A PIVOT AHEAD I. Introduction In March, OESIS published Sanje Ratnavale’s insightful and prescient report, COVID Survey Report 2020: The COVID SURVEY REPORT 2020 Pivot Ahead for Independent Schools. It is the result of The Pivot Ahead for Independent Schools surveying 150 schools about their short-and long-term plans and developing a prescription for school leaders based on an uncertain future. In the Ten Point OESIS Plan, Sanje makes it clear that future events should not turn schools upside down, and specific institutional and programmatic changes will allow our schools to navigate the unexpected without severe disruption. Part II of this initiative report provides a more detailed explanation and analysis of the key pedagogies and programs that Sanje recommends. The target audiences for this entire report are academic leaders and department chairs, and the key analyses will speak to those in a position to make programmatic decisions. There are additional materials directed to department chairs and classroom teachers. Those sections will be boxed in light blue so they can be easily identified. 150+ Schools Responding from 35 States
By Sanje Ratnavale President OESIS Network
www.oesisgroup.com
During the past several months, OESIS has interviewed teachers and administrators at independent schools to find out how they handled school closings and their strategies for moving forward with online learning this fall. The responses have been as varied as one might expect in our “independent” community, and they suggest some important questions about how we approach student learning and what we value. In some ways, it seems unfair to ask schools to step back and reimagine learning when most of their constituents are feeling anxious about losing some form of continuity or normalcy. Addressing the short-term issues of keeping the school “open” are of the highest priority. Still, the COVID-19 crisis provides an opportunity to reassess why we exist and what’s really important. We’re seeing that the online world turns the face-to-face world upside down by making time a variable and learning a constant (from Michael Horn’s post on the Christensen Institute blog). What if we did the same with face-to-face instruction? Might we suggest that true project-based learning is substantially asynchronous in nature, and that is why it fits so well in an online setting? It is a perfect example of time as a variable and learning as a constant. This report speaks to the reasons why we should design our programs and utilize pedagogies that make the transition between classroom and online virtually seamless.
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