Scaled-back reopening plan put to CCSD board
The Clark County School Board on Thursday will consider a plan to reopen schools that has been dramatically scaled back since it was presented to the public in November by district officials.
The recommendation to be voted on Thursday calls only for the return of small groups of students to campuses for “voluntary academic and socio-emotional intervention,” and it does not set a timetable for the limited return, according to documents posted ahead of the meeting.
Plans for each school would be developed by principals and approved by region superintendents, and bus transportation would not be provided.
The plan before the board was originally presented as the first step in a transition to hybrid learning that would gradually be expanded to full grade levels, and then older students. Thursday’s presentation suggests that a more limited reopening recommendation was shaped by the combined factors of Nevada’s record-breaking rates of COVID-19, the ongoing effects of isolation on mental health and the academic challenges of distance learning.
The new recommendation does not specify which grades would be affected, but that could be part of a board discussion, a district representative said.
The small-group recommendation represents an important first step to reopening, though Clark County is taking it later than other large districts, said Bradley Marianno, a professor of education policy at UNLV who has tracked reopening plans at districts nationwide.
“We’re not the first to navigate this path, and often it begins with this step,” he said.
He said he’d like to see the district provide transportation to and from the on-campus interventions, as it’s likely that many of those who are struggling most with distance learning don’t have a parent available to drive them.
Though rising COVID-19 case rates have slowed reopening plans, Marianno said he’s optimistic that CCSD students in all grades will have the option to do hybrid instruction before the year’s end, as peer districts like Miami-dade, Chicago and New York City move forward with similar plans.
“Clark County is going to have to take that leap at some point,” he said.
Academics suffering
All student groups in the Clark County School District saw more failing grades during the fall semester of distance learning than in previous school years, something Marianno characterized as in line with national reports and local anecdotes about distance learning.
The data shows that 90.4 percent of comprehensive schools at the district assigned more F’s, and 77.2 percent assigned more D’s in the fall semester of 2020 than in 2019, mirroring a national trend of lower student achievement during school closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a presentation prepared for the School Board, the percentage of F grades in the district more than doubled, from 6 percent of all grades in fall 2019 to 13 percent of all grades in fall 2020.
And while the percentage of A grades remained the same, at 31 percent, the presentation states that 11.2 percent of students who received an F in fall 2020 had A’s and B’s in fall 2019. That affirms many families’ reports that their typically high-achieving students struggled with virtual school.
A further discussion on academic performance is expected Thursday, but Superintendent Jesus Jara briefly addressed the topic in a virtual talk Monday with School Board president Linda Cavazos and Rep. Susie Lee, hinting that some future flexibility on assessments might be needed from the U.S. Department of Education.
“It’s going to take us a lot longer to catch up the academic needs of our students. It’s more than Saturday school and summer school,” he said. “We need to know where our kids are when they come back and measure what they’re learning and growing, in a way to support them, not necessarily in a punitive way.”
Among student groups, over half of all English-learner students received an F during the fall semester. Students identified as Hispanic, Black, American Indian and Pacific Islander all saw double-digit increases in the percentages of students receiving F grades this fall.
Students who qualify for free and reduced-priced lunch also saw a 7-point rise in the number of students who received failing grades.
UNLV law professor Sylvia
Lazos described the impacts on English-learner and low-income students in particular as devastating, with implications for Southern Nevada for years to come.
“Research shows that when the general population falls behind a semester, we’re talking about these children in vulnerable populations falling behind a grade, or even a grade-and-a-half,” Lazos said.
She said there’s an urgent need for not only academic interventions like summer school and Saturday school, but also for reopening and distance learning materials translated into languages other than English.
With $477 million in federal relief budgeted for Nevada schools, Lazos said, CCSD should make remediation a top priority.
Mental health factor
In addition to the grade data, the district’s presentation Thursday will report on mental health data, including a finding that 18 percent of 10,000 students surveyed requested help with a socio-emotional issue.
Family therapist Sheldon Jacobs said many of his clients who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds have struggled with the requirements of distance learning on top of other stressors, like working to support their families.
“They make a concerted effort to get the work in, but there are other factors going on inside the home that distract them,” Jacobs said. “They may not have a parent who’s there at home, or they don’t know how to reach out to help.”
Furthermore, the connection between academic performance and mental health is sometimes even more apparent in typically high-achieving students, Jacobs said.
“For a lot of kids, it can lead them down this path of helplessness,” he said. “Doing well in school allowed them to feel better about themselves. It hits them harder, like something else is being taken away.”
Jacobs said he’s optimistic that the recommendation to bring students back in small groups will help rekindle some of the all-important connections to peers and teachers that will boost both mental health and academic performance.
But during distance learning, he also encourages parents to be mindful of any changes in their children.
“For a student who’s used to excelling in school and is no longer excelling, there might be something going on,” he said.