Online and hybrid learning a big test for state’s families

As the coronavirus pandemic surges into autumn, California’s students, teachers and families are embarking on an extraordinary school year. Most of the usual back-to-school traditions have been scrapped. Now, students in most parts of the state are getting to know new teachers, learning new skills and meeting new friends virtually, in a hightech experiment that will likely affect education in California for years to come.

This is the first in a continuing series on how California families are confronting the learning challenges created by the COVID-19 crisis.

With thousands of campuses closed for in-person instruction, many students will weather the pandemic at home, following their teachers on Zoom and navigating lessons and projects on their own. Other students, meanwhile, are still struggling to obtain tablets or laptops, reliable internet access and quiet places to study. And some students are cautiously venturing back to the classroom, in hybrid schedules with students spending part of the week in school and part at home attending virtually, intended to keep children safe while offering some semblance of normalcy.

In a continuing series, EdSource will be tracking families throughout the state. We’ll find out what’s working, what’s not and how students and their families feel about the state of our K-12 public education system as it adapts to these tumultuous times.

Here’s one story from a family in Oakland:

Carolyn Bims-Payne, a single mom in Oakland, has posted inspirational pictures and sayings in her kitchen, where her sons Michael Lee, 12, and Jaylen Lee, 10, work on their homework as they participate in distance learning. These include daily scriptures they read together each morning, a “to-do” list and their schedules “to really pump them up and be engaged,” she said.

“We have quotes and affirma

tions to get them in the mindset: ‘We’re going to make the best of this,'” she said.

Bims-Payne is a social worker for Alameda County, who works from home four days a week and monitors her sons by phone on Fridays, when she goes into her office. Overall, she is pleased with the quality of instruction Michael, a seventh grader at Edna Brewer Middle School, is receiving, but is less impressed with the level of instruction that Jaylen, a fourth grader at Laurel Elementary, has received

this school year. Both schools are part of the Oakland Unified School District, which began instruction Aug. 10.

Michael’s school divided up his six classes into two blocks called “mini-mesters.” The first block consists of three classes each day for seven weeks, followed by the other three classes the following seven weeks. He’s taking music, history and math, and has been meeting with an advisory teacher for the first two weeks who focused on “community-building” activities such as reading poetry by Tupac Shakur about panthers, the school’s mascot, and discussing its relevance to the Black Panthers

in Oakland and the Black Lives Matter movement.

But Jalen initially had only 30 minutes of live Zoom interaction with his teacher each day, BimsPayne said. That interaction, at least through the third week of school, mainly consisted of his teacher giving out assignments and communicating with the class about expectations. Instruction was lacking, Bims-Payne said. Jaylen had a reading assessment on Aug. 24, but the next day, his teacher’s Chromebook and internet started “cutting out,” she said.

This has led to a feeling that her sons are part of a huge experiment, “where

it’s just really trial and error,” she said.

To supplement what she considers minimal instruction for Jaylen, Bims-Payne purchased a reading workbook to build his comprehension. She’s also concerned that Michael has no English course during his first “mini-mester,” which she believes is important to help hone his writing skills.

But Jaylen and Michael said they are adjusting to learning from home.

“I miss my friends and I feel like it’s better at school because with online learning, you’re not learning all the things that you learn in the classroom,” Jaylen said, adding that he wishes he could do more math. He

said he is reading “Frog and Toad” books recommended by his teacher.

Michael said he expected to receive an instrument for his music class soon, and he was learning about Islam in history and geometry in math.

“I’m enjoying it,” he said. “I’m getting way more work than usual. We get homework every day.”

But school has started with some concerns. Michael didn’t receive his class schedule until 10 days after school started, and Bims-Payne still didn’t know what classes he will have during his second “mini-mester.” She also doesn’t know how the district may eventually transition