After the Pandemic: A Self-Assessment

March 11, 2020, is a date many of us will remember as when the COVID-19 pandemic became real. While some schools in the United States had already closed, the vast majority were still operating as usual. 

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The rest is, of course, history. 

While we generally know when the pandemic started, it’s much more difficult to point to when it ended, for all intents and purposes. For now, it may be time for us to take a beat, take a breath, and say: “We did it. We got through it.”

I am not suggesting that the pandemic is over, nor can I make light of the devastation it has caused. We all know someone who was lost in this pandemic. 

Now we find ourselves racing, once again, to the end of the school year in what is often the most challenging time of the year. It can be difficult to take stock. We are disoriented. And as we think back over the past couple of years, it’s fair to ask ourselves: “What just happened?”

Earlier this winter, I took a fall on ice while making my way to the car after doing some grocery shopping. One moment, I was walking to my car, thinking about all the things on my to-do list, and the next moment, I was looking straight up at the cold, blue Wisconsin sky. 

As I lay on the ground, trying to assess my situation, I did something of a systems check. Did I hit my head? Did I break any bones? My hand hurt, but I wasn't bleeding. As people approached and asked if I was OK, stunned, I said I was. But in truth, at that moment, I wasn't quite sure. 

As we emerge from the pandemic, we may find ourselves in the same disoriented state regarding our schools. While every school and district leader is owed a debt of gratitude from their community for handling the challenges of the pandemic, it is difficult to know where our schools stand with the public. 

This situation is made more difficult because there is so much turbulence in the world right now—much of it also brought on by the pandemic itself. 

Let's consider our staff members who have given so much of themselves, especially in the last two years, and who are now completely and understandably exhausted. Let's think of our students and their needs, which are more significant than ever. Let's also think about how the pandemic revealed the striking basic needs of many of our most vulnerable students. 

Finally, let's acknowledge that people are angry. Some of us are experiencing pushback or protests about books in the library, specific facets of the curriculum, or even about our efforts to meet the needs of all students. People are hurting and our communities seem to be more politically divided than ever. 

As a result, school board members are getting more than they bargained for, and we’re seeing protests in board rooms and recall efforts. 

So, are we OK? Are our schools OK? 

To answer this question, we would do well to get some perspective. When we look at some recent polls on American schools, the data may surprise you. 

Despite all that has happened in the world over the last two years and despite all we have heard about protests, ugly school board meetings, and nasty social media posts, people generally like their local schools. 

According to Gallup in 2021, "73 percent of parents of school-aged children say they are satisfied with the quality of education their oldest child is receiving." Perhaps more interesting is that more parents were satisfied in 2021 than in 2013 and 2002. 

While this is down from the high point of 82 percent satisfaction in 2019, it is clear that people are generally happy with their schools. 

However, this is where things get interesting. According to the New York Times and other media outlets, whose reporters went deep into the Gallup data, those who are most intimately engaged in their public schools—notably parents—have strong positive feelings about their schools. Those who do not—specifically, those who do not have children in the schools—tend to be far more negative. 

Overall, considering parents and non-parents together, only 46 percent of Americans are satisfied with schools. 

This may be surprising on the surface, but in many ways, these data reveal what we have known for years—those who are closest to the schools most often have more positive feelings about them than others. 

The question is, what do we do with this? 

For many of us, this data gives us solace in knowing that what was true before the pandemic is true now: To know schools is to like them. 

But we also know that as we pick ourselves up and move forward, there’s more work to be done.  

• Education leaders must seek to be the most professional, reasonable, and thoughtful people in the room in everything they do. Their ethics, professionalism, and values are their superpowers. They should always take the high ground.

• Focus on honesty, transparency, and forthrightness. Understand the responsibility we have in providing stakeholders—including staff, students, parents, other community residents and area businesses—information about the outstanding value public schools offer.

• Educational leaders' most important responsibility is to protect children. This is true even if some are willing to exploit children to make political points.

• Focus on Good Governance by engaging the "silent 80 percent" by focusing on your district's mission. Demonstrate good governance and lean into the Three Ps of policy, process and procedure. Maintain governance and communications lanes.

Perhaps most of all, let's continue working to broaden the focus to the entire school district community, show the great things that are happening in our schools, and show how public schools are our state's most important economic driver. Let’s also demonstrate that when it comes to public education, our schools are good and will only get better in time. 

For most of us, perhaps while we can continue sharpening our communications skills, the best thing we can do is to dust ourselves off, address those things that require our most urgent attention, and work to get on with our mission of serving children.

By Joe Donovan, President, The Donovan Group.  The Donovan Group is AWSA’s Communication Partner providing members with crisis and general communications support.