Carol Burris interviewed teachers, students and administrators about their experiences returning to school. As you might expect, she encountered a range of reactions.
The Network for Public Education is following 37 districts in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut that reopened — either hybrid or full time. Of the 23 districts that responded to our inquiry regarding remote learners, the average rate of students who opted to not attend in person was 21 percent. Percentages ranged from 6 percent of the school population to 50 percent. Larger percentages of students of color are associated with higher remote rates.
Superintendent Joe Roy said he has been carefully examining patterns among the 25 percent of students whose families chose remote learning in his district in Bethlehem, Pa. For the most part, they are students from affluent families who have academic supports for learning at home, or conversely, are from the least affluent homes. The families of his district’s students of color, many of whom work in local warehouses, were hit harder by the pandemic and, therefore, are more reticent to send their children back to school. Roy’s neighboring district, Allentown, where 86 percent of the students are Black or Latinx, decided to go all virtual after a parent survey showed a majority were not ready for in-person learning.
One middle school teacher with whom I spoke, who requested anonymity, said he hopes that the schools open soon. Technology for remote learning has been an issue he told me — from hardware to poor connections. “We are losing kids,” he said. “Our kindergarten enrollment is much lower than it has been in previous years. Of a class of 19, maybe 17 of my students log on to my early morning class. When I meet them later in the day, 12 or fewer show up. A 6½-hour day on Zoom is brutal. Some are keeping their cameras off, and others don’t respond. Many of my students can’t work independently.”
The challenges of in-person learning
Over half of the 37 districts we are following now bring some or all students back full time. Those schools that are using hybrid typically split students into two small cohorts that share the same teacher. Some bring those cohorts back three days one week and two days the following week. Others bring the cohorts back only two days a week — on consecutive days or staggered days with a fifth day when all stay home.
Although those I spoke with are glad to be back, school is certainly not the same as before the pandemic.
My youngest grandchildren returned to in-person school for only two days last week, and they were ecstatic. The schools did everything that was required—masks, social distancing, hand washing. Who knew that children loved school so much?
“Who knew that children loved school so much?”
Ah, yes . . . the value of concrete comparative analysis. CBK
My son misses what HS used to be for him. His school opened at 25% and just increased to 50% this week. It’s just not the same. He misses his friends during free periods, having lunch with his group, sports practices. The social distancing is very hard for kids who thrive as “team players”. I told him it will get better and that everyone else is in the same boat. If they keep following the rules, they can stay open and have some of the good things. Hopefully, next year will be a bit more “normal” (although we will never get back to pre Covid times).
I wonder if 1665 London wondered if they would ever return to pre-bubonic actually pneumonic plague times? I know post flu America was envisioned by writers of that day.
Do you really believe we’ll never get back to pre-Covid times?
No, I don’t believe that will happen. ☹️
If not, we’d better find a way to get on with life ASAP.
Sharing this tweet.
Lee Gelernt
@leegelernt
NYT reporting tonight that DOJ officials overruled request to exempt babies from horrific fam sep practice. I’ve been litigating this case since 2018 and each revelation is still shocking, tho at this point I know I shouldn’t be shocked.
9:25 PM · Oct 6, 2020·Twitter Web App
Here is just a sample of a NYMAG.COM recent article entitled “Remote School Is A Disaster. Teachers Unions Share The Blame”
Teachers unions have been an influential force against reopening schools even in cities and states where elected officials felt it could be done with reasonable safety. After Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed a hybrid in-person learning plan, the Chicago Teachers Union threatened a strike, and then claimed victory when she backed down and agreed to retain online-only learning. Teachers unions in Florida, California, and elsewhere have sued to block in-person instruction. In Detroit, union activists “stood outside one of the district’s bus terminals beginning at 5 a.m., blocking buses from leaving to pick up students to take them to school.” The Los Angeles teachers union insisted “going back to normal is not an option,” and packaged their opposition to reopening with a host of other demands, including police-free schools and a moratorium on new charters.
This summer, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten threatened “safety strikes” against reopening. More radical activists have vowed to “double down” with “transformative” demands.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/remote-education-distance-learning-schools-teacher-unions-red-for-ed.html
I am happy to “share the blame” for saving lives.
Ooh, you know what we should have done, we should have opened school in the White House Rose Garden with a bunch of senators and campaign staff present. That would have been smart!
I appreciate all concerns for safety as we haphazardly return to school, but at some point, we need to shift our focus to making sure that so-called blended learning models do not become permanent. I’ve seen ads from wireless network companies saying their going to provide schoolchildren with WiFi hotspots over the course of the next five years.
they’re not their
🙂
Good evening Diane and everyone,
Here’s a question. Will all these kids who have chosen to learn remotely at home be passed on to the next grade after having completed NO work this year??? Yes, there are kids out there who are completing NO work online. If they are passed through to the next grade (which I strongly suspect will be the case once the school comes under pressure from parents), what will happen when they know nothing in the next grade and are not prepared? It will be a mess.
Of course they’ll be passed on. To do otherwise would be “inequitable.”
I wonder how the millions of at-risk students who are high school seniors this year are doing. Last three months of their junior year gone. Their whole senior year basically gone. Here’s your diploma (assuming you didn’t drop out), have a nice life!