Distance learning getting mixed reviews from parents
Some criticize the district’s at-home teaching, while others say it is an improvement over last semester
STAMFORD — Greg Chuckas has a son at Westhill High School taking four AP classes, and he’s worried the current school structure isn’t up to the challenge of the material.
His son is in Stamford’s hybrid model, meaning he goes to class at Westhill every other day. The days his son is at home, which are considered school days by the district, he is essentially on his own in terms of instruction,
Chuckas said.
“My son basically has to self-teach on two or three days a week,” he said. “I find this to be absurd.”
Roughly 13,000 students across the district are taking part in the same hybrid model. Early into the school year, reviews of the athome learning portion can vary widely.
Chuckas, for example, is disappointed that the district does not offer live streaming of classes, which he thinks would allow his son to follow along with instruction much easier than just by doing assignments at home.
“I am above and beyond impressed with how everyone is working together. I know it is not easy.”
Judy Klym, Westhill High School PTO president
Others, like Westhill PTO President Judy Klym, have been satisfied with the results, even after a history class on her son’s schedule was surprisingly dropped.
The class was eliminated when the teacher was moved to the “Online Academy” — which is serving the roughly 20 percent of students who chose to do remote learning full time this semester. Thanks to help from a guidance counselor at the school, Klym’s son was able to get into a different history class.
“I am above and beyond impressed with how everyone is working together,” Klym said. “I know it is not easy.”
Setting up classes for students across the district has not been easy.
Amy Beldotti, associate superintendent for teaching and learning, said whenever there has been movement of students, those switching from the hybrid model to distance learning, and vice versa, it has created scheduling issues.
In just the last three weeks, she said 600 more students moved into the distance learning academy, including 400 at the high school level. At seven courses for each student, that meant the school district suddenly had to fill 2,800 high school class slots to accommodate them.
“It’s a crazy puzzle,” Beldotti said.
More students in online learning also means more teachers are needed, so many instructors in the hybrid model were moved to the academy at the last minute, meaning the classes they had been scheduled to teach in-person were collapsed.
“Every time you move a teacher from hybrid into the distance teaching and learning academy, that could be 150 kids displaced,” Beldotti said.
In all, there are roughly 3,800 students taking part in the distance learning academy. There too, course offerings have been reduced somewhat compared with what is available to students in normal years, depending on availability and certification of teachers.
At the high school level, many students were given the option to take certain courses through the online system Edgenuity if there wasn’t a particular class offered. Beldotti said almost 800 requests for classes were filled with courses from the online curriculum tool. She expects that number to be over 1,000 by the end of the semester.
By late Thursday morning, Beldotti said almost all scheduling issues, or about “98 percent,” had been resolved, save for a few outliers.
“I understand why parents are frustrated but I don’t think people realize how challenging this process is,” she said.
Rachel Shanen, the mother of a Westhill student in the hybrid model, has been vocal in her displeasure with her daughter’s education so far.
Shanen was upset when her daughter’s Spanish class was dropped in order to place the teacher of the class into distance learning just one day before the start of school. Her daughter was put in a study hall for that period instead.
That issue was ultimately resolved, but Shanen was again angered when she discovered a teacher in one of her daughter’s honors classes was not in the classroom. Instead, a substitute was in the class to watch over the students, while the teacher assigned work though Google Classroom, as Shanen described it.
“That’s not teaching, sorry,” she said. “Why does my daughter have a teacher who is not in the classroom?”
Beldotti said that such an instance would occur if a teacher was in quarantine and teaching remotely, or was not able to be in the school building for a medical reason.
Jill Chuckas, Greg Chuckas’ sister-in-law, also has a daughter who attends Westhill. Jill is a special education advocate who works with families in Fairfield County and also served on the Stamford school district’s reopening committee.
Her primary frustration is that classes are not being livestreamed for students when they are at home.
“Because of the profession I’m in, I’m able to see how other districts and private schools are doing it,” she said, adding that other Fairfield County communities have incorporated live streaming into their models.
She worries that there is no accountability for hybrid students when they are at home.
“I’m frustrated that she’s only getting instruction every other day,” Chuckas said.
She added, “Unfortunately, I don’t feel she’s going to get an appropriate free and public education this year.”
Beldotti said she is aware of nearby districts offering livestreaming, but said she has learned that some have encountered technical issues and other problems, or lost class time getting the technology to work appropriately.
Nonetheless, she said the district has encouraged teachers to do live-streaming if they feel comfortable and willing, and some already have, she said.
Beldotti said distance learning so far is more robust than what was offered last spring. One reason she believes that is that her own children attend Stamford schools, including one at Stamford High School, and have told her so.
“They feel like it’s a lot of work but not too much,” she said. “It feels like a normal school day.”
Her son also takes three AP courses. While she understands the concerns from parents worried about their children getting an adequate education this semester, she said AP students are likely best prepared to weather the storm.
“I’m more concerned about those types of learners and students who rely on adult support,” Beldotti said.
Ultimately, she said the district is doing as well as it can with distance learning given the circumstances, but the situation remains less than ideal.
“Every district is struggling,” she said.