Learning during COVID-19: Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy
School culture and meaningful connection remain top priorities, even amidst daily challenges
By: Isral DeBruin
As schools shift to serve students remotely during the COVID-19 crisis, some are emerging as standouts. These schools aren’t stopping at basic worksheet packets and instead are offering their students coordinated, school-wide, comprehensive distance learning. City Forward Collective is highlighting these schools to spread best practices and encourage others to keep students moving forward.
Students at Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy have long used technology to individualize learning for students. That practice yielded new benefits when it eased the public charter high school’s transition to distance learning following statewide school closures in mid-March.
Today, students at HFCA are engaged in full distance learning using the same curriculum and grading structures as before the closure. Teachers lead online learning through video conferencing tools, and hold regular office hours for individual and group help.
Staff are tracking which students are engaged in school work, and reaching out to provide additional support to those who are not. Students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are provided weekly services, and even IEP meetings with parents and caregivers continue through video conferences.
All this support is allowing HFCA’s seniors to stay on track for the school’s typical graduation requirements, while students in grades 9–11 progress toward the next grade.
HFCA’s robust response was made possible because school leaders wasted no time in planning for the possibility of a school closure. When the Centers for Disease Control first recommended on March 9 that schools prepare for the spread of COVID-19, the team at HFCA got right to work planning their response.
The school polled students and families about their access to home computers and internet access and developed a plan with three emergency closure scenarios.
By the first Friday after Wisconsin closed schools statewide, 100% of HFCA families had been contacted by school staff to discuss the plan and talk through what resources students might need.
Staff deployed more than 200 Chromebooks to students without home computers, and followed up within 24 hours to ensure everything was working properly, and provide remote tech support.
As a small, close-knit school, the HFCA team has made it a priority to nurture school culture throughout the closure. That means weekly school-wide web broadcasts, virtual Town Hall sessions, robust social media, and continued virtual versions of planned school-wide celebrations.
Teachers are also providing intentional support of students emotional wellbeing and mental health. Students can also access guidance counselors for social-emotional support.
HFCA’s mission is to nurture scholars capable of transforming their world, by sending them to and through college. To that end, college admissions counseling continues virtually. The school is even providing emergency support to alumni, including stipends to help with day-to-day expenses while continuing their college studies from home.
FACTS & FIGURES
Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy is a public charter school authorized by the Milwaukee Common Council.
- Grades: 9–12
- Enrollment: 300 students
- Student demographics: 98.7% Black; 0.7% Latin@; 0.3% White; 0.3% Unknown
- Students from economically disadvantaged households: 78.7%
- Students with special needs: 19%
- Students with limited English proficiency: 0%
- State rating: Meets Expectations
2019–20 data from https://wisedash.dpi.wi.gov/, with corrections provided by Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy
Isral DeBruin is director of strategy and communication at City Forward Collective. He is a former elementary school teacher and award-winning education reporter.
