Where Your Children Are illinois

Chicago high school students not showing up to virtual classes

There exists perhaps no greater example of the disparity between socioeconomic classes than the ability of some to “lock down” for the past year, and the necessity of getting back to work as soon as possible for others. For many families, especially in large cities, staying home just wasn’t an option. The concept of virtual schooling wasn’t even on the radar, when bills had to be paid and groceries had to be purchased.

Enter Chicago Public School district, where a recent attendance review found that nearly 20 percent of high schoolers are not attending virtual classes. Jamey Makowski of BUILD Chicago says, “Some of our young people are caring for younger siblings so they are trying to do their work and also care for siblings while parents are not in the home.” In lower-income neighborhoods, perhaps where every adult in the household must work, there is no one standing over these students, making sure they attend virtual classes and complete assignments. At some schools, the numbers were far worse than the city’s average of 20 percent, with more than half of students not showing up for remote learning. A breakdown of some of the worst is below. Race and socioeconomic status are mentioned in order to highlight the overwhelming inequality present when it comes to virtual learning and its “success.”

Austin College and Career Academy High School, with just 43.8% of students attending virtual classes, has overwhelmingly low-income students: 95.4 percent. Most are black, as well: 96.6 percent. More than 16 percent of the students attending ACCA are homeless.

Manley Career Academy High School has 57.3 percent of its students attending online programming, with 93.7 percent of students qualifying as low-income. Black students make up 91.1 percent of the student body. More than 7 percent are homeless.

Douglass Academy High School has a student body that is 93 percent black and 98.2 percent low-income. Fourteen percent of the students at Douglass are homeless. Of enrolled students, only about 60 percent are attending virtual classes.

Some of the worst attendance records (as low as 35 percent attending), sadly, come from Ombudsman schools in Chicago, namely, Rosebud, South, and West High Schools, which are designed with rolling admission for those who have dropped out of traditional public high schools in the area and are looking for an alternative path to graduation. Other low-attendance schools include Youth Connection Charter Schools, which were also designed for drop-outs and at-risk youth. There’s also York High School, which is located within a prison and provides an alternative educational experience for incarcerated people wishing to earn a diploma.

Conversely, schools with high virtual attendance records tend to skew higher-income, like Payton College Preparatory Academy with attendance of 93.8. percent. This school has a majority white and Asian student body, and only 29 percent of students are low-income. Less than a percent of students are reported to be homeless.

Some CPS high schools report nearly half of students absent during remote learning (ABC 7 Chicago)

York High School

Youth Connection Charter School

Chicago Ombudsman Schools

Austin College and Career Academy High School (Illinois Report Card)

Manley Career Academy High School (Illinois Report Card)

Douglass Academy High School (Illinois Report Card)

Payton College Preparatory High School (Illinois Report Card)

Where Your Children Are california

California bribing schools to reopen

It’s no secret that public schooling is all about the money. Teachers are never paid enough. Failing school? Throw more money at it – maybe in the form of high-priced consultants or more testing.

The problem Covid-19 posed, of course, to public schools’ bottom line is, of course, that it’s hard to justify the astronomical costs of running these schools when they haven’t been open for a year. California is set to remedy that with – you guessed it – even more money, now bribing districts to reopen by March 31 to receive extra funding ($2 billion). “Get it while it lasts,” because every extra day they wait after that, they will lose out. An addition $4.6 billion will be made available to all schools, regardless of how they offer instruction.

Eighty-five percent of the money must be used for in-person instruction: perhaps summer school or extended hours for struggling students (because you know virtual school didn’t work out for many).

Specifics such as how many days or for how long students will be in school, haven’t been addressed. Some lawmakers suggest that the reopening could mean just 12 days of in-person instruction between now and the start of summer break. But for a district to receive funding, all K-2nd grade schools must reopen, but only one middle school and one high school grade need to have in-person classes.

Here’s a look at what’s in California’s $6.6 billion school reopening law (KTLA 5)

Newsom signs California schools bill, but SF Democrat says leaders still must ‘beg’ for reopening (Politico)

“Bill to reopen schools” is really a “Bill to try to reopen pre-k to second grade” NOT to reopen all schools for in-person learning for most kids. Be aware. (790 KABC)

Where Your Children Are Miscellaneous, new york

Who benefits from online classes?

emptyschooldark

New York City entered and remained (and to some degree, still remains) in a strict lockdown earlier this year in an effort to “flatten the curve” of the huge COVID-19 outbreak there. Mayor Bill DeBlasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have already released plans for the reopening of schools in the fall, which include alternate-day schooling to minimize the number of students in the city’s already-overcrowded buildings. “Make no mistake,” the district website assures parents: “New York City students will still be learning 5 days a week.” Sure, they will.

But in the struggle to transition to online learning during the 2020 Spring Semester, when lockdowns were quickly put into place and schools shuttered for months on end, many students fell behind, making it necessary to attend virtual summer school, which, unsurprisingly enough, they are also failing. Rachel Forsyth, a director at Good Shepherd Services, a nonprofit helping such students attempt to succeed, said, ““For our students who have already been at the margins of education … education is not really happening.” I’d argue that’s the case for more than just those at the “margins of education.”

Many students blame their lack of achievement in summer school courses on their lack of rapport with teachers they’ve never met before. Teachers will say the same, also citing difficulties with communication and the provided curriculum. Technology issues have further complicated the situation.

The problem with stories like these are that they convince many families that the only way to get back to “real,” “effective” learning is to bring teachers and students back to the classroom. But when COVID-19 safety protocols mandate social distancing, mask wearing, contact tracing, and regular disinfections, one wonders how much time is left for learning, especially on top of the already-existing standardized testing, “character education” disguised as indoctrination, and other nonsensical intrusions into the day.

NYC students already behind in class struggling in virtual summer school

 

Where Your Children Are indiana, Miscellaneous

Student tests positive for COVID-19 on first day of school; school open for business by Monday

greenfieldcentraljh

A junior high in Indiana is under scrutiny as the family of one of its students sent their child to school on its first day of the Fall term even though the results of a COVID-19 screening were still pending.

The student indeed received a positive result sometime Thursday, and the health department notified Greenfield-Central Junior High in Greenfield, Indiana, which in turn notified students and faculty that afternoon in an email. As part of the district’s “Positive COVID-19 Test Protocol,” the school quickly isolated the student, and extra care was taken to disinfect rooms he or she may have been in. The student’s schedule was examined and everyone seated within 6 feet of the student is now required to quarantine for 14 days before returning to school. (Because you know children always sit still in exactly the place they were assigned – I’m sure the rest of the class is fine.)

When interviewed Thursday evening, Harold Olin, superintendent of Greenfield-Central Schools, said, “Tomorrow we will carry on. Obviously we will have fewer students with us, but we’ll continue with what we’re doing.”  Students did return to school Friday, and all systems were a go by Monday morning, when all but the aforementioned students returned to their regularly scheduled classes. 

Greenfield-Central Junior High is located in Greenfield, Indiana, about 30 minutes east of Indianapolis. It serves about 750 students in grades 7 and 8. It has an impressive rating on Greatschools.com overall, citing average or above-average standardized test scores. Approximately 95% of the student body is white.

The school’s website makes no mention of the exposure.

Students at Indiana school back on campus after classmate sent home with positive Covid-19 test

Indiana student tests positive for Covid-19 on first day of school

Greenfield Central Junior High student tests positive for COVID-19

Greenfield-Central student tests positive for COVID-19 on first day back to school

GC Junior High

Greenfield-Central Junior High – GreatSchools