Virtual education gets better, in some ways
Two observations from a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher I spoke with recently:
Parent participation in recent conferences about how students are doing was much greater than in the past because, like everything else, the sessions were done virtually and the teacher could, in effect, meet parents at home. For this teacher, conversations were held involving about three quarters of students, compared to one quarter usually.
The teacher also said that online classes were providing video snapshots normally not seen of the home situations of students. In many cases, the glimpses were pretty concerning.
Each of the teacher’s observations point to an important aspect of the big picture for educating kids currently:
On the one hand, there are upsides emerging to all the tumultuous change since mid-March. Better parent involvement with what children are learning and more connection with teachers appears to be one of them.
Probably more important, a lot of kids and a lot of teachers are getting much better at remote learning or at navigating complex schedules of inschool and at-home time. And, for those who are in school in person full time, kids and adults seem to be getting used to pandemic effects like wearing masks.
(This is definitely not the case for everybody. There are lot of kids, teachers and parents who are, at best, getting worn down, whatever circumstances they are dealing with. I don’t want to get too cheerful about all this.)
On the other hand, as the glimpses into kids’ homes show, the broad and underlying issues that were urgent before COVID-19 remain urgent – and may be getting worse.
The situation of kids, especially those in poverty and/or in homes that aren’t functioning well, is hugely worrisome. That applies to kids’ health, their social-emotional well-being, even just shelter and food.
In terms of education, there is no evidence kids nationwide are making progress and some evidence they are backsliding. Test scores in reading and math in Wisconsin and nationwide had gone down a few notches in recent years, even before the pandemic hit. That was underscored by results released Wednesday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress on math and reading abilities of 12th graders nationwide. Based on 2019 results – before COVID-19 — math success was flat and reading was down a bit. In short, reading and math abilities remain a big (and likely growing) worry.
Oh, and one more thing: Underlying school crises are probably getting worse. That applies particularly to money issues and to the current and future state of teaching.
But let’s lean toward the optimistic side for the moment. For that, there may be nobody better than Keith Posley, the superintendent of MPS, perhaps the most optimistic person I’ve ever met.
For example, Posley proposed to the Milwaukee School Board on Tuesday that MPS aim to offer some classes in school in the second half of January.
One high-ranking MPS administrator said students need more rigor and the interim Milwaukee health commissioner said kids might be safer in school, where lots of precautions are taken, than at home, and that 62 non-MPS schools in Milwaukee that are operating now in-person are generally doing OK.
But, citing the high number of COVID-19 cases now and facing firm opposition from teachers to reopening schools, the board showed no inclination to reopen in January. It voted 9-0 to keep working on plans and to meet in the second half of January to consider what to do. (Will there be in-person schooling in MPS this school year? Seems like a good question.)
I viewed this as a defeat for Posley. But, in an interview, he cheerfully disagreed. A good conversation was had and they’ll keep working on plans, he said.
How are things going when it comes to education for MPS students? “I think students are doing well,” Posley said. There are indicators that a lot of students are learning, he said. Teachers are doing much better with virtual teaching than in the spring. “I think students really enjoy this, too. This is the technology generation,” he said.
The indicators that Posley offered that things were going well were actually kind of sparse – including what teachers say about how their students are doing and things Posley sees when he drops in on classes electronically.
Students have been engaged with their academics, he said. But MPS is not doing its usual system-wide tests this fall because it’s hard to do them virtually, so there’s no data on achievement.
One specific Posley offered: Systemwide daily participation in virtual learning — let’s call that attendance — is running at about 87%. For high schools, it’s been 81.6%. Posley said that at this point last year, in-person attendance by high school students was 80.8%, so that’s up a little bit.
And, in line with what I heard from the teacher with whom I spoke, Posley said, “I was impressed with the number of parents that have taken part in parent-teacher conferences.” He said there were not yet overall figures on that.
Posley said MPS is trying to hire about 100 more teachers, but all classrooms are covered. That is partly because of steps such as reassigning some teachers from administrative jobs to classroom jobs and partly because the size of some classes has been increased, thanks to the flexibility of virtual teaching.
A lot of good things are being learned from virtual teaching, Posley said. “This is a golden opportunity,” he said. “This is something going forward that we’re going to look at doing more of . ... This takes us to a new level.”
Idealists can hope that new level is a step forward in the long run. But the less optimistic might wonder what that new level is going to look like when it comes to overall student success.
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.