As schools return to in-person education, school leaders look back to see what lessons can be learned from the two years of distance learning. As a school with more than twenty years of hybrid-learning experience, Visions In Education was able to pivot to a fully remote model of education and support our students with minimal learning loss.
Last Friday, Superintendent Steve Olmos participated in a panel of educators on KVIE’s Studio Sacramento to discuss how learning during the pandemic changed and how schools can best serve students in a rapidly changing world. Dr. Olmos was joined by Placer County Superintendent of Schools Gayle Garbolino-Mojica and Placer County Elementary Teacher of the Year Tiffany McGuire to look back on learning in 2020-2021.
“The students that we had enrolled with us, we didn’t see a lot of learning loss because they were already used to that distance learning,” said Dr. Olmos. “Over the last few years, we’ve learned that not all students learn in the traditional [school] setting.”
Dr. Olmos also shared an anecdote about how non-classroom based education benefited students who had been expelled by their previous school.
“We really thought we were going to lose these students academically,” said Dr. Olmos. “And actually we found they performed better. When I personally talked to these students they would tell me, ‘I do better because I don’t have to worry about drama in the classroom.’”
“There are children who do not thrive in a classroom of twenty to thirty children and there are children who thrive in a more unique educational setting,” said Superintendent Garbolino-Mojica. “Charter schools have really come to the surface in the past couple of years as a vehicle for families who may have a child who thrives in that type of environment.”
The pandemic changed the world as we know it and Visions is thrilled to contribute our lessons-learned to the discussion surrounding the future of education.