Uncommon Schools Prepares & Propels Students to Thrive In Hybrid Learning

The Covid-19 global pandemic taught many lessons. Some of the lessons were hard, others easier, but all necessary and worth it. The Education system, like many others, was struck by Covid without a plan of attack. Despite the pandemic, Uncommon Schools, a charter school network based in Boston, MA, Brooklyn, NY, Camden, NJ, Newark, NJ, Rochester, NY, and Troy, NY, has maintained its goal of striving to prepare students to get to and through college.

Althea Russell, a mother of an Uncommon Brooklyn elementary school student, says “Uncommon staff have done all that they can to make remote and hybrid learning just as strong as regular in-person learning”. According to Russell, her son’s teachers “know the importance of math and reading” and they have “created space in the schedule for students to have longer reading and math time”. This shift served as a consolation for parents like Althea, that have concerns about how the learning loss will influence the learning for next year and beyond.

Peter Meyer, an author for Education Next, spoke with Brett Peiser, the Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Schools, and Peiser reiterated Althea’s point, explaining how his Uncommon educators approach teaching to their students. According to Peiser in his Education Next interview with Meyer that appeared on Ebscohost (2014), “Data drive what we do. It isn’t instinct. And it’s not just about test data, it’s all sorts of data. It’s student survey data, it’s parent survey data, it’s teacher survey data, it’s the number of books students read.”

This data driven approach is not only evident in the academic supports Uncommon teachers provide students, but it is also present in the social-emotional support available to families and students. According to Russell, her son, “Malachi is learning more things about his community and what is happening in the world. He is also learning how to build relationships with his peers and his teachers and that helps him a lot outside of school”. This educating the whole child approach is one that Uncommon strives to weave into the fabrics of their schools. According to the Uncommon website, the network is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, where they will “continue to provide more flexibility for how students engage inside and outside of the classroom, including being thoughtful about what circumstances in learning from home may look like as well”.

Quality education for every student in America has been a never-ending struggle, and the existence of Covid-19 has placed even more strains on the system and its stakeholders. While this is a constantly evolving matter, what has not changed is the focus parents have on their children’s education and future success. Uncommon offers family a learning option/model that is dedicated to shaping and pouring into the many facets of the multi-layered students, with the promise of getting better with active investment and partnership from teachers, parents and students.