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Well, first of all most parents "running the home school show" during COVID were not really doing anything but trying to help their kids get into the online platform where the teacher is still designing and presenting the curriculum and doing all the grading and so on, and then helping them with homework or an activity designed, prepared and evaluated by the teacher. And most parents are finding that pretty hard to manage in addition to whatever their day job is. Some were able to put some time into it temporarily due to being sent home, but many are having to go back into the office, etc.
Second, paying parents to educate assumes a two parent household with one having the luxury to stay home, and also assumes an education level on that parent that according to statistics is more likely not to exist than to exist. Thus, what we would most likely see is an increase in gap between the haves and have-nots where those who are already advantaged would make it work, and those at a disadvantage would fall farther behind.
Third, there are a lot of kids with horrible home lives and abusive parents, etc., whose lives would become that much worse by having no way to get out of there for at least part of the day, or to experience positive interactions with other adults. Public education is a refuge for many of our youth.
If some kids do better, I expect that some sort of hybrid or synchronous learning model will continue to offered by public schools down the road.
Early education intervention by trained professionals does seem to make a significant difference for kids in group 2. They're still tracking the original participants in the Perry Preschool Project 50 years later, and the 'soft' benefits of the program for kids from low SES/low educational attainment families now appear to be multigenerational in some cases.
I wonder if some education researchers are currently trying to fund research projects on the impact of the pandemic on schoolkids like that. A good longitudinal data set is expensive to generate so such projects are normally rather scarce. (And why the Perry dataset comes up a lot in education discussions- because the program funders committed to keeping research going over the long haul)
I was enrolled in a Head Start program when I was a little kid, and I remember it being great. I loved going. I was an early reader and I remember being jazzed that I could check out a new book EVERY DAY.
Going by per pupil averages is a way of lying with statistics, anyway. They're not actually spending nearly that much on a typical pupil. A few programs for a smaller subset of students - which public schools are legally obliged to provide - are super expensive, like intensive SpEd services.
45% of all school expenditures nation-wide are for Transportation (buses!) and Administration. The school system is a mess, run by the mediocre for the clueless. What passes as teaching today is a sad joke.
It's past time to change what passes for public education today. Schools are brick & mortar baby sitting establishments and socializing hangouts where everyone passes and group think has replaced intellectual inquiry. The average homeschooled elementary student blows the public schooled away in achievement tests like the Stanford "Achievement" which has been significantly dumbed down and the parameters changed to where the tests are hardly timed, thus the incompetent have virtually unlimited time. And the school systems still commit fraud in the administration of these "tests". I should know because I've been proctoring so-called achievement tests almost 30 years.
Parents paying overly high taxes in "good" schooling districts have been HAD.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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USA school districts could sell 1/2 the buses and buildings if we only doubled up shifts (2 class sessions / day). Considering how many parents now drive their kids to school, another 1/2 the buses could be sold. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be a 'reduction in commute trips' incentive for soccer mom's and dads.
To rethink all the waste and pollution we have created by being inefficient and complacent in edu would make a nice and useful assignment for homebound covid kids and educators. Now is the time to fix it. Probably could get some Federal $ for the research.
I know some home schooled kids. I work with young adults who were home schooled. Almost always these folks are socially delayed. Often they lack educationally. Some
Parents are barely fit to run their own lives. Some are extremely under educated. Even educated parents are not trained as teachers. Even if homeschool parents have everything going for them, smart, educated and trained as teachers they still cannot provide the socialization that school provides. I am not a fan of homeschooling.
If a parent disapproves of the liberal bend found in many public schools I sympathize with that sentiment as I am a conservative too. Go find a good Christian school and enroll your child. Isolating them in your home and trying to play teacher will not replace real schooling. It just won’t.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danielj72
I know some home schooled kids. I work with young adults who were home schooled. Almost always these folks are socially delayed. Often they lack educationally. Some
Parents are barely fit to run their own lives. Some are extremely under educated. Even educated parents are not trained as teachers. Even if homeschool parents have everything going for them, smart, educated and trained as teachers they still cannot provide the socialization that school provides. I am not a fan of homeschooling.
If a parent disapproves of the liberal bend found in many public schools I sympathize with that sentiment as I am a conservative too. Go find a good Christian school and enroll your child. Isolating them in your home and trying to play teacher will not replace real schooling. It just won’t.
I hire them (Home and public schooled) and find quite the opposite.
Negative social skills of "group schooled", and very positive benefits of cross generational skillset and self starting of homeschooled students (They are usually capable of running the place). Group schooled students sit on their hands and wait for specific directions - (I don't have time for that), when you leave the workplace the Group schooled employees will 'Act-out" rather than work. That costs a lot of money, as they often get injured, and destroy equipment and cause customers to leave or find another supplier. Customer phone skills are vastly different between Public Schooled employees and homeschooled, this either brings or turns-off customers. Trusting your employees to drive company vehicles !!!
The homeschool/public school mommy wars aside, here is what is ACTUALLY going to happen:
Kids with a SAHP or who most of those who are affluent and able to enroll in a small "learning pod" lead by competent parents will see their test scores improve thanks to individual attention, smaller class sizes, and lack of "that kid" which disrupts the class and takes up a good chunk of the teacher's time.
There will be a significant migration away from public schools by this group, as affluent parents and SAHP "teachers" collaborate to make these pods or other types of homeschooling permanent. They'll exit the public school online platforms in favor of home school materials that are better-tailored to their needs.
Kids with two working parents who are dumped in a day care or just left to their own devices will see their scores drop for obvious reasons. Since this is the majority of children, aggregate scores will fall.
In the end, since school funding is generally tied to the number of students attending (which will decrease slightly), and school performance is generally tied to the number of involved parents (which will decrease dramatically), there will be a small drop in funding and a large, lasting drop in performance.
The decrease in funding and enrollment will be most pronounced in affluent areas. Anyone teaching in a HCOL area would be well served to either solidify their retirement plans, or work very hard to stand out as an excellent teacher during the pandemic so they don't get the proverbial ax.
In my HCOL area, schools were already bleeding kids and funding as families moved out. That process is only going to accelerate. Accurate or not, because teachers are only giving a fraction of remote instruction per day, compared to the 6+ hours of in-school work they put in prior to DL, there is a perception that they are not doing very much work. Furthermore, since they must be more present to manage their kids, parents are getting a firsthand look at what is being taught, that is going to leave many of them dissatisfied and feeling like they can do better.
The charters and magnet schools--the ones that previously had wait lists to get in--in my area--have already lost about 5-10% of their student body over the summer. Many of those losses are permanent as families either move away or switch to private/homeschooling. The school district was already making plans to close low-enrollment under-performing schools pre-COVID. Once the COVID funding freeze (to maintain salaries no matter number of students enrolled) is over, it is going to be pretty grim for the poorer schools in our district.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wac_432
The homeschool/public school mommy wars aside, here is what is ACTUALLY going to happen:
...
There will be a significant migration away from public schools by this group, ...
In the end, since school funding is generally tied to the number of students attending (which will decrease slightly), ...there will be a small drop in funding and a large, lasting drop in performance.
The decrease in funding and enrollment will be most pronounced in affluent areas. ... parents are getting a firsthand look at what is being taught, that is going to leave many of them dissatisfied and feeling like they can do better.
..... The school district was already making plans to close low-enrollment under-performing schools pre-COVID. Once the COVID funding freeze (to maintain salaries no matter number of students enrolled) is over, it is going to be pretty grim for the poorer schools in our district.
or... The schools could 're-invent' themselves to provide quality education in a 'post-covid' era.
Lots of downtime in last 6 months for schools to have done that and presented a plan.
Really no(n)sense for schools to not have taken a serious look at what they could do to benefit their students, staff, and community, knowing that a vaccine was 2 yrs off. (if available at all).
Local private schools are very hard hit with the lack of 'boarding' students previously sent from China ~ 30 % of their enrollment and ~70% of their income.
To the OP... "...Can we just pay parents?" absolutely not. A valuable educational experience is not related to $$$ spent. Students themselves should be using this teachable moment as a huge learning advantage. For those in USA... what NOT to do!. There are hundreds of articles every day on how International Education delivery is dealing with Covid-19. Listen, learn, research, apply learnings, test new methods, contribute to world learnings on how to "provide quality education in a 'post-covid' era".
Pretty simple, but not very 'conventional', and will not be the SAME.
COVID is just an opportunity to remake USA EDU, it came as no surprise that we need to revamp our system. Just DO IT!
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