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Staff members at Port Orange Elementary School greet
students and check their temperatures at
the front door on Aug. 31, the
first day of school in Volusia County in Florida.
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USA Today
Schools want to end online classes for struggling kids, but COVID-19 cases may send everyone home
Erin Richards
Math teacher Aaron Tomhave found it fairly easy to continue connecting
with his students when his district outside of Houston shifted online
in March. He's a tech whiz, and he already had a good relationship with
them.
But when the Splendora school district returned to in-person
instruction in September, Tomhave noticed subtle differences with his
new students: When he rolls up on his mechanic's stool and asks them
about their day and their schoolwork, he gets an authentic and
immediate response. He knows that would have been harder over email.
His students are grasping concepts more readily in person, too.
"There is a big difference between accountability face to face and
accountability online," said Tomhave, who's been teaching for about 13
years.
That in-person connection, many educators and parents say, is often the
linchpin for academic success. It's why, despite the pandemic, a
growing number of districts are requiring students struggling online to
attend class in person, if that's an option.
But an explosion of new COVID-19 infections challenges that effort.
Already, the nation's new COVID-19 spike is poised to send hundreds of
thousands of students who were in school at least part time back to
100% remote learning.
New York City – where some 300,000 public school students are receiving
some in-person instruction – is quickly approaching the community
spread threshold that would trigger another shutdown. Mayor Bill de
Blasio on Friday told parents to prepare for school buildings to close
as early as Monday.
On Thursday, county officials in Indianapolis ordered all public and
private schools to close and return to online learning by Nov. 30 for
safety reasons, a move that affects around 200,000 students.
And a number of urban districts that have operated fully online since
the start of the year, such as San Diego, Atlanta, Philadelphia,
Detroit, Anchorage, Alaska, and several big, suburban districts outside
of Washington, D.C., are further delaying plans for in-class learning
because of rising infections.
'This is hell': Parents and kids hate online learning. Why hasn't it
gotten better?Before the most recent surge, districts were facing
pressure to get more children back into classrooms. Mounting evidence
shows schools that carefully reopened with safety protocols have not
had major outbreaks. Most of the virus spread, experts have said,
appears to be happening in the community, not schools.
A growing number of health experts have recommended opening more
elementary schools because young children appear less prone to transmit
the virus than experts had feared and because younger students have a
hard time learning online independently. Currently, about 37% of
students nationwide are attending schools that are entirely remote,
according to Burbio, a company that's aggregating school calendars.
"The ethics of this is hard," said Neeraj Sood, a professor of public
policy at the University of Southern California who researches
infectious diseases. "Closing schools has costs on children, but there
may also be health benefits" for people staying at home, Sood said in a
recent webinar.
Some schools want struggling students back in class
When millions of students returned to school with remote learning as
their only option this fall, large swaths of them went missing –
especially in lower-income neighborhoods. Others logged on but did not
participate regularly in live lessons or did not submit assignments,
teachers said. The issues have continued for thousands as the holidays
approach.
Some districts with in-person learning started trying to nudge,
mandate, or cajole those students languishing online back to classrooms.
The focus on kids falling behind during the pandemic is "100% about the
students who are remote because we can't see them and get to them,"
said Penny Schwinn, Tennessee's commissioner of education. Schwinn says
her department backs any district that wants to call students back to
in-person learning for the sake of their academic progress.
In Texas, recalling students lagging in their remote studies has
received a mixed response. Is it better to prioritize children's
academics, or the choices – and health – of their families?
In Splendora, about a quarter of the Texas district's 4,200 students
chose to continue learning online after classrooms reopened. But many
of those students were failing their classes or not attending at all,
said Superintendent Jeffrey Burke.
Initially, Texas' state education department said districts could not
discontinue remote instruction only for struggling students. So
Splendora asked parents to apply if they wanted their child to continue
online learning. Then the schools took those applications – about 600
in all – and had staff review children's grades and absences with
parents, to convince them to return to school.
Last week, Texas updated its state guidance to allow more districts to
recall struggling students to in-person classes. Now, if a student has
an average grade of 70% or below or has three or more unexcused
absences in a grading period, Texas districts can call them back to
in-person learning.
"While parents still have the final say – as they should – giving
schools more latitude to better support kids who are struggling
academically should help more of our students stay on target," said
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.
But as COVID-19 cases rise, the Texas Medical Association, Texas
Pediatric Society and the Texas State Teachers Association have
stressed the importance of virtual learning amid the pandemic.
School policies should not put community members at risk, punish
families who have been advised that virtual learning is in their best
interest, or undermine public health efforts to slow the spread of the
virus, the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Pediatric Society
wrote in a recent joint letter this week to state school leaders.
“Completely discontinuing virtual learning at this time fails all three tests,” the letter said.
A top district official in Austin – a liberal city where many parents
have chosen remote learning – has said he has no plans to force
children back to class, even though he acknowledges some students are
struggling academically.
"We see failure rates going up across the county, but now is not the
time to force anybody into a school environment, especially when
they’re doing what they think is best to keep their children safe,"
said Anthony Mays, chief of schools. "We never want families to feel
like we’re forcing them back into the school environment prematurely.”
Two-thirds were failing in one Florida district
Florida's school districts were among some of the first to reopen for
in-person instruction this fall. Many families still chose remote
learning – and many have since changed their minds and returned their
children to school.
In the Volusia County school district that surrounds Daytona Beach,
more than 12,000 students have transitioned from remote learning back
to in-person learning since the school year began, with nearly 3,000 of
those students making the jump in the last two weeks.
By the end of September, midterm progress report showed that 2 out of 3
middle and high school students learning remotely had at least one D or
F grade – prompting an effort from the school district to entice those
students to return to in-person learning. The situation underscored
district leaders' fears that remote learning wasn't working, although
at that time almost the same number of in-person high school students
were failing classes and so were more than half of in-person middle
school students.
Now, 73% of the district's students are signed up for in-person
learning, compared with 60% when the year started. At least a portion
was tempted back by the district's efforts to reach out to students who
were failing.
As the end of the first semester approaches, Florida school districts
are waiting to hear from state leaders whether they'll continue to
receive the same amount of money for each remote student as they do for
in-person students. If the state doesn't extend that allowance for the
rest of the year, it's likely Volusia will stop offering remote
learning altogether, sending thousands more students back to the
classroom. Or those students may enroll in other options, like the
state's massive online school.
For Rene Schmidt, whose daughter is in 10th grade this year, those possibilities pose a concern.
"We chose (remote learning) for a reason, and those reasons haven't
changed," she said. "If we're still worrying about the kids' health ...
where's the option for me other than sending her back to brick and
mortar?"
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