The likely toll of distance learning on the well-being of students, through social isolation and loss of learning, was not lost on some members of the Cheshire Board of Education.
The board, meeting remotely during a virtual meeting last Monday night, discussed state officials’ plans to fully reopen schools this fall, and the impact of distance learning over the last months of the school year that had just ended.
Board member Tim White cited a report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics that remote learning was likely to result in students experiencing severe learning loss and social isolation.
Board colleague Anne Harrigan, in response, suggested board members and the public need to be mindful of what schools provide for their community.
“It’s not just education, it’s health, it’s social emotional well-being, it’s safety, it’s many, many things that our public schools do for our children,” Harrigan said.
The conversation came as Cheshire and other school districts in the Meriden area assess the effectiveness of the distance learning programs they rolled out last spring and prepare for the physical reopening of their school buildings in September.
True cohesive measures of how much learning was lost and the extent of student participation during remote learning will be difficult to ascertain.
In Southington, school officials had leaned on classroom teachers to check in with students to make sure they were logging into remote learning programs and participating in their academic lessons throughout the spring, according to Steve Madancy, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
If teachers were unable to reach families, then school administrators and counselors would make attempts to follow up with families.
“In most cases you need to follow up through the lens of support, not through the lens of you’re truant,” Madancy said.
By taking a supportive, rather than punitive approach, educators learned that some students were not logging on because of a range of difficulties. Some were as simple as technology. While others were because families faced economic and other hardships that were more pressing than academics.
“School wasn’t a priority, because their families were enduring a hardship,” Madancy said.
By reaching out to families on a case-by-case basis, educators were able to connect with and engage with most families.
Meriden Public Schools reported generally high participation numbers based on students’ logins. Weekly attendance figures school officials shared showed at most of the city’s schools more than 95% of students were logging into remote learning programs regularly. At several schools those percentages declined by a few points during the final weeks of school.
At the middle school level the percentages were significantly lower than at the city’s elementary schools and high schools. For example, during the first full week of remote learning, which ended Friday, March 20, Washington Middle School reported a student participation rate of 79%. That same week, Lincoln Middle School reported an 86% student participation rate.
Most other schools in the city reported student participation rates above 95% that same week.
In Wallingford, school officials had acknowledged a reporter’s request for information regarding student and teacher attendance during distance learning with a statement that the query would be reviewed. Officials did not provide any further information.
The State Department of Education, through the Learn from Home Task Force, surveyed school districts statewide to determine the extent of student participation in distance learning programs.
The department reported 170 of 201 districts responded to that survey. According to a CTMirror.org report on the survey results, some 137,000 students lost learning, either through minimal participation in remote learning, or because they didn’t participate at all.
The Mirror noted that the bar for students to be considered fully learning “was pretty low,” as students simply needed to complete assignments weekly to be considered fully participating.
According to the survey results, 90% of students participated in online learning, the other 10% received home learning packets or other materials.
However, the 90% did not necessarily mean those students were fully participating. The survey results found more than 74% had fully participated, while another 14% of students partially participated. Another 8% of students minimally participated.
In Cheshire, Board of Education Chairman Anthony Perugini praised the school district’s staff for being “able to maneuver so quickly and respond to online learning.”
“The feedback has been very positive,” Perugini said. “It’s not perfect, but knowing some of the other school districts’ struggles, we were able to get there quicker, because the district and town were able to shore up the technology we needed.
“Our teachers had to adapt to a new style on the fly. They performed very well,” Perugini said.
School officials in Cheshire didn’t release specific data indicating how many students participated or how many were shown as having logged into online remote learning programs.
Solan said despite the sudden disruption in mid-March of in-person instruction to a remote delivery, students continued to learn.
“Did they learn our curriculum to the degree we would have engaged them in, if they were in school? No. Does that mean all of a sudden Cheshire students are behind? No. The entire planet is dealing with that.
“They learned. They maybe didn’t learn all of the stuff we had planned they would learn. But our kids will continue to grow,” Solan said.
“Our student attendance we monitored through participation,” Solan said. “When teachers realized students weren’t participating, then they would contact school counselors to contact families.”
Last month Cheshire school officials held 38 virtual meetings with parents to gauge how engaged students were in online learning programs. Questions included what strategies worked best for students. Officials convened similar input sessions with teachers as well.
Solan described it as an autopsy of the spring learning experience, as school officials prepare for a return to classrooms this fall with the significant likelihood that educators may need to rapidly activate remote learning programs.
“There’s not a lot of time to nail that,” Solan said.
Parents and educators provided similar feedback during the sessions: both prefer in-person, in-classroom teaching and learning.
“It’s good to see there was a lot of alignment between what teachers said and what parents said,” Solan said.
“Relationships really matter between our staff and our students,” Solan said. “One of the things I worry about with the fall return is if it’s not in person to start, how do we build those relationships?”
mgagne@record-journal.com203-317-2231Twitter:@MikeGagneRJ
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