Elements to Consider

The following questions are intended to help district and school leaders think about the multiple dimensions of their systems affected by moving to a “brick to click,” “click to brick,” blended learning, or online learning model. Some of the questions are followed by footnotes; click on the superscript number to see quick links to resources specific to that topic. An annotated list of resources is at the end of this report.

• Mission, Vision, Goals, and Strategic Plans: How will you continue to work towards meeting these when education is delivered online?
• Policy Alignment: How will your school district administer, deliver, and sustain high-quality distance education that aligns with state and federal policy?
• Strategic Staffing: Will your school district identify and hire instructional designers, student support specialists, IT support and technology infrastructure administrators, leadership managers and executives, and administrative support staff?¹
• Budgets: Could you revise budgets to purchase new technologies, hire additional staff, and fund student support services? How will you determine equitable, cost-effective, and scalable technology tools to deliver course content and material; support teacher and student interactions; and manage administrative procedures like student services, financial accounts, student enrollment and registration, and quality assurance procedures? Many operating costs will shift from supporting physical facilities to purchasing technology tools and infrastructure.
• Timeline: How will you create a well-defined timeline for faculty and staff to implement course materials and instructional components in an online format? In most cases, it takes months to develop, design, and implement online courses. Using project management skills to articulate a scope of work, outline tasks, and define who will complete the task and when is critical. Will you pilot various approaches? Will you develop benchmarks? Will you expand cross multiple phases?
• Change Management: How will you prepare for a systemic and cultural shift? For those shifting to a student-centered instructional approach (which, as noted above, could be supported by technology-assisted pedagogical methods, such as acting on student ideas emerging from conversation encouraged in online chats), how will this change teachers’ perceptions of their roles?
• Communication: How will you communicate decisions quickly, safely, and effectively with staff, students, and families?
• Staff Meetings: How will you deliver scheduled and ad-hoc staff meetings both in person (using social distancing measures) and online?
• Staff Communication: Which communication channels will you use? Will your IT department support specific tools (Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Groups, etc.)?
• Bussing: Families are supported in however they choose to get their children to/from schools. If considering bussing options, how will students be seated on the bus? What types of screening for symptoms might be conducted before children get on the bus? How will drivers sanitize buses between routes? What health and safety precautions will be taken for bus riders and drivers?

• Summer: How will you use the summer months to provide professional development on how to teach using online tools and digital materials? How will teachers be involved in making decisions about what instructional materials should be integrated into course content online?²
• Ongoing Support: How can professional learning be better embedded in the week-to-week routines of teachers and made relevant to specific challenges they face in their virtual or in-person classrooms?
• Teacher-Led: How could you take advantage of this moment to build more opportunities for teachers to take the lead in developing and implementing professional learning. How might you encourage collaboration across teacher teams?³
• Professional Learning Community (PLC) or Department Meetings: How will these meetings be scheduled and delivered virtually?

• Attendance and Participation: Consider shifting terminology from attendance to participation. Participation may look like attending in person, attending synchronous classes, submitting work, participating in discussion boards and office hours, and contributing to learning journal reflection blogs. How will you determine the criteria for participation? How will your school district determine its attendance window for state reporting?
• Grading: When done well, blended and online learning presents the same level of rigor (in both content and expectations for student learning) as in-person learning, and grading scales should remain consistent. In what ways can students show mastery of standards and skills expected in each content area and grade level? How can grading reflect that? How often are teachers expected to update grades? How will you communicate with parents regarding failures or lack of student engagement?
• Instructional Time: District leaders should not expect teachers, support staff, and students to continue the average amount of instructional time for in-person courses. How will your school district make adjustments for synchronous and asynchronous learning times?⁴
• Teacher Evaluations: How will you determine what constitutes best practices for blended and online instruction, and how will you modify teacher evaluation processes to reflect those? How can best practices in blended and online schools be applied to assess how teachers are effectively leading? How will you consult with your state education agency and teachers’ union to approve teacher evaluation?
• Course Quality: Not only does online learning need to meet state learning standards, but it also needs to meet quality standards defined by third-party evaluators in the field. How are courses being evaluated for standards-alignment, rigor, and more?⁵
• Assessment: In online environments, schools will need to implement new ways of measuring students’ growth and determining whether they have mastered new skills and concepts. How will you use assessment to continue driving instruction and ensure tests are administered with integrity? For example, the LMS may have options that can be enabled to employ proctoring services and tools to reinforce academic integrity, such as a lockdown browser. What approaches will you ask your teachers to take and what tools will they need? What will you do to measure and address learning loss from the spring semester of 2020?

• District-Issued Devices: Devices administered by a school district are the property of the district. What devices do students have access to for online learning? How will the devices be distributed, monitored, repaired when necessary, and returned? Will different devices be used for primary versus secondary students? How will work and data on these devices be maintained and kept safe through various cloud infrastructures (Box, G Suite, Dropbox)?
• Connectivity: Are you certain all students can get online at home?⁶ What is your plan for assessing the connectivity needs of your students⁷ Could schools establish partnerships with community organizations, such as public libraries, to provide hotspots for home use or to set up Wi-Fi areas in parking lots and other spaces where students can go online at a safe distance?
• Tools: Which tools already vetted and approved by the school district will be used to conduct teaching and learning in person and online? If there are additional ed tech tools needed to execute certain activities, what is the process of getting these approved by the district in an expedited manner to avoid any interrupted learning?
• Learning Management System (LMS): In order to efficiently and effectively deliver content online, it is critical to have an LMS in place. What LMS will your district use? How will teachers and support staff be trained on it? Will a different LMS be used in primary versus secondary schools? Most LMS have an integration with the school's student information system (SIS) in order to populate courses and enroll students. How will this be handled? Who will be in charge of enrolling students in courses?
• District-Supplied Email: Will all students have access to a district-supplied email account?
• Audio/Video Conferencing: Synchronous learning modalities require these systems. Which audio/video conference tool will your school district use? How can you ensure that it is Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) compliant to maintain student data privacy?
• Single Sign-On: Consider whether your school district should use single sign-on. How would a single sign-on ease student access to all district-approved software?
• Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) and Responsible Use Policies (RUP): Students will need training on AUP and RUP for all technology. How will your school district provide training and ensure each student has completed it prior to signing the policy agreement?
• Data Security and Privacy: All teachers and support staff need training on upholding data security and privacy when outside of the physical school building and when it comes to posting student work and information. How are IT teams delivering this training and how are they ensuring that every teacher and support staff has successfully completed it? Authentication and password protections help ensure designated people have access to courses, content, and information. How will your school district designate these people? Will teachers and support staff be considered, or will it only be IT staff? Who will communicate these policies and standards in easily digestible formats to teachers, support staff, students, parents, and caregivers?⁸
• Content Management System (CMS): Teachers and support staff will need access to all of their courses, instructional materials, and resources in one place. How will a CMS be used to provide ease of use for teachers and support staff?

• School Counselors, Psychologists, and Nurses: Teachers will need access to and training in trauma-informed practices. This can help them identify when students may be struggling without directly asking for help. How will students access the services of counselors and psychologists when online? How can their interactions remain safe, secure, and confidential? How can telehealth services, including mental health services, be provided to students and staff?
• Librarians and Media Specialists: How can school librarians and media specialists continue to collaborate with teachers, support staff, and students in an online environment? How can physical books and artifacts be shared with students? How can school librarians and media specialists ensure that every student has access to the digital collections available? How can librarians develop consortium partnerships to increase access to library resources, catalogs, and information systems? How can your school districts dedicate full-time librarian support for learners at a distance?
• Extracurricular Programs: How will extracurricular clubs continue when moving online? Will they regularly meet online like they do in person? Which sports will be able to offer training and exercise routines in safe ways, and will they still have access to tracks, fields, and equipment? What is the role of club sponsors, coaches, and program directors in blended or online environments?

• Print Instructional Materials and Manipulatives: How will print instructional materials be accessed digitally? Will your district allow students to take print instructional materials and manipulatives (blocks, beads, puzzles, and other physical learning tools) home when transitioning to online?
• Digital Instructional Materials: How are your digital instructional materials accessed? Is it through a specific platform or is it pushed out through the LMS? Can every student and parent access them? How will they be organized (e.g., modules, folders, calendar, etc.)?
• Open Educational Resources (OER): OER are freely available resources that can be downloaded, edited, and shared. How will your district take advantage of OER? How might you leverage this growing body of resources to support online and blended teaching and learning?⁹
• Culturally Relevant and Responsive: How will you work to bring digital materials into blended and online courses that are relevant to your students and that include characters, historical figures, or stories to which they can relate?¹⁰
• Purchased, Curated, or Created: What currently owned instructional materials will support this type of learning? Will additional instructional materials need to be procured? Will purchased materials serve every learner? Will your school district curate resources? Will your school district create resources? How and by whom will these resources be reviewed for standards-alignment and quality?
• Multimodal: How will presentations, videos, text, interactives, images, audio files, and simulations be adaptable to an online format or experience? Will students have access to tools that enable them to create and view these materials?
• Library Collection: How might you partner with public libraries to share digital collections and enable students, parents, and educators to obtain public library cards for checking out e-books and participating in virtual programming?

• Instructional Practice: Some schools were already shifting their instructional practices toward inquiry-based learning prior to Spring 2020 a move that enables students to have more agency over their learning and be more engaged in content. How will you approach inquiry-based learning in an online learning environment? How will leaders support shifting instructional practice to encourage more inquiry-based learning or project-based learning?
• Blended Instructional Models: In order to increase engagement and accountability in all four of our scenarios, teachers and support staff may consider blended instructional models. How can teachers of different grade levels use these various instructional models?¹¹
• Digital Tools: How can teachers, support staff, and students utilize video conferencing and other digital tools (e.g., screen sharing, white boards, recorded lessons, chat rooms, etc.) to collaborate, communicate, create, and problem-solve?
• Collaboration: How can teachers collaborate with students to ask thoughtful questions, seek out answers, research, and create projects showing their learning?
• Prioritizing Human Relationships: Shifting to an online environment can affect the one-on-one relationships needed to support each student’s social-emotional development and academic and cognitive growth. How will you use technology to assist in preserving or developing relationships (using online translation services, for example) while prioritizing human relationships and human-to-human interaction?¹²

• Special Education Services: Every teacher and support staff member should know which students are on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or 504 Plan (named after a section of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) and what accommodations and modifications are required for their students’ learning experiences. How will these plans be shared with other teachers and support staff? How will classroom teachers, special education teachers, and paraeducators provide services in the online learning environment? How will occupational therapy, physical therapy, and/or speech/language therapy continue online?¹³
• English Language Learner Services: Every teacher and support staff member should know which students are identified as English learners and their level, as well as what accommodations and modifications are required for learning. How will these plans/files be shared with other teachers and support staff? How will classroom teachers, English learner teachers, and paraeducators provide services in the online learning environment? How and when will English learners be assessed for reclassification?¹⁴
• Linguistic Diversity and Language Support: Which digital materials will need to be offered in languages other than English? Will translation services and translation tools be made available to students and their families?¹⁵
• Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS): How will students receiving tiered interventions continue to receive small group/specialized instruction? How often will benchmarks be given to assess whether students need to change tiers? When will these discussions take place with teachers and support staff?
• Student Characteristics and Preferences: Online learning can be more inclusive, if thoughtfully and purposely designed and supported with teacher facilitation. How will your school district assess student characteristics and preferences in their learning? How will these data be used in course creation and delivery?
• Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Online learning reduces barriers for students with disabilities if UDL principles are embedded in course content. How will your school district ensure classes are accessible? How can instructional designers be leveraged to help design classes using UDL principles?¹⁶

• Parent and Caregiver Access: Will parents and caregivers have access to the digital tools their children are using? How will they get access to these tools and platforms?
• Parent and Caregiver Training: Some of these devices and tools are new to parents and caregivers. What training will be provided to help them feel comfortable with their use? How will your school district develop and share resources, including documentation and getting started activities, for parents and caregivers on technologies their children will be using? How can your school district provide basic tutorials on how to use LMS (even if these are from the student’s point of view) and other tools?
• Parent and Caregiver Communication: How will you ensure multiple communication channels are used to reach every parent and caregiver? What translation and interpretation services will be required to reach non-English speaking families? When and how often will your school district engage parents and caregivers?
• Parent and Caregiver Learning Community: Just as students in these new scenarios need community, so too do their parents and caregivers. How will your school district encourage parents and caregivers to develop a learning community where they can connect synchronously and asynchronously? Are there tools/platforms that the school district uses that could also be used with parents and caregivers?
• Tutoring: Will you provide parents and students with resources and guidance for connecting with online tutoring or one-on-one support
• At-Home Learning Environment: How can you help parents and family members create opportunities for studying, learning, and connecting? What kinds of at-home adventures and games (scavenger hunts within apartment buildings, online bingo, word puzzles, and more) can you facilitate that would bring families together for learning moments, especially in households with young children? In situations where space is limited and more than one family may be residing together, how can you help support students’ needs?