Margaret Spellings says schools 'will look very different' when they reopen
Former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says American students could go to school in 'shifts.'
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Former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said on “America’s Newsroom” on Monday that she thinks students could be learning in a classroom in the fall, but “schools are going to look very different.”
Spellings explained that if students will be allowed to return to the classroom, she thinks they “will go to school in shifts, sometimes they will be online, sometimes they’ll be physically present.”
She added that teachers will “be used differently.”
“Maybe we’ll have one teacher doing a lecture online and then [a] follow-up in person with small groups of students,” Spellings said.
Spelling provided the insight four days after officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidance for schools, businesses and other organizations, as states begin to gradually reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The CDC posted six one-page “Decision Tool” documents on its website on Thursday. Many of the tools include the use of social distancing and practicing smart hygiene and cleaning practices.
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“I think we are going to see a lot of adaptability and a lot of flexibility, but we know there is no American normalcy without our schools being back in session,” Spellings said on Monday.
Host Sandra Smith noted that currently, because of the coronavirus pandemic, many parents are working from home and asked Spellings what should working parents – who might be working in an office again in the fall – do if schools continue to incorporate more virtual learning with less time in classrooms.
“I think we are going to see a lot of cooperation from our employers,” Spellings said in response. “These are the same things that employers are thinking about too, that adults will be working in shifts, and so it's going to take a lot of listening and learning and adapting from all sides of the equation.”
She added that she also thinks child care will be “reinvented a little differently.”
“We're just going to see some new models and there will be some real advantages [to] come out of this,” Spellings noted. “We’re getting much better at online learning. We’re being smarter about how we use our teachers.”
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She stressed that “we’ll do things differently, but we will go back to school.”
“We cannot have our kids out of school for extended periods of time without significant learning loss and that would cheat them from real progress in their lives and in their schooling,” Spellings said.
Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.