The abrupt shutdown of schools had educators suddenly learning new ways to teach when they and their students were forced into fully remote instruction in the early stages of the COVID pandemic in 2020.
"It's unprecedented, right? There's nobody to say, like, 'Hey, how did you do this previously?' Nobody had been through anything like this, ever," said Richard Ruberti, superintendent of the Greater Amsterdam School District.
School districts raced to provide devices and, in some cases, internet access to children and families without such resources so that learning could continue. Staff rapidly found ways to continue providing meals to students who relied on school nutrition programs.
Some high school graduates delayed their higher education or stayed closer to home by attending community colleges instead of four-year schools when traditional on-campus experiences were initially unavailable.
It was a relief to many when schools partially reopened under hybrid learning models in fall 2020. Others were more reluctant, still concerned about the potential spread of COVID-19. There were some temporary shifts back to fully remote learning when cases spiked. Further resumptions of in-person learning continued in spring 2021.
Administrators said the health and safety of students and staff were at the forefront of decisions, as was addressing the emerging impacts on learning and mental health. They felt the pressure to get things right.
"It almost stirs up, you know, feelings that you haven't thought about in years, just the anxiety that you feel being pulled in different directions of what the best way to move forward was. It was hard times," said David Halloran, superintendent of the Gloversville Enlarged School District.
TECHNOLOGY
The Mohonosen Central School District in Rotterdam had "a few hundred" Chromebooks before COVID. Now, the district boasts a few thousand of the laptops, according to Superintendent Shannon Shine.
Younger students were able to have two devices -- one for school and one for home -- to ensure they always had access without having to worry about lugging it back and forth
Additionally, the district embraced Google Classroom as a tool to connect with students virtually. The online platform supplemented Zoom lessons, allowing for teachers and pupils to organize and turn in assignments, as well as communicate with one another.
Mohonasen continues to use Google Classroom post-pandemic. Most recently, second grade teachers uploaded recordings of themselves reading for students to follow along at home.
"The technology end of things has really pushed forward and sustained in many positive ways," said Shine.
Remote instruction, Halloran said, can't replace in-person learning, but the continued use of technology in classrooms has enhanced instruction. It provides another way to demonstrate concepts or to learn from subject experts across the country or around the globe.
"Collectively as a country, we learned that remote learning is not a great substitute for in-person learning. Kids need that adult, objective relationship being in the same room with an instructor. There's no question it's far more effective for kids," Halloran said.
Both Gloversville and Amsterdam now offer some distance-learning opportunities for high school students. The number of online college course offerings has also grown.
In addition to some fully remote courses, SUNY Fulton-Montgomery Community College offers certain Flex Mode classes attended in-person, live online or asynchronously. School President Gregory Truckenmiller said there's usually an even mix in attendance formats, with students sometimes traveling between the modalities based on their needs or personal schedules.
"They're all taking the same class from the same instructor and having a similar experience, but they're consuming that in different ways," Truckenmiller said. "The pandemic really accelerated our ability to provide that sort of opportunity for a wide variety of students."
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING
While academic lessons were able to be delivered virtually, continuing a focus on social-emotional learning proved difficult. Sports, gatherings and other extracurriculars were canceled, and not all students had their cameras on during class.
"We saw a lot of increased anxiety and stress amongst everybody because of the unknown. We saw a lot of social isolation of students," said Rebecca Carman, director of policy at the Shenendehowa Central School District.
Carman noted, throughout the pandemic, the district increased its focus on equity.
Shine expounded on the fact that the district's two-pronged approach to ensuring social-emotional learning remained in reach. The superintendent said they focused on both proactive and reactive measures.
Proactively, that included hiring and maintaining a robust support team consisting of social workers, psychologists, counselors and a partnership with Northern Rivers.
Reactively, the school sent out surveys asking questions about how families were dealing with COVID and if they were experiencing things such as family loss or mental illness.
The district has also doubled its offerings of extracurriculars and athletic programs since before the pandemic.
"You have to be connected to be successful and you have to be connected to be stable, and we've done that to a high degree," said Shine.
STAFFING CHALLENGES
Although the number of teachers statewide has jumped from 205,510 in the 2019-20 school year to 214,159 in 2023-24, some local districts still face staffing challenges.
According to the state Education Department (NYSED) database, Shenendehowa employed 711 teachers during the 2019-20 school year. By the 2023-24 school year, that number fell to 698.
"There was immense strain on staff, teachers, administrators. We saw people getting burnt out. We saw some mental health struggles. We saw technology challenges," said Carman.
She noted that some teachers might live in remote or rural areas, leading to internet connectivity issues that make distance learning more difficult.
Mohonosen is among those that have grown the number of teachers. In the 2019-20 school year, 6% of the district's teachers were considered inexperienced. As of the 2023-24 year, it's 24%.
NYSED defines an inexperienced teacher as someone who has not yet completed a full school year, or 180 days, of full-time instruction.
Amsterdam has seen sizable staff growth since COVID hit. The district employed 255 teachers last year, while the 2019-20 count was 173. Gloversville saw a minor change with a total of 232 teachers last year after having 234 in the 2019-20 school year.
Still, district leaders said it's more challenging to fill positions across the board, including teachers, administrators, clerical staff, nurses, bus drivers, food service and facilities crews.
"The number of candidates are not what they were just a few short years ago," Halloran said.
The pandemic likely isn't the only cause, but retirements were accelerated and new job opportunities emerged during that time. There are also fewer individuals entering education at a time when there have been losses in teacher certification programs in the state, including the closure of The College of Saint Rose in the spring of 2024.
"That's had an impact on how we provide our teachers," said Ruberti, noting that hiring certified math teachers has been especially challenging.
LEARNING GAPS, ATTENDANCE CHALLENGES, ENROLLMENT DECLINES
Learning gaps and faltering college readiness became apparent when students returned to in-person learning. Districts expanded academic intervention services in order to identify and address skill deficits, which were especially common in math and reading.
Students are catching up, but those supports continue today. The impacts are becoming less common as younger students start school, especially among children who attended pre-K or daycare before entering kindergarten.
"Those students that were remote and missed some of that instruction, there was definitely a negative impact from it. Students that now are five or six years old and starting kindergarten didn't have that," said Ruberti, based on student assessments.
Similarly, Truckenmiller said FMCC students struggled to reacclimate to in-person classes and participation, socializing and studying. Faculty members discussed apparent learning gaps, mostly in math and writing. There was an increase in the use of the college's mental health services.
Those impacts seem to be waning among incoming students.
"This is maybe the first year where we've had a more typical experience with our students," Truckenmiller said.
Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism already challenging school districts and declining enrollment at community colleges were exacerbated by the pandemic.
District leaders said the addition of social workers, psychologists, family advocates and partnerships with youth and family service providers has helped address students' needs while reacclimating them with school. Expanding clubs and extracurricular activities has been another way to keep kids engaged and promote attendance.
"Absenteeism had been an issue in a lot of urban districts for years. It was just that disruption of the educational process where I think students got used to not having to come to school every day," Ruberti said.
The pandemic caused a roughly 11% decline in enrollment at FMCC, from 1,946 in fall 2020 to 1,738 in fall 2021. There's been a gradual improvement since then, with 1,866 students enrolled in the fall of 2024.
"The pandemic definitely accelerated what was already happening," Truckenmiller said. "What you've seen in higher education in general is just a decline in the number of people going to college."
Although college graduates typically earn more, Truckenmiller said the availability of "decent-paying" jobs that don't require degrees and concerns about the rising cost of higher education have contributed to the overall declines.
At the same time, community colleges are now competing for students with four-year schools, which have more space available than in the past due to the lower enrollment.
Still, FMCC is slowly regaining students via programs that tap into growing industries, courses designed to fit all schedules and learning modes, and expanding transfer agreements with four-year colleges.
"Community colleges tend to be pretty nimble and make adjustments to reflect our workforce needs and our industry needs," Truckenmiller said.
FUTURE PREPAREDNESS
School leaders agree that educators are now better prepared to meet the challenges in the event of a future health crisis, although they suggested government-ordered school closures and broader lockdowns would likely be considered only as a last resort.
"I think it would be something they would really avoid at all costs because of what we've seen of the long-term effects of it. It still has an impact now," Ruberti said.
Officials said there is now greater proficiency with remote learning, but there's also new knowledge on protecting health and safety in in-person settings.
"Certainly, we're better at being remote now than we were five years ago. But I think there are definitely consequences, and if we can avoid those, we certainly would try to," Truckenmiller said. "It's really going to depend on the nature of the event. And if safety dictates, that's what we'll do."
Even hybrid schedules limiting crowds and proximity to other individuals would be preferable to fully remote learning based on the lasting impacts from the pandemic.
"I understand people who look back and thought that the response was something that we can improve upon. I'm one of those people, I guess. So I'd like to think, as a school district leader, we have learned to be nimble, to recognize that what we have today might not be what we have tomorrow. And the important thing is, hope is not a strategy. You need to be responsive to the reality in front of you and to be as communicative as possible," Halloran said.