AWSA Convention Covid Conversations

by Mart Van Hulle

In Britain, during the dark days of World War 2, Winston Churchill is quoted as saying: “never let a good crisis go to waste.”

It is not unrealistic to state that COVID-19 has created the potential for true crisis in educational structures throughout the world.

As is often the case in times of crisis, local leaders rarely await direction from outside entities to begin tackling the challenges they face on a daily basis. Wisconsin school leaders are once again at the forefront of providing the best possible academic experiences for students despite the ever-changing landscape.

In late January and early February, AWSA once again hosted its annual Principal Conferences for elementary, middle, and high school principals and associate principals. While the event had to be held virtually due to COVID (naturally), there was no shortage of leaders eager to collaborate and learn how to better meet the needs of their students and staff.

Breakout sessions, organized around six key questions, allowed building leaders to share their ideas about how they are navigating the COVID waters and to engage with one another about strategies being employed to deliver high-quality social, emotional, and academic support to their students.

What follows are some of the key highlights gathered from the three conferences:

The importance of relationship building and human connection is greater than ever. While virtual learning can fill gaps and is the right mode of instruction for some students, there is simply no substitute for what occurs in classrooms during face-to-face instruction.

The social and emotional well-being of students (and staff) is a critical element of what effective learning organizations focus on. High-quality learning can only occur when the social and emotional well-being of students and staff is tended to in an intentional manner.

Covid has forced--in positive ways--the need for staff to truly refine curriculum. A renewed commitment to focusing on Essential Learnings or Power Standards is critical in ensuring that the “must-haves” in each curricular area is tended to and focused on. Building leaders are charged with creating processes for their teachers to complete the challenging work of curriculum and assessment refinement.

The upcoming summer and early fall 2021 will present unique challenges in terms of meeting the needs of students requiring remediation and/or intervention. Unique approaches such as collaborating with geographically similar districts to provide high-quality summer offerings is a high potential strategy.

Well-designed and focused Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are essential in doing the heavy lifting of curriculum refinement and assessment development. As with Essential Learning refinement, leaders must create processes and structures which allow for teams to work together in both vertical and horizontal teams.

COVID has blown open the doors for experimentation and innovation. Schools must be flexible and agile with their most important processes and structures. We now know that we can alter schedules to allow for more flexibility for students and for greater opportunities for staff to collaborate and plan with each other. Deep down we all know that the “one size fits all” model is inadequate; however, we now have proof that we can make adjustments to traditional models that we once thought were unmoveable.

None of the above items happen without high-quality leadership providing high-quality structures and processes. The work is too important to allow it to occur by happenstance or in small “pockets of excellence” within our organizations. The work has to be embedded in our daily structures and intentional in its purpose.

While COVID has been incredibly challenging and we are all looking forward to returning to “normal,” we have to be careful about returning all things to “the way they used to be.” These past 13 months have reinforced that far too many of our students failed to thrive in the old model and that we have to be mindful of those items which have served us well during the pandemic. As building leaders, we have to ask ourselves: what are those items that we should hold onto which have served us so well in past year-plus?; and, what do we need to let go of that no longer truly meets the needs of all students and all staff?

There cannot be enough praise given for the outstanding work that has been done in buildings and classrooms across the state of Wisconsin since mid-March of last year. Aside from parenting, there is no more noble work than that of the professional educator. Kudos to all who work tirelessly day in and day out to provide high-quality experiences for students--in spite of the challenges faced. Our final challenge as we head toward an end to COVID is to ensure that the crisis faced does not go to waste in order that we provide even better experiences for students and staff as we move to a post-COVID world.

The information collected at the AWSA winter Conventions will inform the association’s work to support members in the coming months.

Marty Van Hulle, retired last year from the Pewaukee School District and continues to support leaders through coaching and consulting. He can be reached at Principal Consulting
[email protected]