At a recent indoor Presidential campaign rally in Arizona, the Trump team made all attendees sign disclaimers saying they would not sue the campaign if they came down with the Coronavirus. In weeks, our superintendents and school boards in New Hampshire and beyond will be forced, in one way or another, to make potentially life or death decisions, for many, for the first time in their lives.

The virus is going to spread. NH students are going to be in contact with each other, and, despite best attempts to check temperatures, etc. there’s a strong likelihood some spreading will occur. While young people have been the most resilient in dealing with Covid-19, the problem is the virus can easily spread to others, especially, older family members whose lives will be in danger caused directly by the opening of our schools.

Are our schools going to ask parents to sign documents that hold the districts harmless? I would venture to guess that the school administrators and school boards around the country are in contact with their lawyers asking how best to legally protect decision-makers in the school opening process from lawsuits based on the spread of the virus to older, more vulnerable citizens.

So what do we do? Of course we want our schools open, but at what cost? Are we willing to make the decision to open if the risk is 100 or fewer deaths statewide? Is the number 50 or maybe 25? Is it zero?

As of this writing, there have been 388 coronavirus deaths in NH. The vast majority (256) have been in Hillsborough County and are basically, two-thirds of the deaths in the state. Rockingham is second with 92 deaths. Beyond that, there have been very few deaths in the state. So do we close the schools in Hillsborough County, open on a part-time basis in Rockingham, and for the rest of the state, open the schools as normal?

While school administrators and school boards are deeply engaged in conversations about what to do, they are also getting advice from the Commissioner of Education and the Governor who are in turn getting advice from the federal government. When these deaths occur, as I’m betting that they will, will there be a blame game as a primary defense by districts. “Don’t blame us, the governor/commissioner/President made us do it. “

Here’s what I do know. The coronavirus has forced educators all over the United States to alter their delivery model. Distance learning is now a part of virtually every school in America’s plan to educate their students into the foreseeable future. While the educational results of this initial nationwide experiment into distance learning are clearly mixed, one thing for sure has been proven. You can’t spread the disease over the internet.

The decision is between marginal/ spotty educational results and no deaths versus questionably better educational results and some possibility of deaths. If it was clear that classroom learning was better than distance learning, that might tilt things in favor of traditional classrooms, but the results of classroom learning versus online learning do not show distinctly better results.

Conversely, a meta-analysis of 86 studies determined that students in online sections of a course generally score higher on standardized final exams than students enrolled in traditional classes. The reported difference was large amounting to half of a standard deviation. (Shachar and Neumann-2003). A more recent meta-analysis limited to 50 findings also confirmed that academic performance was higher in online versus traditional classes (Means, Toyama, Murphy, et all -2010)

So, if the results of 136 studies comparing traditional classrooms to online learning show online learning produces better results, doesn’t this have us leaning toward relying more on online courses? The problem is that not all online experiences produce the same results.

With the vast majority of our educators relatively unskilled in teaching online, Zoom classrooms seem to be the default methodology. Most anyone, especially our parents who’ve watched their kids struggle in Zoom classrooms, realize that students can get bored in a Zoom classroom as easily as a traditional classroom.

But, there IS a better way. New Hampshire is fortunate to have one of the premier online learning platforms in the country called the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS). It is, largely a one-on-one, mastery-based, face to face modality where students must achieve a minimum of 85% on every competency before they are allowed to pass the course. If every online experience was as good as VLACS, I’d be perfectly comfortable saying “let’s do way more of this until the smoke clears.” But, if it’s largely Zoom classrooms, I don’t feel the same.

This situation we find ourselves in is the pressure to open our schools. There are so many reasons to do so, good and bad, that go beyond student learning. I just pray that our education leaders make good decisions for the benefit of everybody involved.

Fred Bramante is a former Chairman of the State Board of Education and the initiator of Competency Based Learning.

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