Mat-Su superintendent recognized among nation's top educators

PALMER — Last Thursday morning, Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Dr. Monica Goyette was invited by United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to be featured on a Zoom call with educators and online learning providers from across the country to discuss how they have faced challenges in virtual delivery of instruction.

“The move to distance learning has not been evenly accomplished nor has it been seamless for everyone,” said DeVos. “Some responded immediately with a we can do this attitude. You’ve each encountered obstacles but you haven’t given up.”

Goyette was joined by Alaska Commissioner of Education Michael Johnson and other educators such as Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner, Assistant US Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education Frank Brogan, New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut and many others.

“You need to share your stories so more can learn from you,” said DeVos.

After opening the call with a statement to the participants, DeVos handed it off to Johnson and Goyette to describe the delivery of remote education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Mat-Su. Goyette was praised by DeVos as incredibly innovative and described how blended education delivery evolved for students at MSBSD schools and homeschool students.

“It really became a hybrid blend of some things kids can choose to do at home at their own time at their own pace, what they want to study and then they can access our traditional schools for periods of time that they want,” said Goyette.

Johnson began sharing with the group how Alaskan schools continued to provide instruction throughout the end of the school year virtually, saying that schools in the Last Frontier didn’t close the door on opportunities to learn.

“I am so grateful that face to face instruction is not bound by location,” said Johnson.

Johnson also mentioned the collaboration with the Florida Virtual School for delivery of online education. Florida Education Commissioner Eric Hall was also on the Zoom call on Thursday. Joining the group of educators who collaborated on methods for successful remote learning in their parts of the country were providers of online learning resources. Khan Academy founder Salman Khan was featured on the call as was Rosetta Stone CEO John Hass, Age of Learning CEO Paul Candland and Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance Director Cindy Hamblin. Dr. Goyette said after the call that she was particularly interested to hear from OneSchool Global Educational Director Jonathon Borys. OneSchool Global has grown in 11 years to serve 9,000 students on 125 campuses globally.

“Those education institutions that have been doing this for a decade or two decades, I was really interested in learning more about their lessons learned and their evolution and not having to reinvent the wheel yourself on some of those things,” said Goyette.

Educators and providers discussed ways to improve the delivery of instruction to students and how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way they interact with students.

“One thing everyone does have in common is a commitment to ensuring learning continues for all students no matter where they live, no matter what kind of school they attend,” said DeVos. “Learning can and does happen anywhere and everywhere. This crisis has handed us all an unprecedented opportunity to truly rethink and transform the K-12 educational experience.”

Goyette described during the call how the push for blended learning in MSBSD has been a long journey and delivery of instruction to 19,000 students spread across the district has evolved to allow for students to have access to courses outside of their own school.

“There’s a variety of different ways to use technology. It has really helped us in our remote high schools at Su Valley and Glacier View where they don’t have dedicated foreign language teachers or robust AP course offerings necessarily, and so online learning has allowed us to do that,” said Goyette. “Based with teachers at Wasilla Middle and Colony Middle and those teachers are guiding Su Valley students through that, so remote learning we had to do that if we wanted to provide a more equitable access to resources for our remote students.”

Goyette said that educators in MSBSD have had to narrow the focus of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and switch to remote delivery. Though Dr. Randy Trani will take over for Goyette as MSBSD Superintendent in the fall, Goyette said a working group is already fleshing out what the next semester of school will look like under Centers for Disease Control guidance. With low COVID-19 risk, students would return to school buildings with onsite mitigation strategies. With mild or moderate spread, Goyette said that some students may return to school buildings for instruction on certain days of the week, and if a case is associated with a school or high risk of COVID-19 spread id present, the district would move to a complete remote delivery mode. While MSBSD students have been receiving remote instruction since March, Goyette is concerned about the narrowed focus of instruction and the loss of progress both in core subjects and in career and technical education courses.

“We really have to be prepared for that. I think with our planning, we have the time to work on that. What we really, and I think what concerns all educators is the ability to measure student learning because teaching isn’t our end goal, learning is our end goal and so being able to do our district wide assessments in the fall to measure where students are, if there was regression being able to address that so I think that’s the piece that we all really want to know,” said Goyette.