The estimable Colleen O'Dea from NJ Spotlight News continues to do New Jersey a service by updating the data on school instructional models during the pandemic. I've been collecting her updates, including the latest one from late in January, and matching it to enrollment and funding data from the NJDOE.
I did my first report on this for the New Jersey Policy Perspective back in October, and have updated my findings here several times since (here and here). Let me be clear: these are not reports about how many students and families are electing to participate in remote, hybrid, or in-person learning. Rather, I'm showing what the options are for students in their school districts.
A school district, for example, may offer hybrid learning (a combination of limited classroom time and virtual learning at home) to its students; however, those students may choose to stay home full-time. But a student in a "remote" district won't have that option: they never get to decide whether they want to come to school at least part-time.
There are four categories of instructional models in the data
- In-person, where all instruction takes place in school (again, NJ law says students could still elect to learn from home).
- Remote, where there is no in-person learning available.
- Hybrid, where there is a mix of in-person and remote learning for the district's students.
- Combination (combo), where different schools within the district have different models.
The reports I've been doing, based on O'Dea's data, have been getting a fair bit of attention CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: January, 2021 Update on NJ COVID School Opening Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many