Evaluating COL

One of Maret’s greatest strengths is its diverse community of students, faculty, and families.The wide range of knowledge, experiences, and perspectives present in our community creates an energy and dynamism that drives us thoughtfully and compassionately forward, especially in difficult times.

Institutional Research During COVID-19

Throughout the pandemic, the School has worked hard to collect and reflect on the wide range of feedback provided by our community about how they are experiencing our Continuity of Learning (COL) programs. Given the breadth of perspectives in our community, it has been crucial to acknowledge that everyone is experiencing this crisis differently and that the lens through which we each evaluate the success of COL is shaped by the challenges present in our particular household.

Regular surveys to students, families, and faculty have helped the School to assess all dimensions of school life during COVID. The high response rate has provided faculty with valuable data in real time to hep inform and improve iterations of COL across divisions.

Teacher in class with students and on Zoom — This sixth grade history class is being conducted in the hybrid model, with half of the students in class with the teacher and the other half participating via Zoom.

Our COL Research & Findings

As we abruptly transitioned our classes, programs, and operations in response to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the central goals of our Continuity of Learning COL program have been to continue to deliver the essential content knowledge and skills students will need next year; to support the emotional health of our students, families, and faculty; and to maintain the sense of community that permeates the hallways of our campus.

Winter 2020/2021

Amount of Screentime Required

Too much Zoom time

Topic 1: Too much Zoom time for off-campus students.

Solutions:

Both the MS and US schedules reintroduce one asynchronous class period per week, reducing Zoom time by a third.
In both MS and US, the schedule incorporates extended breaks during the day to give off-campus students time away from Zoom.
In US, the synchronous portion of the school day on Zoom has been capped at about 3 hours per day between 9:00 - 1:30.
In MS, some courses like PE will not require off-campus students to attend via Zoom.

The Social Experience

Topic 2: Extending the social benefits of being on campus

Solutions:

The MS and US schedules incorporate extended breaks during the on-campus day to allow both structured and unstructured social time.
The US schedule contains a block of time from 1:30 - 2:30 for peer and teacher interaction.

Faculty Workload Under Hybrid

Pulse Taking Survey

Fall 2020

Comparing COL—Spring vs Fall

For the fall, Maret teachers implemented a number of practices intended to make class materials easier to find and use. When asked to compare their experience with coursework logistics this fall with their experience in the spring, the vast majority (75%-85%) of returning parents and students rated their experience this fall as equally good or better than their experience in the spring.

CHART: Fall vs. Spring COL Ratings for Returning Students

Student Mood Report

When asked to rate their overall mood on a 1-10 scale, the average response for Middle School was a 6.7 while the average Upper School response was a 6.0. This continues the trend observed from our surveys in the spring where younger students consistently reported more positive mood ratings than our older students. Pre-pandemic, average student responses to this question typically fell between 6.5 and 7.0.

CHART: Student Self-Reported Mood Ratings on a 1-10 Scale

Comparing Student and Parent Risk Attitudes

Lower School parents and guardians reported the most tolerance for the risks associated with returning to campus. In the Upper School, the overall risk attitude breakdown was almost identical between students and parents/guardians. In the Middle School, parents and guardians were somewhat more tolerant of the health risks associated with coming to campus than the student body. If you are a parent or guardian of a Middle School student returning to campus for the hybrid model, we would encourage you to have a conversation with your student to explain all of the precautions in place on campus and address any concerns they might be feeling.

CHART: Risk Attitudes Towards Returning to Campus by Constituency and Division

Student Prioritization of On-Campus Time

When asked which type of activity would be their number one priority for on-campus time in a hybrid model, preferences were similar across divisions. Though none of the options garnered a majority, in-person class time with teachers or social/club time were the top choices for most students.

CHART: Student Picks_ Highest Priority for On-Campus Time

Spring 2020

Feedback from Middle & Upper School Students

One of our primary goals was to balance the delivery of essential content knowledge and skills with our students’ need for recreational time away from their devices. In the Middle School, we created a schedule for an average of 3-4 hours of daily academic work with additional time for advising. In the Upper School, this goal was an average of 5 hours of academic work per day.

During the first three weeks of COL, we surveyed our middle and upper school students on a daily basis and received over 1500 responses. Most students report daily work times close to our intended targets.

CHART: Middle School Time Spent on Academics

CHART: Upper School Time Spent on Academics

Check In on Our Students' Moods Over Time

The large majority of middle school students are spending 2-4 hours on academic work each day with most upper schoolers spending 2-5 hours. Students in both divisions report spending an average of an additional hour online each day to socialize with friends or connect through clubs and teams. While this transition has been particularly difficult for our seniors who were looking forward to all of the traditional culminating experiences of their time at Maret, this social and community time has helped buoy student emotional health during a truly challenging time.

On our daily survey, the average self-reported mood rating for our students on a 1-10 scale (1=feeling extremely sad, 10=feeling extremely happy) has hovered around a 7.

CHART: Mood Check Over Time

Feedback from Our Parents and Guardians

While we have been pleased to see that the student reality is largely in line with our stated goals, another question we have been exploring is how parents and guardians view those intended goals themselves. During the first three weeks of COL, we received about 175 responses to our Parent and Guardian Survey from all three divisions. When asked whether the COL plan attempts to preserve too little, too much, or an appropriate level of the normal on campus school experience, parent and guardian opinions have widely varied.

CHART: Overall Scope of COL

In the broadest possible stroke, about two-thirds of the parent and guardian respondents feel that the original COL plan preserves an appropriate amount of content, with a general preference to add back just a little bit more in some way.
The remaining third disagree about whether the original COL plan should be slashed or substantially augmented.
Consensus has been strongest in the Middle School, where 85% - 90% of parent respondents feel that the original COL plan preserves an appropriate level of content.
Parents of our youngest, oldest, and multi-divisional students have reported much more disparate and polarized opinions, reflecting the diversity of experiences happening in our community right now.
Rather than leap to changes for these grade levels that seem likely to disrupt as many families as they relieve, we are exploring relatively minor adjustments to delivery format and voluntary extracurricular options rather than changing the scope of the original plan.
In gathering parent feedback, the other area of consensus that came through clearly was the need for more synchronous time with teachers in the Lower School, particularly in third and fourth grade. In response, we augmented the original COL plan for Lower School to add synchronous times once a week with resource teachers, offer more office hours, and provide optional virtual meetings twice a week between parents and homeroom teachers.

Feedback from Our Faculty

The cornerstone of our student’s educational experience is our outstanding faculty, and considering their needs is a critical part of implementing our COL plan. A testament to the ongoing and intensive work of our Technology team, as we entered the first week of the COL plan, on a faculty survey, the vast majority of our faculty indicated that they felt they had the technological skills and resources to implement the plan.

COL Faculty Survey

Our faculty are not immune from the same pressures and stresses families across the country are feeling.
When asked to rate the feasibility of demands on them under the original COL plan on a 1 - 10 scale (1=easily achievable, 10=unsustainably high), the average response across all divisions was a 7.4.
In contemplating some of the suggestions for change that seem minor for a single student, we have recognized that they would impose an unsustainably large burden on the faculty if implemented at scale for all students in a particular class.
We are also confident that as teachers and students become more practiced with online platforms and routines, our faculty, supported by our expanded Online Learning Leaders group, will continue to find new, manageable techniques to improve the class experience.

In Summary

We appreciate the insights and perspectives our students, faculty, and parents and guardians have shared over the last few weeks, and we will continue to actively solicit your feedback as the year continues. In such difficult times, it is important for all of us in a community to take a moment to see and listen to each other, and we hope this summary of those perspectives helps us all to more fully appreciate both the commonality and diversity of experience we are each encountering as we move forward together.

Together, We Grow

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