Leaning into the Leapfrog Moment: Redesigning American Schools in a Post-Pandemic World

Post-pandemic, the United States education system is challenged by substantial declines in student achievement as indicated by declining National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, heightening teacher dissatisfaction, and decreases in teachers’ commitment to the teaching profession. All pose threats to the longevity of schools and schooling. Additionally, while American schools have received an influx of billions of dollars through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds to assist in remedying instructional loss, many of the initiatives these funds are being used for are temporary and provisional. These initiatives also miss the silver lining and leapfrog moment that the pandemic has offered American schooling. In this chapter, we present student and teacher outcomes in the United States from the past two years during the pandemic. We then detail how American schools have the opportunity to embrace a new norm for teaching and learning, which we call the Next Education Workforce. Finally, we discuss the initial findings of teachers’ participation in these models, which hold implications for what teaching and learning could be in a post-pandemic world.