CPS’ COVID-19 RESPONSE: A TIMELINE
CPS’ Early Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Flattening the Curve
In a pandemic that has nearly impacted 32.3 million people in the United States alone, school districts like Chicago Public Schools have done their best to navigate these extraordinary times.
On March 12, six days after Santiago’s high school closed down, Governor JB Pritzker announced a ban on all large gatherings of 1,000 people or more in the state. The ban originally was supposed to be in effect until May 1.
The next day, at 4:00 p.m., Gov. Pritzker ordered the closure of all Illinois schools, including CPS. Originally, schools were scheduled to reopen on March 31.
“I was just shocked,” said James Santiago, a student who attends Vaughn Occupational High School. “I had just came home from school and all of a sudden, a couple of hours later, I learned that they closed it down. I was just there and not knowing whether I caught it or not, that was scary.”
Full Timeline Interactive Graphic: CPS’ Covid-19 Response
Anna Pavichevich, the principal of Amundsen High School, explained how she learned about the school closures and the pressure administrators were under early on in the pandemic.
“We heard on the news like everybody else did,” she said. “When we prepared staff, we told them [to] take everything home, [as] if you’re not coming back for the rest of the year.”
On March 30, Mayor Lightfoot, CPS, and CCC unveiled a new remote learning plan for students, two weeks after Gov. Pritzker first ordered the closure of all Illinois schools.
Kristi Eilers, assistant principal of Amundsen High School, highlighted the key role administrators played in communicating the new remote learning plan to their teachers.
“CPS started giving us a bunch of documentation and guidance,” she said. “We read through it, we dissected it, we’ve highlighted and annotated it. And then we prepare teachers by then turning it into a PowerPoint.”
With the start of remote learning having begun on April 13, many students struggled with the transition.
“It was hard to do all [of] this on a computer,” said Clarissa Delgado, a Junior at Farragut High School. “I [was] used to doing everything on paper, answering questions on paper, and just doing the normal…[and] switching from class to class [online was] hard.”
In order to alleviate student anxieties, CPS announced a new grading policy on April 30. The new policy gave students the flexibility to improve or maintain their grades from the third quarter.
Philip Cantor, a science teacher who has been teaching at North Grand High School for 14 years, described how the policy inadvertently impacted participation negatively in his virtual classroom.
As a result, Cantor had to think of creative ways to make remote learning more engaging for his students.
“I tried to give them some choices about what they could do [to] show their learning,” he said. “Students could create a comic…or they could write a song or a rap…they can [also] make a three-dimensional model. Students came up with some really cool ideas…and they blew me away.”
On June 25, Mayor Lightfoot addressed the digital equity gap found within lower-income families and announced a 50 million Chicago Connected program that provided more than 100,000 CPS students with free access to the internet.
Hybrid Learning, Getting Kids Back into the Classroom
On Aug. 18, Mayor Lightfoot announced CPS’ Final Remote Learning Plan to the public. The plan stated that the school year would begin entirely online with no in-person learning until at least Nov. 8.
The new guidelines aimed to improve the remote learning experience by stressing accountability with required attendance, mandatory live instruction, and previous grading practices all returning.
On Sept. 21, two weeks after remote learning began, the CTU hosted a virtual conference highlighting that adjustments were needed for remote learning. More specifically calling attention to the amount of screen time required of younger students and how it was negatively impacting them.
“I mean, that was something that it was sort of a mix last year, as kids weren’t on enough [during remote learning],” said Cantor, when asked about how screen time has impacted his high school students during remote learning. “Students do complain of headaches, complain of eyestrain, backaches…”
On Sept. 30, Mayor Lightfoot later confirmed that remote learning was negatively impacting CPS’ most youngest students and announced that she has directed CPS to develop specific plans to help those students.
Ivette Deleon, the mother of Clarissa, explains her remote learning experiences with her seven-year-old son Ivan.
“It was very aggravating,” she said. “The first day, when he started remote learning, it was very hard for him to learn what he had to do on the computer. There were times where he struggled to pay attention…and he even fell asleep a couple of times.”
On Oct. 16, CPS releases its yearly 20th Day Membership Report. The data showed that CPS enrollment had dropped by nearly 15,000 students, the largest drop in the past two decades. As a result, CPS announced a plan to bring younger students back into the classroom.
The plan included bringing pre-kindergarten students and those in cluster programs back for in-person learning at some point in the second quarter, which starts in early November.
Tensions Rise Between CPS and CTU
About a month later, the same day Gov. Pritzker announced new Covid-19 restrictions, CPS announced that in-person classes will resume first on Jan. 11, with pre-kindergarten and special cluster students. Students K-8 will return on Feb. 1 while school students continue to learn remotely.
According to WBBM News Radio, CTU President Sharkey criticized the announcement, saying that this “appears to be based on the mayor’s political agenda, because it sure isn’t based on science.”
On Jan. 8, 2021, five days after the majority of aldermen in Chicago signed a letter expressing safety concerns over CPS return to in-person learning, the CTU released images to the public showing how dirty and unprepared classes were for the beginning of in-person classes.
On Jan 11, for the first time since last March, about 6,000 pre-kindergarten and special needs students returned to the classroom. CTU continued to oppose the reopening over health and safety concerns.
On Jan. 20, CTU’s House of Delegates voted on whether or not to return to schools for in-person instruction. The vote ended with the majority of delegates voting no due to the lack of Covid-19 vaccinations and other safety concerns.
After about a month of CPS and CTU both negotiating and exchanging proposals, late evening on Feb. 10, both sides officially came to an agreement for a return of in-person learning.
Kindergarten through fifth-grade students were expected to return for in-person classes on March 1.
Sixth through eighth-grade students were expected to return on March 8.
The deal encompasses that certain students, teachers, and staff return to school two days a week in a staggered phase, as the CTU secured a vaccination plan for CPS workers — with 1,500 being inoculated each week. There will also be safety committees at each school to enforce safety standards.
The next day, on Feb. 11, Ivan was one of the thousands of students who returned once again to in-person learning.
“He likes to be in person more than online because he’s with his teachers one on one,” Deleon said, when asked about which type of instruction her son prefers more. “So, when it’s time for him to come home and do it online again, he doesn’t want to do it. He gets aggravated.”
Looking Ahead: The Post Pandemic Educational Landscape
Mark Warschauer, professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine, and expert on digital learning, believes that the Covid-19 pandemic could have long-lasting consequences on not only students but also the education system as a whole.
“We should be thinking about extra summer school sessions or longer workdays, or Saturday schools, extra tutoring, or money that we can put in to help this generation of kids, especially the younger kids who are behind…”, he said.
“We’re not going to have all online classes, but we’re not going back,” he continued. “There’s going to be more attention to online learning [and] to the quality of online learning because people have realized both its potential and as well as [its] necessity.”
