CURMUDGUCATION: Should Schools Offer Virtual School Options In The Fall?

CURMUDGUCATION: Should Schools Offer Virtual School Options In The Fall?

Should Schools Offer Virtual School Options In The Fall?

 I'll admit that this blooming controversy snuck up on me. In Pennsylvania, school districts have offered virtual options for years in the Time Before Covid. It would never have occurred to me that a district shouldn't. But apparently we're going to have fussing about that. kickstarted today by the NYC mayoral announcement that public schools will be all in person this fall.

That's a dumb idea. 

I understand where some of it comes from, given the insistence that we must get students back in school Right The Hell Now. Political leaders trying to court a certain constituency are going to go this route, plus it will also be a way to signal that you aren't going to be pushed around by the teachers unions for all those folks buying the bullshit narrative about how the evil teachers are solely responsible for the closing of school buildings. 

It's still a bad idea.

Mostly it's a bad idea to demand only-in-person districts because the alternative sucks. And it's not going away. There are many, many states already offering "free" online "public" [sic] school, and that's before we even get to cyber-schools that hide behind the mask of homeschooling. 

Cyberschooling isn't going away any time soon for three reasons. First, it does actually work for a small percentage of students with very specific special needs. Second, particularly in states with PA with dumb rules governing cyber-tuition, it is a very attractive way to make a lot of money. Third, the charter worlds not only finances a good assortment of astroturf groups, but it also funds plenty of regular lobbyists, too. Legislatures could shut cyber charters down, but it's a lucrative business CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Should Schools Offer Virtual School Options In The Fall?

N.Y.C. will eliminate remote learning for the fall, in a major step toward reopening. - The New York Times

N.Y.C. will eliminate remote learning for the fall, in a major step toward reopening. - The New York Times

N.Y.C. will eliminate remote learning for the fall, in a major step toward reopening.

New York City will no longer have a remote schooling option come fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced during a television appearance on Monday, a major step toward fully reopening the nation’s largest school system.

This school year, most of the city’s roughly one million students — about 600,000 — stayed at home for classes. When the new school year starts on Sept. 13, all students and staff will be back in school buildings full-time, Mr. de Blasio said.

New York is one of the first big cities to remove the option of remote learning altogether for the coming school year. But widespread predictions that online classes would be a fixture for school districts may have been premature. Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey announced last week that the state would no longer have remote classes come fall, after similar announcements by leaders in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

New York City’s decision will make it much easier to restore the school system to a prepandemic state, since students and teachers will no longer be split between homes and school buildings.

But the mayor’s announcement will no doubt alarm some parents who are concerned about sending their children back into school buildings, even as the pandemic ebbs in the United States. Recent interviews with city parents have shown that while many families are looking forward to resuming normal schooling, some are hesitant about returning to classrooms.

Nonwhite families, whose health has suffered disproportionately from the virus, have been most likely to keep their children learning from home over the past year. CONTINUE READING: N.Y.C. will eliminate remote learning for the fall, in a major step toward reopening. - The New York Times

New Data Highlight Disparities In Students Learning In Person | 89.3 KPCC

New Data Highlight Disparities In Students Learning In Person | 89.3 KPCC

New Data Highlight Disparities In Students Learning In Person

The U.S. Education Department has released the first in a series of school surveys intended to provide a national view of learning during the pandemic. It reveals that the percentage of students who are still attending school virtually may be higher than previously understood.

As of January and early February of this year, 44% of elementary students and 48% of middle school students in the survey remained fully remote. And the survey found large differences by race: 69% of Asian, 58% of Black and 57% of Hispanic fourth graders were learning entirely remotely, while just 27% of White students were.

Conversely, nearly half of white fourth-graders were learning full-time in person, compared with just 15% of Asian, 28% of Black and 33% of Hispanic fourth-graders. The remainder had hybrid schedules.

This disparity may be partly driven by where students live. City schools, the survey found, are less likely than rural schools to offer full-time, in-person classes. Full-time, in-person schooling dominated in the South and the Midwest, and was much less common in the West and Northeast.

The racial and ethnic gaps may also be driven in part by which families are choosing to stay remote, even where some in-person learning is offered. Three out of 4 districts around the country were offering some in-person learning as of January, the CONTINUE READING: New Data Highlight Disparities In Students Learning In Person | 89.3 KPCC

Private schools pull students away from public schools - Axios

Private schools pull students away from public schools - Axios

Private schools pull students away from public schools

Private institutions are attracting wealthy families who are frustrated with public schools' flip-flopping on remote and in-person learning.

Why it matters: The trend is weakening public schools, which will lose funding as they lose students, and deepening the divide between how rich and poor kids are educated.

What's happening: In districts across America, public schools have had to follow local and state guidelines and stick with online school, while private schools have offered in-person alternatives.

• That's appealing to parents who are fed up with virtual learning because it forces them to juggle work and child care or because the schooling is not as high in quality as in-person instruction.

Just 5% of private schools were virtual this fall, according to survey data from the National Association of Independent Schools, cited by CNBC. Compare that with the 62% of public schoolkids who started the fall on Zoom, per Burbio, which has been tracking public school re-opening plans.

Private schools have a clear advantage in how they've been able to handle the pandemic:

• They were able to devise and advertise their reopening plans throughout the summer while CONTINUE READING: Private schools pull students away from public schools - Axios

Education Matters: DCPS is full steam ahead while other school districts play it cautious.

Education Matters: DCPS is full steam ahead while other school districts play it cautious.

DCPS is full steam ahead while other school districts play it cautious

Duval County has been averaging a thousand cases a day. Our positivity rate is close to ten percent. The new even more, contagious strain of COVID has been found in Florida, and we are undoubtedly going to get a holiday bump in cases, so what does DCPS do? Nothing, as more districts take their students and staff safety seriously, DCPS does nothing about their reckless policies. 

Pittsburg pumps the breaks, 

From WPIX.com,

Officials with Pittsburgh Public Schools said they are delaying the spring return to in-person learning.

“I talked to the board about not coming back on Jan. 4 because I knew the numbers would be high. We tentatively are going to bring our educators and staff back into our buildings on Jan. 18,” said Superintendent Dr. Anthony Hamlet.

https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/pittsburgh-public-schools-delays-spring-return-in-person-learning/TSOINMVU3RCEXJR25A2UOH7XJI/

Ware County slows things down too,

From ActionNewsjax.com,

The school district released the following CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: DCPS is full steam ahead while other school districts play it cautious.

Newsom offers $2 billion plan to bring back in-person instruction in elementary grades | EdSource

Newsom offers $2 billion plan to bring back in-person instruction in elementary grades | EdSource

Newsom offers $2 billion plan to bring back in-person instruction in elementary grades

Gov. Gavin Newsom presented a $2 billion proposal for financial incentives Wednesday to prod school districts to bring back elementary school students for in-person instruction, starting in mid-February.

School districts would receive extra funding — from $450 to about $700 per student — if they agreed to a timetable for reopening schools, a rigorous regimen of testing both students and staff for the virus, and a strict health and safety plan that teachers and employee unions would have to consent to. Newsom said more details would be available with the state budget next week.

Districts would receive a minimum of $450 for every student in the district, plus additional money per student, based on the Local Control Funding Formula. It provides extra money for English learners, homeless, foster and low-income students.

Districts would receive the funding if they offered in-person instruction from transitional kindergarten (TK) to second grade in the first phase, starting Feb. 15, and for third to sixth-graders in the second phase, a month later. Districts would get full funding, regardless of how many parents decided to continue with distance learning. They would also have to agree to bring back small cohorts of students of all ages with the most needs, including homeless and foster children and students with CONTINUE READING: Newsom offers $2 billion plan to bring back in-person instruction in elementary grades | EdSource

glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

"The coronavirus pandemic has put significant pressure on America’s teachers. Some have been asked to weigh risks to their personal health and teach in person. Some have been asked to teach from behind computer screens and perfect distance learning. Many have been asked to do both. These pressures are taking a toll on teachers across the country. 

"According to a new report, 77% of educators are working more today than a year ago; 60% enjoy their job less, and 59% do not feel secure in their school district’s health and safety precautions. Roughly 27% say they are considering leaving their job, retiring early or taking a leave of absence because of the pandemic.

"Horace Mann Educators Corporation surveyed 1,240 U.S. educators from K-12 public schools for the report. 'Before the pandemic, large numbers of U.S. educators were already leaving the profession due to the financial pressure the job puts on their lives. Then COVID-19 came along.'

"Richard Milner, professor of education at Vanderbilt University says these figures do not surprise him.  'In fact, I suspect those numbers will probably increase over time,' he says. 'Many teachers are barely keeping their heads above water and we don’t know how much longer we’re going to be in this space.'

"Teachers have long raised concerns about the difficult financial circumstances that educators often face. Over the past several years, tens of thousands of teachers have gone on strike for improved pay and school funding.

"These financial concerns are also highlighted in the Horace Mann report: CONTINUE READING: glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

Teacher Burnout in the Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teacher Burnout in the Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teacher Burnout in the Pandemic

The New York Times published an article recently by Natasha Singer–one of the best reporters on education issues in the Times–about the toll that the pandemic is taking on teachers. An extraordinary number say the burden of teaching remote classes and in-person classes is not sustainable. Large numbers of teachers are planning to retire, or have retired.

All this fall, as vehement debates have raged over whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction, teachers have been at the center — often vilified for challenging it, sometimes warmly praised for trying to make it work. But the debate has often missed just how thoroughly the coronavirus has upended learning in the country’s 130,000 schools, and glossed over how emotionally and physically draining pandemic teaching has become for the educators themselves.

In more than a dozen interviews, educators described the immense challenges, and exhaustion, they have faced trying to provide normal schooling for students in CONTINUE READING: Teacher Burnout in the Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

ANATOMY OF A DECISION – Dad Gone Wild

ANATOMY OF A DECISION – Dad Gone Wild

ANATOMY OF A DECISION

“Choose not to look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

 

Like most MNPS’s parents, the wife and I spent the week trying to decide what our choice for schooling would look like starting after the first of the year. Would we return to in-person instruction or remain virtual.

Nashville in-person instruction is scheduled to begin on January 7th for those opting in. Based on rising COVID-19 cases – the district’s recently revealed measurement tool shows the city currently at 9.3 out of 10 – it’s hard to imagine that deadline actually being honored. But, the measurement tool doesn’t factor in political winds, so there is no guarantee.

We are one of the fortunate families in that this year has been pretty similar to past years. The kids haven’t exactly embraced remote learning, but they are slowly mastering it. Along the way improving important life skills like time management, self-advocacy, and technical mastery while becoming more self-sufficient. I continually see CONTINUE READING: ANATOMY OF A DECISION – Dad Gone Wild

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ - The New York Times

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ - The New York Times

Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’

Teacher burnout could erode instructional quality, stymie working parents and hinder the reopening of the economy.

At Farmington Central Junior High in rural Illinois, classes still start at 8 a.m. But that’s about the only part of the school day that has not changed for Caitlyn Clayton, an eighth-grade English teacher tirelessly toggling between in-person and remote students.

At the start of the school day, Ms. Clayton stands in front of the classroom, reminding her students to properly pull their masks over their noses. Then she delves into a writing lesson, all the while scanning the room for possible virus threats. She stops students from sharing supplies. She keeps her distance when answering their questions. She disinfects the desks between classes.

Then in the afternoon, just as her in-person students head home, Ms. Clayton begins her second day: remote teaching. Sitting in her classroom, she checks in one-on-one via video with eighth graders who have opted for distance learning. To make sure they are not missing out, she spends hours more recording instructional videos that replicate her in-person classroom lessons.

All this fall, as vehement debates have raged over whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction, teachers have been at the center — often vilified for challenging it, sometimes warmly praised for trying to make it work. But the debate has often missed just how thoroughly the coronavirus has upended learning in the country’s 130,000 schools, and glossed over how emotionally and physically draining pandemic teaching has become for the educators themselves.

In more than a dozen interviews, educators described the immense challenges, and exhaustion, they have faced trying to provide normal schooling for students in pandemic conditions that are anything but normal. Some recounted whiplash experiences of having their schools abruptly open and close, sometimes more than once, because of virus risks or quarantine-driven staff shortages, requiring them to repeatedly switch back and forth between in-person and online teaching.

Others described the stress of having to lead back-to-back group CONTINUE READING: Teaching in the Pandemic: ‘This Is Not Sustainable’ - The New York Times

CommonWealth Magazine

CommonWealth Magazine

In-person learning now considered ‘high risk’ by CDC

Change in guideline quietly made on agency website 

THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL and Prevention quietly removed controversial guidelines from its website promoting in-person learning in schools, and instead is now listing it as “high risk.

The disputed guidance was composed of documents written by political appointees outside of the agency. One of the documents stated that children appear to be at lower risk for contracting COVID-19 compared to adults and that children are unlikely to be major spreaders of the virus, according to The Hill. The CDC removed the guidance from its website without public announcement some time in late October.

“Some of the prior content was outdated and as new scientific information has emerged the site has been updated to reflect current knowledge about COVID-19 and schools,” a spokesperson told the news outlet.

Now the website says “the body of evidence is growing that children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and contrary to early reports might play a role in transmission,” and lists in-person learning as high risk.

The news comes just as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association released a report this week that found that the coronavirus is infecting children now more than ever. As of November 12, over 1 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Over the two-weeks period between October 29 and November 12 there was a 22 percent increase in child COVID-19 cases, or 185,829 new cases, nationwide. In Massachusetts, the total is 15,562 cases among children as of November 12, or 9.4 percent of total cases.

State leaders, who have been pushing for a return to in-person learning, are maintaining their position. At a Wednesday press conference, Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley said the state is relying on medical expertise in encouraging school reopenings, but acknowledged the shifts in CDC guidance. “There’s been some back and forth on what they put out,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Baker in early November released new metrics that downgraded the risk of COVID-19 in most communities and issued new guidance suggesting in-person instruction is safe even in hot-spot areas. At the time, CONTINUE READING: 

A Week in the Life of a Baltimore School Returning to In-Person Classes (Erica Green) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Week in the Life of a Baltimore School Returning to In-Person Classes (Erica Green) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Week in the Life of a Baltimore School Returning to In-Person Classes (Erica Green)

New York Times Journalist Erica Green spent a week in a Baltimore school where in-person instruction resumed. It is rare to get such a peek inside a big city district school during the pandemic–nearly all large urban districts are shuttered and rely upon remote instruction. This article appeared November 28, 2020

Zia Hellman prepared to welcome her kindergarten students back to Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle School this month the way any teacher would on the first day of school: She fussed over her classroom.

Ms. Hellman, 26, dodged around the triangular desks, spaced six feet apart and taped off in blue boxes. She fretted about the blandness of the walls, fumbled with the plastic dividers covering name tags and arranged the individual yoga mats that replaced colorful carpets. Every window was open for extra ventilation, chilling the air.

“I wonder how they’re going to react to all of this,” she said, hands on her hips, scanning the room for the last time. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel, but it feels right.”

Ms. Hellman was among about two dozen teachers and staff members required to return to work on Nov. 16 for the first in-person instruction in Baltimore City Public Schools since March. The city was the first large school district in Maryland and the latest among urban districts in the country to tiptoe into one of the highest-stakes experiments in the history of the nation’s public education system: teaching face-to-face in a pandemic.

Returning to the classroom has not been easy; neither has remote learning.

Educators looking to get back in front of students have had to navigate CONTINUE READING: A Week in the Life of a Baltimore School Returning to In-Person Classes (Erica Green) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Reflections on Teaching » Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

Responding to the call from Pocketful of Primary to answer questions about how teaching during the pandemic is going.

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Pandemic Teaching – What’s up?

America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

America's teachers are running on empty

School districts nationwide are facing a worsening teacher shortage because of the coronavirus, further complicating the tough decisions about whether to have in-person classes.

Why it matters: When teachers test positive, fall seriously ill or are self-isolating from potential exposure, many districts don't have enough substitutes to keep up.

Where it stands: There's early evidence children and schools are not major vectors of the virus, especially with proper social distancing, ventilation and mask requirements, but the risk for adults at school is not zero.

• Districts in Tennessee, Michigan and Maine and many other parts of the country have dozens of teachers absent at a time and had to close classrooms.
• Since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, at least 751 Arizona teachers have resigned or quit, according to the Arizona Schools Personnel Administrators Association.
• The risk of infection has also triggered some early retirements and sick-outs.

What they're saying: Teachers have demanded more personal protective equipment and better CONTINUE READING: America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Remote Teaching is Better Than In-Person Instruction During a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Remote Teaching is Better Than In-Person Instruction During a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Remote Teaching is Better Than In-Person Instruction During a Pandemic

Hundreds of teachers have died from Covid-19.

More than 1 million children have been diagnosed with the disease.

Yet a bipartisan group of seven state Governors said in a joint statement Thursday that in-person schools are safe even when community transmission rates are high.

Safe – despite hundreds of preventable deaths of school employees.

Safe – despite mass outbreaks among students.

Safe – despite quarantines, staffing shortages, longterm illnesses and mounting uncertainty about the longterm effects of the disease on children and adults.

State Governors must have a different definition of safety than the rest of us.

The message was signed by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Delaware Governor John Carney, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, and CONTINUE READING: INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Remote Teaching is Better Than In-Person Instruction During a Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

JUST MAKE THE CALL – Dad Gone Wild

JUST MAKE THE CALL – Dad Gone Wild

JUST MAKE THE CALL

“Because of the movies I make, people get nervous, because they think of me as difficult and angry. I am difficult and angry, but they don’t expect a sense of humor. And the only thing that gets me through is a sense of humor.”
― Martin Scorsese

We got a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s not waste a lot of time with formalities.

If you are a resident of Nashville, or you work for the school system, the biggest question on your mind is, what’s happening with the city’s elementary schools after today?

Like the rest of you, I have absolutely no idea what the plan is. Earlier in the week, everyone got an email from Dr. Battle giving them the heads up that after Thanksgiving break, the whole district would return to virtual, or maybe it wouldn’t. But then again, maybe schools would return to virtual before the break. The communication provided no real insight and only served to set people scrambling to make preparations. What kind of preparations?  That was open to everyone’s interpretation.

Later in the week, Chief of Schools Mason Bellamy sent an email out to high school and middle school principals asking if they could put together a list of their staff that might be able to help out in elementary schools due to a lack of subs. Earlier in the year, I’d been criticized for “deficit thinking” by some administrators, seems to me this email would serve as a prime example of “deficit thinking”. It makes the assumption that since school buildings are closed, middle school and high school administrators are sitting at home popping grapes and watching new episodes of The Crown.

News Flash! They are not. They are engaging with teachers, students, and families to perfect CONTINUE READING: JUST MAKE THE CALL – Dad Gone Wild

As District Covid Cases Increase, McKeesport Schools Remain Open Temporarily | gadflyonthewallblog

As District Covid Cases Increase, McKeesport Schools Remain Open Temporarily | gadflyonthewallblog

As District Covid Cases Increase, McKeesport Schools Remain Open Temporarily

Next week, McKeesport Area School District will go fully remote to keep students safe from an ongoing outbreak of Covid-19 at several district buildings.

Two new cases are suspected today at the western Pennsylvania district, says a source close to the school board.

However all district buildings were open, and administrators say classes will continue in-person Thursday and Friday.

On Monday, the district will close for three days while all students learn on-line. Buildings will remain closed through Thanksgiving Break. Classes are scheduled to begin in-person again on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

Meanwhile, two staff members – one at the high school and one at Founders Hall – were reported having undergone tests for the virus this morning, according to a source close to the school board.

Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) has not yet returned results for these CONTINUE READING: As District Covid Cases Increase, McKeesport Schools Remain Open Temporarily | gadflyonthewallblog