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NPR/Ipsos Poll: Nearly One-Third Of Parents May Stick With Remote Learning
U.S. parents are guardedly optimistic about the academic and social development of their children
Anya Kamanetz
March 5, 2021
One year after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered classrooms around the
country and the world, U.S. parents are guardedly optimistic about the
academic and social development of their children, an NPR/Ipsos poll
finds.
But 62% of parents say their child's education has been disrupted. And
more than 4 out of 5 would like to see schools provide targeted extra
services to help their kids catch up. This includes just over half of
parents who support the idea of summer school.
The nation has lacked solid national data on precisely where classrooms
are open to students. In our survey, half of parents said their
children were learning virtually, a third were attending in person full
time, and the remainder were in person part time. As other polls have
found, Black and Hispanic parents were far more likely than white
parents to say their children were all remote — 65% for Black parents,
57% for Hispanic parents and 38% for white parents.
In a sign of the disruptions that have become routine this school year,
43% of parents said that they had switched among virtual, in-person or
hybrid since the previous fall.
It has been "a bit of a journey, to put it mildly," said Nick
Ehrenberg, a father of two in Minneapolis who was one of the parents
polled. School for his children has shifted back and forth between
virtual, hybrid, and virtual again due to closures and quarantine. It
has been full time, in person for just the past few weeks.
My kid is doing fine, but we want help
However their children were attending school, 48% of parents agreed
that "I am worried that my child will be behind when the pandemic is
over." (In this question, as with others in the poll, there were not
significant differences in the responses by race or ethnicity).
Yet when asked to pinpoint their areas of concern, robust majorities of
parents actually judged their kids to be on track, or even ahead of
schedule: in math and science, reading and writing, mental health and
emotional well-being, and socialization and communication skills.
Considering their relatively positive outlook on children's development
across these areas, it may not be surprising that parents give high
marks overall to their kids' schools — 79% said "My child's school has
handled the pandemic well," and 82% said their schools had clearly
communicated during the year.
When it came to specific concerns, slightly more parents were concerned
about socialization and communication skills (22%) vs. academic skills
(17% worried about reading and writing and 19% about math).
Susan Hom has a teenage son who is attending school online and lives in
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where he socializes with a neighbor outside and
with friends online over video games. She says she's concerned about
the "lack of peer social interaction and also, peer learning. I think
they could learn a lot from their peers if they're in the same
classroom together."
The biggest area of concern among those NPR/Ipsos asked about was "time
management," and even there, just 1 in 4 parents say kids are behind.
"There was some procrastination at times going on, where some things
just didn't get done right away, and we had to kind of catch up," said
Nick Ehrenberg in Minneapolis. He said his second-grader and
kindergartner were learning from home, with himself usually supervising
while also working from home.
Still, he said he was not too concerned about his children's progress. "I consider myself privileged and lucky for that."
Full time, in person — or remote indefinitely
Looking ahead, precisely three-quarters of parents polled expect their
children's schools to open full time in person next fall. And about
half of those whose children now attend hybrid or remotely expect those
schools to open full time in person as soon as teachers are fully
vaccinated. President Biden has talked frequently about teacher
vaccination and recently directed all states to prioritize educators
for the shots this month.
However, full-time learning might prove a difficult milestone to reach
unless Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines are
altered, cases plummet, or schools receive a large infusion of money.
Current CDC guidelines recommend 6 feet of distance between students,
which is only possible with hybrid scheduling, given the size of most
classrooms today.
On the other hand, fully 29% of parents told us they were likely to
stick with remote learning indefinitely. That included about half of
the parents who are currently enrolled in remote learning.
Perhaps in response to this interest, many schools, states and
districts are looking at continuing to offer a remote public school
option, districtwide or even statewide to make it more efficient.
School districts as diverse as West Contra Costa Unified and Riverside
in California, suburban St. Louis and Lincoln, Neb., all say they're
offering districtwide virtual schools next year. A Rand Corp. survey
found that about 1 in 5 districts are considering it. This could end up
being the most significant change in education to extend beyond the
pandemic.
America Velez, a mother of five in St. Cloud, Fla., says a virtual
school is her preferred option for her daughter. "It's a charter school
within Florida, they pretty much stick to the state guidelines. So
their teachers, again, have been phenomenal," she said. "But then
again, it's been a program that's been around for many years. So very
different than ... something that pretty much was thrown together
because of COVID."
Personalize my learning, and maybe summer school?
We asked parents about some of the various recovery ideas that
education leaders have proposed as a way of addressing the disrupted
learning, as well as the emotional hardships of the pandemic itself.
Most were fans.
Around 4 in 5 expected their own children would benefit from each of
the following: "individualized, detailed assessment," "social and
emotional wellness programs," "one-on-one tutoring" and "better
software-based practice programs." Across the board, Black and Hispanic
parents saw even more potential benefits from these interventions.
"It would be nice if the school would offer some after-school tutoring
... but we may not get informed about it because their grades are
fine," said Travis Hall, father to a 10-year-old and 13-year-old in
Brownstown, Mich.
And more than 4 in 5 parents support additional help for students in special education.
Kevin LaJuan Godley in San Antonio, Texas, has a 16-year-old daughter
with some special needs. Though he says that remote learning has helped
her stay focused in school, she has less consistent access to an aide.
"Out of class, when she's learning from home, sometimes she gets it,
sometimes she doesn't. She doesn't get [support] when she needs it."
Extra learning time was the least popular option presented. When we
asked if their children would benefit from "additional school days or
extended-day programs," 43% said they expected a "large" or "moderate"
benefit.
Just over half said they were in support of summer school as a policy.
Travis Hall said he'd support some kind of summer program, but he'd
prefer it be an enrichment program, such as building a robot or writing
a graphic novel. "Just something else that was more entertaining than
just, 'here's the book we're going to study.' When it's 75 degrees and
sunny outside, that's not going to work."
Read this and other stories at NPR
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