Month: July 2020

School Goes Virtual (Again)

by Lindsay Lamb (with a few random comments by Andrea Hutson)

Due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases nationally, it is likely that if you have a school age child, they will not go back to school in a normal manner (regularly, in person) this fall.

As I have mentioned before, I have two children that I have been doing my best to keep educated, entertained, and healthy while we have all been sheltering in place these past four months. My eldest is slated to start kindergarten this fall, and what should normally be an exciting, happy time is now riddled with fears. Going back to school in person could mean infecting teachers, our entire family getting infected, and a disruption in routine if schools are unexpectedly closed again. Virtual learning provides its own set of challenges, including me continuing to have to juggle work and school time as well as social and emotional trauma that my daughter has experienced during this time of isolation.

I am not alone. The long and short of it is that closing schools has placed an impossible burden upon families, particularly families coming from low-income communities. But given the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, what do we do? School leaders are placed in an impossible position as are teachers and families. This affects the entire community. I do not envy leaders at this time.

[Sidenote from Andrea: I just received this question from a friend – “Would you rather facilitate a PTA meeting around schools reopening in the fall, or do a trust fall into a pit of crocodiles?” The fact that the crocodiles are an appealing option shows how charged this issue is.]

Where does this leave us?

Instead of getting caught in an endless loop of ranting and venting (which is hard), let’s find some positive things we can build on as we begin to navigate virtual student learning in the Fall.

Fortunately, we have some more time to plan than we did in the spring. We can draw on the virtual teaching and learning experiences from the spring and learn from them, because chances are, no matter what our plans are in the fall, we are going to need these best practices in our arsenal until we have a COVID-19 vaccine.

What do we know about virtual learning?

1. Not all virtual learning environments are bad!

Take for example, one of our clients who is helping interns in a summer work program learn essential social and emotional skills necessary for workplace success. These students come from all different backgrounds and are eager to learn. Our client expertly pivoted their course content, creating relevant and timely material that the students are eager to learn. We are working with them to develop a list of best practices to share with other educators in the coming months.

Some research has shown that some children, particularly older children, are thriving in the online environment. Anecdotally, another program that we work with measures the anxiety and depression levels of its teen participants, and their levels of both actually went down after lockdown began.

Online education works best when it is:

  • high quality (obviously)
  • structured, with points for real connection
  • a mix of formats (sorry, but a 7-hour long Zoom meeting is not going to be effective)
  • done with older children & teenagers

2. Teach parents to be co-educators. Parent involvement is even more critical.

Parents in this time know that, even if it is unfair, they have been thrust into the role of co-teacher for their students. To the extent possible, leaning into this can produce benefits that will last long after COVID is over.

One client offers reading tutoring services to at risk students in grades K-2. Although there were many challenges with continuing their program virtually, some tutors reported a strong benefit of having the ability to connect with students’ families in a way that had not been possible before. Parents are able to watch the tutoring sessions and get a better idea of where and how their children are struggling, and are able to learn from the tutors some ways to reach their children.

Schools and organizations can help by:

  • Engaging with parents early in the process
  • Understanding that parents will have different needs and levels of availability
  • Providing materials to teach the parents as well as the students

3. Don’t forget Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and be creative

Virtual learning leaves out the hugs, the high fives, the social and emotional connections and learning students need now more than ever. And who else needs this support? Teachers and other school staff. Andrea recently sat in on a meeting about teacher and student SEL during this time. Some takeaways:

  • SEL makes a meaningful difference for both teachers and students
  • Teachers must fully embrace these concepts before being able to teach them to students
  • Time must be set aside for SEL – it can’t be ‘one more thing’ added to already full plates
  • SEL can fall flat for older children if not approached carefully. Many elementary schools are now teaching SEL skills, and when kids get to middle/high school, they think, “Been there, done that.” When we are teaching SEL skills to our middle and high school students, instead of trying to use the same content aimed at younger children, we need to think of how we’d teach adults SEL concepts and adapt that way.

4. We need a better way to reach students who are disengaged

Raise Your Hand Texas interviewed five Texas teachers about their teaching experiences this Spring. These teachers faced a number of challenges, and hearing their stories is inspiring. The teachers got super creative, conducting zoom dance parties, scavenger hunts, virtual field trips, and more. They show that even in the time of COVID, school can be fun and creative, and that many teachers are doing everything they can think of to engage students.

However – As these teachers described, despite their best efforts, some students just stopped participating. The official tally is about 10% statewide, but we think the ‘real’ number is higher – and it’s not evenly spread across communities. LA, for example, lost about 1/3 of their students in the spring semester [there’s a wonderful NY Times article about this issue] Anecdotally, we’ve seen some organizations talk about losing 1/2, or even 2/3 of their student participants. This is a major issue that cannot be ignored by the local, state and federal governments. If we want true equity in education, districts need a plan now for how to reach out to these families and find and connect them to the resources they need to move forward.

Which students are more likely to drop out?

  • Younger students, particularly in PreK, K, and 1st grade
  • Students from low income families
  • Children with poor internet access
  • Children who do not have an adult in the home who can supervise learning
  • Students with special needs

I can speak to my own experience with younger students. Both of my children (5 and almost 2) were offered short zoom gather times (~30 minutes each) throughout the spring. By the end of my daughter’s meetings, her class of 12 was down to 2-3 participants, as was my son’s. Many parents and children clearly did not feel it was worth it to continue, despite the fact that the meetings were engaging and even involved small, fun crafts. We continued because:

  • it brought a sense of routine to our day
  • it was a nice break for me
  • I had the luxury of a flexible job
  • We had reliable internet
  • We had multiple computers/devices
  • We had resources

And even despite these things, it was sometimes a struggle to make it through one 30-minute zoom meeting daily. Going all virtual this Fall seems like a challenging prospect, to put it mildly.

[Another random note from Andrea: my 4-year old’s Montessori school also did 20 minute virtual meetings daily, and that experience made me thrilled that we can sit out this school year. Good luck, Lindsay, and other parents of kindergarteners.]

What can schools do?

Schools need to gather whatever information they have from the virtual and online learning that happened in the spring as they prepare to help their students in the Fall. Did some teachers try paper packets? Was that helpful or not so much? For all students or some students? What kind of lessons were most engaging? How are students feeling socially and emotionally? How can students connect socially while remaining six feet apart, or on Zoom? How are schools addressing these needs (which likely will be huge in the fall)? What resources do parents need to help engage in their child’s learning?

The best time to get that information would probably have been at the end of the 2019-20 school year, and no doubt many districts did that. But almost all districts were scrambling, and COVID cases started to dwindle at that time, leading to hope we’d be able to operate somewhat normally this fall.

Since that’s not the case, districts and organizations serving students should take time now to conduct parent, teacher, and student focus groups/interviews/surveys and distribute any information about potential pitfalls and/or best practices to their staff members right away. Districts need a plan to involve parents. A plan to support SEL. And most importantly, a plan to reach as many students as possible.

The one-pager’s sidekick, the sidebar!

by Lindsay Lamb

Something that I have often struggled with in producing a succinct and powerful one-pager is where to put technical information, a brief description of data used in the study, analyses conducted in the study, study design, survey questions, etc.

In a typical research paper, that information is generally presented first. Most of us come from an academic background, where we learned to write reports with Introduction, then Methods, then Results (which oftentimes are full of technicalities), then, finally the Conclusion – where the actual findings and interpretation lie.

The problem? It’s BOOOOORING. You’ll lose all but the most dedicated reader with reports that are designed that way, and in a one pager, it’s a killer. The conclusions need to be front and center.

But what about that technical info about how the study works?

Sidebar to the rescue

This is where the sidebar comes in. You still need to be succinct, but it is a way to break up the layout of your one-pager and go more deeply into a specific topic that is essential to your one-pager but does not need to be part of the overall one-pager narrative.

Here is the template we’ve shared with you in the past:

An overview of our one-pager template.

Still not sure what to use a side bar for? The sidebar can also include photos, data visualizations, description of program elements, survey questions, survey response rates, quotes from participants, anything that your audience should know, but can stand alone in its own section. Here are just a couple of examples:

Here are a couple of examples of sidebars we have used in recent reports.
Here is another sidebar example using data visualizations.

Here are some key takeaways to help you become the master of the sidebar:

  1. Put information that is necessary to understand your report in the sidebar.
  2. Add icons, photos, or a data visualization that will break up the layout of your report.
  3. Keep it simple! Details belong in the report (or the appendix!)

Create a One Pager In One Hour

by Lindsay Lamb

Have you ever been in a situation where someone needs a one-pager – like yesterday? You’re just sitting at your desk, and all of a sudden, your boss comes by and says, “Hey Lindsay, the superintendent [program manager, director, business analyst] needs a one-pager on that research [analysis, presentation, etc.] you’ve been working on. Can you get it to me in two hours?”

Internally, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking: “AHHHHHH!!! HOW AM I GOING TO DO THIS??? THIS IS CRAZY!!!”

Externally, you remained poised and self-confident : “Of course, I’m happy to help!”

So, what can you do to make this happen? Take a deep breath and follow these simple steps.

  1. Use what you’ve got. Before you get started, do you have a longer report, outline, or presentation? If yes, then this process just got A LOT easier. If not, don’t worry, I’m sure much of that information exists in your head. Go ahead and sketch out a rough outline either using word or on paper – whatever you need to do to get those creative juices flowing.
  2. Use One-Pager Building Blocks: Now that you have a rough idea of what you want to say, use these four building blocks to help you get started building your report:
Use these building blocks to design your one-pager. You can even use them to segment the page (or pages as a one-pager can be two-pages front and back).

If you have a larger report, presentation, or outline, what are the main headings and/or major findings? Do you already have a description of the study? Trim that down and drop it in at the beginning or in the sidebar. If not, quickly jot down the things from your report/presentation/analysis that stand out to you. Whittle them down to the top four ideas and rank them so you know which one to add depending on how much space you have in your document. Keep in mind that when you create your report, you want to include as much white space as possible to make it easier for your audience to read you report. Don’t muddle it with too much information.

Now that you have a better idea of what you want to say, it’s time to start thinking about the layout. As a general rule, a one-pager can be broken down into three or four major sections per page: The introduction, a major finding, a visualization and a photo. Sidebars are a great way to visually break up the page and add some of this information. Here is a generic template that can give you a rough idea of what your one-pager might look like.

Here are the building blocks of a one-pager using our generic template. Remember, your one-pager can be two pages (one-page front and back):

Here’s a snapshot of our generic template. There are three sections represented here comprised of finding 1, finding 2, and a sidebar.
  1. Have you created data visualizations? Can you use those? Can you combine visualizations (small multiples, maybe)? If not, think of ways to create data visualizations quickly. Most people respond well to percentages and simple figures. If time permits, create a visualization using that type of information. Remember, as an evaluator, you most likely won’t be the one sharing the information from this report, so it is important to ensure the data visualization can stand on its own without a lot of explanation. Don’t have time to create a visualization? Use icons or photos to break up the text and add something visually appealing for your reader.
  2. Summarize key takeaways. What do you want you audience to remember? Are there important strategies they need to consider? Program elements that should be removed? Funding sources that should be added or eliminated? Share them, and preferably using bullets 😉

Whew. That was quick, but I hope you have found it useful. If, like me, you find yourself in tis situation, remember to use the following strategies to help you create a one-pager in just a couple of hours:

  1. Identify the major findings
  2. Break up the page into three or four sections. Use a sidebar to include additional information relevant to your analysis such as a description of the study, data used, research questions, project timeline, etc.
  3. Create effective and efficient data visualizations that correspond with your major findings. Don’t have time for visualizations? That’s okay, you can use icons or photos.
  4. Highlight the key takeaways from your analysis. What do people need to know to make informed decisions?

That’s it!

Want to learn more? Our upcoming mini-course will take you deeper into creating an effective one-pager – stay tuned!