What needs to be done to repair damage of Covid/school closures/quarantines/Covid policy in DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

I also don’t get why we compare with other districts when we know historically teaching has been a ‘female job,’ and is underpaid throughout this nation, just as many nursing positions. If teaching was a revered field like being a doctor, I promise you would see more teachers and also in some cases better quality ones.

I realize this wasn't your main point, but the reason we compare is that the surrounding districts are the competition for hiring teachers.

We don't evaluate every job on the basis of what it means to society and pay accordingly, because how would you do that? It's all subjective. Wishing we did it that way won't change capitalism.

I think the relevant point is: DC has higher teacher salaries but can lose teachers to lower-paying surrounding districts for reasons other than pay. That means that you want to address those other reasons (at least first). It sounds like some of those reasons are COL and just having a demoralizing work environment. That work environment might be cured by XYZ (insert all of the stuff regularly discussed on DCUM).

But to get back to the point of the thread, even with a beautiful work environment and higher pay, would teachers be able to make up for the learning losses of the pandemic? Would any of that actually measurably help students? The end goal is students' education.

Sadly, the research is pretty clear that even the best teachers with the best support are unlikely to be able to ameliorate the effects of the closures and quarantines without funding for intensive support for the kids, including one-on-one tutoring. And that just isn't something we can provide in bulk, regardless of funding. There aren't enough potential support staff available in the entire region. I hate to be a downer but this is a generation of black and poor children in DC who will all experience lasting harmful effects.

I don’t agree, I can have had students grow 2 grade levels in 1 school year. BUT they were 2-3.5 grade levels behind, were at school 90-100% of the school year, and I got their parents involved at home.

People really don’t think acceleration is possible?? The issue is that when you have a child missing 70 days of school what do you expect? I can reach if I can’t teach. You think the average attendance of 126 days vs. at minimum 162 days doesn’t make a difference?

And what research? Because from my own and personal experience you can close the achievement gap with:
A good teacher
Minimal absences
Parental involvement
Student engagement
Decent class sizes
And optionally a strong teacher’s aide

What is the population you teach? And also, we are talking systematically, not just in your classroom. I am not denying that you are an exceptional teacher, but acknowledging that you are the exception, not the rule, is important.

I teach at a dcps title 1 school, with a high at risk population.

You don’t think if DCPS changed their absence and tardy policy things wouldn’t change? I’m not saying parents who have their children miss 20-100+ days of school should go to jail but there needs to be a tangible consequence such as a mandatory check in or be fined, then maybe a little jail time as a very, very, very last resort. Because CPS isn’t all that helpful, at least none of the parents at my school seem to give a crap. Something has got to give on this end, I love my parents, especially the tough ones who I have to wiggle my way to knowing. But tbh it’s exhausting to get these parents whose main job is a parent to be one.

More parental involvement would be great for parents especially of students with high needs, whether it’s academic, emotional, etc. It starts in elementary, why aren’t all DCPS schools Flamboyan or the like schools? It’s time for teacher compensated mandatory home visits.

Student engagement is a systemic issue. you know how many teachers think their point system, taking recess, seeing the dean or principal, in school suspension is working? Not many and if they do it’s because they don’t know any better.
Teachers are seldom trained in how to keep students engaged and no, engagement doesn’t mean a child who ‘hates’ math is going to love it. But why do they hate it and how can we incorporate their interests? If teachers had adequate planning time, as in it’s never taken away this could be something every individual teacher could work on.

I think I don’t have to explain overcrowding of classes.

A teacher’s aide in every class would be helpful too, more small groups and another adult to help de-escalate students as needed.

Idk the answers seem fairly clear to me but dcps will never do it. They don’t want to pay teachers, aides, and subs any more. Because let me tell you we have a huge shortage. Finding great people who are ok with 30k a year (aides) is almost impossible. They also don’t want to hold parents accountable for tardies and absences. It IS neglect if you allow your child to miss so much school.

If the problem lies with parents, then the solution does not seem to be to pay teachers more.

Does anyone have examples -- from research -- where schools were able to help high-percentage-poverty kids raise their test scores?

Why do some of you keep cherry picking? The whole issue is not parents. There are till a ton of openings, especially in the high needs areas. And this is from research, if you care do it lmao. I’m not invested in this convo enough to do it for someone who doesn’t want to pay all school staff more, even if especially for paras it’s a reason they don’t work for DCPS.

While I do believe paras should be paid a living wage, I am not convinced that there are enough qualified teachers locally to fill the gaps, no matter what wages are offered.

The job of para or Aide is not going to appeal to the same person who wants to run a homeroom. The Aides need to be paid more. I believe I saw somewhere on this tread (or maybe I read somewhere else) someone suggested that especially this past year grades above K should have had Aides in them because of the needs of the kids coming in. 1st graders were exhibiting behaviors of PKers (socially and emotionally) and it would have been tremendously helpful to have had more hands on deck. But even if they make those positions available, I don't think they will get filled if they don't offer better pay.

That’s not necessarily true. The two best paras my kids have had were people who were in the process of pursuing masters degrees in education. I know that realistically, not every para role can be filled with someone aiming to move into teaching, but you can attract highly motivated candidates in this category by offering accommodations for graduate school (I.e. allowing paras to arrange their august report date around their summer semester) as well as tuition incentives. Yes, it means these paras ultimately move on to teaching jobs. But we live in an area with a ton of universities that have strong schools of education, and offering attractive terms to recent graduates could create a strong pipeline of paras who are, if not experienced, highly motivated and high energy. Especially in younger grades, I like seeing experienced teachers teamed with smart, energetic paras. It makes for a well-run but lively classroom environment.

Agree. Our school has a history of promoting paras from within — including 3 this year — so we have the added benefit that the majority of ECE-1st and CLC spots that open up go to teachers with deep experience at our school already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I also don’t get why we compare with other districts when we know historically teaching has been a ‘female job,’ and is underpaid throughout this nation, just as many nursing positions. If teaching was a revered field like being a doctor, I promise you would see more teachers and also in some cases better quality ones.

I realize this wasn't your main point, but the reason we compare is that the surrounding districts are the competition for hiring teachers.

We don't evaluate every job on the basis of what it means to society and pay accordingly, because how would you do that? It's all subjective. Wishing we did it that way won't change capitalism.

I think the relevant point is: DC has higher teacher salaries but can lose teachers to lower-paying surrounding districts for reasons other than pay. That means that you want to address those other reasons (at least first). It sounds like some of those reasons are COL and just having a demoralizing work environment. That work environment might be cured by XYZ (insert all of the stuff regularly discussed on DCUM).

But to get back to the point of the thread, even with a beautiful work environment and higher pay, would teachers be able to make up for the learning losses of the pandemic? Would any of that actually measurably help students? The end goal is students' education.

Sadly, the research is pretty clear that even the best teachers with the best support are unlikely to be able to ameliorate the effects of the closures and quarantines without funding for intensive support for the kids, including one-on-one tutoring. And that just isn't something we can provide in bulk, regardless of funding. There aren't enough potential support staff available in the entire region. I hate to be a downer but this is a generation of black and poor children in DC who will all experience lasting harmful effects.

I don’t agree, I can have had students grow 2 grade levels in 1 school year. BUT they were 2-3.5 grade levels behind, were at school 90-100% of the school year, and I got their parents involved at home.

People really don’t think acceleration is possible?? The issue is that when you have a child missing 70 days of school what do you expect? I can reach if I can’t teach. You think the average attendance of 126 days vs. at minimum 162 days doesn’t make a difference?

And what research? Because from my own and personal experience you can close the achievement gap with:
A good teacher
Minimal absences
Parental involvement
Student engagement
Decent class sizes
And optionally a strong teacher’s aide

What is the population you teach? And also, we are talking systematically, not just in your classroom. I am not denying that you are an exceptional teacher, but acknowledging that you are the exception, not the rule, is important.

I teach at a dcps title 1 school, with a high at risk population.

You don’t think if DCPS changed their absence and tardy policy things wouldn’t change? I’m not saying parents who have their children miss 20-100+ days of school should go to jail but there needs to be a tangible consequence such as a mandatory check in or be fined, then maybe a little jail time as a very, very, very last resort. Because CPS isn’t all that helpful, at least none of the parents at my school seem to give a crap. Something has got to give on this end, I love my parents, especially the tough ones who I have to wiggle my way to knowing. But tbh it’s exhausting to get these parents whose main job is a parent to be one.

More parental involvement would be great for parents especially of students with high needs, whether it’s academic, emotional, etc. It starts in elementary, why aren’t all DCPS schools Flamboyan or the like schools? It’s time for teacher compensated mandatory home visits.

Student engagement is a systemic issue. you know how many teachers think their point system, taking recess, seeing the dean or principal, in school suspension is working? Not many and if they do it’s because they don’t know any better.
Teachers are seldom trained in how to keep students engaged and no, engagement doesn’t mean a child who ‘hates’ math is going to love it. But why do they hate it and how can we incorporate their interests? If teachers had adequate planning time, as in it’s never taken away this could be something every individual teacher could work on.

I think I don’t have to explain overcrowding of classes.

A teacher’s aide in every class would be helpful too, more small groups and another adult to help de-escalate students as needed.

Idk the answers seem fairly clear to me but dcps will never do it. They don’t want to pay teachers, aides, and subs any more. Because let me tell you we have a huge shortage. Finding great people who are ok with 30k a year (aides) is almost impossible. They also don’t want to hold parents accountable for tardies and absences. It IS neglect if you allow your child to miss so much school.

If the problem lies with parents, then the solution does not seem to be to pay teachers more.

Does anyone have examples -- from research -- where schools were able to help high-percentage-poverty kids raise their test scores?

Why do some of you keep cherry picking? The whole issue is not parents. There are till a ton of openings, especially in the high needs areas. And this is from research, if you care do it lmao. I’m not invested in this convo enough to do it for someone who doesn’t want to pay all school staff more, even if especially for paras it’s a reason they don’t work for DCPS.

While I do believe paras should be paid a living wage, I am not convinced that there are enough qualified teachers locally to fill the gaps, no matter what wages are offered.

The job of para or Aide is not going to appeal to the same person who wants to run a homeroom. The Aides need to be paid more. I believe I saw somewhere on this tread (or maybe I read somewhere else) someone suggested that especially this past year grades above K should have had Aides in them because of the needs of the kids coming in. 1st graders were exhibiting behaviors of PKers (socially and emotionally) and it would have been tremendously helpful to have had more hands on deck. But even if they make those positions available, I don't think they will get filled if they don't offer better pay.

That’s not necessarily true. The two best paras my kids have had were people who were in the process of pursuing masters degrees in education. I know that realistically, not every para role can be filled with someone aiming to move into teaching, but you can attract highly motivated candidates in this category by offering accommodations for graduate school (I.e. allowing paras to arrange their august report date around their summer semester) as well as tuition incentives. Yes, it means these paras ultimately move on to teaching jobs. But we live in an area with a ton of universities that have strong schools of education, and offering attractive terms to recent graduates could create a strong pipeline of paras who are, if not experienced, highly motivated and high energy. Especially in younger grades, I like seeing experienced teachers teamed with smart, energetic paras. It makes for a well-run but lively classroom environment.

Yes, my kids have gone through Janney and a handful of the aides go on to be homeroom teachers. But this is not the majority at Janney and certainly not the majority across DCPS. And either way, the pay should be higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I also don’t get why we compare with other districts when we know historically teaching has been a ‘female job,’ and is underpaid throughout this nation, just as many nursing positions. If teaching was a revered field like being a doctor, I promise you would see more teachers and also in some cases better quality ones.

I realize this wasn't your main point, but the reason we compare is that the surrounding districts are the competition for hiring teachers.

We don't evaluate every job on the basis of what it means to society and pay accordingly, because how would you do that? It's all subjective. Wishing we did it that way won't change capitalism.

I think the relevant point is: DC has higher teacher salaries but can lose teachers to lower-paying surrounding districts for reasons other than pay. That means that you want to address those other reasons (at least first). It sounds like some of those reasons are COL and just having a demoralizing work environment. That work environment might be cured by XYZ (insert all of the stuff regularly discussed on DCUM).

But to get back to the point of the thread, even with a beautiful work environment and higher pay, would teachers be able to make up for the learning losses of the pandemic? Would any of that actually measurably help students? The end goal is students' education.

Sadly, the research is pretty clear that even the best teachers with the best support are unlikely to be able to ameliorate the effects of the closures and quarantines without funding for intensive support for the kids, including one-on-one tutoring. And that just isn't something we can provide in bulk, regardless of funding. There aren't enough potential support staff available in the entire region. I hate to be a downer but this is a generation of black and poor children in DC who will all experience lasting harmful effects.

I don’t agree, I can have had students grow 2 grade levels in 1 school year. BUT they were 2-3.5 grade levels behind, were at school 90-100% of the school year, and I got their parents involved at home.

People really don’t think acceleration is possible?? The issue is that when you have a child missing 70 days of school what do you expect? I can reach if I can’t teach. You think the average attendance of 126 days vs. at minimum 162 days doesn’t make a difference?

And what research? Because from my own and personal experience you can close the achievement gap with:
A good teacher
Minimal absences
Parental involvement
Student engagement
Decent class sizes
And optionally a strong teacher’s aide

What is the population you teach? And also, we are talking systematically, not just in your classroom. I am not denying that you are an exceptional teacher, but acknowledging that you are the exception, not the rule, is important.

I teach at a dcps title 1 school, with a high at risk population.

You don’t think if DCPS changed their absence and tardy policy things wouldn’t change? I’m not saying parents who have their children miss 20-100+ days of school should go to jail but there needs to be a tangible consequence such as a mandatory check in or be fined, then maybe a little jail time as a very, very, very last resort. Because CPS isn’t all that helpful, at least none of the parents at my school seem to give a crap. Something has got to give on this end, I love my parents, especially the tough ones who I have to wiggle my way to knowing. But tbh it’s exhausting to get these parents whose main job is a parent to be one.

More parental involvement would be great for parents especially of students with high needs, whether it’s academic, emotional, etc. It starts in elementary, why aren’t all DCPS schools Flamboyan or the like schools? It’s time for teacher compensated mandatory home visits.

Student engagement is a systemic issue. you know how many teachers think their point system, taking recess, seeing the dean or principal, in school suspension is working? Not many and if they do it’s because they don’t know any better.
Teachers are seldom trained in how to keep students engaged and no, engagement doesn’t mean a child who ‘hates’ math is going to love it. But why do they hate it and how can we incorporate their interests? If teachers had adequate planning time, as in it’s never taken away this could be something every individual teacher could work on.

I think I don’t have to explain overcrowding of classes.

A teacher’s aide in every class would be helpful too, more small groups and another adult to help de-escalate students as needed.

Idk the answers seem fairly clear to me but dcps will never do it. They don’t want to pay teachers, aides, and subs any more. Because let me tell you we have a huge shortage. Finding great people who are ok with 30k a year (aides) is almost impossible. They also don’t want to hold parents accountable for tardies and absences. It IS neglect if you allow your child to miss so much school.

If the problem lies with parents, then the solution does not seem to be to pay teachers more.

Does anyone have examples -- from research -- where schools were able to help high-percentage-poverty kids raise their test scores?

Charters do it. There is a reason why most charters are EOTR. They are extremely popular there because they get results with high poverty populations.

Please name some charters that are outperforming their neighborhood schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I also don’t get why we compare with other districts when we know historically teaching has been a ‘female job,’ and is underpaid throughout this nation, just as many nursing positions. If teaching was a revered field like being a doctor, I promise you would see more teachers and also in some cases better quality ones.

I realize this wasn't your main point, but the reason we compare is that the surrounding districts are the competition for hiring teachers.

We don't evaluate every job on the basis of what it means to society and pay accordingly, because how would you do that? It's all subjective. Wishing we did it that way won't change capitalism.

I think the relevant point is: DC has higher teacher salaries but can lose teachers to lower-paying surrounding districts for reasons other than pay. That means that you want to address those other reasons (at least first). It sounds like some of those reasons are COL and just having a demoralizing work environment. That work environment might be cured by XYZ (insert all of the stuff regularly discussed on DCUM).

But to get back to the point of the thread, even with a beautiful work environment and higher pay, would teachers be able to make up for the learning losses of the pandemic? Would any of that actually measurably help students? The end goal is students' education.

Sadly, the research is pretty clear that even the best teachers with the best support are unlikely to be able to ameliorate the effects of the closures and quarantines without funding for intensive support for the kids, including one-on-one tutoring. And that just isn't something we can provide in bulk, regardless of funding. There aren't enough potential support staff available in the entire region. I hate to be a downer but this is a generation of black and poor children in DC who will all experience lasting harmful effects.

I don’t agree, I can have had students grow 2 grade levels in 1 school year. BUT they were 2-3.5 grade levels behind, were at school 90-100% of the school year, and I got their parents involved at home.

People really don’t think acceleration is possible?? The issue is that when you have a child missing 70 days of school what do you expect? I can reach if I can’t teach. You think the average attendance of 126 days vs. at minimum 162 days doesn’t make a difference?

And what research? Because from my own and personal experience you can close the achievement gap with:
A good teacher
Minimal absences
Parental involvement
Student engagement
Decent class sizes
And optionally a strong teacher’s aide

What is the population you teach? And also, we are talking systematically, not just in your classroom. I am not denying that you are an exceptional teacher, but acknowledging that you are the exception, not the rule, is important.

I teach at a dcps title 1 school, with a high at risk population.

You don’t think if DCPS changed their absence and tardy policy things wouldn’t change? I’m not saying parents who have their children miss 20-100+ days of school should go to jail but there needs to be a tangible consequence such as a mandatory check in or be fined, then maybe a little jail time as a very, very, very last resort. Because CPS isn’t all that helpful, at least none of the parents at my school seem to give a crap. Something has got to give on this end, I love my parents, especially the tough ones who I have to wiggle my way to knowing. But tbh it’s exhausting to get these parents whose main job is a parent to be one.

More parental involvement would be great for parents especially of students with high needs, whether it’s academic, emotional, etc. It starts in elementary, why aren’t all DCPS schools Flamboyan or the like schools? It’s time for teacher compensated mandatory home visits.

Student engagement is a systemic issue. you know how many teachers think their point system, taking recess, seeing the dean or principal, in school suspension is working? Not many and if they do it’s because they don’t know any better.
Teachers are seldom trained in how to keep students engaged and no, engagement doesn’t mean a child who ‘hates’ math is going to love it. But why do they hate it and how can we incorporate their interests? If teachers had adequate planning time, as in it’s never taken away this could be something every individual teacher could work on.

I think I don’t have to explain overcrowding of classes.

A teacher’s aide in every class would be helpful too, more small groups and another adult to help de-escalate students as needed.

Idk the answers seem fairly clear to me but dcps will never do it. They don’t want to pay teachers, aides, and subs any more. Because let me tell you we have a huge shortage. Finding great people who are ok with 30k a year (aides) is almost impossible. They also don’t want to hold parents accountable for tardies and absences. It IS neglect if you allow your child to miss so much school.

If the problem lies with parents, then the solution does not seem to be to pay teachers more.

Does anyone have examples -- from research -- where schools were able to help high-percentage-poverty kids raise their test scores?

Charters do it. There is a reason why most charters are EOTR. They are extremely popular there because they get results with high poverty populations.

Please name some charters that are outperforming their neighborhood schools

DP but PP is probably talking about charters like KIPP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The should have give the option to repeat the grade level missed. As well as creating hybrid half grades like k-1, 6-7 etc. As well as additional year to complete high school courses. You can't expect all students to "make up" learning loss in a matter of months.
DC and the mayor should have owned the fact that online learning didn't work for most students and just repeated the year for anyone that didn't test at or above grade level, full stop.

I was talking to a parent of kids in a MCPS school and she told me that their school provided a month of in person summer school for the ENTIRE school last year to address learning gaps due to the school being closed. This summer, only the kids that were determined to still need that kind of support were offered a similar program. Not sure if this program was offered d throughout the entire county though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, posting this with some trepidation based on how comments about school closures have been received on this board recently. But genuinely trying to start a conversation about both what some of the fallout of school closures and other Covid policies that have harmed some kids and families in the district (I understand not everyone feels harmed by these policies and I accept that -- some people have been harmed), as well as the loss of trust and community as a result?

Looking for genuine, good faith suggestions here. These are some of the issues I think need to be addressed, and I personally think we would do best to discuss them directly and take them seriously. Some of these are based on my personal experience, some based on families I know or at my school. For reference, we go to a Title 1 school in Ward 5, where I think you see more fall out from school closures than you might at schools in wealthier neighborhoods. I mention that not to start a fight, but simply to acknowledge these issues may not be universal:

- The inability of working families to be able to realistically rely on school and after school programs as childcare. This is a problem that has persisted at our school, when aftercare programming was serious stripped down post-Covid and many families were frustrated with the poor quality of care, but simply cannot afford alternatives (very few families at our school can afford nannies, and we have few other childcare options in the neighborhood).

- The intense burden on parents, but especially working mothers, over the last two years, to oversee virtual school at home, secure replacement childcare for their kids, prepare kids for attending school during Covid (masks, testing, teaching them heightened sanitation rules) as well as to handle this year of quarantines. Most of the moms I know are completely burned out and barely treading water.

- The impact of masking on very young kids. My youngest is afraid to go to school without a mask. Even outdoors. He's never attended school without masks. This is a more minor concern for me, but I'd still like to see common sense policy on this, especially for our youngest learners.

Those are the main ones for me, but if there are others, please share. We personally aren't as worried about learning loss as some seem to be (we worked our butts of to avoid it and this is an area where I think our school and teachers have been phenomenal -- major props to them). But if that's a concern for you, do share.

Schools are open so it seems like these have been solved. Masking is optional and probably will be for the foreseeable future

It seems these specific problems are not solved. If families fear that future closures and quarantines will compromise childcare, they may have to make difficult choices (including people dropping out of the workforce) to deal with that uncertainty.

One thing I'd really like to see is an honest assessment of how closure and quarantine decisions were made over the last 2 years, and then come up with a plan for future issues like Covid (or Covid itself, depending on what happens with variants) so that families are not left high and dry the way they have been for the last two years. It's hard to imagine this happening because of how opaque Central Office and the Mayor are about.. everything. But I think that would go a long way towards repairing trust and helping families plan for the future.

I'd also like to see more family-level mental health outreach. I think a lot of what is happening with mental health right now cannot be addressed just with kids in school. I think we're seeing whole-family dysfunction that is pandemic-related and schools are the main resource for a lot of families who don't have ready access to things like family therapy or support groups. I'd love it if we had parent support groups at our school, for instance.

For two years, I’ve been told that I was greedy selfish and lazy bc I had fears of going back too early during a global pandemic. Now you’re asking me to respect and listen to the fears of people who honestly believe schools will close again.

Ain’t happening

Do you live in DC? Schools were closed, with most resources directed toward virtual school, from March 2020 until August 2021, after all adults and many kids had access to vaccines. Who told you that you were greedy/selfish/lazy? You got exactly what you wanted.

However, those closure impacted many families negatively, and those problems were compounded by a year of uncertainty and quarantines. It's time to address the fall out from those closures. And yes, part of that is figuring out what we do next time because "close schools for over a year" is not going to be an acceptable option for the majority of parents in the city. So now would be a great time to discuss what went wrong this time so we don't repeat the same mistakes.

For instance, I'd support development of a virtual academy that is centralized so that in the future, people with immunocompromised kids or family members, or who have other reasons to for wanting to avoid in-person school during a health crisis, can access education without having to keep all students home if we can avoid it.

I also have a lot of frustrations with how resistant all parties (DCPS, teachers, parents) were to creative solutions back in 2020-2021. I advocated hard for us to adopt policies that would reduce risk while still keeping kids in school -- outdoor school, hybrid, shortened schedule. Every time I brought it up, it was treated as unfeasible. And yet simply closing schools and leaving individual families to scramble was viewed as feasible. Maybe we need to start creating contingency plans for another Covid-like event so that we are able to pivot to in-person alternatives rather than simply rely on individual families and teachers to simply absorb the systemic failures in the next crisis.

Your first paragraph belies belief. I was teaching in a DCPS school in Feb ‘21. And if you don’t think we were called all those names, please feel free to search the forum

Beyond that, I’m not surprised you were dismissed. I don’t know if you remember, every school had a reopening committee of teachers, admin, and parents. As a teacher who served on their RCC, there was no bandwidth for more suggestions from parents who had all the answers that would just magically work if people would listen. I don’t think it’s rude or inaccurate to say that we knew better than you.

Now, I do think contingency plans should be made. All for that. I don’t think we need to keep rehashing the past

I think there's a difference between rehashing the past and doing a post-mortem. This includes looking carefully at what happened and criticizing it when necessary. I will say that I work in education research, and it was clear from the beginning that closing schools and moving everyone to virtual was a harmful policy position. It was justifiable when we had little information about Covid, but once we had pretty clear data on both the lack of harm Covid would do to children and healthy adults, and the significant harm that virtual presented for the most educationally-vulnerable children, it was frustrating to see the institutional inertia. By early 2021, I was working with researchers on panels about COVID-19 and educational inequities--the harm was clear by then. I wish more use would have been made of our research at that time.

Agree here. The acknowledgement of what went wrong is critical. To be fair, the messaging was really the culprit. You mentioned that it was clear that Covid wouldn't harm most kids or healthy adults, but that wasn't the message pushed out to the masses. As a result, teachers and families were freaked out which resulted in the poor choice to close schools which did significant harm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not understanding why the OP is getting such pushback.

+1. It’s kind of shocking how many people can’t look back and accept that mistakes were made, agree we need a plan to address learning and social loss, and make a plan so that working families can once again rely on schools. I do not see what is so controversial about that. I thought the first reply had some great suggestions.

None of that is going to happen. Stop insisting upon living in the past, join the real world and mooooove ooooon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The should have give the option to repeat the grade level missed. As well as creating hybrid half grades like k-1, 6-7 etc. As well as additional year to complete high school courses. You can't expect all students to "make up" learning loss in a matter of months.
DC and the mayor should have owned the fact that online learning didn't work for most students and just repeated the year for anyone that didn't test at or above grade level, full stop.

I was talking to a parent of kids in a MCPS school and she told me that their school provided a month of in person summer school for the ENTIRE school last year to address learning gaps due to the school being closed. This summer, only the kids that were determined to still need that kind of support were offered a similar program. Not sure if this program was offered d throughout the entire county though.

We are at a charter, not DCPS. They provided summer school last summer and also will be this summer, with at risk kids and those behind given higher priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not understanding why the OP is getting such pushback.

+1. It’s kind of shocking how many people can’t look back and accept that mistakes were made, agree we need a plan to address learning and social loss, and make a plan so that working families can once again rely on schools. I do not see what is so controversial about that. I thought the first reply had some great suggestions.

None of that is going to happen. Stop insisting upon living in the past, join the real world and mooooove ooooon.

NP. Are you really this dense that you think for a society to discuss policy mistakes it made, how to repair the damage, and how to prevent the same mistake from being made again in the future is a matter of "living in the past"? Is that how you would like other historic policy blunders to be handled as well? Trust me, whatever you tell people on DCUM, and no matter how many posts you report and get deleted, you will not succeed at silencing the reckoning among experts and policy makers that is already happening and will continue for years. Maybe a place like DC won't actually do this work, but it is already happening at higher levels and when the next pandemic hits, school closures will be a lot harder to sell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The should have give the option to repeat the grade level missed. As well as creating hybrid half grades like k-1, 6-7 etc. As well as additional year to complete high school courses. You can't expect all students to "make up" learning loss in a matter of months.
DC and the mayor should have owned the fact that online learning didn't work for most students and just repeated the year for anyone that didn't test at or above grade level, full stop.

I was talking to a parent of kids in a MCPS school and she told me that their school provided a month of in person summer school for the ENTIRE school last year to address learning gaps due to the school being closed. This summer, only the kids that were determined to still need that kind of support were offered a similar program. Not sure if this program was offered d throughout the entire county though.

We are at a charter, not DCPS. They provided summer school last summer and also will be this summer, with at risk kids and those behind given higher priority.

We are at a DCPS, and they are also offering summer school. Kids were identified by teachers for the school months ago, and were offered priority spots. Several of my child’s classmates are attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The should have give the option to repeat the grade level missed. As well as creating hybrid half grades like k-1, 6-7 etc. As well as additional year to complete high school courses. You can't expect all students to "make up" learning loss in a matter of months.
DC and the mayor should have owned the fact that online learning didn't work for most students and just repeated the year for anyone that didn't test at or above grade level, full stop.

I was talking to a parent of kids in a MCPS school and she told me that their school provided a month of in person summer school for the ENTIRE school last year to address learning gaps due to the school being closed. This summer, only the kids that were determined to still need that kind of support were offered a similar program. Not sure if this program was offered d throughout the entire county though.

We are at a charter, not DCPS. They provided summer school last summer and also will be this summer, with at risk kids and those behind given higher priority.

We are at a DCPS, and they are also offering summer school. Kids were identified by teachers for the school months ago, and were offered priority spots. Several of my child’s classmates are attending.

+1. DCPS has summer school available for all, with specific kids being identified for outreach to enroll.

[Anonymous]

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I also don’t get why we compare with other districts when we know historically teaching has been a ‘female job,’ and is underpaid throughout this nation, just as many nursing positions. If teaching was a revered field like being a doctor, I promise you would see more teachers and also in some cases better quality ones.

I realize this wasn't your main point, but the reason we compare is that the surrounding districts are the competition for hiring teachers.

We don't evaluate every job on the basis of what it means to society and pay accordingly, because how would you do that? It's all subjective. Wishing we did it that way won't change capitalism.

I think the relevant point is: DC has higher teacher salaries but can lose teachers to lower-paying surrounding districts for reasons other than pay. That means that you want to address those other reasons (at least first). It sounds like some of those reasons are COL and just having a demoralizing work environment. That work environment might be cured by XYZ (insert all of the stuff regularly discussed on DCUM).

But to get back to the point of the thread, even with a beautiful work environment and higher pay, would teachers be able to make up for the learning losses of the pandemic? Would any of that actually measurably help students? The end goal is students' education.

Sadly, the research is pretty clear that even the best teachers with the best support are unlikely to be able to ameliorate the effects of the closures and quarantines without funding for intensive support for the kids, including one-on-one tutoring. And that just isn't something we can provide in bulk, regardless of funding. There aren't enough potential support staff available in the entire region. I hate to be a downer but this is a generation of black and poor children in DC who will all experience lasting harmful effects.

I don’t agree, I can have had students grow 2 grade levels in 1 school year. BUT they were 2-3.5 grade levels behind, were at school 90-100% of the school year, and I got their parents involved at home.

People really don’t think acceleration is possible?? The issue is that when you have a child missing 70 days of school what do you expect? I can reach if I can’t teach. You think the average attendance of 126 days vs. at minimum 162 days doesn’t make a difference?

And what research? Because from my own and personal experience you can close the achievement gap with:
A good teacher
Minimal absences
Parental involvement
Student engagement
Decent class sizes
And optionally a strong teacher’s aide

What is the population you teach? And also, we are talking systematically, not just in your classroom. I am not denying that you are an exceptional teacher, but acknowledging that you are the exception, not the rule, is important.

I teach at a dcps title 1 school, with a high at risk population.

You don’t think if DCPS changed their absence and tardy policy things wouldn’t change? I’m not saying parents who have their children miss 20-100+ days of school should go to jail but there needs to be a tangible consequence such as a mandatory check in or be fined, then maybe a little jail time as a very, very, very last resort. Because CPS isn’t all that helpful, at least none of the parents at my school seem to give a crap. Something has got to give on this end, I love my parents, especially the tough ones who I have to wiggle my way to knowing. But tbh it’s exhausting to get these parents whose main job is a parent to be one.

More parental involvement would be great for parents especially of students with high needs, whether it’s academic, emotional, etc. It starts in elementary, why aren’t all DCPS schools Flamboyan or the like schools? It’s time for teacher compensated mandatory home visits.

Student engagement is a systemic issue. you know how many teachers think their point system, taking recess, seeing the dean or principal, in school suspension is working? Not many and if they do it’s because they don’t know any better.
Teachers are seldom trained in how to keep students engaged and no, engagement doesn’t mean a child who ‘hates’ math is going to love it. But why do they hate it and how can we incorporate their interests? If teachers had adequate planning time, as in it’s never taken away this could be something every individual teacher could work on.

I think I don’t have to explain overcrowding of classes.

A teacher’s aide in every class would be helpful too, more small groups and another adult to help de-escalate students as needed.

Idk the answers seem fairly clear to me but dcps will never do it. They don’t want to pay teachers, aides, and subs any more. Because let me tell you we have a huge shortage. Finding great people who are ok with 30k a year (aides) is almost impossible. They also don’t want to hold parents accountable for tardies and absences. It IS neglect if you allow your child to miss so much school.

If the problem lies with parents, then the solution does not seem to be to pay teachers more.

Does anyone have examples -- from research -- where schools were able to help high-percentage-poverty kids raise their test scores?

Charters do it. There is a reason why most charters are EOTR. They are extremely popular there because they get results with high poverty populations.

NP and this point has been brought up for years but there is a bias among charter school students because the parents have to actively apply to get their kid in the school through the lottery. That layer of added bureaucracy is going to attract parents that are more likely to value education. Does it mean those kids have no issues? Of course not, but the neighborhood schools are where parents who literally forget their kid has to go to school send them after the first week with no paperwork because they have to take the kid.

[Anonymous]

Someone mentioned above but I think one of the ways we can improve things for future events is better public health messaging, particularly once we’ve seen the available data. That plus a better media that isn’t in constant hysterics would go a long way toward a more measured response in terms of keeping schools open.