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The Notre Dame High School graduation in Fairfield, Conn. on Sunday, July 12, 2020.
Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut MediaThe Notre Dame High School graduation in Fairfield, Conn. on Sunday, July 12, 2020.
The Notre Dame High School graduation in Fairfield, Conn. on Sunday, July 12, 2020.
The Notre Dame High School graduation in Fairfield, Conn. on Sunday, July 12, 2020.
In Norwalk last week, summer school opened in person. One day later, instruction was shifted to e-learning when a person from the school community tested positive for coronavirus. Norwalk’s summer school was to switch back again to in-person learning this week.
If school districts strive to provide as much in-school learning as possible during the pandemic, as most people from all stakeholder populations desire, this accordion effect of switching back and forth when it’s safe will likely be the model schools follow when they reopen this August and September. Over and over, sacrificial lambs from all populations of the education sector will contract the virus, triggering a temporary closing until some yet-to-be-established plan deems it safe to reopen.
Because coronavirus spreads via tiny droplets, or aerosols, when a person exhales, talks, laughs, sings, coughs, etc., it will circulate through schools. Believing children will keep on masks for six or seven hours is a delusion.
Therefore, we need to ask ourselves: is the inconsistency of on-again-off-again in-person learning going to be more disruptive and detrimental than consistent, well-planned and -executed online learning? In other words, will working parents be able to — at the drop of a hat — work from home for a few weeks? And, if they do not have such a luxury, will they have no choice but to send sick children to school? Furthermore, when schools flip to e-learning overnight due to an outbreak, will students be equipped with enough books, materials, and/or computers to last the entire undetermined time they will be home? Will a rigorous support system instantaneously be in place for struggling students?
To prevent stressful and life-threatening conditions, avoid a roller-coaster ride of erratic in-person and online learning, and give educators time to create robust e-learning programs, districts should emulate Harvard and implement e-learning from the beginning of the school year.
Early implementation of e-learning will allow teachers to plan interactive and appropriately rigorous online instruction. Parents can begin to negotiate with their employers and possibly look for babysitters now. Schools can distribute a year’s worth of electronics and other educational materials to students. Special education departments can set up multiple systems of support for their students. Support staff might establish small advisory groups — teacher or social worker-led student communities whose purpose is to lessen feelings of isolation. Response to Intervention teams can plan to reach out to regular education students who struggled with e-learning in the spring.
But there will be gaps. Students will fall behind district benchmarks.
That’s why an optional 13th year should become the norm. All families should have the option of their child repeating a year or adding on an extra year of secondary school.
We do not know the impact the pandemic will have on individual students. But we can prepare for the extra time many students will need to make up for social, emotional, academic and athletic deficits caused by the loss of in-person learning.
An optional 13th year would safeguard a quality education for all. Knowing this extra year is a possibility might also mitigate stress for parents who know that their child is going to fall behind. Making it available to all students could destigmatize repeating a year.
Over the years, some schools have already initiated such programs. Five-year public high schools, which are geared toward highly motivated students, offer dual-enrollment at the high school and local college or community college to ensure they produce college-ready graduates. Students at five-year high schools can earn an associate degree by taking tuition-free college courses, saving parents a year’s worth of college tuition. With the outrageous cost of college tuition, a 13th year might be a solution that solves two problems. After COVID, no parent should be required to foot the bill for his or her child to fill in deficits.
Where will the money come from for a 13th year? For the first year, districts should look at the millions they will have saved on building operational costs and busing as a result of online learning. In the future, local governments can get creative when they think about the rising health care costs that will be prevented by not inundating our hospitals with COVID patients.
Let’s see the forest for the trees. The pandemic is temporary. It may be with us for months or years. But eventually, students and teachers will be back in buildings. For now, it behooves us to accept the situation and proactively design comprehensive e-learning systems that address anticipated needs of students, teachers, and parents and create lasting, positive changes in the structure of public schools. Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior — what will year 13 be called?
Kerry McKay teaches and writes in Fairfield.
"Opinion" - Google News
July 14, 2020 at 11:00AM
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Opinion: Let’s make K-13 the new normal - CT Post
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