When New York Mayor Bill de Blasio last month said he鈥檚 requiring all city students, teachers, and staff to show up to school this fall in-person, no exceptions, he stunned longtime observers of the nation鈥檚 largest public school system.

鈥淵ou would think that online learning was some new frontier for the New York City Department of Education that had never been tried before,鈥� said Tom Liam Lynch, a former teacher who is editor-in-chief of the parent-focused city website .

The reality, he and others say, is that the city has spent millions of dollars and much of the last decade leading the way on innovations in the realm of remote, blended, and personalized learning. For de Blasio to push for 100 percent in-person schooling, Lynch and others say, is a significant turnaround.

At the moment, more than six in 10 New York City students are still learning from home, but de Blasio on May 23 said that will soon come to an end, telling MSNBC鈥檚 , 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 have a full recovery without full-strength schools, everyone back, sitting in those classrooms, kids learning again.鈥�

The change will affect about 1 million students.

For Lynch, who also directs education policy for the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, the announcement seemed to ignore educators鈥� efforts to strengthen the city鈥檚 distance learning capabilities 鈥� work that could have given students a leg up during the worst of the pandemic.

In 2010, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the city鈥檚 Innovation Zone, or iZone, debuted with a ton of fanfare. At its heart was an experimental effort called iLearn, a blended learning system that sought to personalize instruction by allowing students in selected schools to learn remotely in many cases 鈥� schools used the system for everything from 鈥渙ccasional online credit recovery to full-blown blended learning and flipped-classroom models,鈥� .

It debuted with 81 schools, a number that soon doubled.

iZone also gave 50 middle- and high-school leaders an opportunity to redesign their schools. And it incubated a middle-school math program, known as School of One (now called Teach to One), that allowed students to work independently online from within their school. A digital display, reminiscent of an airport 鈥渁rriving flights鈥� screen, directed students to individualized lessons from dozens of providers.

Among School of One鈥檚 most significant innovations was a back-end data system that gave teachers real-time reports for each student, guiding upcoming assignments and directing them to small groups for help. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a model that seems certain to make us question assumptions about how we organize classrooms and schools,鈥� the journal noted in 2011.

iZone鈥檚 high-tech appeal was 鈥渢he easiest to grasp 鈥� and 鈥榠Zone鈥� had 鈥榠鈥� in front of the name,鈥� said Steven Hodas, who led the program until 2014. 鈥淏ut that was really just part of a theory of action that was about fundamentally rethinking time, space, and place.鈥�

Sea change under de Blasio

iZone was expected to grow to 400 schools, but the program underwent what can only be described as a meltdown in 2014, after federal innovation grants dried up and de Blasio, a Democrat, became mayor. New Chancellor Carmen Fari帽a disbanded the office that oversaw the program, and soon several directors and staffers, including Hodas, resigned.

Simultaneously, Fari帽a worked with the city鈥檚 teachers union, United Federation of Teachers, to bring in its own 鈥渋nnovation program,鈥� dubbed Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence, or PROSE.

The result: iZone鈥檚 budget shrank from $47 million in 2013 to $3.2 million in 2017, reported. It went from a staff of 65 to just 14.

Today, clicking on iZone鈥檚 URL delivers a saying it doesn鈥檛 exist.

Research on remote schooling is mixed. A 2019 by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder鈥檚 National Education Policy Center found that graduation rates at virtual and blended-learning schools were far lower than the national 85 percent average for public schools.

While have said iZone and similar ideas are promising for big-city systems, no large-scale evaluations of iZone have emerged since 2014. One small 2017 study by a graduate student at New York鈥檚 St. John鈥檚 University found that students in iLearn 鈥渂lended learning鈥� programs statistically significant greater mean scores in Algebra I Regents exams than their peers in traditional schools.

A few of the efforts, such as the personalized system under School of One, are still operating in a handful of schools, but observers say the effort has diminished in importance in the face of de Blasio鈥檚 new priorities, such as community schools and universal pre-K.

As for PROSE, a by the advocacy group StudentsFirstNY found that schools in the program displayed 鈥渓imited innovation,鈥� as well as 鈥渓ackluster improvement,鈥� producing lower reading and math scores than others in the city. It also said the program suffered from poor transparency, noting that the city took 14 months to respond 鈥� incompletely, as it turns out 鈥� to a public records request.

For Lynch, a parent of a city middle-schooler, the shift that took place around 2014 helps explain why New York, like other districts, has struggled to meet kids鈥� needs over the past year.

鈥淭his is not just a story of another big school district [that] just scrambled and tried to figure out online learning as best they could,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his was a system that had actually, infrastructurally been set up for online learning 鈥� and to scale it. …Who made the call to essentially disempower and, if not defund that work, to really just relegate it to the periphery? Because that makes what happened last March even more inexcusable. And it makes this announcement even more unacceptable.鈥�

Sarah Cohodes, an economics and education professor at Columbia University鈥檚 Teachers College, said what鈥檚 most striking about de Blasio鈥檚 announcement is that it follows the city鈥檚 鈥渉uge investment鈥� in getting devices and Internet access into students鈥� hands over the past year, even announcing a virtual end to snow days. 鈥淚n my imagination, that was happening in the context of having some sort of remote infrastructure that could be turned on or off for more or fewer kids depending on the circumstances. So I’m not sure exactly what they are expecting those days to be like,鈥� she said.

Longtime education researcher said losing remote learning will take a toll: 鈥淭he great thing about New York has been that many different things have been available 鈥� alternative schools and alternative pathways to graduation. And some of those have actually been helped along by the development of pretty good online materials.鈥�

Asked whether any schools would be allowed to operate remotely in the fall, city schools officials referred to the city鈥檚 reopening announcement. In it, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew says the union welcomes 鈥渢he return to in-person instruction for all students in September.鈥� But even Mulgrew has pleaded for a remote option, last month that the city should create 鈥渁 small but efficient remote alternative for parents who still feel they need it.鈥�

De Blasio isn鈥檛 the only leader cutting off remote learning this fall. Across the Hudson River, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on May 17 that the state鈥檚 public schools would similarly return to in-person instruction. In Connecticut, officials have said they 鈥� the need to mandate鈥� remote learning in the fall.

鈥業 think it鈥檚 crazy鈥�

Meanwhile, at least six states have created iZones of their own, according to .

鈥淎round the country I鈥檓 hearing about more states, and more districts, that are really integrating innovation into their core strategy,鈥� said Joel Rose, who founded and led School of One in its heyday. 鈥淭hey’re saying, 鈥楲ook, remote learning didn鈥檛 work for everyone, but it did work for some kids.鈥� And the question is, 鈥榃hat can we learn from those experiences for when kids come back?鈥欌��

He noted that so-called , modeled after iZone principles, have taken root in Texas and are 鈥済rowing quite a bit in popularity.鈥�

Rose, who now runs , a nonprofit that is working to expand the School of One model nationwide, said the organization has seen 鈥渁 significant uptick in demand for what we do鈥� since the pandemic began.

Hill, who founded the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the University of Washington-Bothell, said many students have realized during the pandemic that school 鈥渋s a pretty tough place for them to be. And to kind of ignore all that, I think, is going to further weaken the support base of public education.鈥�

After his Morning Joe announcement, de Blasio told a news briefing, 鈥淚t鈥檚 time for everyone to come back, it鈥檚 time for us all to be together, time to do things the way they were meant to be done.鈥� But iZone鈥檚 Hodas, now a senior fellow at CRPE, took issue with the idea that online learning is somehow inferior.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 crazy that it鈥檚 being positioned as purely a negative space,鈥� he said. In New York as elsewhere, many students aren鈥檛 thrilled with the prospect of 鈥渟chlepping back to these shitty, oppressive environments five days a week to do pretend life.鈥�

Older students, he said, could be working or helping out with family duties. 鈥淭hey could be progressing at their own pace at different subjects, and they can do something that鈥檚 much more competency-based. And it鈥檚 just nuts that de Blasio is acting as if, again, for high school kids, being back in school is like the Holy Grail. It鈥檚 not, for a lot of people.鈥�