Ensuring Equity in Hybrid Instruction: Part 1, Planning

“I saw teachers engage with virtual and in-person learners alike as they try to find a new balance between the two. Today was even better than I had imagined. Thank you to all of my strong, steadfast leaders who made today possible.” — Jeanine Zitta, writing in ZEN, her network newsletter, October 19, 2020, as her schools transitioned to hybrid learning.

The Pointed Problem: Engaging All Students Amid Increased Complexity

Jeanine Zitta knew her schools faced a daunting challenge as they looked to move from remote-only to hybrid instruction. She and her team had already invested tremendous effort in giving teachers the guidance and support to engage all students in consistently high quality virtual lessons. Now, in the district’s plan for hybrid learning, teachers would be teaching the same lesson at the same time to students in both classrooms and at home (Some systems use “hybrid” to refer to a different arrangement, in which all students rotate between at home and in-school days.)

With the added complexity came the risk of unequal access. Zitta was determined that students who chose to learn from home would not be at a disadvantage. Regardless of where they were, she wanted all students to have the same opportunities to engage with the content, participate, and get feedback on their work. But how could she ensure equity given such a steep challenge?

The Innovation: Developing Models, Making it Real

With something so new and complex as hybrid teaching, Zitta knew teachers would need to see it done effectively — and in their own schools — before feeling confident in their own ability to master it. They’d need explicit guidance on the essentials of an equitable hybrid lesson — from greeting students and establishing class routines, to involving them in small- and whole-group discussions, to monitoring their work in real-time. And they would need feedback on their practice as they tried it themselves.

As a leader of school leaders, Zitta’s task was to guide the 20 principals and instructional coaches she supports in making that happen. To do so, she:

• Built her own deep understanding of effective hybrid teaching, and communicated the essentials to her leaders;
• Detailed how to set up model hybrid classrooms and coach selected teachers to exemplary levels so they could in turn help in training their peers;
• Observed hybrid lessons as schools transitioned and offered additional guidance to address trending gaps; and
• Widely communicated celebrations of success, along with heartfelt appreciation of people’s tremendous efforts, often through her weekly newsletter.

The Story: “Ready for the first day.”

Getting Ahead of the Game

From early on in the pandemic, Zitta understood that the key to ensuring equity was making sure teachers were well equipped and supported to deliver rigorous, grade-level instruction every day — and from day one. Over the summer she enlisted a group of her most expert teachers to create high-quality and curriculum-aligned materials that teachers across her network could then turnkey into their own lessons starting the first week of school (See “Improving Quality in Virtual Teaching Across a Network, Part 1.”).

In the same vein, with hybrid instruction on the horizon, Zitta’s top goal was to make sure teachers were ready to hit the ground running as soon as students began returning to their buildings. She says: “Having teachers ready for the first day — not stumbling on what instruction is going to look like — meant powerful instruction from day one; it meant being on track with pacing for the curriculum.”

Her strategy was to learn enough about hybrid teaching herself so she could then teach her leaders how to teach their teachers how to practice it at high levels. She started her research several weeks before her district had concrete plans for reopening schools — knowing that sooner or later, the move to hybrid instruction was almost inevitable. Much of what she learned was from districts that had already made the transition.

Rallying the Troops

One of the many added challenges in getting ready for hybrid was the fact that, because of social distancing, she had little opportunity to bring her leaders together for professional learning. To help fill the gap she leveraged one of her key leadership tools for motivating staff and moving practice within the nine elementary schools she oversees: her weekly newsletter, called “ZEN,” for Zitta Education Network.

Early in the year — when the district named Oct 19 as the beginning of hybrid learning — Zitta used her newsletter to urge leaders to start preparing. Pointing out they had just 20 days before students returned, she wrote, “The more teachers know and understand now, the less anxiety they will have about what it looks like and feels like. As their confidence levels build, their excitement will also.”

In the same issue, she included seven videos from districts that had already made the switch, on everything from room and technology set-up, to promoting high-level discourse among students at home and in the classroom. She advised setting up model hybrid classrooms with the help of tech-savvy staff members, so teachers could be trained in the approach as soon as they returned. And she clarified how to use time allotted for staff planning and PD for the training.

Characteristic of Zitta’s leadership style, along with urgency and a strong sense of purpose she projected significant enthusiasm and appreciation in her communications. In her newsletter she wrote: “The day we have all been waiting for is coming…. This may be bringing up mixed emotions for you and your staff, but one of those emotions is definitely excitement as we miss our learners.”

Pre-Flight Checklists

To further support a smooth start to hybrid Zitta employed the teaching equivalent of a pre-flight checklist. In her October 8 newsletter — 11 days before students returned — she posed a series of questions to get teachers planning for how they’d address the most critical issues (See Below).

Zitta was heartened to see the questions republished in her leaders’ own newsletters to their staff (For the full set of questions, see October 8, 2020 issue of ZEN.). “It all felt very, very possible, and I think raised the bar on equity in our classrooms,” she says. “I felt if every teacher could do those things, then gosh, we are so ready for our learners to return.”

But she knew one more thing needed to happen before teachers would feel confident they could actually teach effectively in the hybrid environment: They needed to see it modeled in their own schools. (To learn how Zitta accomplished this, read Part 2 in this series)

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