their own tough choices.
This was produced by our Student Reporting Labs teams.
MICHELLE CORO, Teacher: Our school has really ambitious plans right now. They have decided
to use a hybrid, in that there is a plan for us to go back in person and a plan for students
to take classes online. It's ambitious and a little scary right now.
NANCY OZON MORENO, Teacher: I love my career. I want to go back to the classroom. I just
want it to be a safe classroom.
This is historic. We have never had a school year like this. So, the challenges are going
to range from my own child care, to my own health, to my mental health, to the students'
mental health, and just actually learning and engaging and feeling that this year is
productive.
LEIGH WALTERS, Teacher: My husband has heart disease. I really worry about bringing the
virus home to him. So, I have really had to think about what decision I will make if we
do go back in person, because I might need to take a year off from teaching. And that's
been -- that's been tough.
LAURA NEGRI, Teacher: I have thyroid issues, which complicate everything. There's so many
things you have to become conscious of in a situation now, like touching your face.
And it's kind of frustrating for me, because I'm sure my students are the same way. And
we get in the classroom, and that's a concern I have. Nobody's going to do anything wrong.
We are just going to forget something.
DONNA GRIFFIN, Teacher: There is a lot of people saying, we shouldn't go back to school
or we should go back to school. And what I know is that education has needed some kind
of an earthquake for a very long time.
I think that we need to learn from this time, and fundamentally change, make it more equitable
and make it better for everyone.
KRISTA MCKIM, Teacher: Our county released a 16-page document to the teachers about a
week ago, and then it was released to the community, and it was over 20 pages at that
point in time.
There's a lot of debate going between the county and the families and the teachers union.
SARAH HAMILTON, Teacher: Teaching in a remote world is hard. Like many educators, I have
been working 10-12 hour days preparing classes for online.
RAEF WILLIAMS, Teacher: A point of difficulty is student engagement. When school is not
in person, when you are not physically with the kids, it's really hard to build a relationship.
It's really hard to get them connected and wanting to do more, do more.
DENNIS MADRIGAL, Teacher: The other big concern that I have is student accountability. Our
district had this policy where no student was allowed to receive anything less than
a D. We had countless students that would have applied themselves further.
JULIE TIEDENS, Teacher: Sometimes, a lot of our students do have socioeconomic -- are
from a lower socioeconomic group, and that makes it difficult often for them to have
access to the Internet.
KRISTA MCKIM: I don't know how it's going to look. And that is so hard to just say,
I don't know. And I, as a teacher, and teachers in general are flexible, and they're adaptable,
and we will make it work no matter what happens. And we just got to keep the students right
in front of us.
LISETTE OLER, Teacher: I think the best possible thing to hope for is that my students know
that I care for them and that I'm there for them, even if I'm not physically in the classroom,
that I care that they have an education, even if that education is different in form.
LAURA NEGRI: I don't know what else we can do, other than say, hey, this is the plan
for right now, and when the plans change, I will let you know.
MARGIE RAPER, Teacher: This is a situation we can't control. And if we can give ourselves
grace, and we can model to our students resiliency, we're going to be OK. It's not going to be
perfect, but we're going to take care of each other.
MICHELLE CORO: I hope that we go back to school safe, sound, and healthy and that this just
becomes part of our history that we are able to tell people about some day.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Some of those concerns that you just heard are part of the reason why
school districts nationwide are changing course.
In Indianapolis, families and students had been told that they would soon be returning
to in-person teaching. That changed last Thursday, when officials announced that all classwork
will be done virtually, at least until October.
To help us understand more about that decision, I am joined by the superintendent of Indianapolis
public schools, Aleesia Johnson.
Superintendent, very nice to have you on the "NewsHour."
Help us understand what it is that you saw going on in your community that made you want
to say, whoa, we got to change course.
ALEESIA JOHNSON, Superintendent, Indianapolis Public Schools: Sure. Thanks for having me.
The decision really for us came down to what we saw happening in our community more broadly.
We know and understand that schools are not in bubbles, we're not in isolation, we are
a part of our greater community.
And we were concerned that we saw the positivity rates in our community going up, and not coming
down, and were really concerned about what that meant in terms of the impact it would
have on our students and families returning to school with a pretty high rate of community
spread at this point.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, you see the virus spreading in your community at levels that you didn't
like, and you say, OK, we're not going to be in person, we're going to go virtual.
That obviously changes what the teachers have to do. How did they respond to this change
of course?
ALEESIA JOHNSON: I think that we said in June, as you said earlier, that we were going to
return in person, and so our educators were getting ready for that.
But we also said that we were going to always be responsive to what was happening in terms
of the health data in our community. So, they were certainly ready to take that pivot, as
they needed to do and they have been able to do.
I also think there has been, overall, a feeling of relief of knowing that we are concerned
about the safety of our staff and students foremost, and that they be in a situation
where they can teach comfortably and safely for the time being.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And how was that received by the parents? I mean, obviously, as a parent
myself, every parent wants their child to be safe when they go to school, but it's very
hard to hold down a job if your kids are still at home.
How did they take this decision?
ALEESIA JOHNSON: I mean, you know, that's one of the things that is heaviest on my mind
during this time.
I knew that, in making a recommendation to go fully virtual to our board, and our board
signing on and agreeing with that, that you can't deny the fact that that creates burden
for working families, who now need to make (AUDIO GAP) decisions (AUDIO GAP) choices.
So, I -- on the one hand, we have had a number of parents, again, be very supportive of that
decision and, again, feel good about the district's position on keeping students and staff safe.
But I also know that there is a burden on a number of our working families who are having
to make other accommodations for their children. And that is incredibly challenging and hard.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A lot of students and a lot of parents and I think a lot of teachers
would acknowledge that the distance learning this last go-round was difficult. There was
a lot of steep learning curve for everybody involved.
What is your -- how will you -- how do you think that will improve when we try this again
in the fall?
ALEESIA JOHNSON: Well, I think we have had, first of all, more time during the last several
weeks to plan for the possibility of being all virtual, which we knew was going to be
a potential scenario, even as we were planning for the other ways in which our students might
be learning.
For us, for example, we were not a one-to-one school district, meaning one device per student,
in March. And so we had a mixture of devices for high school students, paper and pencil
for elementary students, which obviously makes it quite challenging to have live instruction,
real-time instruction happening.
We are now a one-to-one district. Every student will have a device. We have purchased a number
of hot spots for our students who still need Internet access, so that at least we have
those fundamental tools available.
And then we have also been engaging with our teachers, who, obviously, were not trained
to teach school in a virtual environment, and a lot of professional development to make
sure that they are comfortable in thinking about the ways in which their instruction
shifts from being in-person into that virtual environment.
So, I know we will have bumps along the way, I fully expect that. We will all be navigating
these new experiences together. But we feel much more prepared now, prior to, you know,
March, when we had to sort of flip everything on a dime.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What will it take for you to feel confident that you can bring kids
back into school?
ALEESIA JOHNSON: So, we're talking regularly with the director of our local public health
department and taking her guidance under consideration, obviously.
We have also, as a district, set our metrics at looking at the 5 percent positivity rate
over a 14-day period, seeing that average of 5 percent as being an important indicator
for us to know that we can more safely return students into our classrooms, into our school
buildings.
So, we're really committed to making sure, until we get to that point, that we have a
high-quality virtual experience and learning environment for our students to have during
these first few weeks of the school year.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Aleesia Johnson, superintendent of the Indianapolis Public
Schools, good luck and thank you very much for being here.
ALEESIA JOHNSON: Thank you so much for having me.