Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a few years now we’ve been talking about children who have extensive absences from school. This has come up with regard to DCPS passing and graduation rates, but the circumstances apply to many school districts. The kids who are no-showing for distance learning are, by and large, the same children who had 20-30 absences during in-person learning. It’s not distance learning that’s causing this. Rather, these families face issues like trauma, poor parental supervision, teens needing to work to supplement income, etc.

I know many are searching for reasons to blame school systems and teachers for the challenges of distance learning. But this is not unique to online school at all.

This, it was the same situation before. The other big difference is parents could more easily check out and didm't really know what was going on as they let the schools handle it. With kids at home, you can see it more. This really has nothing to do with DL.

Did you even read the article? The educators quoted state that this is DL and they want kids back because they are worried about the loss of education due to DL. In other words, it's worse than pre-covid.

I don't understand this compulsion to deny the deleterious impact of DL on vulnerable student populations. It is documented at this point. This is not debatable.

Stop using your fluff news to push your agenda of forcing kids back into the schools in person because you want your kids out of the home. Many of these kids had academic and school issues prior to covid where the school system and parents just ignored the problem. Sending them back in person isn't going to fix it. It will take that much more.

Many of the so called vulnerable choose to stay home as they are more vulnerable to covid and understand the real impact. You may be a covid denier but for many of us who take it seriously, we will make DL work.

You never cared about these kids before so why pretend to care about them now?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of these kids never wanted to be in school in the first place. They started school behind, whether because of language or circumstances, and find it frustrating and humiliating. Of course they are going to prefer not to go.

Unbelievable.

Ok, I see that I offended you. Well, I live in an area where the white students are generally well off and have highly educated parents, and the minority students are generally low-income and many are in ESOL. School is absolutely a frustrating and humiliating place for them when they arrive to kindergarten unable to read or fluently speak English, and their white classmates are reading chapter books and talking about their weekend trips to the beach and to ski. We are told to teach them all at their own levels so we differentiate all day, but I have no doubt that it has felt more comfortable to do school at home.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of these kids never wanted to be in school in the first place. They started school behind, whether because of language or circumstances, and find it frustrating and humiliating. Of course they are going to prefer not to go.

Unbelievable.

A lot of these kids never wanted to be in school in the first place. They started school behind, whether because of language or circumstances, and find it frustrating and humiliating. Of course they are going to prefer not to go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a really good article in the NYT about "school hesitancy" and how it disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable students:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/us/covid-school-reopening-virtual-learning.html

I see this locally too, where the most vulnerable populations are far more likely to have disappeared in DL and are far less likely to go back. I think there is a generation of kids who are severely at risk for permanent educational loss. I think ongoing DL risks severe educational damage to the most vulnerable students.

Its an article skewed to make people like you believe its damaging. I don't see any damage done to my children and I fully support staying DL at least till covid is under control better. We have no seen educational loss and our children have picked up other good skills they need in life. If you want your kids to go back and you don't mind putting them at risk, good for you but mine are not rushing back as Covid is real and serious.

Translation: My wealthy isolated children are fine (or at least under my 100% control regardless of what is actually best for them), so I don't care about vulnerable kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a few years now we’ve been talking about children who have extensive absences from school. This has come up with regard to DCPS passing and graduation rates, but the circumstances apply to many school districts. The kids who are no-showing for distance learning are, by and large, the same children who had 20-30 absences during in-person learning. It’s not distance learning that’s causing this. Rather, these families face issues like trauma, poor parental supervision, teens needing to work to supplement income, etc.

I know many are searching for reasons to blame school systems and teachers for the challenges of distance learning. But this is not unique to online school at all.

This, it was the same situation before. The other big difference is parents could more easily check out and didm't really know what was going on as they let the schools handle it. With kids at home, you can see it more. This really has nothing to do with DL.

Did you even read the article? The educators quoted state that this is DL and they want kids back because they are worried about the loss of education due to DL. In other words, it's worse than pre-covid.

I don't understand this compulsion to deny the deleterious impact of DL on vulnerable student populations. It is documented at this point. This is not debatable.

Anonymous wrote:The article talks about wooing families back to school. The reason my students have not returned is due to the virus. Their parents won't send them back if they can't get them vaccinated. I talked to all of them prior to our return in March and the school neighborhood has been hit hard and continues to be hit hard. Every week we've been in school, there has been at least one positive case in a student. I started back in March with 9 students and that has dwindled down to 5-6 students who attend regularly.

The article explicitly states a few times that these school administrators and educators do not believe the virus is the primary driver of hesitancy at this point.

This past year has given people a reason not to be involved in school. Many think this school year is a wash and have an excuse to check out. But the same people who are checked out are the same people who weren't ever checked in. I looped with my class and the same parents whose kids had attendance issues last September-March are the same ones who have been absent this year. They never did homework before Covid hit and they don't do any classwork now. Some parents have just come out and told the school that they don't want to hear from us anymore. They don't want us to try to contact them anymore. They know their kids aren't attending classes or doing work and they don't care. In school, I could help those students in some ways but if the adult in charge at home doesn't care what you do or don't do academically, it's hard to motivate kids in those situations. I was pretty self-motivated as a child but if my mother never asked me anything about school or asked to see report cards or talk to my teachers, I doubt even I would've cared about school.

I work with low income college bound high school students. Many of our students are working significantly more than they did pre-2020 but they are still enrolling in college and staying on track. I'm curious to see data about these cohorts. I do worry about learning loss, but our local schools offer so little rigorous academic instruction that maybe the skills that come from working full time for a year are more valuable than a year a bad high school. I worry for them, particularly the ones working in nursing homes and hospitals, but maybe this is an experience that gives life meaning vs the ennui of wealthy suburban kids.

Anonymous wrote:For a few years now we’ve been talking about children who have extensive absences from school. This has come up with regard to DCPS passing and graduation rates, but the circumstances apply to many school districts. The kids who are no-showing for distance learning are, by and large, the same children who had 20-30 absences during in-person learning. It’s not distance learning that’s causing this. Rather, these families face issues like trauma, poor parental supervision, teens needing to work to supplement income, etc.

I know many are searching for reasons to blame school systems and teachers for the challenges of distance learning. But this is not unique to online school at all.

This, it was the same situation before. The other big difference is parents could more easily check out and didm't really know what was going on as they let the schools handle it. With kids at home, you can see it more. This really has nothing to do with DL.

Anonymous wrote:There is a really good article in the NYT about "school hesitancy" and how it disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable students:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/us/covid-school-reopening-virtual-learning.html

I see this locally too, where the most vulnerable populations are far more likely to have disappeared in DL and are far less likely to go back. I think there is a generation of kids who are severely at risk for permanent educational loss. I think ongoing DL risks severe educational damage to the most vulnerable students.

Its an article skewed to make people like you believe its damaging. I don't see any damage done to my children and I fully support staying DL at least till covid is under control better. We have no seen educational loss and our children have picked up other good skills they need in life. If you want your kids to go back and you don't mind putting them at risk, good for you but mine are not rushing back as Covid is real and serious.

Anonymous wrote:For a few years now we’ve been talking about children who have extensive absences from school. This has come up with regard to DCPS passing and graduation rates, but the circumstances apply to many school districts. The kids who are no-showing for distance learning are, by and large, the same children who had 20-30 absences during in-person learning. It’s not distance learning that’s causing this. Rather, these families face issues like trauma, poor parental supervision, teens needing to work to supplement income, etc.

I know many are searching for reasons to blame school systems and teachers for the challenges of distance learning. But this is not unique to online school at all.

+1

Very well said and all sadly quite true. I don’t think this is solely about distance learning or being cautious about COVID. It goes way beyond that.

For a few years now we’ve been talking about children who have extensive absences from school. This has come up with regard to DCPS passing and graduation rates, but the circumstances apply to many school districts. The kids who are no-showing for distance learning are, by and large, the same children who had 20-30 absences during in-person learning. It’s not distance learning that’s causing this. Rather, these families face issues like trauma, poor parental supervision, teens needing to work to supplement income, etc.

I know many are searching for reasons to blame school systems and teachers for the challenges of distance learning. But this is not unique to online school at all.

The article talks about wooing families back to school. The reason my students have not returned is due to the virus. Their parents won't send them back if they can't get them vaccinated. I talked to all of them prior to our return in March and the school neighborhood has been hit hard and continues to be hit hard. Every week we've been in school, there has been at least one positive case in a student. I started back in March with 9 students and that has dwindled down to 5-6 students who attend regularly.

There is a really good article in the NYT about "school hesitancy" and how it disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable students:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/us/covid-school-reopening-virtual-learning.html

I see this locally too, where the most vulnerable populations are far more likely to have disappeared in DL and are far less likely to go back. I think there is a generation of kids who are severely at risk for permanent educational loss. I think ongoing DL risks severe educational damage to the most vulnerable students.