Policy Window in a Pandemic: How a Computer Science RPP Fostered Equity in Credit Recovery

• In Event: Understanding and Supporting District Systems Change Around Computer Science Education

Abstract

In this study, we applied the Multiple Streams (MS) approach from theories of the policy process (Zahariadis, 2014) to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic helped open a policy window for the use of synchronous online instruction during the implementation of an equity-centered computer science credit recovery option in Chicago. Since late 2018, an RPP has supported the development of a hybrid (in-person and online) version of Exploring Computer Science (ECS) to be used for credit recovery within the school district. This hybrid course has been designed specifically with the goal of creating a more equitable form of credit recovery: The developers focused on identifying barriers to participating in online instruction for students who have failed the class and sought to design a course that would provide the necessary support to foster success. A major constraint that quickly emerged for the developers was Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) policy on acceptable uses of technology. Under this policy, teachers were prohibited from engaging in synchronous online instruction via video communication platforms (e.g., Zoom or Google Meet). The developers attempted to design the course in a way that compensated for the lack of synchronous instruction. Nevertheless, the first pilot evidenced the extent to which supporting struggling students' work was very difficult when instruction was mostly asynchronous.
Following the first pilot, members of the RPP set about developing a strategy for shifting the district’s acceptable use policy; specifically, RPP members developed a policy brief to make the case for synchronous online instruction in hybrid ECS and met with district leaders to advocate for a policy change. However, in the midst of this advocacy work, the acceptable use policy was suddenly changed as schools closed in response to the pandemic and CPS pivoted to remote learning for all students. Naomi Klein (2007) used the term disaster capitalism to describe how Hurricane Katrina created an opportunity for reformers to begin privatizing public schools in New Orleans. Contrastingly, in the case that we present, the disaster of COVID-19 served to create an opportunity for the RPP to advance its equity goals.
For our analysis, we gathered artifacts and interview transcripts related to the RPP’s effort to shift the acceptable use policy. We then coded the data, applying the MS theory to understand how the pandemic opened up a policy window to allow synchronous online instruction for credit recovery. In the language of MS (Kingdon, 1995), the closure of schools and immediate shift to remote learning was a focusing event that opened a policy window and brought attention to the constraint of asynchronous online instruction. According to the MS, when policy windows (or opportunities for action on a given problem) open, adroit policy advocates couple the three streams of politics, problems, and policy to advance their goals. We apply this framework to describe how members of the RPP worked to couple the problem of asynchronous credit recovery with the shifting politics of the pandemic and the solution of sustaining synchronous online instruction beyond the Spring 2020 school closures.

Authors

• Mark Johnson, The Learning Partnership

• John Wachen, The Learning Partnership

• Steven McGee, The Learning Partnership