Virtual Academy students lagging behind in person

[Anonymous]

So are they just not offering kindergarten for virtual academy or just nobody enrolled? It seems like enrollment is trending downward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So are they just not offering kindergarten for virtual academy or just nobody enrolled? It seems like enrollment is trending downward

It doesn't just seem like it. It is. Sharply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Literally every time we have a conversation on this board about virtual academy. People have to brag about how they are hard-working parent and not a lazy parent and that's why their kid is doing well in virtual school. It's funny how they always make it about themselves and never about what's best for their children. I notice the same thing about homeschooling parents. It's such an ego thing where you have to brag about how you're a superior parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

How dare those parents work to feed their families! Who needs housing anyway?

And yet we all seem to manage caring for our kids unlike you.

Congratulations on being a single income family or having complete schedule autonomy in your job so you can work around your kids educational schedule. You do realize you were in the complete statistical minority in United States

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher. I have students who are rarely in school. Some have attended less than 8 days this semester. Instead they stay at home and do any MyMCPS assignments there. When they come in, they basically just do the in person work like exams and such. They have basically designed their own hybrid system thanks to technology and lax school policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

No, the problem is that it is completely developmentally inappropriate for young children to be staring at a screen like that all day long. Don't take my word for it, ask a developmental pediatrician. That's awesome that it worked for your kids (really! I am happy for you!) but that you would blame others experience on lazy parents is unbelievable.

A developmental pediatrician is already focusing on kids with significant challenges. Of course they are going to have a patients who struggle in virtual. However, those kids struggle in person as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher. I have students who are rarely in school. Some have attended less than 8 days this semester. Instead they stay at home and do any MyMCPS assignments there. When they come in, they basically just do the in person work like exams and such. They have basically designed their own hybrid system thanks to technology and lax school policies.

How are they performing?
That looks like a great system -- lower load on teachers, less wasted time for kid. The only "problem" is that it reduces budget for the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Literally every time we have a conversation on this board about virtual academy. People have to brag about how they are hard-working parent and not a lazy parent and that's why their kid is doing well in virtual school. It's funny how they always make it about themselves and never about what's best for their children. I notice the same thing about homeschooling parents. It's such an ego thing where you have to brag about how you're a superior parent.

Education is best for the children. It's shocking that you need this spelled out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Literally every time we have a conversation on this board about virtual academy. People have to brag about how they are hard-working parent and not a lazy parent and that's why their kid is doing well in virtual school. It's funny how they always make it about themselves and never about what's best for their children. I notice the same thing about homeschooling parents. It's such an ego thing where you have to brag about how you're a superior parent.

Yes, they do because there's a lot of truth to what they're saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the in-person only crowd absolutely refuses to see how virtual can benefit some students. Not all students (aka their students), but guess what? In person doesn’t work for all students either. In-person only crowd only considers their children’s needs, so they bash anyone who thinks differently. It’s juvenile and immature, but they want to continue to be selfish. If they spent a second in classrooms across the US right now, they’d see the complete disaster current classroom conditions are. They’d still refuse to listen to any alternatives though because they are stuck on an ideal from when they were kids. The world is changing….. not all students learn in the same environments…time to grow up.

Virtual is simply on balance an inferior form of education even for those kids who can technically get by. Public school districts have zero obligation to offer a learning model that is expensive and has poor results. It only makes sense for kids who actually cannot go to school.

Thanks for your opinion. However, not all kids are happy or want to go to in person. Sometimes the family over personal situation doesn't allow it. Some kids do better virtual. Why do you care if its offered?

I think we should all care if a specific methodology is producing worse outcomes than the traditional model. We live in a society, and in a society we should care whether young people are receiving an appropriate education. The data shows that the most vulnerable learners (EML and/or FARMS) are doing much worse in the VA model, but also that kids who belong to groups that statistically do very well also lag behind their peers.

If we look at the VA model like a pilot, we can see that it is underperforming. Now, MCPS can make some choices here. They can tweak the model in hopes of producing a better VA outcome or they can decide that this particular experiment is not working.

Also, if you are the parent of a typically developing kid who is thriving in VA, and you had your child sit out the standard MAP testing that would have shown whether they are meeting their grade-level targets, you are part of the problem. This was never a permanent institution, and everyone needed to take it seriously and try to demonstrate that it was working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the in-person only crowd absolutely refuses to see how virtual can benefit some students. Not all students (aka their students), but guess what? In person doesn’t work for all students either. In-person only crowd only considers their children’s needs, so they bash anyone who thinks differently. It’s juvenile and immature, but they want to continue to be selfish. If they spent a second in classrooms across the US right now, they’d see the complete disaster current classroom conditions are. They’d still refuse to listen to any alternatives though because they are stuck on an ideal from when they were kids. The world is changing….. not all students learn in the same environments…time to grow up.

Virtual is simply on balance an inferior form of education even for those kids who can technically get by. Public school districts have zero obligation to offer a learning model that is expensive and has poor results. It only makes sense for kids who actually cannot go to school.

It's only inferior when lazy parents fail to monitor or supervise young children; otherwise, it's amazing.

So if public school isn't working for your family and VA phases out, pony up and pay for an online program, just like many do for private. There are many options out there and I don't know why you think taxpayers should continue to subsidize your preferred schooling method.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the in-person only crowd absolutely refuses to see how virtual can benefit some students. Not all students (aka their students), but guess what? In person doesn’t work for all students either. In-person only crowd only considers their children’s needs, so they bash anyone who thinks differently. It’s juvenile and immature, but they want to continue to be selfish. If they spent a second in classrooms across the US right now, they’d see the complete disaster current classroom conditions are. They’d still refuse to listen to any alternatives though because they are stuck on an ideal from when they were kids. The world is changing….. not all students learn in the same environments…time to grow up.

Virtual is simply on balance an inferior form of education even for those kids who can technically get by. Public school districts have zero obligation to offer a learning model that is expensive and has poor results. It only makes sense for kids who actually cannot go to school.

It's only inferior when lazy parents fail to monitor or supervise young children; otherwise, it's amazing.

So if public school isn't working for your family and VA phases out, pony up and pay for an online program, just like many do for private. There are many options out there and I don't know why you think taxpayers should continue to subsidize your preferred schooling method.

I don't know why you think taxpayers should continue to subsidize your preferred schooling method. I prefer my kids to be in virtual school but I don’t start complaining about more money going to in person. Also the VA is probably benefiting your kids. There is one less kid a counselor has to mange. One less essay a teacher has to grade. One less email a teacher has to send wondering why a kid is not showing up to class. There are many services that you don’t use but they benefit you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the in-person only crowd absolutely refuses to see how virtual can benefit some students. Not all students (aka their students), but guess what? In person doesn’t work for all students either. In-person only crowd only considers their children’s needs, so they bash anyone who thinks differently. It’s juvenile and immature, but they want to continue to be selfish. If they spent a second in classrooms across the US right now, they’d see the complete disaster current classroom conditions are. They’d still refuse to listen to any alternatives though because they are stuck on an ideal from when they were kids. The world is changing….. not all students learn in the same environments…time to grow up.

Virtual is simply on balance an inferior form of education even for those kids who can technically get by. Public school districts have zero obligation to offer a learning model that is expensive and has poor results. It only makes sense for kids who actually cannot go to school.

It's only inferior when lazy parents fail to monitor or supervise young children; otherwise, it's amazing.

So if public school isn't working for your family and VA phases out, pony up and pay for an online program, just like many do for private. There are many options out there and I don't know why you think taxpayers should continue to subsidize your preferred schooling method.

I don't know why you think taxpayers should continue to subsidize your preferred schooling method. I prefer my kids to be in virtual school but I don’t start complaining about more money going to in person. Also the VA is probably benefiting your kids. There is one less kid a counselor has to mange. One less essay a teacher has to grade. One less email a teacher has to send wondering why a kid is not showing up to class. There are many services that you don’t use but they benefit you.

Interesting take- we know a family that was in virtual until this year and they said the class sizes in VA were pretty small- so a higher staff to kid ratio than their homeschool. Is that your experience as well? Might be too expensive for MCPS to run long-term with a drop in demand.

FWIW, in person public school is the defacto model in the US. As others have suggested, those who wish for something else are free to pay for it. Or you could move to another state that does offer virtual. It’s not like MCPS is the end all be all. You have choices, use them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the in-person only crowd absolutely refuses to see how virtual can benefit some students. Not all students (aka their students), but guess what? In person doesn’t work for all students either. In-person only crowd only considers their children’s needs, so they bash anyone who thinks differently. It’s juvenile and immature, but they want to continue to be selfish. If they spent a second in classrooms across the US right now, they’d see the complete disaster current classroom conditions are. They’d still refuse to listen to any alternatives though because they are stuck on an ideal from when they were kids. The world is changing….. not all students learn in the same environments…time to grow up.

Virtual is simply on balance an inferior form of education even for those kids who can technically get by. Public school districts have zero obligation to offer a learning model that is expensive and has poor results. It only makes sense for kids who actually cannot go to school.

It's only inferior when lazy parents fail to monitor or supervise young children; otherwise, it's amazing.

MCPS isn't even offering it for K-1 next year, so maybe it's not so "amazing" for young children after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So are they just not offering kindergarten for virtual academy or just nobody enrolled? It seems like enrollment is trending downward

State is not allowing K virtually.