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Whatever... This poster is absolutely correct. For the most part, taxpayer dollars are not being properly utilized in public school systems. There is much waste and inefficiency in many public schools. Teachers/schools are being evaluated on students' scores, so they just 'teach' the tests, so it looks like schools' performance is greatly improved. Completely a joke. If you want to really help minority and disadvantage kids get ahead, we need to focus on the home and family environment, and direct resources there.
At best, students are going to be half-in, half-out. School will get shut down for 14 days every time there's an outbreak. In some districts we'll probably see teacher strikes when a teacher goes to the hospital and/or dies.
Portland Public will do online instruction until early Nov, at the earliest.
In my opinion, most academically oriented kids can make up their losses, especially when every other kid is in the same boat. The kids who will be affected the worst, I think, are the youngest, the ones who should be learning to read. They need to learn early, and if they don’t, they could have difficulties later.
But I do not think kids need to be in school with the other adults who teach and provide support services, where covid 19 can freely spread. But most kids simply won’t do the work at home, for many reasons.
I think the most we can hope for is that regular school, as we know it, might finally resume next year, in the meantime some schools will open, and then close, and some will open later but things will not be normal until next year, at the earliest.
Portland Public will do online instruction until early Nov, at the earliest.
In my opinion, most academically oriented kids can make up their losses, especially when every other kid is in the same boat. The kids who will be affected the worst, I think, are the youngest, the ones who should be learning to read. They need to learn early, and if they don’t, they could have difficulties later.
But I do not think kids need to be in school with the other adults who teach and provide support services, where covid 19 can freely spread. But most kids simply won’t do the work at home, for many reasons.
I think the most we can hope for is that regular school, as we know it, might finally resume next year, in the meantime some schools will open, and then close, and some will open later but things will not be normal until next year, at the earliest.
I wish my prediction would be wrong.
There won't be any catching up. They will be a year behind, period.
I talked to a high school assistant principal in my area last week about this issue. He said the switch to online was detrimental for the entire student body, but disastrous for the most marginal students.
IN the gen ed classes, he said response rates - meaning just checking into class, (let along turning in assignments), got as low as 20% in some classes, and was generally 65-70% across campus. The AP students had more like 85-90% response rates, but that's low for them. This is a high school in a solid middle-class area, with a mix of mostly mildly affluent middle and the rest working class families. Not poor.
Let that sink in... about 1/4 students just checked out of school and didn't check back in. There was nothing the school could do.
In his opinion, which is similar to mine, online-only school only works well for students who really don't need much instruction in the first place. Which is the top 10-15%.
I think this whole year is basically a loss. It's going to be as if we just closed down school as an institution for about a year in 2020 and some of 2021. This entire generation will be about 1 year behind academically.
If I had kids in school and if I had the money, I would do what some more affluent families are doing, which is pooling resources to hire their own teachers. Otherwise, we would have to deal with the reality that the kids would need a year of remedial instruction to make up for basically a year of barely having school at all.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,759 posts, read 58,161,153 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redguard57
There won't be any catching up. They will be a year behind, period.
I talked to a high school assistant principal ....
In his opinion, which is similar to mine, online-only school only works well for students who really don't need much instruction in the first place. Which is the top 10-15%.
I think this whole year is basically a loss. It's going to be as if we just closed down school as an institution for about a year in 2020 and some of 2021. This entire generation will be about 1 year behind academically.
If I had kids in school and if I had the money, I would do what some more affluent families are doing, which is pooling resources to hire their own teachers. Otherwise, we would have to deal with the reality that the kids would need a year of remedial instruction to make up for basically a year of barely having school at all.
Sounds VERY USA 'public school' like response (as expected through 'conditioned learning / defending the know failed process)
... 1 year behind academically...How many of your kids learned identically? (none of mine did)
There are a zillion ways schools, parents, communities COULD be responding positively and resourcefully to the current educational challenge
ZERO lost opportunity, and instead a 'teachable moment'
Wow, the false (subjective) information flowing.
Yes, reading skills and alternative learning and resources should be promptly addressed.
1) Using older students or advanced readers to mentor. (decreased risk / exposure of adults / teachers)
2) Bringing back very interesting and thought provoking reading examples and resources (radio stories / readers)
3) Making more reading resources available to foreign language or economical depressed families. (Communities could make this a huge win for all)
4) Creative story hours / social distance skits
5) More access to new tools (iPad reading aids)
6) Learned methods from other countries who suffer pandemics, wars, and social restrictions to learning (such as covert Afghanistan girls schools, and undercover sex slave rehab schools (both which we have supported for over 30 yrs))
We (USA) have an entire education industry and millions of teachers, profs, administrators 'hanging around' this summer wondering about their future employment and safety. The pipeline should be full of great ideas.
Let's 'roll-them-out' and exit this crisis on the uphill side, equipping our students and schools to be resourceful contributors to society, rather than 'worrying about 1 yr test score / academic achievement (?)
Most of life and what we learn from it far surpasses a yr sequestered in an age segregated holding pen.
Today is not too late to start, but we (USA) are really pushing it on our lack of fortitude and creativity to respond appropriately.
No, the virus is NOT going away (as we knew in Feb)
Yes, we must plan accordingly (as we knew in Feb)
Time is a wasting for most.
I am so encouraged from my adult kids. They have so many great ideas and responses and perspective on the current crisis and challenges. Each have very critical and demanding responsibilities (running companies and community development projects, each employing many workers). They have made sacrifices and given up their own salary, but One thing they are NOT is defeated. Possibly that is aided from never sitting in a USA PS classroom. (except as volunteer peer mentors).
DO something (for others) TODAY!
Tomorrow will be too late.
Personally, I think that everyone needs to let go of the idea of where a child should be on a given scope and sequence. We just need to understand that we need a different metric.
I think that StealthRabbit's list of options is excellent. Hearing stories of his/her children's education makes me envious! I also miss hearing the constant call for a reading list from psikeyhackr, one of our long-time posters.
This is a time when we can truly begin to rethink schooling with the child in mind. School districts are going to do everything they can to help, including distributing print resources and providing online instruction. But now is the time for it to be drilled into every child's head what I've been telling my students for years, "You need the very best education you can get to take care of yourself and your family." Now is also the time for parents to realize that they are the drivers of their children's education. They set the tone and the expectations. The school can rarely help a child succeed when the parents are disengaged.
This crisis brings that statement into sharp relief, where the chasm between those who can work from home or in relatively safe environments and those who are literally crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder on meat-packing lines is finally brought to light. I resent the meat industry making me a part of their sacrifice, when providing effective PPE could (still) be done. I do try to buy from suppliers who have done more to protect their employees. Still, I feel like a hypocrite when I eat meat and I include the workers in my prayers when I say grace.
Parents are getting creative in how they are preparing for their children's schooling by creating pods to provide supervision and assistance with the online instruction. One of our school board members communicated with the state leaders of nearly all the African American churches in the state to offer help, which the superintendent gladly accepted by assigning the task of creating such pods in our low-income district at the ubiquitous neighborhood churches. Wealthy parents are going back to using governesses for the younger children, while the older ones are off at their boarding schools where they are able to live in similar small groups.
I think StealthRabbit would agree with me that it is time to re-examine the relationship between schooling and education to better empower children to become adults who have the knowledge and skills to become adults who have the choices they want in life. That is what StealthRabbit's children are doing, and my thanks for offering up to the world such young people who are empowered to follow their dreams. The oft-(mis)quoted line "I never let my schooling get in the way of my education" applies here.
Public education has evolved over the years from its inception in the modern world as a place where the children of factory workers, once freed from the factories themselves by the enactment of child labor laws, to the gamut of services that have nothing to do with schooling, but rather social requirements that include the original function of providing a safe place for children whose parents are working. Now that the crisis has upended that function, we see once again the disparities resulting from our society's choices. We need to rethink and rebuild again to weather this storm.
The COVID pandemic won't last forever, but it will last long enough that we need to find a better way, and one that does not expose anyone to unnecessary risk. Let's all get creative and pragmatic and solve this problem. THAT is the American way.
And you know exactly why what you're talking about won't happen. It won't be teachers' (no matter how many of the posters here despise them and blame them for all of society's ills) fault. It won't be the fault of school boards nor state Boards of Education. It won't be the fault of legislatures or even ivory tower, curriculum developing education policy experts who haven't been in a public school classroom for decades.
The fault will lie with whomever lives at 123 Any Street, Everytown, USA. Because they have their own lives to live and send their kids to school to be educated. And godammit, teachers need to get off their asses and do it.
Last edited by North Beach Person; 07-29-2020 at 10:41 AM..
Reason: cleaned up wording
And you know exactly why what you're talking about won't happen. It won't be teachers' (no matter how many of the posters here despise them and blame them for all of society's ills) fault. It won't be the fault of school boards nor state Boards of Education. It won't be the fault of legislatures or even ivory tower, curriculum developing education policy experts who haven't been in a public school classroom for decades.
The fault will lie with whomever lives at 123 Any Street, Everytown, USA. Because they have their own lives to live and send their kids to school to be educated. And godammit, teachers need to get off their asses and do it.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Actually... I don't see / hear anyone disrespecting, disparaging, or blaming teachers for the current USA edu crisis here or elsewhere. (I must travel in small circles).
Teachers probably make up the highest % of our Homeschool group.
4th generation teacher here.
I have never felt 'blamed' for the USA EDU system or results.
Just like any job... often (hopefully always) you are successful in your mission, INSPITE of the system, barriers, customers, and bosses.
True teachers enable the lifelong learning quest and success of those they have been entrusted with, regardless of barriers (Covid, weather, School board, Administrators,, peers, and the difficult life circumstances of students and parents).
There is a mission, accomplish it (well), move on to greater challenges, be available to your previous students for encouragement and amazement of what they have become. (in spite of YOU, or other barriers they have faced)
We equip.
They excel.
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Possibly that is aided from never sitting in a USA PS classroom. (except as volunteer peer mentors).
