Editor-in-Chief, Madison Grenauer
On May 8th, many students and families stopped awaiting the final decision of the potential grading system shift. Dr. Luizzi, the superintendent of all New Canaan Public Schools, sent out an email with the two new grading alternatives that all high school students could choose from. These options gave students the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to keep the traditional grading system for the fourth quarter, or apply to change to the credit or no credit system.
Quarantine has been a challenging time for many for a variety of different reasons. The New Canaan Public Schools spent weeks researching different solutions that would allow students to remain on the somewhat level playing field that they were once at in school. In order to dive deeper into the issue of equity throughout the e-learning experience, the Courant talked to a few crucial people in this decision process.
A constant theme throughout this pandemic has been equity. Superintendents, principals, and all members of the Board of Education have tried to accommodate for the various familial, social, and other issues through the new grading system. Dr. Luizzi spoke directly to this idea of equity, dealing with it on the education level and in other issues in life. “Equity has been a focus of ours from the very start, before we even closed we started talking about equity to access, equity to support, and even in truth food, how can we get food to people and other issues similar to that”, he said.
Not only was the issue of equity accounted for on the local education level, but it was thought of on a higher learning level involving colleges and universities as well. Both Dr. Luizzi and Mr. Egan spoke to the fact that the grading options were created as a result of the communication with other heads of universities from various locations. “We’ve spoken with dozens of colleges and they have all spoken with one voice saying that they recognize and understand how hard this is for kids, for families, for teachers, for everybody and they are not going to disadvantage or hold back a student if anything happens in this fourth quarter,” Dr. Luizzi said.
When coming to the final decision, the hard work of both students and teachers was a constant thought in the minds of all who helped develop these alternatives. Dr. Luizzi explains how the two choice grading opportunity was the right option to accommodate all families at this time. “To honor the work of students and teachers, I felt that a one size fits all approach wasn’t the right decision because I see what my own daughter is doing, I hear from parents and teachers how hard our students are working at home for those who can put forth their best efforts” he said. “When thinking about how we could make adjustments to our grading system, we wanted to be as inclusive as we could and making sure people had ways to give us input.”
Not only was the two option choice created to support all students, but the district wanted to make it an easy switch for those who wanted to shift to the credit or no credit system. “That option is available to any student. The application process is very easy; you don’t have to prove anything. You can just share with us that this doesn’t work or something happened or you just need to change” Dr. Luizzi said.
After this arduous decision process, Principal Egan shared a few words about the mindset and goals that had to be considered throughout. “We were trying to accommodate everyone’s needs as well as trying to get it off the ground while capturing good work in the classroom. This is really important to us”, he said. “There’s nothing that replaces being in school. We also wanted to celebrate the excellent work that was going on in school because we did think we were doing quality work”.
With this mindset in place throughout the entire duration of quarantine, the New Canaan Public Schools have been supporting all student families and New Canaan citizens not only through various grading opportunities but through essential resources. “We are delivering meals to students across the district for lunch everyday,” Dr. Luizzi said. “We just partnered with a group called “Filling in the Blanks,” and they are providing the extra food for the weekends so that families have that for the weekends which is wonderful.”
In addition to necessary resources, the school has been able to provide technological and emotional support to all students in crisis. “We’ve handed out hundreds of Chromebooks, we’ve got hotspots, we’ve provided tech support from the school district where a student can just email in and we can log into their device and help them to figure out whatever they need to figure out”, Dr. Luizzi said. “Anyone who wants to talk to somebody and reflect or even share something else going on they can contact any of our counselors or they can even contact me and I can get them in touch with any counselor.”
As always, if students are in a serious crisis or need help immediately, the number to call is 211. This number will loop in the high school and will allow you to get in contact with a counselor who can help get you all the support you need through this time. There is also a school Teen Talk counselor who is a listening ear for all students at any time. “We have Dr. Bliss who is always available. You can send a quick email to her and she can reach out right away,” said Dr. Luizzi.
The E-learning experience has been new for every student and teacher throughout the world. The New Canaan Public Schools are recognizing that the in classroom experience will not be able to be copied in an at home setting. “We are not trying to replicate exactly what they had in the classroom, we are trying to create something new. It will be different, and it may not be exactly what you do content wise in the classroom, but you can still make it a rich and meaningful experience in different ways” Dr. Luizzi said.
