“We were determined”: Case Study Findings Now Available from Lake George Elementary School

By Aaron Leo & James Conway

NYKids is happy to share our second blog from our most recent study on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education workforce. It highlights key take-aways from Lake George Elementary School in the Lake George Central School District. 

The Study

In March 2021, the NYKids research team undertook a study to try to understand educators’ experiences during the first year of the pandemic. We were especially interested to learn what conditions might account for different levels of stress and job satisfaction from school to school, and so solicited the participation of schools across the state. 

School Selection Criteria

Lake George Elementary School met the criteria for inclusion in this study based on the 2021 survey of educators’ responses to the pandemic because it exhibited more positive workforce responses with regard to stress and job satisfaction than other schools in the sample (n=38). With a score of 47.6% compared to an overall sample mean of 36.9% and standard deviation of 15.4%, Lake George Elementary School qualified as a positive outlier in this study. 

Facilitators for Adaptation and Innovation: Highlights from the Lake George ES Case Study

• Relationships of Collaboration, Trust, and Support

The relationships between educators, support staff, and leaders at Lake George ES are characterized by collaboration, trust, and support. As demonstrated throughout this report, these relationships were an important resource that staff members drew upon as they addressed the challenges they faced throughout the pandemic.

In such unprecedented times, many educators explained that they leaned on colleagues for instructional advice as well as social and emotional support. “I really relied on my coworkers to help me get through it and to give me advice and help with the academics and the management and all of that,” said one teacher. Another teacher explained at length the selfless culture of collaboration that was embedded in the school fabric: 

I think one of the real keys of why we are successful and why we may have shown up different than some other schools is everyone’s willing to give a piece of themselves to help or make something come to reality. Everyone brings into it a little piece of something, we don’t know who it is, and what that strength is, but it’s the trust that we have and then follow through with that collaboration. – teacher

• Maintaining Extracurriculars and Enrichment Opportunities

Another salient theme that emerged from interviews and focus groups with staff at Lake George ES was the determination to continue offering extracurricular programs, activities, and arts and music programs despite the pandemic. While ensuring student and staff safety was always a primary concern, educators nonetheless found ways to adapt and leverage existing resources in order to continue providing students with enrichment. As the principal said, “[W]e were able to maintain a lot of things that are most important to our students and to the culture in this school.”

Educators validated this comment and explained their shared dedication to continue offering activities and programs safely by transferring them outside or using the large spaces available to them in the school to social distance. “We were determined. I think that was [our] mindset: we weren’t going to stop just because this was happening. We were being safe, but we just wanted to keep things going,” said a teacher. A support staff member described how she approached innovating and adapting during the pandemic, especially as it related to maintaining extracurriculars and after school programs, “I’m not really a roadblock person. Like if there’s something in the way, you just find a different way to do it.”

• Prioritizing Student Well-Being

While acknowledging the deep impacts that the pandemic and shift to remote instruction had on students’ academic learning, educators at Lake George ES made the important decision to prioritize students’ mental health and social-emotional well-being. To this end, leaders allowed teachers to ease up on the normal pacing of instruction and temporarily pull back on assessments in order to focus on students’ well-being. As one teacher explained, “A lot came from the top down, just like [teacher] was saying — making it okay that we’re not keeping up with the pacing guide for math, or that we’re not giving this assessment on this day.”

Although this change was challenging for many teachers, who worried they may not be meeting their own high standards, respondents agreed on the need to first provide students with a safe and secure environment before academic gaps could be addressed. Such priorities continued as students returned to in-person learning. “If the kids were happy and coming in with a smile on their face, everything else would work out,” said one teacher.

A Note from Principal Conway 

There is no doubt that the past several years have been the most challenging in my 32 years in education. The fact that LGES was an outlier in this study makes me proud of the staff that I work with as well as the systems that we have in place.  We were all certainly under a great deal of stress personally and professionally throughout the pandemic.  However, at LGES we tried to take a commonsense approach and make the social-emotional well-being of our staff and students a priority. This report certainly highlights some of the steps that we took to make that happen.  This research provided a valuable opportunity for our staff to reflect on our approach during a difficult time.  We’re thankful that we participated in NYKids’ Research.

To see more from this case study please check it out on the NYKids website.

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