Health and education experts working together to support schools during COVID-19

About

The Parabola Project provides evidence-informed tools to help school leaders identify options for school reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Parabola Project draws on expertise from both the education and health communities with the goal of minimizing health risks to students, staff, and teachers while maximizing learning and wellness for all students.

ARL-Parabola-Logo-02.png

Mathematically, every parabola has a minimum or maximum. We have applied this idea to the Parabola Project logo, with the two mirroring curves reflecting our goal to minimize health risks and maximize learning and wellness.

This goal of the Parabola Project website is to create, curate, and share best practices that are based in science and recommended by educators. The decision of whether or not to reopen schools should be based on local context. This project provides evidence-informed starting point resources, including key considerations, tools, and examples from the field, for educational leaders at any point in their journey.

Partners

 

Ariadne Labs is a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We develop simple, scalable solutions that dramatically improve the delivery of health care at critical moments to save lives and reduce suffering. Our vision is for health systems to deliver the best possible care for every patient, everywhere, every time. We're a team of 110+ physicians, nurses, researchers, data scientists, implementation specialists, program managers, and operations professionals, and 150+ associate faculty and affiliate members from across the Harvard system and beyond. Visit covid19.ariadnelabs.org to learn about our response to COVID-19.

 

The Learning Accelerator is a national nonprofit that is working to make the 'potential' possible and practical for every teacher and learner. Underpinning TLA's work is a drive to ensure each student receives an effective, equitable, and engaging education that supports them to reach their full and unique potential. Our mission is to connect teachers and leaders with the knowledge, tools, and networks they need to transform K-12 education. TLA has mobilized to help school and district leaders navigate the transition to remote learning, as well as plan for long-term, resilient, and sustainable change beyond the COVID-19 era, through its Always Ready for Learning initiative, of which the Parabola Project is a part.

 

"We must focus on reopening in ways that meet our shared aspirations for community safety, wellbeing, and learning. Doing this will require thinking technically and adaptively, and looking at problems through multiple perspectives, including education, public health, and, crucially, the experiences and needs of practitioners, parents, and students.”

- Beth Rabbitt, Ed.L.D., Chief Executive Officer of The Learning Accelerator

 


"Reopening schools safely has far-reaching health and safety implications for teachers, staff, and students, as well as for the broader communities in which they live. Carefully weighing COVID-19 transmission risks with the need for children to have access to a productive learning environment is critical to our ability to move forward into our next phase of normal.”

- Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Executive Director of Ariadne Labs

Acknowledgments

Initial funding for the Parabola Project was generously provided by the One8 Foundation. The Parabola Project team would also like to extend our sincere gratitude to the following pilot sites, school districts, and superintendent advisory council for their feedback, knowledge, and shared experiences throughout this project. This would not have been possible without your support.

Schools & Districts:

  • Barnstable Public Schools - Barnstable, MA

  • Coakley Middle School - Norwood, MA

  • School District of Cudahy - Cudahy, WI

  • Lynn Public Schools - Lynn, MA

  • Milford High School - Milford, MA

  • Mission Grammar School - Boston, MA

  • North Adams Public Schools - North Adams, MA

  • Norwood High School - Norwood, MA

  • Resurgence Hall Charter School - Atlanta, GA

  • Uxbridge High School - Uxbridge, MA

  • Worcester Public Schools - Worcester, MA

Superintendent Advisory Council:

  • Tom Scott - Executive Director, Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents

  • Robert Baldwin - Superintendent, Fairhaven Public Schools, MA

  • Tim Piwowar - Superintendent, Billerica Public Schools, MA

  • Eric Conti - Superintendent, Burlington Public Schools, MA

  • Dianne Kelly - Superintendent, Revere Public Schools, MA