Data indicate worsening early literacy progress and widening achievement gap among District students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we have vouchers now? So I can afford private school? And my kids can actually learn something?

Private schools are also in DL and their parents are making the same complaints -- also not enough room for everyone anyway. Vouchers don't solve larger societal problems, they just make for profit education corporation owners rich.

I'm not aware of any private school in DC that doesn't have at least some in-person instruction.

I don't like vouchers, but I like my children not getting an education A LOT less. If public school teachers are going to be completely unreasonable, and effectively ban children from getting an education, parents should be able to go elsewhere.

I agree. With a voucher can I pay tutors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In person school also creates inequitable outcomes for blacks and hispanics.

Yes, so let's do something worse!

This is wrong. There is a large body of research on something called the summer setback or summer slide. That research shows:

1. The achievement gap exists prior to K.
2. The achievement gap narrows during the school year and widens during the summer.
3. The widening is partially explained by differentials in parental ability, willingness, etc. to provide stimulating summer enrichment activities.

So it is no surprise that DL results in a setback for certain groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work as a nurse case manager at one of the DC Medicaid MCO health plans.
I call and see (in person via home visits) Medicaid members (i.e. their parents) all day and connect them with healthcare providers, resources etc.

People, this is a crisis situation for the poor kids in our city.

There are thousands of kids who are not getting any education. They are logging in maybe once every 2 weeks. If that. Many have never logged in once. Their last
instruction was in March 2019.

The thing is, no one really cares. The kids are poor and most are black and no one cares. Their teachers say they do, but they don't.
The mayor says she does but ultimately she doesn't. The upper NW white people (I am one) say they do but they certainly don't really care.

This is a massive tragedy.

It should keep everyone up at night. Thanks for your work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you really care about this or is this a socially acceptable way to get your kids back in school?

The fact remains that minorities have been disproportionately impacted By Covid. Even if schools opened up tomorrow, they wouldn’t send their kids! So stop it.

Mayor Bowser very much wants to reopen schools. It's my understanding that Mayor Bowser is African-American.

Stop assuming that every person who is concerned about the impacts of DL on low income families is a Trumper who never before cared about social inequality. It's getting really tiresome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In person school also creates inequitable outcomes for blacks and hispanics.

Yes, so let's do something worse!

This is wrong. There is a large body of research on something called the summer setback or summer slide. That research shows:

1. The achievement gap exists prior to K.
2. The achievement gap narrows during the school year and widens during the summer.
3. The widening is partially explained by differentials in parental ability, willingness, etc. to provide stimulating summer enrichment activities.

So it is no surprise that DL results in a setback for certain groups.

They are comparing scores at the same time of last year to this year. So the summer slide would be accounted for (eg, last year's scores had the summer slide as well as this year's.)

Also, yes, DL does indeed appear to hurt certain groups more than others, if that's what you were trying to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In person school also creates inequitable outcomes for blacks and hispanics.

Yes, so let's do something worse!

This is wrong. There is a large body of research on something called the summer setback or summer slide. That research shows:

1. The achievement gap exists prior to K.
2. The achievement gap narrows during the school year and widens during the summer.
3. The widening is partially explained by differentials in parental ability, willingness, etc. to provide stimulating summer enrichment activities.

So it is no surprise that DL results in a setback for certain groups.

Can't wait to see the research on what happens when teachers ban poor black and brown children from going to school for a year, even as rich white children get to attend private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work as a nurse case manager at one of the DC Medicaid MCO health plans.
I call and see (in person via home visits) Medicaid members (i.e. their parents) all day and connect them with healthcare providers, resources etc.

People, this is a crisis situation for the poor kids in our city.

There are thousands of kids who are not getting any education. They are logging in maybe once every 2 weeks. If that. Many have never logged in once. Their last
instruction was in March 2019.

The thing is, no one really cares. The kids are poor and most are black and no one cares. Their teachers say they do, but they don't.
The mayor says she does but ultimately she doesn't. The upper NW white people (I am one) say they do but they certainly don't really care.

This is a massive tragedy.

+1000

I am a white parent and I am not worried about my child's literacy. I am unsure if I would send her to in-person school -- we have the resources to not have to if we don't feel it is safe. So no, this isn't about my kid, it's not about childcare, and I'm not using disadvantaged kids to push my personal agenda.

I also spent a decade tutoring DCPS students in reading before having my child. I am extremely worried about what is going to happen to literacy rates for poor black students in this city. We already were not serving these students. We already were not serving their families in ways that would help these kids get an education. And now we have abandoned them.

If we were serious, really serious, about helping these children, we would not be having endless arguments over in-person schools. We would go into these communities and ask families "What do you need to get your child to school?" We would prioritize in person school for these kids and we would find a way to make it happen safely, whatever it took. Outdoor classes in tents set up on fields. Classes in schools where the windows open. Half days, alternate days, everything on the table. We would work with the charters, with private schools, with every education outlet in this city and say "We have to help these members of our community with this essential need. What can you contribute?"

The city has pulled together to feed hungry people, to get money to laid of restaurant staff, to help local businesses and to protect tenants. Well let's do that for the thousands of 4, 5, and 6 year olds who are being robbed of one of the most essential skills needed to function in society. Let's make sure these kids learn to read, that they have access to teachers and books and a safe place to do it.

If we don't, many of these kids will never make it back. And it will be our fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In person school also creates inequitable outcomes for blacks and hispanics.

There are DEGREES man. Yeah, it's definitely not perfect, but online school is even more inequitable. This is the worst argument I have heard against in person school. Literally the worst. Congratulations!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In person school also creates inequitable outcomes for blacks and hispanics.

There are DEGREES man. Yeah, it's definitely not perfect, but online school is even more inequitable. This is the worst argument I have heard against in person school. Literally the worst. Congratulations!

i think some teachers are in denial about how badly they are hurting children, and how much they are contributing to inequality. i dont know how else to explain their increasingly bizarre rationalizations for distance learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work as a nurse case manager at one of the DC Medicaid MCO health plans.
I call and see (in person via home visits) Medicaid members (i.e. their parents) all day and connect them with healthcare providers, resources etc.

People, this is a crisis situation for the poor kids in our city.

There are thousands of kids who are not getting any education. They are logging in maybe once every 2 weeks. If that. Many have never logged in once. Their last
instruction was in March 2019.

The thing is, no one really cares. The kids are poor and most are black and no one cares. Their teachers say they do, but they don't.
The mayor says she does but ultimately she doesn't. The upper NW white people (I am one) say they do but they certainly don't really care.

This is a massive tragedy.

+1000

I am a white parent and I am not worried about my child's literacy. I am unsure if I would send her to in-person school -- we have the resources to not have to if we don't feel it is safe. So no, this isn't about my kid, it's not about childcare, and I'm not using disadvantaged kids to push my personal agenda.

I also spent a decade tutoring DCPS students in reading before having my child. I am extremely worried about what is going to happen to literacy rates for poor black students in this city. We already were not serving these students. We already were not serving their families in ways that would help these kids get an education. And now we have abandoned them.

If we were serious, really serious, about helping these children, we would not be having endless arguments over in-person schools. We would go into these communities and ask families "What do you need to get your child to school?" We would prioritize in person school for these kids and we would find a way to make it happen safely, whatever it took. Outdoor classes in tents set up on fields. Classes in schools where the windows open. Half days, alternate days, everything on the table. We would work with the charters, with private schools, with every education outlet in this city and say "We have to help these members of our community with this essential need. What can you contribute?"

The city has pulled together to feed hungry people, to get money to laid of restaurant staff, to help local businesses and to protect tenants. Well let's do that for the thousands of 4, 5, and 6 year olds who are being robbed of one of the most essential skills needed to function in society. Let's make sure these kids learn to read, that they have access to teachers and books and a safe place to do it.

If we don't, many of these kids will never make it back. And it will be our fault.

THANK YOU. We would be doing anything we can to get those kids back in school, especially the younger ones who are missing crucial years of literacy education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:closing schools is disproportionately hurting minority students, per the Post story:

"At the beginning of the current academic year, the number of Black children who met the literacy benchmarks dropped by 14 percentage points, to 31 percent. For White students, it dropped 6 percentage points, to 67 percent.

Latino students dropped 12 percentage points, from 42 percent of students passing the exam to 30 percent."

this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you ever tried to give Dibels to a K student online? its completely useless because reading on a screen is developmentally inappropriate. It also activates different areas in the brain that reading on paper does not. it is not a true or fair comparison. I am not saying there isn't a drop, but to compare kids taking an assessment on paper to kids taking an assessment on the computer is ludicrous.

My first grader did not do well on his literacy tests, but is doing very well in online class. He test put him at a level C, but he's actually at a level H, and has been put into a small group to reflect that. So the tests might be showing something like that. Tests over zoom aren't the same as tests in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we have vouchers now? So I can afford private school? And my kids can actually learn something?

Private schools are also in DL and their parents are making the same complaints -- also not enough room for everyone anyway. Vouchers don't solve larger societal problems, they just make for profit education corporation owners rich.

No they are not. I have friends who work in public education. The schools where they work are closed but their kids are going in-person to private school. Think about that. Public school is too unsafe for other people's kids but private school is fine for their own to go to in-person. Ask yourself, how many teachers have you seen out and about? How many have their own kids going somewhere -- whether to childcare or to private school? I'm not faulting the teachers. I assume this is about trust and they simply don't trust DCPS but once DCPS proves it has done the work and has the PPE, it's time for kids to get back to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:closing schools is disproportionately hurting minority students, per the Post story:

"At the beginning of the current academic year, the number of Black children who met the literacy benchmarks dropped by 14 percentage points, to 31 percent. For White students, it dropped 6 percentage points, to 67 percent.

Latino students dropped 12 percentage points, from 42 percent of students passing the exam to 30 percent."

Attention: WTU.

Not that WTU would care

[Anonymous]

There is more to education than the classroom. Think of the trauma students have experienced this year: a global pandemic, murders of Black and Brown people across the country, environmental disasters for those with family in different states or countries, increased crime across the city, death of family members for some, etc. Distance learning is one more drop in the overflowing bucket our children are carrying. You all hate on the “lazy” teachers but their influence is minimal in circumstances like these.

Repeat after me: global pandemic