E-classrooms become popular alternative
Lehigh Valley districts creating programs to meet booming demand
When school starts up in a couple of weeks, Bret Rosenzweig’s second and third grade sons will do their lessons strictly online from their home — even though the Parkland School District is allowing elementary students to return to school full time.
Virtual schooling isn’t perfect, Rosenzweig said. But with no end in sight for the coronavirus pandemic, he doesn’t feel comfortable sending Levi and Milo to Cetronia Elementary.
“It doesn’t seem like the wisest choice to send the kids to school,” Rosenzweig said. “The risk outweighs the benefits.”
The Rosenzweig boys will enroll in Parkland Online, a program the district created for parents who are not comfortable sending their children back to school. Parkland Online is similar to alternatives offered by other districts as they roll out their reopening plans. By creating cyber-classrooms that students can attend full time, districts are allowing students to stay in their district and use the same curriculum as those in classrooms, while also working from home and staying safe.
Cybercharter schools are seeing more parents look into that option. The Pennsylvania Coali-
tion of Public Charter Schools doesn’t collect enrollment numbers from cybercharters, but has seen more interest now in cyber-learning, said Jessica Hickernell, director of public affairs and policy.
“We have heard from our cybercharter schools that the number of families inquiring about their schools this summer is much higher than normal and they are already experiencing significant enrollment increases,” she said.
The state Education Department did not respond to a question about how popular the cyberclassrooms are that school districts are creating.
Locally, districts are seeing many parents opt for virtual lessons.
Parkland is planning for elementary students to return to the classroom every day, while students in sixth through 12th grades will come to school two days a week and learn online the other days.
Parkland created Parkland Online to recognize that while most parents may want their children back in school, others have concerns about students or family members catching the coronavirus.
Parkland anticipates that about 80% of its 9,500 students will want to come back to a physical classroom, but 20% will choose virtual classes full time, said Tracy Smith, assistant to the superintendent for operations. Every student already has access to an iPad or Chromebook that allows them to complete school work from home.
Smith said a number of things could push families toward virtual learning, including social distancing guidelines for young children during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think the driver for some parents, at the elementary level, is with young children wearing masks and they don’t feel comfortable with that,” she said. “We want to be flexible enough to meet all those needs.”
When schools closed in March because of the coronavirus, online learning at home was a challenge, Rosenzweig acknowledged, especially as the weather got nice and his sons wanted to be outside. Some days, he and his wife had to barter with their children to complete their lessons.
“But I’ll take that any day over being on a ventilator,” he said. “The trade-off is: Am I more concerned about my kid learning long-form division or do I want to visit my kid in the hospital?”
In other Lehigh Valley districts, numbers indicate that families are considering online classes even if in-person ones are available. In Northampton, more than 600 students enrolled in the district’s Kids eLearning, a program the district created this year. When the district conducted a survey among families, more than 75% of parents responded saying they want children to return to the physical classrooms.
Northampton Area Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik thinks e-classrooms, like Kids eLearning, will be popular because they allow students to return to the classroom and not be behind academically since the curriculum is similar to what is being taught in the physical classroom.
“The Kids eLearning allows parents more flexibility and this option will be more educationally sound for children because the program is linked with the face-to-face instruction,” he said.
The virtual or e-classrooms that are being created differ slightly from the formal cyberacademies that districts have long had. Unlike the cyberacademies, the new programs are closely aligned with curriculum being taught in the classroom and will be taught by district teachers. Most districts, like Bethlehem, are also allowing children to return to the physical classroom before the first marking period ends. Cyberacademies, on the other hand, require students to stay in the program through the first quarter.
The number of interested Northampton students is similar to Nazareth’s, where 600 students have expressed interest in attending the district’s newly created cyberprogram. About 3% of Bethlehem’s 13,600 students have already registered for the BASD e-classroom.
It’s not just parents who fear going back to the classroom. A national poll says 1 in 5 teachers might not return if their schools reopen for in-person classes. The poll, conducted by USA Today/Ipsos, also found that nearly 9 in 10 teachers believe it would be hard to enforce social distancing guidelines at school.
In some states, teachers unions are pushing back against plans to reopen. Florida’s largest teachers union sued top state officials Monday over an order mandating a return of in-person schooling.
Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union urged Gov. Tom Wolf to direct schools to plan for online learning and has urged state lawmakers to provide clear direction on how to safely reopen.
The e-classrooms might quell the worries of some teachers. District officials have said that the online classes they are creating can be taught by teachers who are at high risk for a serious case of the coronavirus.
For students to enroll in the cyberacademies, which are taught by Pennsylvania certified teachers and allow students to work more independently at their own pace, there’s a cost to the district. In Northampton, it’s $5,000 per student, so with 25 more students enrolling in the cyberprogram, the district had to shell out $125,000 it didn’t budget for.
But there could be hidden costs for the e-classrooms, as well. Districts are still collecting registrations and figuring out how many teachers want to teach virtually. They might have to shell out money if, for example, a large number of students in a certain grade decide to enroll and additional teachers are needed.
“Lots of moving pieces and the days are speeding by,” Bethlehem Superintendent Joseph Roy said.
Some parents, however, want to choose the online option but worry how traditional schools will handle the switch to virtual learning. Charissa West’s seventh grade daughter attended Northeast Middle School last year in Bethlehem and loved it. But like other parents, West is concerned about the coronavirus and doesn’t feel it’s safe to return to school.
West wanted to enroll her daughter in the BASD e-classroom, but her daughter suggested they try Connections Academy, an online school based out of Maryland, because an established cyberschool has more experience in virtual learning.
“She feels a school that is used to doing online school all the time will be the best option, versus her middle school which isn’t used to that,” West said.
Still, her daughter will miss her friends and Northeast teachers. West said her daughter will likely go back to the Bethlehem district “once it’s safe to go back and the chaos is over and the risk of an unusual school year has passed.”