Virtual Academy students lagging behind in person

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did virtual last year for middle school and we had a great experience. My son said he wishes he could go back. He had a lot of issues with turning in homework and being organized so being virtual eliminated most of those issues. He’s back in person because I wanted him to have a more social experience but I truly have nothing bad to say about the virtual academy. His teachers were phenomenal and engaging. They had to have cameras on so they could see who was actually present. Although I don’t anticipate going back I would be so sad if they took it away. Many kids said they had health issues, some had bullying issues. It’s so nice that there was an option for these kids.

Yep, these issues are mostly one of self-selection. Any kid who wants to do well can flourish even in virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point, it's pretty clear that virtual instruction is inferior to in-person and has been for some time. The holdouts want to delude themselves but MCPS should not enable this delusion.

It’s actually shocking to me that MCPS is allowing 900 kids to continue in virtual, including a sizeable number of elementary students. Poor kids!! I think virtual can serve a roll for a very small number of kids with IEPs or temporary medical conditions, but not as an alternative for any kid.

But in person did not teach you spelling. Maybe VA kids can spell.

[Anonymous]

The article is clearly biased, but I could see a couple things going on here. There are some kids who do virtual because of a mental or physical health issue, and that could affect school performance alone- awful hard to keep up grades when you're going through chemo. I also suspect it's directly related to parental involvement- I know of at least one family who saw the VA as an alternative to homeschooling because it, in theory, did not require as much work on the parents' part, and then they were surprised to find out how much work it still was. Their kids are in ES though, I could see HS students being more independent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point, it's pretty clear that virtual instruction is inferior to in-person and has been for some time. The holdouts want to delude themselves but MCPS should not enable this delusion.

It’s actually shocking to me that MCPS is allowing 900 kids to continue in virtual, including a sizeable number of elementary students. Poor kids!! I think virtual can serve a roll for a very small number of kids with IEPs or temporary medical conditions, but not as an alternative for any kid.

But in person did not teach you spelling. Maybe VA kids can spell.

No they are using the same curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here it is again...parents in this county are so behind the times. Most districts across the country have offered virtual options since the early aughts. The fact MCPS only did in 2020 because of the pandemic is embarrassing. It's time to join the rest of the country in the 21st century without complaining because remote instruction didn't work for your kid during the pandemic. It's so absurd.

Just curious- how many of the virtual programs "across the country" are actually offered at the district level? Particularly in pre-pandemic times. Quite often the virtual programs are administered at the state level, which makes sense to me. So this is partly on the state of MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe some of these kids are remote due to psychological or health issues and that is why they are behind versus the remote teaching itself?

It's definitely true that a comparison of VA kids to in person kids is going to miss huge differences in the populations served. Most parents are not signing up for VA and the ones who do have kids very different from those who do. Just comparing reading scores without acknowledging that isn't serious analysis.

I've got theories based on my personal experience with parents, not in MCPS, who wanted virtual instruction for their kids (mostly special education students with existing serious school refusal, anxiety, and bullying issues), but I'd want to see data before assuming that that's true here too.

[Anonymous]

I have a good friend who works in administration for a small school district in the Midwest. They were offering virtual instruction long before the pandemic. Kids who had chronic health problems or were in constant trouble or frequently engaging in school refusal or who had extremely unstable home lives tended to be the ones who used it. These are also students you’d expect to be lagging behind if they were in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here it is again...parents in this county are so behind the times. Most districts across the country have offered virtual options since the early aughts. The fact MCPS only did in 2020 because of the pandemic is embarrassing. It's time to join the rest of the country in the 21st century without complaining because remote instruction didn't work for your kid during the pandemic. It's so absurd.

Just curious- how many of the virtual programs "across the country" are actually offered at the district level? Particularly in pre-pandemic times. Quite often the virtual programs are administered at the state level, which makes sense to me. So this is partly on the state of MD.

DP-I would first say, do your own research before asking others to do it for you. But all of my teaching friends from my program are in various states and it is offered at the district level. So, no. It's not on the state of Maryland at all. It could be implemented district wide as its done in MANY other places. MoCo has a unique set of parents that simply refuse to hear any other alternatives other than "in-person". It is sad because instead of using the money and time to refine a district wide program, people just want to shut it down because of the pandemic. All of the parents who continue to post this article on social media are the same exact parents who were at every single board meeting complaining about virtual. Doesn't take a genius to figure out their agenda. It is quite sad and pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here it is again...parents in this county are so behind the times. Most districts across the country have offered virtual options since the early aughts. The fact MCPS only did in 2020 because of the pandemic is embarrassing. It's time to join the rest of the country in the 21st century without complaining because remote instruction didn't work for your kid during the pandemic. It's so absurd.

Just curious- how many of the virtual programs "across the country" are actually offered at the district level? Particularly in pre-pandemic times. Quite often the virtual programs are administered at the state level, which makes sense to me. So this is partly on the state of MD.

DP-I would first say, do your own research before asking others to do it for you. But all of my teaching friends from my program are in various states and it is offered at the district level. So, no. It's not on the state of Maryland at all. It could be implemented district wide as its done in MANY other places. MoCo has a unique set of parents that simply refuse to hear any other alternatives other than "in-person". It is sad because instead of using the money and time to refine a district wide program, people just want to shut it down because of the pandemic. All of the parents who continue to post this article on social media are the same exact parents who were at every single board meeting complaining about virtual. Doesn't take a genius to figure out their agenda. It is quite sad and pathetic.

Lady, well before the pandemic there was research showing that virtual doesn’t even work for college students. Anyone with a single brain cell knows it’s a disaster for children, and yes, we know this because of the pandemic There is an extremely narrow case for it as a stop-gap for sick kids and SN kids who truly cannot be accomodated at their current placement, but it is not a long-term solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The article is clearly biased, but I could see a couple things going on here. There are some kids who do virtual because of a mental or physical health issue, and that could affect school performance alone- awful hard to keep up grades when you're going through chemo. I also suspect it's directly related to parental involvement- I know of at least one family who saw the VA as an alternative to homeschooling because it, in theory, did not require as much work on the parents' part, and then they were surprised to find out how much work it still was. Their kids are in ES though, I could see HS students being more independent.

That website is mostly RNC propaganda.

[Anonymous]

When ESSER funds are gone, how will they fund the MVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe some of these kids are remote due to psychological or health issues and that is why they are behind versus the remote teaching itself?

It’s possible that both are true:

Remote attracted students who have special needs that cause them to be behaving peers.

Remote as done by the Virtual Academy is less effective than in person MCPS.

That doesn’t mean it should be eliminated. There are many students who either will risk their health in the classroom or won’t have school regularly if the VA goes a way. Interim instructional services (the new Home and Hospital) is a real joke.

Have you been in the program or are you just making assumptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When ESSER funds are gone, how will they fund the MVA?

They should thanked the money from the home schools and give it to the mva. The home schools are providing very little to nothing do they should not get funds for students at their schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here it is again...parents in this county are so behind the times. Most districts across the country have offered virtual options since the early aughts. The fact MCPS only did in 2020 because of the pandemic is embarrassing. It's time to join the rest of the country in the 21st century without complaining because remote instruction didn't work for your kid during the pandemic. It's so absurd.

Just curious- how many of the virtual programs "across the country" are actually offered at the district level? Particularly in pre-pandemic times. Quite often the virtual programs are administered at the state level, which makes sense to me. So this is partly on the state of MD.

DP-I would first say, do your own research before asking others to do it for you. But all of my teaching friends from my program are in various states and it is offered at the district level. So, no. It's not on the state of Maryland at all. It could be implemented district wide as its done in MANY other places. MoCo has a unique set of parents that simply refuse to hear any other alternatives other than "in-person". It is sad because instead of using the money and time to refine a district wide program, people just want to shut it down because of the pandemic. All of the parents who continue to post this article on social media are the same exact parents who were at every single board meeting complaining about virtual. Doesn't take a genius to figure out their agenda. It is quite sad and pathetic.

Lady, well before the pandemic there was research showing that virtual doesn’t even work for college students. Anyone with a single brain cell knows it’s a disaster for children, and yes, we know this because of the pandemic There is an extremely narrow case for it as a stop-gap for sick kids and SN kids who truly cannot be accomodated at their current placement, but it is not a long-term solution.

Lady you are very bias because a lot of students are successful in it and anyone can create a study to prove their point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here it is again...parents in this county are so behind the times. Most districts across the country have offered virtual options since the early aughts. The fact MCPS only did in 2020 because of the pandemic is embarrassing. It's time to join the rest of the country in the 21st century without complaining because remote instruction didn't work for your kid during the pandemic. It's so absurd.

Just curious- how many of the virtual programs "across the country" are actually offered at the district level? Particularly in pre-pandemic times. Quite often the virtual programs are administered at the state level, which makes sense to me. So this is partly on the state of MD.

DP-I would first say, do your own research before asking others to do it for you. But all of my teaching friends from my program are in various states and it is offered at the district level. So, no. It's not on the state of Maryland at all. It could be implemented district wide as its done in MANY other places. MoCo has a unique set of parents that simply refuse to hear any other alternatives other than "in-person". It is sad because instead of using the money and time to refine a district wide program, people just want to shut it down because of the pandemic. All of the parents who continue to post this article on social media are the same exact parents who were at every single board meeting complaining about virtual. Doesn't take a genius to figure out their agenda. It is quite sad and pathetic.

Lady, well before the pandemic there was research showing that virtual doesn’t even work for college students. Anyone with a single brain cell knows it’s a disaster for children, and yes, we know this because of the pandemic There is an extremely narrow case for it as a stop-gap for sick kids and SN kids who truly cannot be accomodated at their current placement, but it is not a long-term solution.

My kids did great in virtual. I think the problem is mostly with parents who left young children unsupervised and expected better results. The problem isn't virtual but lazy parents.