At the outset of COVID, District Administrator Mark Weddig and his team decided online learning had to resemble live, in-person instruction as closely as possible.
Students have attended class in-person throughout 2020-21 in Wisconsin's Turtle Lake School District, a one-building, pre-K through 12 system with an enrollment of 170.
The COVID experience and the shift to online learning has shown Superintendent Jill Underly that students in her rural school district are pretty resilient.
As students return post-COVID, district leaders must ward off more subtle systemic inequities as they address issues of reliable internet access and other student supports.
COVID's impact has so far been more emotional than academic for students in southern Wisconsin's rural Parkview School District, Superintendent Steve Lutzke says.
For Superintendent Keith Perrigan, COVID has been about weighing the risk of having students in class against the risk of not having them in class at Bristol Virginia Public Schools.
The transition out of COVID can be as transformative for schools and educators as was the spring 2020 shutdown and shift to online learning, a new report finds.
While administrators might be tempted to relax evaluations during the pandemic, teachers deserve attention and candid feedback to grow and be successful.
Rural school districts face a range of challenges but one advantage has been an ability to share resources to remain open for in-person instruction throughout COVID.
