DC charters lead the way on in-school teaching experiment
WASHINGTON (AP) — While most of the kids in Washington’s public schools are dealing with computer screens and Zoom rooms, a dozen students work diligently at their desks at Meridian Charter School, many separated by tall, three-sided partitions that were originally set up as protection against COVID-19.
Head of School Matt McCrea said administrators later realized the enclosures wouldn’t do much to prevent the spread of the virus. Now the cardboard is optional, but more than half of the students still use them as personalized organizers — taping up calendars, decorations and schedules.
“It’s all a learning experience and it’s all playing out in real time,” McCrea said.
While the mainstream public school system in the nation’s capital was forced to start the year with total distance learning for all its approximately 52,000 students, about a dozen charter schools have essentially chosen to become medical-educational experiments, offering in-person instruction for