To assess how public schools have navigated the pandemic and the impact on students, The Times examined seven representative districts. The answers were strikingly different.
The nation’s second-largest district has kept classrooms closed since March. The superintendent acknowledges it is “disproportionately hurting students who can least afford it.”
At a charter school in a poor area of Washington, some teachers spend one day a week going door to door, tracking down students who aren’t logging on, and whose education is suffering.
Nearly 11,000 people were forced to quarantine this fall in a suburban Atlanta district that didn’t mandate masks, but it stayed the course, until a staffing shortage shut the doors.
While districts around it opened, a small Wisconsin city chose to start the school year remotely. Public pressure forced a return, just as virus cases were surging.
The same spirit of innovation that made it possible to track storms has helped a Tennessee county prepare for online learning and a return to classrooms.
