By Michael B. Horn, The Future of Education (from June 14, 2020)
As the United States closes the books on a turbulent end to the 2019-20 school year, many are breathing a sigh of relief—and realizing that that breath won't last long. Educators, parents, and policymakers alike are asking big questions beyond what will families do without summer camp. What will school look like in the fall? What should it look like?
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By Madeline Will, Education Week (from June 10, 2020)
Classrooms. Hallways. Buses. Schedules. Extracurriculars. Every facet of the school day will have to be fundamentally altered when students eventually return to school. To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, school leaders must ensure social distancing—limiting group sizes, keeping students six feet apart, restricting non-essential visitors, and closing communal spaces. Those measures run counter to how schools usually operate, with teachers and students working together in close quarters, children socializing throughout the day, and the buildings serving as a community gathering space.
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By Dena Simmons, ASCD InService (from June 5, 2020)
During my school years, I learned about white scholars, white inventors, white ideas, and white theories. I did not read a book about a writer of color until I was in high school, and even then, it was not a part of the official curriculum. I was expected to find myself in narratives of enslaved Africans, of the three civil rights leaders I learned about each year, and of Black struggle. I did not see myself reflected in the clear faces with blonde hair and blue eyes that I read about or saw in magazines and on television. I became convinced that ingenuity could only live within whiteness.
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By Mark J. Mitchell, NAIS (from June 8, 2020)
As an African American alumnus of an independent school, I'm compelled to look at what is happening in our world today through many lenses, but the thoughts that have taken shape in my head keep coming back to the lens of what independent school leaders can do to help make sure that the black and brown constituents in their care can breathe. While lists of resources serve a needed purpose, I want to offer something else: three strands of connected thoughts that I hope will spur your thinking and action in a new way or two.
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By Grant Lichtman (from June 29, 2020)
Hopefully we are all growing and learning during this time of social awakening in America. Hopefully we are beginning to understand that all lives can't matter until black and brown lives matter. And hopefully we are learning some skills that help us each to move with humility from where we have been to where we still need to go.
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By John Gulla, Independent School Magazine (Summer 2020)
Schools are hearty organisms. My quick online search turns up 44 independent schools that were founded in the US before 1800, 41 of which are still active and serving students. Worldwide, I can find about 150 secondary schools that were founded more than 500 years ago and are still open today. What other societal organizations display such stability? Certainly religious institutions endure. Colleges and universities have an even longer history than elementary and secondary schools. Some hospitals, museums, and banks have such institutional longevity. And I know of some hotels, breweries, and a number of businesses with equally ancient origins, but these are more the exceptions than the rule.
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By Thomas R. Frieden, Arne Duncan, & Margaret Spellings, The Atlantic (from July 9, 2020)
In any other July, millions of American schoolchildren, their families, and their teachers would be eagerly anticipating, or perhaps dreading, the start of a new school year. This year is different. With coronavirus case counts increasing rapidly in many states, it's natural to wonder whether there will be school at all.
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By NAIS (from June 2020)
In these uncertain times, many schools are grappling with what back-to-school should look like. Because many of the tactical decisions can feel overwhelming, NAIS synthesized research and advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fisher Phillips, Education Week, The World Health Organization, and the American Academy of Pediatrics to compile the following list.
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By Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy (from May 24, 2020)
I don't need to give you much background here: As you all know, schools have been closed worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the same way that cities are at various stages of reopening businesses, schools are doing the same thing, or at least thinking about how it might work.
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By Mackenzie Pierce, Ph.D., EAB (from May 22, 2020)
Testing is the essential public health tool that identifies new outbreaks and allows us to quickly contain them. Perhaps no topic has been more frequently discussed, from the botched CDC tests in February, to current worries about the United States' insufficient testing levels.
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By Stephen Noonoo, EdSurge (from May 20, 2020)
Across the country - and indeed the world - schools are preparing for a back-to-school season unlike any other in living memory. Governors are signaling tentative support for schools to resume in-person classes in the fall, with careful planning and a few caveats. Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, went so far as to describe his vision as a "hybrid environment," allotting for altered schedules and intermittent returns to remote learning based on the predicted trajectory of COVID-19 over the coming months.
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Lisa Pullman, INDEX
Lisa has conducted interviews with the leadership of international schools which have reopened since the coronavirus pandemic began. The interviews are enlightening and insightful, and packed with golden nuggets. Each speaker has taken a slightly different approach to reopening, and you'll learn all about how schools creatively rethought student schedules and adroitly staffed both in-person and remote classes.
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By Frank Bruni, The New York Times (from June 4, 2020)
We need doctors right now. My God, we need doctors: to evaluate the coronavirus's assault, assess the body's response and figure out where, in that potentially deadly tumble of events, there's a chance to intervene.
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By The Editorial Board, The New York Times (from June 6, 2020)

Parents who have watched their children struggle with online learning since schools across the country were closed in March are painfully aware that virtual classes are no substitute for face-to-face instruction. Even so, many of these parents worry that schools might hastily reopen without taking the necessary precautions to shield children — and everyone in the school community — from infection.
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By Emily Bazelon, The New York Times (from June 3, 2020)

With the threat of the coronavirus continuing into the fall and next year, colleges and universities across the country are struggling with whether to reopen their campuses — and if so, how. On one side of the ledger are the health risks of density if students return to the dorms and classrooms and facilities, especially to older faculty and staff members and surrounding communities. On the other side are disruption and derailment, concern about the isolation of online learning and economic loss for institutions, college towns and regions.
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