All schools should offer an all-virtual option

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The same people who are saying that virtual instruction (basically...homeschooling with video chat) worked well for them last year are now saying that homeschooling will not work well for them this year BECAUSE OF THE EXPENSE.

Oh are you going to have to hire a teacher/buy a curriculum and spend money, just like the rest of us had to do last year to get childcare?

Suddenly the expense seems unreasonable to you (even though there are extremely cheap options which require more work)?

I am sorry, this is the most delicious irony, and I am here for it.

I can go through all the deliciously ironic things the OP has argued on this thread. My favorite was that it is "not equitable" for there to NOT be a virtual option at every school. Like she actually tried to suggest she was getting short-changed in the resource department. Because we all know that people who can choose to stay home with their kids full-time are really hurting.

I liked the "not allowing a virtual option at every school will mean we will lose the connection to our neighborhood school." Even though she's literally not at her neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

I really hope she comes and accuses us of being paid shills for the Walton family.

[Anonymous]

Please read the posts by the case manager in DC to truly understand why a virtual academy is not in the best interest of DCPS students. And please remember the district has to make the best decisions given a macro level view of the student population. There will always be kids who thrived in virtual but the overall reality for DCPS students last year was quite stark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please explain what the virtual options are for non medically fragile kids, with friendship full.

Homeschool.

Do you realize that homeschool isn't an option for the majority of people in DC? That's not a minor thing for cost or time commitment to do right.

I get the feeling you're either a set of paid talking points, willfully ignorant, or malicious.

What you seem not to grasp is that for many many parents, last year was essentially home school. But worse because kids just did what schools put out there which was a fraction of what they should have done. If you want a virtual option, it means you have the resources to be home guiding your kids' education.

What you want is something you say existed last year but never did ... high quality at home learning for all that want it from their individual school while everyone who wants to be in person can be for 5 days a week.

I get your displeasure. You aren't getting what you want. I felt it all last year. But, I realized my choice was sit tight or move or find a private that was open. You have to make your choices now because school will be open with masking and, yes, likely periods of quarantine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hope she comes and accuses us of being paid shills for the Walton family.

lol

[Anonymous]

Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

Zero kids in DC have died of COVID, and the virulence hasn't changed. So, 100% recovery.

Fearmongering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

Zero kids in DC have died of COVID, and the virulence hasn't changed. So, 100% recovery.

Fearmongering.

Interesting. Our whole problem last year was being overly optimistic and not planning for a worse scenario then upheaval and chaos when it hit.

I sure hope you're right and it's not a big deal but I'd rather be ready for worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

Zero kids in DC have died of COVID, and the virulence hasn't changed. So, 100% recovery.

Fearmongering.

Interesting. Our whole problem last year was being overly optimistic and not planning for a worse scenario then upheaval and chaos when it hit.

I sure hope you're right and it's not a big deal but I'd rather be ready for worse.

Last year the orange guy was in charge, not scientists or anyone who looked at data or research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

Zero kids in DC have died of COVID, and the virulence hasn't changed. So, 100% recovery.

Fearmongering.

Interesting. Our whole problem last year was being overly optimistic and not planning for a worse scenario then upheaval and chaos when it hit.

I sure hope you're right and it's not a big deal but I'd rather be ready for worse.

Last year the orange guy was in charge, not scientists or anyone who looked at data or research.

At a high level, sure. But Bowser was Mayor, COVID was a little less evolved, and people still did stupid people things. I don't see that as a huge difference to what happens in DCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP but here is a study on learning loss in the pandemic:

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning

Which shows that in-person learning should be an option widely available. It doesn't say that a form of virtual learning should not be available. And we're talking on a public education forum, so if your answer is to go private then I'm not interested.

But requiring a school to devote resources to virtual learning makes it harder for that school to provide in-person learning. It's not a zero-sum game, having teachers teach virtual students means (a) larger class sizes for those in-person, (b) fewer spots in-person for those who want it, or (c) both.

I'll say it again.

I'm not advocating for teachers doing simultaneous in-person and remote. Whoever came up with that idea needs to not work in education.

I'm not advocating for each school to handle it on their own. I get that it would be to disruptive.

I'm advocating for DCPS to figure out something centralized or maybe clustered to allow it to work. The only thing standing in the way of that is planning and bureaucracy. Oh, and people trying to take advantage of the situation to harm public education. Those ghouls can piss off.

I do hear what you are saying and understand that in a perfect world with all parents being engaged in their child’s education DCPS could make an open enrollment virtual academy. I really do. There are realities within the district and the population of students they serve that do not make this a prudent choice for the well being of kids. I’ve written this several times on several threads. Kids fell through the cracks for a year with no adult laying eyes on them. This cannot happen again. Perhaps a more affluent district could pull off an open enrollment virtual school and ensure student learning and wel being. DCPS cannot do that.

Case manager again. This was not my post but it mirrors exactly what I see. I don't think many of you know the degree of household chaos that many DC kids live in. Many of you should take a ride with me someday. You would be amazed and heartbroken. These kids need to be in school. Their parents frankly can't be trusted
to make education decisions for them.

OP doesn't care about the education of poor kids. She just does not want to lose her charter spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

Zero kids in DC have died of COVID, and the virulence hasn't changed. So, 100% recovery.

Fearmongering.

Interesting. Our whole problem last year was being overly optimistic and not planning for a worse scenario then upheaval and chaos when it hit.

I sure hope you're right and it's not a big deal but I'd rather be ready for worse.

What? No that wasn’t the plan last year. DC schools were way more cautious than 99% of the country. We in essence operated in the worst case scenario last year.

Now that we realize what a disaster that was on a variety of metrics, we are seeing we can’t keep doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP but here is a study on learning loss in the pandemic:

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning

Which shows that in-person learning should be an option widely available. It doesn't say that a form of virtual learning should not be available. And we're talking on a public education forum, so if your answer is to go private then I'm not interested.

But requiring a school to devote resources to virtual learning makes it harder for that school to provide in-person learning. It's not a zero-sum game, having teachers teach virtual students means (a) larger class sizes for those in-person, (b) fewer spots in-person for those who want it, or (c) both.

I'll say it again.

I'm not advocating for teachers doing simultaneous in-person and remote. Whoever came up with that idea needs to not work in education.

I'm not advocating for each school to handle it on their own. I get that it would be to disruptive.

I'm advocating for DCPS to figure out something centralized or maybe clustered to allow it to work. The only thing standing in the way of that is planning and bureaucracy. Oh, and people trying to take advantage of the situation to harm public education. Those ghouls can piss off.

I do hear what you are saying and understand that in a perfect world with all parents being engaged in their child’s education DCPS could make an open enrollment virtual academy. I really do. There are realities within the district and the population of students they serve that do not make this a prudent choice for the well being of kids. I’ve written this several times on several threads. Kids fell through the cracks for a year with no adult laying eyes on them. This cannot happen again. Perhaps a more affluent district could pull off an open enrollment virtual school and ensure student learning and wel being. DCPS cannot do that.

I agree with you. Palo Alto which is an affluent school district is setting up a virtual academy with open enrollment. They are contracting with a private company to offer virtual school. Palo Alto teachers will only teach in-person kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

Zero kids in DC have died of COVID, and the virulence hasn't changed. So, 100% recovery.

Fearmongering.

Interesting. Our whole problem last year was being overly optimistic and not planning for a worse scenario then upheaval and chaos when it hit.

I sure hope you're right and it's not a big deal but I'd rather be ready for worse.

What? No that wasn’t the plan last year. DC schools were way more cautious than 99% of the country. We in essence operated in the worst case scenario last year.

Now that we realize what a disaster that was on a variety of metrics, we are seeing we can’t keep doing that.

That's what we ended up doing. But the "plan" going into it was always optimistic. So when we got to what actually happened we were not prepared. Remember all the hype for "hybrid" that turned into full virtual? That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

What's our plan if the optimists here are wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll will be eating your words in a few weeks when Delta rips through DC schools and we have a bunch of hospitalized children.

Zero kids in DC have died of COVID, and the virulence hasn't changed. So, 100% recovery.

Fearmongering.

Interesting. Our whole problem last year was being overly optimistic and not planning for a worse scenario then upheaval and chaos when it hit.

I sure hope you're right and it's not a big deal but I'd rather be ready for worse.

What? No that wasn’t the plan last year. DC schools were way more cautious than 99% of the country. We in essence operated in the worst case scenario last year.

Now that we realize what a disaster that was on a variety of metrics, we are seeing we can’t keep doing that.

That's what we ended up doing. But the "plan" going into it was always optimistic. So when we got to what actually happened we were not prepared. Remember all the hype for "hybrid" that turned into full virtual? That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

What's our plan if the optimists here are wrong?

do u rlly think we went virtual bc the pandemic got worse