Education Week - April 1, 2020 - 5

Will Learning Gaps Widen as Schools Stay Closed?
Not every parent
can keep the
learning going
In his two years working at Booker
T. Washington High School in Norfolk, Va., Malcolm Jones had turned
Room 123 into a sanctuary for vulnerable students.
As a site coordinator for the organization Communities in Schools,
Jones was at school from morning
until evening, supporting nearly 100
teenagers struggling with poverty,
family upheaval, and other obstacles
to learning.
"Some days I'm the counselor,
some days I'm the tutor, some days
I'm the lunch lady," said Jones.
The coronavirus pandemic upended that work. Now, he's at home
with his wife and five children, ages 1
to 12, juggling work schedules and access to the computer and the phone.
During the day, his wife has first dibs
on the phone for her work; in the evening, Jones tries to catch up with his
students, letting them know that he's
still there and that he still cares.
As chaotic as his home life has suddenly become, he's acutely aware
how much harder this is for his students-and how much the long weeks
at home could widen learning gaps
between them and peers who are not
already navigating so many obstacles.
While school work is important, he
said, some students are not able to
focus on that given uncertainty, hunger, and family responsibilities.
"These students were distracted
from their world by coming to this
building that was outside of the community where they faced all these barriers," Jones said. "Now, they're stuck
at home in that chaos. Who can really
expect some of these students to do
that [academic work packet] when
they're at home starving or they're at
home taking care of their siblings?"

Inequities Emerge
The school closures gave parents
and schools little time to prepare for a
massive shift in their lives. Parents became teachers, many while attempting to continue their regular jobs. K-12
education, built on face-to-face interaction, started a bumpy transition to
providing learning remotely. And the
most vulnerable students are facing
social as well as academic losses.
The abrupt change is exposing inequities of all kinds: There are parents
who are able to work from home and
parents who don't have that option.
Some districts have rolled out robust
e-learning plans, and other systems
are still thinking through how to support students who don't have regular
access to computers and the internet.
Some children can easily adapt to elearning and others, because of their
special needs, can't seamlessly transition to computer-based instruction.

Julia Rendleman for Education Week

By Christina A. Samuels

And teachers have varying abilities to
embrace the new e-learning reality.
Sometimes, the inequities show up
with the same schools and families.
Jane Rothbaler, a single parent
whose twin 7-year-old sons are in
different 2nd grade classes in the Del
Mar Union district in California's San
Diego County, has received a full slate
of activities for son Declan. That includes a daily 90-minute English/
language arts block, 60 minutes of
math, and 30 minutes of reading. The
teacher for her other son, Tate, has yet
to send out activities.
But the presumption that she has
at least 2 ½ hours to oversee school
work already has her throwing up her
hands. A simple game of blackjack
to reinforce their math skills had her
kids in tears of frustration, she said.
"My job has not slowed down at all,
and that's fair; I don't begrudge them
that. I'm getting paid," said Rothbaler,
a lawyer. But that leaves her little time
to supervise lessons.
She contemplated just letting her
kids repeat 2nd grade if they fall too
far behind but felt guilty about even
considering that option, when other
families in her community seem to be
able to make it work.
Rothbaler ultimately decided to risk
outside contact and hired a former
preschool teacher, recently laid off,
to come to her house for four hours a
day and oversee schoolwork at a cost
of $400 a week.

Students With Disabilities
Laurena Baum also has twin sons,
14-year-old 9th graders, enrolled in
a San Diego County district-Vista
Unified. During normal times, one
son, Hunter, is in general education
classes; Logan is educated in a selfcontained classroom, uses a special
device to communicate, and has a
one-to-one aide.
For Hunter, teachers were able to
switch to an online environment easily. He's getting assignments in all his

classes. He can upload his work or
take photos as proof of completion.
The teacher in the self-contained
classroom has regularly contacted
parents, Baum said, and has provided
resources to use at home, such as audiobooks and links to learning websites. But there's little way the academic program Logan was receiving
in school can happen at home.
"I'm grateful for what I'm getting
for Hunter," she said, "but I do feel
like I'm not getting the same thing
for Logan. But yet, I don't fault his
teacher, because I don't know what
else he could do."
School districts responded to the
shutdowns in different ways: Some
were able to revamp platforms already in use to push out lesson plans
to families, with a few even offering
real-time lessons for students.
Others, citing concerns with not
being able to provide equal access to
students who lack devices or internet
access, students with disabilities, and
English-language learners, provided
some educational resources but said
they would all be optional.

Planning for a Long Haul
"I know there are equity concerns,
and that's what's driving some of this
caution," said Robin Lake, the director of the Center on Reinventing
Public Education. Her organization
has been tracking the online-learning
plans for schools. Of the nearly 50
districts analyzed so far, about half
haven't provided any guided curriculum to students. They're sharing links
and leaving lesson delivery to parents.
Others were on break when the closures were announced.
"We have to figure out how to take
an approach that will work for all kids
and we have to figure it out quickly.
This is a national emergency: We
need to figure out ways to solve problems, not stand scared."
Now that it's becoming clear that
the closures will last for several weeks

Technicians Antoine Pratt,
left, and Jonathan Copeland
help parents and students
with laptop issues at a
mobile "help desk" outside
of Highland Springs High
School in Henrico County,
Va. It's part of a district
effort to ensure that all
students have access to
digital lessons during the
coronavirus crisis.

Who can really
expect some of
these students to
do that [academic
work packet]
when they're at
home starving or
they're at home
taking care of
their siblings?"
MALCOLM JONES
Communities in Schools
Site coordinator, Norfolk, Va.

or even longer, school districts are
working fast to adapt.
Los Angeles Unified, the nation's
second-largest district after New
York City, recently announced a partnership with Verizon to get internet
access to all students. It also plans to
make an emergency investment of
$100 million in computers, internet
connectivity, and training for students, teachers, and families.
In contrast, for the 650-student
Mehnomen district in northwestern
Minnesota, weekly packets on paper
will serve as the bulk of instructional
materials, said Superintendent Jason
Melby. Anything online will be purely
supplemental, since many of the district's students don't have regular
computer access.
"Our kids struggle without a routine," Melby said. "Putting this
distance-learning plan in place will
hopefully provide some routine and
stability for these kids."
But as schools get their online education up and running, they should
also think about how to support children who are experiencing the trauma
of this disconnection, said Siobhan
Davenport, the executive director of
Crittenton Services of Greater Washington, which provides support to
girls in middle and high school in the
District of Columbia and suburban
Maryland.
The organization has been fielding
calls from girls and families who need
the basics-food, diapers, formula,
paper products. Some of the girls are
now caring for not just younger siblings but also other relatives, because
child-care options have evaporated.
Others have lost their jobs because of
business closures.
In addition to academic programs,
she wants schools to develop a way
for students to interact online with
school counselors, social workers, or
psychologists, she said, "some access
where students can engage on discussion, how they're feeling for the day.'
There may be a positive outcome in
all the upheaval, said Monica Goldson, the chief executive officer of
Prince George's County schools, in
Maryland.
The district is surveying families on
whether they can connect to the internet and if they have computer access.
Many in the community relied on free
internet provided by sources such as
libraries, but those are closed now.
Prince George's will soon have an
emergency meeting to discuss purchasing computers and devices to
allow families to connect to the internet. Remote learning is scheduled to
start in early April, Goldson said.
She is buoyed by the community's
desire to get students back to learning.
"My drive is the look on the kids'
faces," said Goldson, who dropped
in on a videoconference a district
teacher held with some of her students. "They are eager to learn. The
kids are ready to go back to school. ...
This has caused us to look at teachers
differently, in a better light. And hopefully, it will cause our children to look
at learning in a better light."

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Education Week - April 1, 2020

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