
Dr. Mike Robinson: Are you in favor of schools restarting in-person learning before the summer begins?
Dr. Rashid Faisal: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted schooling nationwide and has had a devastating impact on the health and wellness of the Black community. While President Biden has made reopening most K-8 schools for in-person learning a priority for his administration’s first 100 days, I believe his actions are shaped more by political considerations that have little or nothing to do with public health concerns. Because the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic occurs in communities of color, I believe traditionally underserved communities must advocate for school restart plans that reduce the spread of the virus by addressing specific community issues as they relate to the virus. For example, school restart plans in Black communities must include addressing pre-COVID-19 racial health disparities, vaccine hesitancy in communities of color; a plan to eliminate school-based inequality in the implementation of COVID-19 health and safety guidelines as a result of funding inequities; and the vaccination of teachers. Unless these issues specific to the Black community are addressed, in-person learning will contribute to the existing racial disparities in COVID-19 transmissions, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths disproportionally impacting the Black community.
Dr. Mike Robinson: What benefits are there for students, in your opinion for students relative to in-person learning?
Dr. Rashid Faisal: The reopening of school is a critical component of student wellness. We are only beginning to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ mental health, and most especially those students residing in underserved communities where the economic and health crisis is most acute. At this stage in the discussion, I am certain SARS-CoV2—the virus that causes COVID-19—will continue to spread, placing administrators, teachers, students, and staff at risk for transmitting and acquiring the infection. While full-time remote learning contributes to reducing COVID-19 transmission, the unintended consequence of this learning platform is students are deprived of the many benefits associated with in-person schooling: positive social, emotional, and physical interactions with individuals and groups and structured learning opportunities under the supervision of trained professionals.
We have learned thus far during the COVID-19 pandemic that distance learning can reduce transmission of the virus. One of the unintended consequences of distance learning is the adverse mental health effects of solitary life in quarantine. Suppose schools play a critical role in the health, wellness, and development of students. In that case, the efficacy of distance learning, in-person learning, and hybrid models must be assessed from a community health perspective. The question school leaders and policymakers must ask is: “Which learning platform-distance learning, in-person learning, or a hybrid model—minimizes the risks of exposure to COVID-19, provide structured learning opportunities, and proves supportive of mental health needs of students?”
Dr. Mike Robinson: Do you believe that all was done or could have been done to make distance learning more effective for students?
Dr. Rashid Faisal: At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools struggled with the unexpected shift to fully remote learning. There are currently qualitative and quantitative differences in how school districts are implementing remote learning, just as there were qualitative and quantitative differences with in-person learning before the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to pre-existing inequities that existed in American schools. So, from an equity perspective, American schools serving underserved communities were not positioned to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in a way to make distance learning effective for students. In general, schools continue to make shifts in policies and practices to ensure students receive access to quality education amid a pandemic. Underserved schools, in many cases, continue to play catch up in terms of crafting effective policies and practices to meet the needs of students who, in most cases, come from high-needs communities suffering from food insecurities, unemployment, isolation, and higher rates of transmission, infection, hospitalization, and death.
Dr. Mike Robinson: Should schools reopen if all teachers have not received the vaccination?
Dr. Rashid Faisal: The goal is an alignment of school reopens with vaccination of not only teachers but the entire community. Although we continue to learn more about the COVID-19 virus, including the virus’ long-term impact on an infected persons health, we still do not fully understand how the virus spreads; nor do we know with certainty the effectiveness of the vaccination, especially given the development of new vaccine-resistant strains of the virus. One of the steps being taken is a positive-vaccination campaign to reduce the relatively high vaccine hesitancy rate in the Black community. Currently, the Black community is experiencing a disparity of infections, registering higher rates of COVID-19 transmission, illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths than other racial groups. Consequently, teachers living in Black communities or teaching in predominantly Black schools are at a higher risk for suffering these adverse health outcomes than teachers elsewhere.
Dr. Faisal earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and elementary education and Sociology from Madonna University; Masters of Arts in Education and Reading from Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan; Masters of Education in Organizational Leadership and Principalship from Teachers College of Columbia University; Certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University; Education Doctorate in Urban Education from the University of Michigan—Dearborn where he was elected Graduate Student of the Year, Alumni of the Year, and Honors Scholar for the College of Education, Health and Human Services. His research interests are in the areas of college-and-career readiness in underserved schools, culturally responsive leadership, culturally relevant teaching, ecological models for school improvement, the development of African American students’ academic identity and achievement orientation, and the history of Black American education.
Dr. Rashid Faisal: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted schooling nationwide and has had a devastating impact on the health and wellness of the Black community. While President Biden has made reopening most K-8 schools for in-person learning a priority for his administration’s first 100 days, I believe his actions are shaped more by political considerations that have little or nothing to do with public health concerns. Because the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic occurs in communities of color, I believe traditionally underserved communities must advocate for school restart plans that reduce the spread of the virus by addressing specific community issues as they relate to the virus. For example, school restart plans in Black communities must include addressing pre-COVID-19 racial health disparities, vaccine hesitancy in communities of color; a plan to eliminate school-based inequality in the implementation of COVID-19 health and safety guidelines as a result of funding inequities; and the vaccination of teachers. Unless these issues specific to the Black community are addressed, in-person learning will contribute to the existing racial disparities in COVID-19 transmissions, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths disproportionally impacting the Black community.
Dr. Mike Robinson: What benefits are there for students, in your opinion for students relative to in-person learning?
Dr. Rashid Faisal: The reopening of school is a critical component of student wellness. We are only beginning to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ mental health, and most especially those students residing in underserved communities where the economic and health crisis is most acute. At this stage in the discussion, I am certain SARS-CoV2—the virus that causes COVID-19—will continue to spread, placing administrators, teachers, students, and staff at risk for transmitting and acquiring the infection. While full-time remote learning contributes to reducing COVID-19 transmission, the unintended consequence of this learning platform is students are deprived of the many benefits associated with in-person schooling: positive social, emotional, and physical interactions with individuals and groups and structured learning opportunities under the supervision of trained professionals.
We have learned thus far during the COVID-19 pandemic that distance learning can reduce transmission of the virus. One of the unintended consequences of distance learning is the adverse mental health effects of solitary life in quarantine. Suppose schools play a critical role in the health, wellness, and development of students. In that case, the efficacy of distance learning, in-person learning, and hybrid models must be assessed from a community health perspective. The question school leaders and policymakers must ask is: “Which learning platform-distance learning, in-person learning, or a hybrid model—minimizes the risks of exposure to COVID-19, provide structured learning opportunities, and proves supportive of mental health needs of students?”
Dr. Mike Robinson: Do you believe that all was done or could have been done to make distance learning more effective for students?
Dr. Rashid Faisal: At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools struggled with the unexpected shift to fully remote learning. There are currently qualitative and quantitative differences in how school districts are implementing remote learning, just as there were qualitative and quantitative differences with in-person learning before the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to pre-existing inequities that existed in American schools. So, from an equity perspective, American schools serving underserved communities were not positioned to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in a way to make distance learning effective for students. In general, schools continue to make shifts in policies and practices to ensure students receive access to quality education amid a pandemic. Underserved schools, in many cases, continue to play catch up in terms of crafting effective policies and practices to meet the needs of students who, in most cases, come from high-needs communities suffering from food insecurities, unemployment, isolation, and higher rates of transmission, infection, hospitalization, and death.
Dr. Mike Robinson: Should schools reopen if all teachers have not received the vaccination?
Dr. Rashid Faisal: The goal is an alignment of school reopens with vaccination of not only teachers but the entire community. Although we continue to learn more about the COVID-19 virus, including the virus’ long-term impact on an infected persons health, we still do not fully understand how the virus spreads; nor do we know with certainty the effectiveness of the vaccination, especially given the development of new vaccine-resistant strains of the virus. One of the steps being taken is a positive-vaccination campaign to reduce the relatively high vaccine hesitancy rate in the Black community. Currently, the Black community is experiencing a disparity of infections, registering higher rates of COVID-19 transmission, illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths than other racial groups. Consequently, teachers living in Black communities or teaching in predominantly Black schools are at a higher risk for suffering these adverse health outcomes than teachers elsewhere.
Dr. Faisal earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and elementary education and Sociology from Madonna University; Masters of Arts in Education and Reading from Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan; Masters of Education in Organizational Leadership and Principalship from Teachers College of Columbia University; Certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University; Education Doctorate in Urban Education from the University of Michigan—Dearborn where he was elected Graduate Student of the Year, Alumni of the Year, and Honors Scholar for the College of Education, Health and Human Services. His research interests are in the areas of college-and-career readiness in underserved schools, culturally responsive leadership, culturally relevant teaching, ecological models for school improvement, the development of African American students’ academic identity and achievement orientation, and the history of Black American education.