Are You Ready? Real-World Support for Reopening

By: Jin-Soo Huh

The Parabola Project is a unique, cross-sector initiative that brings together education expertise from The Learning Accelerator and public health expertise from Ariadne Labs. The project rapidly identifies, develops, and shares strategies to help school system leaders make decisions and implement practices that support the mitigation of COVID-19-related risks while maximizing student learning and community wellbeing. 

We are excited to announce that we have wrapped up our initial phase which focused on developing tools to assist school leaders in creating and executing their operational plans to reopen schools for in-person learning. In our next phase of work, we are focusing on schools that have reopened with health and safety protocols in place to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. We are highlighting what schools actually look like from their arrival/dismissal procedures, the implementation of hybrid learning models, to inclusion of mask breaks. Here is an overview of the resources:

Strategies from Schools that Have Reopened

Some schools have reopened their school buildings in the new school year and implemented health and safety protocols to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The Parabola Project is collaborating with these schools and districts from across the country to share their protocols and early learnings from being open. Learnings will be shared through:

• Snapshots: These quick posts showcase videos, photos, and documents that show what school reopening looks like in these schools.

• Spotlights: These more in-depth posts focus on specific topics and showcase the approaches various schools have taken. 

• School Profiles (coming soon): These profiles assemble the various strategies that one school has taken to keep students and staff safe and to maximize learning.

Reopening Readiness Resources

The Parabola Project developed resources during the summer to assist school leaders in creating, evaluating, and executing their operational plans to reopen schools for in-person learning. The resources take into consideration a balanced view of the risk of COVID-19 transmission balanced against other risks (including learning loss and social-emotional impact) and take into consideration the local context.

• School Reopening Readiness Guide: This guide will help district and school leaders identify effective health and safety measures that are feasible for students, teachers,  school personnel, and the families and communities they serve. The guide is organized into nine Public Health Principles and provides key recommendations, tools, and resources based on the latest research and scientific guidance.

• Toolkits: These concrete and actionable toolkits tackle key challenges surfaced by school design partners and feedback from a broad range of stakeholders and experts.

Communicating About Reopening Measures with Families Cohorting Students for In-Person Instruction How to Prepare and Care for Your Classroom Teacher-Parent/Guardian Engagement Tools

Process for a Positive COVID-19 Case Among Staff/Student(s) School Air Quality Assessment Guide Step-by-Step Options for Serving Meals Bus Driver Support

Indicators to Support School Closure and Reopening Learning Together in Socially Distanced Classrooms Mask Culture Bathroom and Water Breaks During COVID-19 Identifying and Supporting Individual Student Needs

Get Updates on the Parabola Project

If you would like to receive periodic updates from the Parabola Project including when new resources are released, fill out this form.

Questions, Comments, or Resources?

Please email us at parabolaproject@learningaccelerator.org if you have any questions, comments, or school-developed resources that could be part of our toolkits.