From npr; 1/4th of students never logging on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yep, I know a family that moved during covid and couldn't get their acts together to enroll their kid in school until October--they didn't have the right proof of residency, couldn't fill out forms, don't have a printer, etc. And then they didn't have internet and since they owed comcast money from their old place they didn't qualify for low cost. And then when the school helped them with a hotspot and a laptop the mom still can't get herself up in the morning to help the kid log in, let alone any actual help with the subject matter. Poverty, mental illness, learning disabilities, and a lot more going on...and I think there are kids in a lot worse situations than this. Schools are going to have to do a lot of remediation.

All of this.

I work with a high SES population and can report that childcare and mental health are a huge barrier to getting kids online and keeping them there. I see parents working full time who have left their ADHD elementary school-aged children to log on by themselves. Those kids never arrive on time, and sometimes they don’t show up at all. It’s the equivalent of walking into a child’s bedroom at 6:30 a.m., saying “Don’t miss the bus,” and then deciding that’s all you need to do to get your kid to school on time. I also see a lot of kids who are “present” online but not mentally present. They turn off their cameras to game, they take three breaks per class period, and/or they wander off for ten minutes at a time. No teacher can reach through the screen and bring them back. If even 10 percent of the students do this each class period, a teacher has a dozen follow-up communications that should be made to families before the end of the day. Unfortunately a lot of those families ignore communication from school (if they haven’t outright blocked school email addresses and phone numbers).

The bus analogy is perfect. And it’s really hard for even stay at home parents to keep track of what the kids are supposed to be doing. Several times I saw my son goofing off and I accused him of skipping class, but no, he really did have a break. How am I supposed to know unless I listen to everything the teacher says?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not surprised! I’m a stay at home mom with a high HHI and I thought I was supervising my third grader but then I got an email saying that he hadn’t logged in to his afternoon math class for a whole damn week.

A lot of it was his straight-up lying about what they were doing, but a big part was he didn’t know where to go or when. He didn’t understand how to find the links for all the different rooms he was supposed to be in and he tried to set timers and reminders but sometimes the sound was off. This stuff is hard for little kids and I think the teachers expect too much or them in terms of keeping track of time and knowing how to navigate canvas to find the next class or small group.

Now he is doing great because I am with him all the time and listening to when asynchronous time ends and he doesn’t use his headphones anymore. If I had to work I’m pretty sure he would just repeat 3rd grade. I get why we are doing it but there’s no question it’s a disaster.

lol same thing here! once we set alarms and the teachers (finally) sent a unified daily schedule of links, it worked much better. but still a disaster - he logs in but does maybe 25% of the work.

Okay that makes me feel so much better!

[Anonymous]

Here's what I did to help --

I set alarms on my son's iPad to go off three minutes before each class. I also set up the autofill for every password on the computer websites, and bookmarked the sites. When all else fails, it's on a white board. My ADHD kid is in early middle school, and sometimes I have to go into the office, so on those days there's a bit of crossing fingers. He's only missed logging into four classes all year (one homeroom and three gym - it's after lunch and sometimes he dozes off), so I'm counting that as a win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Low cost is $10 for comcast and $20 verizon. That said, previous PP is being obtuse. Even with internet and laptop there's a lot more that goes into DL. Mainly, a supportive parent who is able to assist with computers, in English.

And for a lot of families on the south side of Chicago, even that is too expensive.

Yep. If you can’t afford food, the Internet is the least of your worries.

They used up all their bandwidth playing Call of Duty.

[Anonymous]

MCPS / Teachers Union bagmen (virtually all of DCUM) will give you a million reasons why it's not a problem that 1/4 of kids aren't being educated.

The district did all it could! Do you know what a hot spot is? If those kids are not logging in, screw 'em. Your whining about the importance of education shows how stupid you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS / Teachers Union bagmen (virtually all of DCUM) will give you a million reasons why it's not a problem that 1/4 of kids aren't being educated.

The district did all it could! Do you know what a hot spot is? If those kids are not logging in, screw 'em. Your whining about the importance of education shows how stupid you are.

+1

DCUM logic: Who cares if a generation of kids falls behind. DCUM kids won't.

It's disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Don’t think the DCUM area is the only area with this problem. The Pittsburgh city schools has similar stats. To add to the problem, they want to raise school taxes. This is very sad.

[Anonymous]

Distance learning sucks and is not appropriate for large swaths of school aged children. But if you make the argument that we’re failing economically vulnerable kids by pointing out facts, you’re met with, “Why didn’t you care about poor people before? You’re just using poor people as pawns to get your kids into school. Why do you want teachers to die? You had the kids, you need to provide childcare. School is not childcare.”

It’s maddening and it’s gross that people use these kinds of arguments to justify what they’re doing to a generation of children. Kids need to be in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, at least 25% of kids never study, never do their homework, never tried to keep up with school even in-person school. This is no surprise.

But this doesn't fit the Open The Buildings Now agenda...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, at least 25% of kids never study, never do their homework, never tried to keep up with school even in-person school. This is no surprise.

Teacher here. Lots of kids never do any work even during normal times. Distance learning is just making it more transparent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our district gives out hotspots. The library does too. If you can’t log on at all ever with your free device and hotspot....

Look, if the SAHM upthread who presumably has the time and ability to help her kid thought it was teachers'/school's job to do it, then what do we expect from busy WOTH families many of whom also don't know/understand the school system well.

"But kids don't have enough internet."
"Kids in our district have hotspots."
"Did I say internet? Hold on. Let me think of the next excuse."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, at least 25% of kids never study, never do their homework, never tried to keep up with school even in-person school. This is no surprise.

But this doesn't fit the Open The Buildings Now agenda...

Not studying is not in the same universe as not showing up to school. There are kids who have gone totally missing in the DL model.

[Anonymous]

My kids are in person. I pay for private and I pay taxes for PS. I think it is shameful that the area PS could not get kids in school for a few months. I feel terrible that kid’s are caught in this mess without the support they need- and for the parents, especially those who need to work or can’t assist DC for a myriad of reasons. I already wrote to our SB and our local officials. My DC wrote also about how important it was for young kids to be in school. It falls on deaf ears, and unfortunately right now it is hard to argue schools should open.

Please tell me, what else we can do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:in Montgomery County they were also given hot spots.

So, a parent or caregiver should be rushing to a hot spot, despite they may have other children and a job of their own?

Not everyone has a car. Or the ability to leave their house for hours at a time to assist their child in learning at a remote location.

While yes, school isn’t childcare, the reality is for many families, It is.

LOL. You don't "rush to" a hot spot. You use it in your own home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our district gives out hotspots. The library does too. If you can’t log on at all ever with your free device and hotspot....

Look, if the SAHM upthread who presumably has the time and ability to help her kid thought it was teachers'/school's job to do it, then what do we expect from busy WOTH families many of whom also don't know/understand the school system well.

"But kids don't have enough internet."
"Kids in our district have hotspots."
"Did I say internet? Hold on. Let me think of the next excuse."

You really need to bend your brain around the idea to come to the conclusion that distance learning is disproportionately harder on poor families?

Public school failed you, I see.