A lot of chatter recently about what it will take to reopen schools. Paul Hill and I weigh in with one piece of the puzzle that seems to be missing from these conversations: the role of trust. https://www.crpe.org/thelens/reopening-schools-hinges-upon-trust-must-be-built-ground 1/

Trust has always been foundational to schooling but it's even more important with fear running rampant and misinformation spreading like wildfire. There is no way to successfully reopen schools without gaining families and teachers' trust in safety protocols. 2/

Building trust however is easier said than done and school system leaders, especially in big cities, have a lot working against them given the history of labor conflict, deep inequities, leadership turmoil and past disappointments. 3/

What can be done? First, leaders should focus on an incremental approach to reopening so families' and teachers' trust in safety protocols can be built as they see small experiments succeed. @SonjaSantelises describes this "slow and steady" approach. 4/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/baltimore-begins-push-to-reopen-schools-as-students-fall-behind

Second, school systems need to better leverage teachers and principals as the chief communicators about reopening. Families are more likely to trust information coming from their child's teacher or principal than a distant central office administrator. 5/

Finally, school systems should empower school communities to pilot reopening strategies, like learning pods or outdoor learning models that affect smaller groups of students. This would make reopening less like a flipping a switch and subject to the escalating politics. 6/

Bottomline: in the debate over reopening schools, don't forget about the small "p" politics. Any effort to reopen schools that ignores them is unlikely to succeed. 7/