On the 26th of January 2021, the Superintendent of Norwalk’s school district, Dr. Estrella came to Norwalk High School with the intention of visiting classrooms throughout the school day.

She was also accompanied by Principal Roberts and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Mc Bryde. Apart from this, they came to observe how some of the students worked in class, all while asking a few questions related to whatever the subject of the class was.

But the real question is: Did these classroom visits go as bad as you might think they did?

No, quite the contrary actually, I was able to ask around and find a few people who were lucky enough to receive a visit from the superintendent during class, myself included. One of these students, Rayden Florez,  mentioned that another student in his class was caught completely off guard by the three entering their class. Some even attempted to get the teacher’s attention because they had not realized they were in the room either.

Later I talked to some of these students about the questions they were asked.  One correlation I saw was that the first question would always be in regards to what they were studying or working on in class at the moment, and after responding they would ask a significantly more complex question based around the subject.

After they answered the first question, students were then asked to explain how they were applying what they were learning towards what we were working on. To which a few struggled to come up with something on the spot but managed to give a reasonable answer. Afterwards the group would ask a few more random students, and then make their leave. The students I asked had a somewhat similar experience, some saying they felt they had not given a good answer or that the pressure of it had gotten in their way of providing one.

Regardless, the response from the visit was still positive according to what their teachers had told their students. However this does leave us open to the possibility that the superintendent would not shy away from making more of these visits, or at the very least from sending people over to record certain things about the school. But regardless, we should still be prepared for what may come next.