Many good points upthread, both ideas and practical challenges. I likely won't do many of them justice (or will just inadvertently overlook some--not a mark of their relative importance at all, just my imperfect memory!).
I'll start by fleshing out my telegraphed comments from yesterday a bit:
Our state is going ahead with annual state-wide testing (which it did not last year, under the US DOE waiver). The stated rationale is that this will be considered a diagnostic year, rather than an evaluative year (in the language of education, "formative" rather than "summative"). No negative accountability impacts will accrue to districts or teachers, and additional options and opportunities to meet state competency criteria will be provided to high school students, especially the class of 2021. Non-competency years (prior to high school) will receive a shortened version of the test. My understanding is that they plan to use results to guide remediation plans moving forward, likely over the next two to three years, or even longer.
The DOE is also planning to stand up summer remediation sessions open to all students regardless of disability status, and supposedly, will roll-out supports in the fall as well.
I wish our building were taking more consistent and specific data on the impact of remote/hybrid/full-time in-person learning--but at the same time, we've been in synchronous learning all year for all formats, and already had a robust online suite of tools, including 1:1 devices for students and staff. We were able to purchase loaner wifi hotspots for any student without reliable internet at home from our state technology grants. All of which is to say that the difference between remote and in-person academic instruction has probably been slightly smaller for our building than for many others.
I do think many of the teachers in our already-tech-savvy school have found additional technology tools for interactive online learning that they like and see application for moving forward, regardless of setting, which may merely be another reflection of the observation made in previous posts that schools who were already prepared to be somewhat flexible in pivoting to remote learning were not only more likely to do so successfully (as one might expect), but more likely to embrace the silver linings that emerged in the process.
And to underline spaghetti's comments about the challenges so many public school districts faced: we had no interruption in access to technology, because we already had our annual order for new ChromeBooks for our incoming admits (all earlier admission cohorts already had them) placed and paid for early in the spring, prior to the nationwide (worldwide, even) stampede for 1:1 devices. IOW, it was in the plan and the budget. We had no interruption in curriculum or teacher preparation, because we already had a state-approved emergency remote learning plan (for weather emergencies, originally), and teachers well-versed in online learning platforms. This left us in a much better position (albeit still struggling) to deal with all of the things we had not prepared for, like students who were essential workers, or providing childcare for younger relatives while their essential worker parents were out of the home, or lived in crowded multigenerational households where they couldn't find a quiet place to do their work or get on Zoom/Meet, or were reliant on free breakfast/lunch to get adequate nutrition.
