Education Week - June 9, 2021 - 16

Some Schools to Ditch or Restrict Remote Learning
By Catherine Gewertz
School districts across the country
are planning a full return to face-toface
instruction next year, a major
milestone that reflects a rosier coronavirus
picture. But some districts-and
entire states-are going a step further,
eliminating remote learning altogether,
or severely restricting its use.
Those decisions worry many advocates
and experts. They fear that
schools are squandering a chance to
harness technology to make school
work better for students and families.
And they think schools are
being shortsighted; without a robust
remote option, they will be ill-prepared
to respond if COVID-19 levels
spike again.
" Everyone wants to get back to
normal. But snapping back to normal
when we know that didn't work
well for too many kids, that's a real
danger, " said Robin Lake, the CEO of
the Center on Reinventing Public Education,
which has been monitoring
schools' responses to the pandemic.
" Are districts really going to force
families to bring their kids back?
That's a bad look. "
Few districts are taking that approach.
Most are committed to providing
some kind of online option,
said Dan Domenech, the executive
director of AASA, the School Superintendents
Association. He thinks
that's important: Having a remote
option can help kids catch up, or
let them move ahead when they've
mastered material, he said. But other
forces can push districts into an either/or
stance.
" The politics of this thing have
gotten to the point where remote
learning is undesirable, and so [some
districts feel] all kids need to be back
in school in person, " Domenech said.
Districts and states rethink
remote learning
While some districts, like Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, and Portland,
Ore., are choosing to retain remote
options for students, others are restricting
them.
New York City, with more than 1
million students, announced that no
remote learning would be available
next year. Some districts, such as Chicago,
the District of Columbia, and
Northside Independent in Texas, will
allow remote instruction only for students
who meet certain eligibility criteria,
such as a medical condition that
requires a student to stay at home.
These districts, and states that
have made similar moves, are in a
distinct minority. Data collected by
Education Week show that 16 states
require or expect all students to return
in person in the fall, but only a
handful have taken the additional
step of banning or severely restricting
remote learning.
New Jersey is the most prominent
example. Its governor, Phil Murphy,
announced last month that all
instruction will be in person in the
tions at all next year. The district's
been in hybrid mode since Labor
Day, and a minority of students
chose the district's asynchronous
at-home instruction. But they were
the ones getting failing marks most
often, said Superintendent Tim
Harkrider.
Coronavirus levels are declining,
vaccine rates are rising, and
parents' need their children to go
to school-most work two or more
jobs. All those dynamics made required
in-person instruction the
best choice for Willis, Harkrider
said.
" It just went back to that question
of the best fit for our community
and the lack of success of our online
learners, " he said. " We felt we
needed to draw a pretty hard line,
let's get them back. "
Ditching remote-learning
options could be a mistake
Tanya Holyfield, a 2nd grade teacher at Manchester Academic Charter School in Pittsburgh, teaches remote
students from her classroom in March.
fall. Massachusetts and Illinois have
advised their districts that they can't
offer remote as a standard learning
option, but can provide it in very
limited circumstances. Minnesota
schools can't offer remote instruction
unless legislation to enable it passes
this summer.
In a few states, questions about
funding remote learning are creating
uncertainty for school districts.
South Carolina and Kentucky are
considering less per-pupil funding
for remote learners. Texas has not
decided whether and how it would
fund districts for students who want
to learn from home.
That uncertainty has prompted
some districts, including Houston, to
say they'd offer a remote option " as
long as " their state fully funds it.
Parents want a remotelearning
option
Studies show a clear and strong demand
for an ongoing remote-learning
option. In a survey last month
by the National Parents Union, 20
percent of parents said they want
their children to attend school only
remotely this fall. In another recent
poll, conducted by Hart Research Associates
for education and civil-rights
groups including the American Federation
of Teachers, more than one
quarter of parents said they're not yet
comfortable sending their children to
school in person.
Principals, too, see a role for remote
instruction. In a recent survey
by the RAND Corp., one-third said
they would keep offering the remote
option after the pandemic for any
family that chooses it. More than half
said they'd use it for special circumstances
like student illness.
Tafshier Cosby, a New Jersey resident
who is the National Parents
Union's director of national organizing,
said Gov. Murphy did himself
no favors with parents when he
16 | EDUCATION WEEK | June 9, 2021 | www.edweek.org
decided that schools could not offer
distance learning.
" To just arbitrarily make a decision
for a whole state without talking to the
people closest to the issue? It's doing
parents a disservice, " said Cosby.
" And frankly, it's disrespectful. "
In Newark, N.J., Tameeka Walden
is struggling with Gov. Murphy's decision.
She has a health condition that
puts her at higher risk for COVID19.
She'd hoped that her 11-year-old
daughter, Samaya, who will start
6th grade next year, could continue
learning from home.
Walden is vaccinated, but she still
worries that Samaya could pick up the
virus at school, transmit it to her, and
be saddled with guilt about it. (There
are currently no vaccines approved
for children younger than 12.) Walden
is preparing herself to face her daughter's
return to school-and likely her
own employer's demand that she return
to work in person-but she wishes
she had other options.
In New York City, Laura Mourino
is trying to figure out what she'll
do now that Mayor Bill DeBlasio
has ruled out teaching from home.
The 18-year math teacher donated
a kidney to her husband, so they're
both immunocompromised. They're
vaccinated, but tests showed they
didn't develop COVID-19 antibodies.
(There are still unknowns about the
effectiveness of the vaccines for immunocompromised
people.)
Mourino is talking with the administration
at her school, Harvest Collegiate
Academy, to see if she could
take a sabbatical or perhaps early retirement.
" I
love my job. I love my school. I
don't want to leave, " she said. " But
there are going to be like 500 people
crammed onto two floors. I don't feel
safe. "
Some teachers welcomed their
districts' decisions to eliminate or restrict
remote learning, saying it didn't
work well for students or teachers.
Jake Jacobs, a middle school art
teacher in New York City, isn't a big
fan of remote learning. Too often,
he said, kids fell asleep in front of
their screens, or showed up only
long enough to be counted, and then
logged off. Even so, he worries what
effect ending the remote option
might have on the spread of coronavirus
variants among unvaccinated
children, and he noted that a large
chunk of city parents are still hesitant
about in-person learning.
" It's been a nightmare year, " Jacobs
said. " It's fair to say all teachers
want things to get back to normal.
So really, the only question is, are we
going to be safe? "
Remote learning didn't work
well for most students
Meghan Hatch-Geary,
a
high
school English teacher in Beacon
Falls, Conn., and the state's 2020
teacher of the year, said she fully
supports her district's decision to discontinue
remote learning next year.
She's currently teaching two groups
of students simultaneously: most are
in the classroom, and a few are at
home. The students who've struggled
the most this year, she said, are those
who stayed fully remote.
That's true across the country. New
data from the RAND Corp. shows
that students who were fully remote
this school year suffered academically
and were more likely to be absent.
With case counts dropping in the
area, and expanded vaccine availability
for adolescents, Hatch-Geary
thinks it's reasonable for her district
to ask students to return in person.
Now that she's been vaccinated, she
feels safer coming into the building,
too. The district is still working out
how-or whether-students will keep
learning if they have to quarantine
next fall, Hatch-Geary said.
Texas' Willis Independent School
District won't offer any remote opFrom
a medical perspective, experts
advise districts to be prepared.
Variants of the virus could still
" overwhelm the immune response "
of a population that's gotten some
protection from antibodies and
vaccines, said Yvonne Maldonado,
a professor of pediatrics and health
research at Stanford University's
school of medicine. Another spike
in the virus is " absolutely possible, "
she said.
Districts should also consider the
level of vaccination in their communities,
she said, since uptake is
much lower in some regions than in
others. Another slice of risk: state
and regional
directives banning
mask mandates.
" It's a mistake not to have a plan
B in your back pocket, " said Maldonado,
the chair of the American
Academy of Pediatrics' committee
on infectious diseases.
Having a remote option is important
for families that have found
it works best for their children, or
those with kids who are medically
at risk, said Mike Magee, the CEO
of Chiefs for Change, a superintendents'
group. But superintendents
need to work closely with families
to make sure fear isn't the reason
they're choosing remote. Studies
show schools, with the right strategies,
aren't places of high virus
transmission.
It pains Susan Patrick to think
schools would eliminate or restrict
remote learning in their rush to
resume normal operations. As the
president and CEO of the Aurora
Institute, she's been a leading voice
for using technology to improve
learning.
" For districts, it should be an opportunity
to find out what worked
for students and families, to talk to
teachers about why, " and design a
more student-centered approach to
learning, Patrick said.
Staff Writer Sarah Schwartz contributed
to this article.
Andrew Rus/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

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Education Week - June 9, 2021

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