Alice Opalka

05/2021

COVID-19 Revealed New Roles for Cities to Create a Continuum of Support for Youth and Families. They Shouldn't End with the Pandemic

This brief examines the involvement of the 100 largest cities in the U.S. in creating learning pods during the pandemic.

03/2021

School Reopening Trends Offer Districts the Opportunity to Start Planning Beyond the Pandemic

Our latest analysis of school district learning models from March 1 to March 13 finds that a clear majority—57 percent—of the nation’s school districts report offering full-time in-person...

01/2021

U-Turn: Surge of COVID Cases Reverses Reopening Progress in America's School Districts

Our December review of a statistically representative sample of 477 districts found 31 percent are operating in fully remote learning—a larger percentage than at any other point during the fall...

11/2020

One Step Forward, One Step Back: Public Health Fears Keep America's School Districts on a Reopening Treadmill

This brief gives an update on our nationally representative sample of school district reopening plans.

08/2020

School Districts Across the Nation Plan for An Uncertain Year Ahead

This brief gives a snapshot from July 27-31 of how school districts across the country are currently planning for fall 2020.

How much online learning is too much? Schools’ shift to live virtual classes sparks pushback

Sep 14 2020

Alice Opalka is quoted in Chalkbeat Newark about the shift to virtual learning.

Is a six-hour school day too much? Families cope with realities of virtual learning

Sep 11 2020

Alice Opalka is quoted in Chalkbeat Chicago on how districts are approaching virtual learning for the new school year.

‘It’s Not My Problem!’ Why Charter Schools and Districts Need to Work Together on the Politics of School Closure

Jul 13 2017

Robin Lake and Alice Opalka write on the importance of collaboration between school districts and charter schools in this piece for Education Next.

It takes a village: The pandemic learning pod movement, one year in

Feb 11 2021

Community-based organizations and adults beyond the teacher are playing an increased role supporting students and their families through the pandemic, but there is room for more learning pods to take advantage of their flexible nature to provide more well-rounded support.

As many school districts reopen virtually, the opportunity gap widens for students living in poverty

Sep 10 2020

Students in the highest-poverty school systems can’t afford to wait for instruction to go back to “normal.”

Tight or loose? It depends: District central offices in supporting school-based COVID-19 response

Sep 1 2020

Do district central offices need to seize more control, or can they empower school leaders to meet community needs?

Rural school districts can be creative in solving the internet connectivity gap—but they need support

Aug 12 2020

We describe the key findings from our work with rural districts during the pandemic.

Too Many Schools Leave Learning to Chance During the Pandemic

Jun 10 2020

A new brief summarizes our findings from a review of COVID-19 response plans of 477 school districts across the country.

During the 2020–21 school year, we learned through a series of interviews that most teachers missed out on the power of collaborative interactions between general and special educators.

This paper highlights the approach that two innovative charter networks took last year to address student well-being and social-emotional development.