Cashwell: 'Being strategic was the right approach' to distance learning

Although community response to Henrico Schools’ distance learning plans during the COVID-19 pandemic has been mixed – with some parents supportive of its tiered approach and plethora of options, while others lament its lack of more structured, teacher-led lessons – Henrico Superintendent Amy Cashwell is confident that the system’s effort has been calculated, compassionate – and successful.

During an extensive interview last week with the Citizen, Cashwell explained that the system took an intentionally measured, cautious and thoughtful path designed to benefit not just students and their families but also employees.

“I do stand behind the fact that as our plans have unfolded. . . in each and every way, they have been strategic,” Cashwell said. “There is no roadmap [for responding to a pandemic]. We wanted to make sure that we were not only addressing myriad factors [involving] students’ needs but also the capacity of our staff.”

Formulating optional learning plans for a diverse student body that includes a number of English as a Second Language students, others with special needs and many who may not have access to the internet or time to engage with their teachers presented a number of unique challenges, she said – and officials didn’t want to rush to provide online learning plans before addressing those challenges thoroughly. They also wanted to focus extensively on providing basic needs – such as daily meals – to students who they knew would need them, she said.

And they didn’t want to presume that their own teachers and staff members were unaffected by the pandemic or that they all had sufficient internet access, equipment and time to transition quickly to online teaching, Cashwell said.

It’s why, she said, Henrico intentionally avoided a quick start to online learning plans or video meetings between teachers and their classes during the first month schools were closed.

“We are a people-first division,” she said.

‘So thankful for Edflix’
After announcing March 12 that it would close schools for two weeks beginning March 16, the school system sent home learning packets with students that were designed to provide review work but no new learning. That, Cashwell said, was so that students could engage with familiar material but not feel overwhelmed by it during a time at which they were simultaneously adjusting to a new normal in their personal lives.

On April 14, the system debuted its Edflix online learning system, which for elementary school students contained a variety of review options and links to other learning sites and which for secondary school students primarily contained links to other sites already in use by students (such as Schoology) that provided similar options.

Last Monday, Edflix received a noticeable upgrade in content – with video lessons from teachers, a number of new exercises and elementary school lesson plans separated by individual grade level, after having been grouped by K-1, 2-3 and 4-5 initially.

The tiered rollout of additional exercises and review options has resonated with many teachers and principals in the system, as well as some parents – even (as the Citizen reported last week) as other parents have been vocally critical of it.

“Yes, HCPS has shown their true colors and those colors are beautiful,” one Citizen reader wrote of the school system’s plans. “Thank you to all the staff who worked hard to create Edflix, and are still working on making it better, even though you are at home and trying to balance caring for your own children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the Edflix options, reader Deven Grady wrote on the Citizen’s Facebook page: “It says to do one activity a week but obviously you can do more than that. Personally I haven’t had an issue with it. My son and I do about an hour a day. We pick a couple activities from the choice board and then use the online resources they provide to learn something new or get some screen time in. I think the county is doing the best the can given the current situation.”

Emails obtained by the Citizen through a Freedom of Information Act request also showed early favorable responses from elementary school principals.

“My staff asked that I please pass on their sincere gratitude for the educational resources that were developed to support student learning while school is out,” Glen Allen Elementary School Principal Melissa Halquist-Pruden wrote to Elementary Education Director Mary Cox. They were overjoyed to say the least by the amount of content, creativity, and resources for students in KG - 5th grade.”

Other emails provided by the school system showed similar sentiments from teachers.

“I am so thankful for the Henrico Edflix, choice boards, and performance tasks that you all have put together for our elementary students,” Kaechele Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Katherine Dix wrote to Cashwell April 22. “I have many friends working in other counties and I hear their struggles with teaching new content and trying to be parents in their own homes and it sounds awful. I know that not all county [residents] are happy with the decisions you made but as a fifth-grade teacher and a parent of a fifth-grader I am extremely happy.”

Some skepticism remains
Though the last round of updates to Edflix seem to have assuaged the concerns of some parents, others remain skeptical.

“We’re all in the same boat. We have to work from home, some of us,” one Citizen reader wrote. “What are the teachers doing with their time? I definitely understand the challenge when many have to take care of their own children and families, but it’s tough for us all. Do your jobs or the next school tax raise is sure to fail.”

Wrote reader Lindsay Stone: “Could they find one teacher to make a grade level video to teach a concept and then provide an assignment to apply that concept? I know they can do that.”

Some criticism has been levied upon the school system for its apparent guidance to teachers that they not teach anything new to students for the first several weeks of the closure. That was in fact the directive, Cashwell said, but it was made in order to ensure that students and teachers weren’t overwhelmed.

“We let our teachers know that they should not just forge ahead with solely digital instruction,” she said. The goal: to make initial connections about “caring before learning,” she said.

Others have complained that while Edflix provides a districtwide set of learning options, how teachers choose to implement them (or not) varies school by school and classroom by classroom.

But to Cashwell and other Henrico officials, that’s how it should be.

“Nothing we create at the admin level is meant to be” one-size-fits-all, Cashwell said. “[Teachers] know best what their students need. We would never pretend to have that knowledge – that’s something we trust our educators to do.”

‘Being strategic was the right approach’
Even had Henrico officials wanted to start online learning right away in March, they’d have been unable to reach thousands of elementary school students who lacked computers or internet access (secondary school students are provided with computers, so teachers could tell much more easily who had logged in and who hadn’t). So the system surveyed families and began distributing Chromebooks several weeks ago to those who needed them. It expects to exhaust its supply of 6,000 and may acquire more to distribute, Cashwell said.

To help provide internet access for students without it at home, the system distributed about 400 WiFi hotspots and has ordered another 400 or so for distribution, she said.

Most elementary school teachers are now engaging with their classes for about an hour a week on Zoom or other video conferencing platforms, while second school teachers are spending about 90 minutes doing so on average.

Beginning Wednesday, all middle and high-school students who are taking high-school courses will be required to participate in new learning, though it won’t be graded, and those who aren’t able to do so now will have other opportunities throughout the summer to do so.

“I feel that being strategic was the right approach and is the right approach,” Cashwell said. “We wanted to make sure we did not go too far too fast.”

That approach, she said, allowed officials to avoid the type of safety and security issues some other school systems have experienced (including Virginia’s largest – Fairfax County – which had to shut down its online learning program for nearly a week recently after hackers breached it and many students had difficulty accessing it).

It’s also helped with internal preparations for the months ahead and any additional public school closures that may occur in the fall or beyond, Cashwell said.

And perhaps most significantly to those who designed the plan, it’s permitted different approaches for different families. Those with at least one parent at home who is able to provide guided instruction have the resources to do so to whatever extent they’d like, while those whose parents are working at home or elsewhere and less able to provide significant supervision still can ensure their students aren’t falling behind, suggested Cashwell – who can relate to both groups at various times.

“I’m a trained teacher, that’s my expertise, and I struggle at times making sure that my own kids [one in elementary school, one in high school] are on track,” Cashwell said. “So I’m thankful for the flexible approach that’s been provided.”