If DMV schools don't open in the fall, are you moving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I ask what real trauma high SES kids are going through? (due to the pandemic, besides family dying) I work at a low SES school and even before the pandemic of course many of my students had trauma.

I'm in no way saying more wealthy children cannot suffer, I used to work in CA at a school nestled in a neighborhood where the homes started at 1M, and a few kids were suicidal.

However not seeing your friends in person, dealing with online classes won't raise their ACE (adverse childhood experiences).
THAT is trauma, this is sad and yes, may lead to depressions and some anxiety but it is not trauma.

I feel parents are throwing out this word carelessly. I'm not saying DL is a goldmine, I also really hate it. But I also feel DCPS missed the in person boat. Why now when the rates are climbing? Please stop with the WTU, at the end of the day I agree my union was obstructionist but whose the real boss? We could have went back for term 1 and part of 2.

If a child is prone to depression, social isolation can be tough. If a child has ADHD, DL is torture.

If a child — and/or caregiver — has both those issues, the days are misery.

The range of emotions people experience, and vulnerability to mental health challenges, are not all that elastic to income differences.

So whether or not it meets a clinical definition of “trauma”, protracted depression at a young age is a serious problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US ha ever valued public education or public school teachers. Not surprising that a once-in-a-100-year pandemic that's killed 400,000 people in this country makes no difference. You know in a month, more people will have died from COVID-19 than in WWII. Just putting it in perspective how devastating this has been.

Of course nobody expects the pandemic to "make a difference" in the US' attitude towards public education - what a nonsensical way to put it. What is shocking is the depth of the disregard for this communal good, not only by leaders but by the teachers themselves and by a good part of the parents and the general population, to the point where kids are being deprived of access to proper schooling for over a year.

And while the death toll of the pandemic is indeed tragic, it is not comparable to WWII, which killed mostly young, healthy people in the prime of their lives, while nearly half of US Covid deaths happened in nursing homes. Those deaths absolutely matter as well, but the life years lost are not nearly the same. The fact that this comparison keeps getting brought up unqualified, and questioning it is pretty much taboo (just watch me getting flamed for saying it), is just more evidence that we are a gerontocratic society that has no concept of valuing kids and their quality of life.

You go, PP. Couldn't agree more.

This!!

I’ve been thinking about who has sacrificed the most during this pandemic, outside of those who have contracted covid and their families. It’s kids. Kids have given a year of normal childhood and education, given up their mental health and generally sacrificed for adults. It’s time we stop overlooking kids for our own sake. I’m not saying throw caution to the wind, but let’s see some balance.

+10000

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP. Teaching kids perspective is crucial in understanding why schools are closed. It is just one small sacrifice our kids can do to protect everyone else. It won't be forever. I guess it's a bit like the marshmallow test, patience.

I agree it is important to teach kids perspective, but to say that being kept out of school and away from their peers for over a year is a SMALL sacrifice is irresponsibly and cluelessly minimizing the issue and disrespectful to kids.

This. It's a large sacrifice, and one the children didn't get to make nor would have chosen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh there is already so much education research on interrupted schooling in the US. A lot of this was based on responses to Hurricane Katrina, were a huge number of children faced significant interruptions to their education, including missing school entirely or regularly. COVID-19 educational researchers are using this as a starting place to evaluate what is happening to our children right now.

These children are much worse off today. Louisiana has a high rate of young people who are unemployed directly as a result of this event. It was only about 20% of students (almost certainly the most vulnerable) who were not enrolled or not attending regularly, but when they went back to schools in NO, it was chaos.

Kids were placed in the correct grade for their age, no matter enrollment status. Some students were of course vastly far ahead of their classmates. These gaps were mostly based on household income. This caused chaos in the classroom. A decade later, children were still behind in schooling, because you can't systematically make up these gaps.

Current education research tells us that DL is an extremely poor substitute for in-person education, and researchers consider this to be a variant of interrupted education. Every education researcher worth their salt agrees that this is traumatic and bad for children.

And yet, here we are, arguing that this situation is fine or a little inconvenient, despite the fact that we have mountains of evidence suggesting that a generation of kids will be permanently negatively affected by this last year.

As someone who is familiar with the research (and becoming more so), I feel like Cassandra trying to explain to you guys what we will be seeing in the next few years.

Well said. I'm so sick of the WTU lies to try to get what they want at the expense of the children and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh there is already so much education research on interrupted schooling in the US. A lot of this was based on responses to Hurricane Katrina, were a huge number of children faced significant interruptions to their education, including missing school entirely or regularly. COVID-19 educational researchers are using this as a starting place to evaluate what is happening to our children right now.

These children are much worse off today. Louisiana has a high rate of young people who are unemployed directly as a result of this event. It was only about 20% of students (almost certainly the most vulnerable) who were not enrolled or not attending regularly, but when they went back to schools in NO, it was chaos.

Kids were placed in the correct grade for their age, no matter enrollment status. Some students were of course vastly far ahead of their classmates. These gaps were mostly based on household income. This caused chaos in the classroom. A decade later, children were still behind in schooling, because you can't systematically make up these gaps.

Current education research tells us that DL is an extremely poor substitute for in-person education, and researchers consider this to be a variant of interrupted education. Every education researcher worth their salt agrees that this is traumatic and bad for children.

And yet, here we are, arguing that this situation is fine or a little inconvenient, despite the fact that we have mountains of evidence suggesting that a generation of kids will be permanently negatively affected by this last year.

As someone who is familiar with the research (and becoming more so), I feel like Cassandra trying to explain to you guys what we will be seeing in the next few years.

I also want to note that yes, there are exceptional teachers, like the one earlier in this thread, who can make up more than a year's worth of education for some children. There are also exceptional children.

We just don't make broad educational policies based on exceptions.

You're a fool if you believe that teacher is really as amazing as she says and can squeeze 2.5 years worth of learning into 1. Like her WTU peers, she's just making up stuff to try to keep schools closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh there is already so much education research on interrupted schooling in the US. A lot of this was based on responses to Hurricane Katrina, were a huge number of children faced significant interruptions to their education, including missing school entirely or regularly. COVID-19 educational researchers are using this as a starting place to evaluate what is happening to our children right now.

These children are much worse off today. Louisiana has a high rate of young people who are unemployed directly as a result of this event. It was only about 20% of students (almost certainly the most vulnerable) who were not enrolled or not attending regularly, but when they went back to schools in NO, it was chaos.

Kids were placed in the correct grade for their age, no matter enrollment status. Some students were of course vastly far ahead of their classmates. These gaps were mostly based on household income. This caused chaos in the classroom. A decade later, children were still behind in schooling, because you can't systematically make up these gaps.

Current education research tells us that DL is an extremely poor substitute for in-person education, and researchers consider this to be a variant of interrupted education. Every education researcher worth their salt agrees that this is traumatic and bad for children.

And yet, here we are, arguing that this situation is fine or a little inconvenient, despite the fact that we have mountains of evidence suggesting that a generation of kids will be permanently negatively affected by this last year.

As someone who is familiar with the research (and becoming more so), I feel like Cassandra trying to explain to you guys what we will be seeing in the next few years.

I also want to note that yes, there are exceptional teachers, like the one earlier in this thread, who can make up more than a year's worth of education for some children. There are also exceptional children.

We just don't make broad educational policies based on exceptions.

You're a fool if you believe that teacher is really as amazing as she says and can squeeze 2.5 years worth of learning into 1. Like her WTU peers, she's just making up stuff to try to keep schools closed.

This is actually one of the requirements to being highly effective.

[Anonymous]

I wish that before re-opening the Mayor would order another 2-week lockdown, she did in the spring. Is anyone else worried that with all schools re-opening Feb 1st this virus will shoot up in DC? Even teachers who have been vaccinated will not have had their round 2 yet, and there will be lots more kids to manage in a distance way all at once, many of whom it will be the first time practicing mask wearing etc. I am just worried we will go from bad to worse in DC, with just 5% of the population vaccinated--we are a LONG way from 'herd immunity'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish that before re-opening the Mayor would order another 2-week lockdown, she did in the spring. Is anyone else worried that with all schools re-opening Feb 1st this virus will shoot up in DC? Even teachers who have been vaccinated will not have had their round 2 yet, and there will be lots more kids to manage in a distance way all at once, many of whom it will be the first time practicing mask wearing etc. I am just worried we will go from bad to worse in DC, with just 5% of the population vaccinated--we are a LONG way from 'herd immunity'.

No, I am not, because I have looked at the data and studies they have done of spread in schools, and I am confident that schools are not significant drivers of community spread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish that before re-opening the Mayor would order another 2-week lockdown, she did in the spring. Is anyone else worried that with all schools re-opening Feb 1st this virus will shoot up in DC? Even teachers who have been vaccinated will not have had their round 2 yet, and there will be lots more kids to manage in a distance way all at once, many of whom it will be the first time practicing mask wearing etc. I am just worried we will go from bad to worse in DC, with just 5% of the population vaccinated--we are a LONG way from 'herd immunity'.

No, I am not, because I have looked at the data and studies they have done of spread in schools, and I am confident that schools are not significant drivers of community spread.

I have not seen any done on this scale, by a system as generally messed up as DCPS. So sue me that I have way more confidence in, IDK, Germany. I am a former teacher for DCPS (not recent), but what I saw in terms of management, hygiene, yikes. It doesn't appear that DCPS did much maintenance during this hiatus... why would you trust them? NY has been opening and closing schools like whack-a-mole. Not sure there is a case that our large, horribly managed public school systems CAN handle a wide spread reopening well. On top of the surge and the new COVID variants that are hyper-contagious, are we not just asking for trouble here?

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP. I don't see why the start date can't be pushed back to March 1. I feel for teachers who are coming back, but can't get both shots of the vaccine and later on contract the virus. Sounds like a law suit waiting to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish that before re-opening the Mayor would order another 2-week lockdown, she did in the spring. Is anyone else worried that with all schools re-opening Feb 1st this virus will shoot up in DC? Even teachers who have been vaccinated will not have had their round 2 yet, and there will be lots more kids to manage in a distance way all at once, many of whom it will be the first time practicing mask wearing etc. I am just worried we will go from bad to worse in DC, with just 5% of the population vaccinated--we are a LONG way from 'herd immunity'.

No, I am not, because I have looked at the data and studies they have done of spread in schools, and I am confident that schools are not significant drivers of community spread.

I have not seen any done on this scale, by a system as generally messed up as DCPS. So sue me that I have way more confidence in, IDK, Germany. I am a former teacher for DCPS (not recent), but what I saw in terms of management, hygiene, yikes. It doesn't appear that DCPS did much maintenance during this hiatus... why would you trust them? NY has been opening and closing schools like whack-a-mole. Not sure there is a case that our large, horribly managed public school systems CAN handle a wide spread reopening well. On top of the surge and the new COVID variants that are hyper-contagious, are we not just asking for trouble here?

Germany hasn't done any of the "maintenance" in schools that is being demanded here, at least not at a large scale. Their schools were open at full capacity with just hand washing and opening windows. They didn't even require in-class masking in the fall. They are still open at least hybrid in many places now during the lockdown (now with masks at all times). They did have cases in schools, of course (especially high schools, which are now remote in January), but nobody thinks in-school transmission was a major driver of the spread overall, which is believed to happen mostly at private gatherings. They didn't shut down entire schools, but quarantined exposed cohorts.

So yeah, I'm confident that DCPS could do what they did in Germany, and probably also other European countries. We just don't because we don't want to accept any amount of risk for the sake of kids being in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh there is already so much education research on interrupted schooling in the US. A lot of this was based on responses to Hurricane Katrina, were a huge number of children faced significant interruptions to their education, including missing school entirely or regularly. COVID-19 educational researchers are using this as a starting place to evaluate what is happening to our children right now.

These children are much worse off today. Louisiana has a high rate of young people who are unemployed directly as a result of this event. It was only about 20% of students (almost certainly the most vulnerable) who were not enrolled or not attending regularly, but when they went back to schools in NO, it was chaos.

Kids were placed in the correct grade for their age, no matter enrollment status. Some students were of course vastly far ahead of their classmates. These gaps were mostly based on household income. This caused chaos in the classroom. A decade later, children were still behind in schooling, because you can't systematically make up these gaps.

Current education research tells us that DL is an extremely poor substitute for in-person education, and researchers consider this to be a variant of interrupted education. Every education researcher worth their salt agrees that this is traumatic and bad for children.

And yet, here we are, arguing that this situation is fine or a little inconvenient, despite the fact that we have mountains of evidence suggesting that a generation of kids will be permanently negatively affected by this last year.

As someone who is familiar with the research (and becoming more so), I feel like Cassandra trying to explain to you guys what we will be seeing in the next few years.

I also want to note that yes, there are exceptional teachers, like the one earlier in this thread, who can make up more than a year's worth of education for some children. There are also exceptional children.

We just don't make broad educational policies based on exceptions.

You're a fool if you believe that teacher is really as amazing as she says and can squeeze 2.5 years worth of learning into 1. Like her WTU peers, she's just making up stuff to try to keep schools closed.

This is why your child’s Fall reading assessment always shows a lot of ‘regression.’

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish that before re-opening the Mayor would order another 2-week lockdown, she did in the spring. Is anyone else worried that with all schools re-opening Feb 1st this virus will shoot up in DC? Even teachers who have been vaccinated will not have had their round 2 yet, and there will be lots more kids to manage in a distance way all at once, many of whom it will be the first time practicing mask wearing etc. I am just worried we will go from bad to worse in DC, with just 5% of the population vaccinated--we are a LONG way from 'herd immunity'.

No, I am not, because I have looked at the data and studies they have done of spread in schools, and I am confident that schools are not significant drivers of community spread.

I have not seen any done on this scale, by a system as generally messed up as DCPS. So sue me that I have way more confidence in, IDK, Germany. I am a former teacher for DCPS (not recent), but what I saw in terms of management, hygiene, yikes. It doesn't appear that DCPS did much maintenance during this hiatus... why would you trust them? NY has been opening and closing schools like whack-a-mole. Not sure there is a case that our large, horribly managed public school systems CAN handle a wide spread reopening well. On top of the surge and the new COVID variants that are hyper-contagious, are we not just asking for trouble here?

Germany hasn't done any of the "maintenance" in schools that is being demanded here, at least not at a large scale. Their schools were open at full capacity with just hand washing and opening windows. They didn't even require in-class masking in the fall. They are still open at least hybrid in many places now during the lockdown (now with masks at all times). They did have cases in schools, of course (especially high schools, which are now remote in January), but nobody thinks in-school transmission was a major driver of the spread overall, which is believed to happen mostly at private gatherings. They didn't shut down entire schools, but quarantined exposed cohorts.

So yeah, I'm confident that DCPS could do what they did in Germany, and probably also other European countries. We just don't because we don't want to accept any amount of risk for the sake of kids being in school.[/quote

They weren't testing in Germany or other European countries. And now they are thinking it is the cause of the rise of numbers.

[Anonymous]

We’ve switched to private for this year, so if our schools in DC doesn’t open 5 days/week, we’ll just stay there, and stay in DC, since it’s a nice short commute to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The US ha ever valued public education or public school teachers. Not surprising that a once-in-a-100-year pandemic that's killed 400,000 people in this country makes no difference. You know in a month, more people will have died from COVID-19 than in WWII. Just putting it in perspective how devastating this has been.

Of course nobody expects the pandemic to "make a difference" in the US' attitude towards public education - what a nonsensical way to put it. What is shocking is the depth of the disregard for this communal good, not only by leaders but by the teachers themselves and by a good part of the parents and the general population, to the point where kids are being deprived of access to proper schooling for over a year.

And while the death toll of the pandemic is indeed tragic, it is not comparable to WWII, which killed mostly young, healthy people in the prime of their lives, while nearly half of US Covid deaths happened in nursing homes. Those deaths absolutely matter as well, but the life years lost are not nearly the same. The fact that this comparison keeps getting brought up unqualified, and questioning it is pretty much taboo (just watch me getting flamed for saying it), is just more evidence that we are a gerontocratic society that has no concept of valuing kids and their quality of life.

You go, PP. Couldn't agree more.

This!!

I’ve been thinking about who has sacrificed the most during this pandemic, outside of those who have contracted covid and their families. It’s kids. Kids have given a year of normal childhood and education, given up their mental health and generally sacrificed for adults. It’s time we stop overlooking kids for our own sake. I’m not saying throw caution to the wind, but let’s see some balance.

+10000

+1

I have mixed feelings about the point being made here. I have kept my young kids in virtual school for the year for THEIR long term health, not mine. I actually have to work in person, I cannot telework. The issue I have is there is this weird denial about long term physical health issues from covid and what that means for kids. Latest studies are showing lung damage even for ASYMPTOMATIC persons is worse then the damage seen in lifelong smokers. Young college athletes are having significant heart issues that may/may not ever improve - we just don't know yet. Given the severity of the virus that we knew of from Italy/China experience last year, I felt it was pretty logical there would be long term damage and didnt want my kids to carry that cross if I could help it. I think this last year of closure has given us a safe path forward (masks, distancing) so kids can get back to school. It will never be zero risk, but I feel like one year out was the smart move and we learned a LOT about this disease in that time so if our family gets it we will be better served by our healthcare providers in combating it.