This toolkit was created by Mass Insight Education & Research in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The Scenario Planning Guide provides a variety of resources to help local education agency (LEA) planning teams organize their work, choose an instructional delivery model, and effectively implement the selected model(s). This toolkit aims to guide LEAs through the process of selecting and implementing an instructional delivery model for the fall that maximizes in-person learning while protecting the health and safety of students and staff. The resources provided in the guide are highly adaptive and can be tailored to meet each local community's context and needs.
The purpose of this toolkit is to help local education agencies (LEAs) plan to facilitate high quality student learning while protecting the health and safety of all stakeholders during the 2020-2021 school year. Specifically, this toolkit aims to guide LEAs through the process of selecting and implementing an instructional delivery model that maximizes in-person learning and ensures standards-aligned and rigorous remote learning – when remote learning is necessary. This toolkit does not, and is not intended to, prescribe a specific course of action. Each LEA has unique needs that will require careful work by leaders, staff, families, and students. The best plan for one community may not be the best plan for another. Instead, this toolkit is intended to provide a set of guiding questions and recommended steps that LEAs can take in order to prepare for the coming year.
Toolkit Structure and Contents
The toolkit provides a variety of resources to help LEA planning teams organize their work, choose an instructional delivery model, and plan to implement that model.
Each section of the toolkit includes a brief description of one way to approach the work and tools that LEAs can download and adapt/adopt. The steps below can be addressed in the order presented, in another order, iteratively, and/or with additional steps added. LEAs are strongly encouraged to review the entire toolkit prior to beginning work.
Toolkit
Suggested Action:
Determine instructional delivery planning team membership and hold initial meeting.
The planning process for instructional delivery in the fall requires collaboration of a core, cross-functional team. Core teams are recommended to not exceed ten people in order to remain manageable – though others may be brought in to consult or work on aspects of the plan. LEAs are highly encouraged to make extra effort to ensuring staff with responsibility for and expertise with instructional and support needs of historically underserved student groups (e.g., students with disabilities, English Learners, students categorized as economically disadvantaged, students of color, students experiencing homelessness, students in foster care) are included on the team. LEAs are encouraged to review existing teams and determine feasibility of utilizing members who have previously established working team relationships to assist in the planning process. Inclusion of a staff member experienced in social and emotional wellness (e.g. social worker, school psychologist, school counselor, PBIS lead) is beneficial to prioritizing equity and emotional wellness throughout development of instructional plans. It is important the team be able to meet regularly as described in Section VI and empowered to make decisions quickly.
During its initial meeting, the planning team should:
- Ensure the team is united in its purpose to develop an instructional delivery model that safely and equitably educates students in-person when able to responsibly, and, provides an equitable and quality experience for students learning remotely.
- Allow time during the initial meeting for staff to process and communicate the social, emotional, and traumatic impacts of the pandemic and other national issues. Providing a brief, structured time of healing and focus increases task focus and staff capacity to address student and LEA needs.
- Clarify who will have final sign-off on which types of decisions.
- Set a date for a decision on an instructional delivery model.
- Determine team norms.
- Set a regular meeting time, including what platform will be used and who will be responsible for managing the virtual meeting invitations.
- Decide what subcommittees will be formed and who will lead each, recognizing that subcommittees will require additional members not on the planning committee.
- Mental health professionals in the school (e.g. school counselor, social worker, school psychologist) are strongly encouraged to be invited to teams focusing on critical readiness factors involving identifying student needs and ensuring student and staff health and safety.
It is important for all members of the planning team to understand the need to commit to choosing an instructional delivery model early in the planning process. In addition to this document, planning team members should review all resources intended to be used in coordination with this toolkit. These resources will help ground the planning process and aid communication both among committee members and with stakeholders.
Download and Open Before Reading This Section:
Status Dashboard (Excel)
Communication Planner (Excel)
Suggested Action:
Complete Communication Planner
Communication throughout the summer and fall is vital to ensuring that all stakeholders feel prepared to return to buildings in the fall. LEAs should create a communication plan that lays out the regular touchpoints for each unique stakeholder group. A communication plan template is provided along with a status dashboard which can be regularly updated and shared with stakeholders by posting on the LEA’s website or other methods of distribution. Communication that is presented clearly and concisely with limited usage of jargon and abbreviations can increase the emotional and relationship connection of your message when delivered to stakeholders. Communication that addresses not only safety and logistical information, but includes what has been developed for wellness and what has gone well, increases optimism about the back to school plan and upcoming school year. It is important that all communication is accessible to all stakeholders (e.g., materials should be translated in families’ preferred home languages, the communication plan should include multiple modes of communication, all materials must comply with Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility requirements).
Download and Open Before Reading This Section:
Instructional Delivery Model Worksheet (Word)
Instructional Delivery Model Example (Word)
Suggested Action:
Complete Instructional Delivery Model Worksheet
An LEA determines its initial 2020-2021 instructional delivery model by answering these questions:
- Where will students learn in the fall? When will students learn in-person at a school building and when will students learn remotely?
- How will grade levels be distributed across school buildings? Will the LEA move grades between schools compared to their 2019-2020 locations?
- How will teachers and non-instructional staff be deployed?
- How will we ensure educators have time for collaborative assessment, analysis, and instructional planning? How will we ensure special education teachers and/or ESL teachers are able to participate in collaborative planning time with grade/content area teachers to ensure individual student needs are met?
- How will vulnerable populations be addressed?
- How will social emotional skills (e.g. relationship, conflict resolution, social problem solving, coping) and new behavioral norms focused on safety be explicitly taught and reinforced?
- How will existing LEA initiatives be incorporated into the instructional model?
An LEA has three basic models that it can adapt based on its local conditions:
- All In-Person: Every student attends school every day with the exception of those who are medically vulnerable.
- Hybrid: On a given school day, a portion of students attend school in-person, while others learn at home.
- All Remote: All students participate in remote learning with no in-person instruction or in-person instruction only for students in very limited student groups, such as those with severe and profound disabilities or newcomer English learners at the beginning levels of English proficiency.
Within the hybrid model, there are two general iterations an LEA could adopt:
- Grade-Based Approach: Some grade levels remain on remote learning, while other grades attend classes in-person. This could be static for the year or could alternate by weeks or days.
- Classroom-Based Approach: Within each grade level, a portion of students in each class engage in in-person instruction while others engage remotely. This approach would most likely follow an alternating pattern (e.g. morning/afternoon, every-other-day, or every-other-week) with "cohorts" of students swapping between in-person and remote learning.
While in-person learning is ideal for academic and social/emotional student outcomes, it may not be the safest model for all students in all LEAs at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Available research shows that online classes are typically not as effective as in-person classes for most students. LEAs are strongly encouraged to reserve full remote learning for all students only for times when local health data requires temporary closure of a school building. Therefore, the focus of this planning kit is to help LEAs create a hybrid model for the fall that maximizes in-person learning for as many students as possible and ensures standards-aligned and rigorous learning – when remote learning is necessary.
The worksheet linked at the beginning of this section is designed to help LEAs work through the considerations described above, ultimately choosing an instructional delivery model for which to plan. Additionally, it will provide information for LEAs to use when preparing plans for a potential shift to all-remote learning should it be necessary during the year.
The worksheet is intended to be a step-by-step process that flows from beginning to end. Therefore, LEAs are encouraged not to skip steps. One example worksheet has been completed for purely illustrative purposes – all of the data in the examples are entirely fictional and used to demonstrate how various pieces of information would be critically considered and factored into the decision around which instructional delivery model to choose.
Although the 2020-2021 planning process will be fluid, LEAs should decide on an instructional delivery model as early as possible. It's important to be thoughtful about choosing a model, but postponing the decision for too long will cause delays on other critical decisions and make it less likely that schools will open successfully.
LEAs should keep in mind that their decision for an instructional delivery model is probably not a decision for the whole year – the model will probably change as local health conditions shift, so planning for a temporary move to all-remote learning in addition to planning for the opening of the school year is in an LEA's best interest.
Download and Open Before Reading This Section:
Instructional Delivery Model Mock-Up Worksheet (Word)
Instructional Delivery Model Mock-Up Example (Word)
Suggested Action:
Complete Instructional Delivery Model Mock-Up
Once the worksheet from Section III is complete, it is critical for LEAs to decide what the instructional delivery model will be for each grade level. Using that worksheet, LEAs should fill out the instructional delivery model mock-ups linked at the beginning of this section. Equity is a critical lens in resource-constrained environments and should be at the forefront of every decision. LEAs should consider the impact of instructional delivery model decisions on historically underserved populations and ways to mitigate potential impact from the model. For example, LEAs should consider unique instructional support needs of individual students, student and staff access to necessary materials required for remote learning, and which supports and services can be delivered effectively through remote modalities and which can only be delivered in-person.
This process is likely to be a dialog that takes some time, as LEAs review the implications of each element and consider a variety of hybrid options.
Based on the model outlined at the beginning of the worksheet, LEAs may need to create different mock-ups by grade level or school. These mock-ups will help planning teams implement the model. LEAs are also encouraged to create more than one mock-up based on potential changes to the outlook of the pandemic. As with Section III, a sample worksheet has been completed for purely illustrative purposes - all of the data in the examples are fictional.
This is a good juncture for an LEA to check that their communication plan has been updated and that all stakeholder groups are current on the plan.
Download and Open Before Reading This Section:
Critical Readiness Factors (Word)
Critical Readiness Factors Action Tracker (Excel)
Suggested Action:
Create a detailed action plan for each instructional delivery model using the Critical Readiness Factors and Action Tracker
Once an instructional delivery model has been chosen, LEAs should use the critical readiness factors and the action tracker to create a detailed plan to guide implementation of the instructional delivery model. The critical readiness factors are not intended to be completed in order, but rather considered simultaneously, likely by separate subcommittees. Each critical readiness factor includes a set of sample steps. These steps are a starting point for LEAs and should not be copied directly into the action tracker. Action steps will need to be tailored to each LEA’s specific environment and broken into action items for different team members to complete.
Download and Open Before Reading This Section:
Meeting Agenda & Protocol (Word)
Progress Monitoring (Word)
Suggested Action:
Schedule and implement progress monitoring routines
LEAs should use the protocols provided in the two documents linked above to continuously review progress and adjust as the instructional delivery model is implemented. Regularly meeting to discuss the critical readiness factors, identify roadblocks, and streamline cross-department collaboration will be necessary for a successful school opening in the fall. If it becomes clear that a portion of the chosen instructional delivery model will not work, LEAs should be prepared to pivot.
Throughout the school year, staff wellness will be an essential to offering an equitable educational experience for all. Consult the Staff and Student Wellness Guide for strategies or activities that can be utilized to support staff as needed before moving on with the planned agenda.
Toolkit Development
This toolkit was designed around the following principles:
- Health & Safety: Prioritize the physical, social/emotional, and mental health of both students and staff.
- Academics: Ensure students have access to high quality instruction to meet grade level expectations.
- Equity: Ensure equity and access for all students. All decisions should be made with careful consideration of their impact on historically underserved populations.
- Transparency: Make decisions in partnership with all stakeholders, especially students, families, and staff.
- Efficiency: Act quickly, while considering many facets of local circumstances.
- Regulatory Guidance: Satisfy all federal, state, and local requirements.
In addition to the above, individual LEAs should determine if there are other priorities based on their local context that need to be considered, and that will drive their work between now and the end of their planning for the coming school year.
This toolkit is based in consideration of guidance from federal and state education and public health authorities and as of its release the authors are not aware of any information or suggestions contained herein that run counter to current guidance. As guidance is being continually updated using new information, LEAs are encouraged to regularly check to ensure specific requirements have not changed.