San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Struggling students can be called back to campus
Some Texas students falling behind in online-only classes soon could face a mandate from their public school districts: return to campus, or find somewhere else to learn.
Faced with widespread reports of students failing and missing classes, the Texas Education Agency issued guidance Thursday that allows school districts to stop offering virtual instruction to individual students with poor grades or attendance.
Several San Antonio-area districts have considered such a move, but previous TEA guidance didn’t allow them to pick and choose which students to call back to campus. Canceling online learning meant canceling it for everybody.
Texas public school districts must offer in-person instruction to those families that want it. Many also offer online instruction. The share of students attending virtual classes varies by district, typically ranging from onethird to three-quarters in and around San Antonio.
Under the new guidance, districts now can deny virtual instruction to children with an average grade of less than 70 in their classes or at least three unexcused absences in a grading period.
“It gives you new tools to support these students that are struggling academically, to get them into an instructional environment that will better support them and, hopefully, address some of the problems we’re seeing,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told superintendents on a conference call Thursday.
Hondo Independent School District in Medina County west of San Antonio last month decided to eliminate its remote learning program in response to slipping grades and high absenteeism — 80 percent of the district’s online learners missed five or more days of instruction.
Nearby Natalia ISD had planned to eliminate remote learning in phases, starting with students who had failing grades and recurring absences, but abandoned that plan after several students tested positive for COVID-19 and the TEA updated its guidance on Oct. 15 to specify that individual students could not be compelled to return to campuses.
As of Friday, Natalia ISD Interim Superintendent Lana Collavo said the district has not changed its decision in light of the commissioner’s new guidance. The topic is not on the trustees’ Monday board meeting agenda.
Bandera ISD had also informed parents on Oct. 6 that any student learning remotelywho didn’t pass all classes on their Oct. 16 progress report would be required to return to campus, a plan thrown into doubt by the Oct. 15 state guidance. Bandera ISD Superintendent Jerry Hollingsworth did not respond to questions about how the district’s plans might be impacted by the latest rule change.
Under the new guidelines, districts must notify parents and guardians at least twoweeks in advance about their intention to stop offering virtual classes to a student. Families can appeal the decision by submitting medical documentation or seeking a “transition meeting” to discuss options.
However, the agency said, districts have final authority over
whether to grant appeals.
“If the parent does not appeal or if, at the conclusion of the transition meeting, the (district) does not conclude with the parent that the student can be successful learning from home, the (district) may require the student to transition to on-campus learning,” according to the TEA guidance.
Fromthe outset of the pandemic, education leaders across Texas have reported large numbers of students missing assignments, not showing up for web-based classes and performing poorly on coursework. The full scale of the issue remains unclear, though early results are emerging.
In Dallas ISD, the state’s seconddistrict, officials reported last week that middle and high school attendance rates, which typically hover around 95 percent, are down by 10 percentage points so far this year. In addition, 5 to 8 percent of secondary students have not participated in classwork for at least three consecutive days.
The lack of student engagement
comes as math tests given this fall suggest 80 percent of Dallas students have fallen further behind or stagnated since the middle of 2019-2020. About half of the students did not make up ground in reading, district officials said.
“Our story is lining up with other districts in the state,” said Derek Little, Dallas’ deputy chief of academics.
Austin ISD officials reported last month that the percentage of students with a failing grade doubled this fall, from 8 percent last year to 16 percent this year, according to KVUE-TV. Abilene ISD Superintendent David Young said nearly half of online-only students failed at least one class in the first grading period, compared with 13 percent of those attending in-person classes, KTXSTV reported.
“We know in talking to many of our neighboring districts, we do anticipate that as we disaggregate the data, we’re going to see much higher failure rates than we have in the past in the first grading period,” said Diana Sayavedra, deputy
superintendent at Fort Bend ISD.
Districts are funded largely on the basis of the number of studentswho attend school each day, including virtual classes. TEA officials have guaranteed districts will not be penalized for the first18 weeks of this school year if their enrollment is down amid the pandemic. Beyond that initial period, districts will face a reduction in funding for each student who has left, unless the TEA changes that rule.
Districts that refuse to offer online-only classes to struggling students also risk harming children forced to find a different — and potentially worse — educational setting.
State data show about 190 districts had 95 percent or more of their students attending in-person classes as of late September. All of those districts enrolled fewer than 5,000 students, and all but three reported fewer than 1,000 students.