State seeks information on how students are faring

How are middle and high school students faring during the pandemic? State Department of Education officials want to know.

The call went out last week through all public middle and high schools in the state inviting students to share how they are learning through the pandemic and what schools could do to make them feel more connected, energized and enthusiastic in the current school year.

Using a Thoughtexchange platform, the state hopes to gather input from students in the same way it has heard from other stakeholders such as parents and teachers, officials said.

“It is important that we also hear from our students,” said Ajit Goplakrishnan, the chief performance officer for the state Department of Education. The goal is to get representation from all across the state, he said.

To participate, students should contact their schools.

Previous ThoughtExchange surveys on other topics have generated more than 16,000 responses from students, state officials said.

The COVID- 19 pandemic forced all schools to go remote in the spring. In the fall, many, but not all, schools reopened, at least partially.

As of the week of Nov. 30, some 37 percent of school districts were running classes fully inperson, 19 percent were in a hybrid situation — attending in person some days of the week and learning remotely on other days — and 44 percent were fully remote.

Even in schools with all inperson classes, students have the option of learning from home.