Much of the world began isolating at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. But for educators at High Point School of Bergen County, serving children with severe disabilities, remote learning was not the easy answer.

Faced with shuttered schools, High Point employees delivered food and water to students’ homes, helped secure mobile internet service to make Zoom classes accessible and talked with students — socially distanced at the end of their driveways — to lend emotional support as the weeks turned into months of “distance learning.”

“Our families wanted us to be there to make sure they were okay,” Executive Director Michael Kaufman said. “They looked to us for more than being teachers or administrators. They were desperate to have that reassuring helping hand.”

High Point serves students in grades 6-12 facing extreme learning, language and behavioral challenges, including ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, aggression and bipolar disorder. Admission requires a referral from a sending school district.

High Point also works with students who have been exposed to trauma and need ongoing emotional and social therapy, according to Cindy Pulido, the school’s supervisor and a trained social worker.

For Kaufman and Pulido, navigating the early days of the pandemic revealed important lessons that have shaped how students learn today. The High Point curriculum is forever impacted – in a good way – from lessons learned during the pandemic.

One fundamental takeaway has been to reimagine the purpose of school, according to Kaufman, who has more than 30 years of experience in special education and counseling. While a student’s performance in class matters, what happens beyond the four corners of the traditional classroom is even more important.

“When you think of a school, most people think of six hours per day. We don’t. We think 24 hours per day,” Kaufman said. “Our school’s legacy is not necessarily how well you’re doing while you’re there. It’s what you’re going to do when you leave. Can you be a productive member of society who can relate to other people? Can you develop social skills and real-world skills? Can you provide for yourself? We want students to live a meaningful life in which they can feel pride and have dignity.”

That insight now imbues every dimension of High Point’s philosophy. 

The school has incorporated mid-21st century learning principles into its ever-evolving curriculum, an approach that many elite and Blue Ribbon schools have adopted. The strategy recognizes that people learn in different ways; lessons need to be designed as immersive and experiential as possible.

For example, a lesson about our nation’s history might include readings, audio and visual materials, interactive technology, Zoom calls with influential people, and maybe even a trip to Washington, D.C. to witness democracy in action.

“You want to taste, smell, hear, see and feel the experience,” Kaufman explained. “It is a different way of learning that gets all of your senses involved, the right and left brain stimulated and incorporates meaningful text and online modalities.”

Given its unique mission and a student body with such specialized learning challenges, High Point emphasizes individualized attention. Class sizes are smaller compared to traditional schools and many other specialized schools, reading and assignments are customized, and staff recognize and reinforce students’ positive behaviors at least every 30 minutes during the school day.

High Point’s reading program, which is grounded in the latest research and brain science, has helped greatly improve student literacy. The school was recently among the highest performers of 50 schools competing in a “reading war” that measured progress made in students’ independent reading activity.

Applied learning is also key, Kaufman said, with teachers crafting lessons that connect concepts and paradigms to the real world. Math, for example, is not just about formulas and equations, but also about balancing a checkbook and understanding the importance of compounded interest.

High Point embraces the latest in artificial intelligence. Students are creating motivational illustrations by combining AI images of themselves with their own original quotes, a lesson designed to empower students and lift their self esteem to match a future possible version of themselves. 

“Their past does not have to be their ending,” Pulido said. “We are focused on their aspirations – where they can go and where they can succeed in a tangible way.”

Meanwhile, high school juniors and seniors are afforded opportunities to develop real-world marketable skills beyond the classroom by spending part of their day at technical schools, where they are given hands-on lessons in professions of interest.

These strategies, Kaufman said, have made students more excited about their education and eager to learn; daily attendance after the pandemic is at an all-time high.

Indeed, the school’s goal is to have a 100% graduation rate so students leave with a high school diploma and skills that can sustain them through life, Pulido said.

But the most important lesson from the pandemic goes beyond pedagogy, Kaufman said. It has been about people: the students and educators at High Point and how they have come together to meet extreme learning challenges amplified by the governor’s declared state of emergency, beginning in March 2020.

“Through the pandemic we realized how much of a family we really are,” Kaufman said. “We truly care about one another. And that has made all the difference.”

Jonathan Anderson is a writer with Jaffe Communications.