It’s been a month since the election and we’re still sort of swimming in inertia. Whether it’s uncertainty of the election or uncertainty over where Covid numbers are going, most of us wonder what tomorrow will bring. That makes action difficult, but in education, our students are signalling that action is necessary, and soon.
On Election Night 2020, I never actually got to sleep. I’m a politics junky in normal times, wondering who won the city council race, whether that state proposition will pass, or who won a close Senate race. But this one was different. As the evening wore on, it really started to get hard to watch the results. I flipped back and forth between CNN and Fox, listening to either side prognosticating. Early in the evening, it looked like Florida was going Biden Blue. Some returns showed him leading in Tampa/St Petersburg. I think it was around this time that I texted a couple of friends about the “landslide” to come. And then there were some other early Biden numbers that were promising in Wisconsin. It looked good.
By 9pm Pacific time, things had swung hard in the other direction. Trump was winning fairly comfortably in Michigan and Pennsylvania. And the Senate races were looking shaky too. Susan Collins was holding a lead in Maine, the incumbent Democrat from Michigan was losing, and though Georgia was tight in the presidential race, Ossoff was down much more than expected. It made me feel like four years ago when my wife and I went to the Petaluma Women’s Club to watch election night. Then, as it gradually became clear that Trump was actually going to win, we felt this odd tightness, like all the air was out of the room but also our lungs, like we couldn’t quite breathe.
I/we have waited four years to get our breath back and now in 2020, despite all the classless comments, the blatant disregard for many citizens, all the talk of the Wall, and a pandemic that had killed almost a quarter of a million, this man was going to win again. That was my midnight despair.
So I stayed up, watching the commentators, listening for hope. The Fox folks were crowing a bit and the CNN crew was forlorn. And I was imagining four more years of a ravaging national shortness of breath, where we would move to, what a bleak future looked like.
I must have dozed off at some point, so I can’t put my finger on when the tide began to turn. By daylight, it was becoming clear that depending on whether the absentee vote had been counted made all the difference. The walk up Election Day vote leaned Trump but the absentee was heavy Biden. 75%, 80%, 85%. Biden was catching up in the Midwest, and he had a decent chance to hold on in Arizona and Nevada. Bonus points for Georgia.
Of course, you know all this. But here we are almost a month later and me, we, the country, the world, are stewing in limbo. We can’t move forward…on anything. In the last couple of months, I have written posts based on my research and observations about student equity, systemic racism in education, the reallocation of educational resources, all critical for public education going forward. But they’re all sitting in an unpublished folder, stuck in inertia borne out of the election and Covid.
There is a time and place for a full discussion of critical education issues, but I just can’t go there yet. The day-to-day experience of trying to get kids to learn in an online environment is center stage. My students are managing to hang in there, most still attending class and moving forward. This morning, I asked them to write in their online journal a response to this scenario: If we end up remaining in an online learning environment into January and beyond, do you think you will learn as much as you would have at the physical school? What advice would you give to teachers and school leaders about making virtual school better?
Here is what they wrote, unedited:
I don’t think it’s possible for me to learn to my potential in either settings personally because of my learning disabilities, but I feel like shifting the way it’s always been would definitely not make any progress for me to help me learn, so I definitely feel like this environment is much more difficult for me. I don’t have any advice for teachers to help me learn better here besides just pacing out work and not thinking we have all the time in the world to do a million assignments. You cannot treat this the same as normal school because it is different, the work has to be different.
I hate online with all my heart’s content. I’m scared I’m going to fail. In regular school I was doing so good and had good grades. I used to love school. But for online school I despise It with every fiber In my body. Online school ruined everything I had going for myself and at this rate I’m going to “HAVE” to repeat. I hate It. It’s so easy to get distracted. It’s so BORING and I just don’t like It. Hate It. I’m done for. I wish I could go back to normal school. I promise you I would do so much better In “ACTUAL” School. Now Im Screwed. It really does suck. I wanted to exceed but when online school started I fell down like a baby struggling to walk. Now I’m down at the bottom. Definitely does not work for me.
If we stayed in online school I wouldn’t learn as much as I would in real life. Online school is not really working for me but I’m really trying. I think that it’s not the teachers fault that online school sucks, it’s just california. But I would really like to do hybrid learning and actually make friends.
I 100% think that since covid, students have not learned as much if not lost a lot of knowledge, i think this because teachers are just throwing work at their students without explaining it as much or telling us they are just throwing it at us. So only advice to future students is some days don’t have any work just have fun or talk all class or just let them out earlier then usually. I do think this is better for me as an athlete because school is usually 7 hours but now its only 3 ish and i already have 2+ practices a day sometimes 3 and that’s everyday so with 7 hours of school i wouldn’t be able to do it all.
If we ever go back to regular school I will definitely learn more than in online school. Probably because I learn better in person and with physical touch, i’ll also be with people in person so i can communicate with people better. But in online school it’s really hard to keep up with and hard to communicate. I feel like next year I’ll be like yeah you were in my english class and they won’t remember because it’s really hard when people dont show her face on zoom and don’t hear their voices. I think the teachers are doing just fine. I can tell they’re trying really hard to have this online environment feel like school.
I think that i am learning mostly the same as i would in normal school. Obviously there are many things that we can’t do bc of distance learning like hands on learning and fun things like rallys or dances. Advice I would give to teachers is to try to incorporate fun projects
There are some things I like and don’t like about online learning but I don’t think I would want it to continue on to January because I feel like it’s just harder to learn in online school. Especially since i have to take care of my sisters at the same time so i have to multitask and don’t get some things done. Some Things teachers can do is put a video on the assignment on how to do the assignment and explain it for some kids that might be confused.
I personally think that we will get learning done but not as much because we can’t get into physical contact and we won’t have the same experience as other people have. To make virtual school better would probably be by making it more engaging and probably not assigning us so much homework that’s due on the same day so it won’t be stressful to us. I think online learning has worked for me because it isn’t really a hassle getting up and getting dressed early in the morning as it was with physical learning but other than that i think online learning has been going well.
If we end up staying home for the rest of the school year I feel we will not have learned everything we had to this year because classes are shorter than they would be in person so we are not able to learn everything we need to. To make virtual school better I think we have to go for longer times so our teachers can teach us everything they need to teach to us. Online school has worked for me because I want to succeed in school for a good life and education but people that feel differently then me probably has not worked for them so I think finding a way to go back to school would be the best option.
Honestly, I have a love hate relationship with distance learning, one because I like that I’m alone, I just rather be on my own than be social with others. On the other hand, I feel that it’s really impacted my mental health and ability to talk with others. If however we do go back to distance learning, I wouldn’t mind too much just because it’s easier to interact with my teachers better rather than an email. For the most part I would say, I really have nothing to do at home and going back to school could make me a little more motivated knowing that I have something to do during the day when the virus is over obviously. So all in all, I dont think im ready to go back just because of how high covid rates are, it seems too much of a risk and i think could have been handled a lot better.
If we were to continue learning from home for the rest of the year, I would be fine with it. I’ve already gotten pretty used to how distance learning for me personally works. One thing I’ve noticed is that I get sort of tired in the middle of the day, like in 2nd and 5th period, thankfully it’s gotten better. As for learning-quality, some classes are harder to learn things in than others. I have no trouble learning about budgeting and financial literacy in this class(in fact I think my dad likes to help me with these particular assignments). It is harder sometimes to learn new math concepts though; for example, we are being taught on how to solve equations using the elimination method and I just don’t really get it, so it can be hard to get quick help. Usually I just text a friend which is also difficult because we can’t show each other what to do.
If we don’t go back to school, all of us are going to be behind, there is no way we can learn the same amount of stuff in 3 hours, compared to 6, it’s just not enough time. Even if the teachers managed to cram it all in there kids would probably go crazy, I know I would. Advice I would give about virtual school to teachers is to try and understand us, this pandemic is a crazy time especially when we are wanting to hang out with friends and we can’t do it as often. Online has worked for me although I am very tired of it. My grades are better than they were in 8th grade and I think my teachers are doing an amazing job at helping us understand.
If we end up doing online learning in January and beyond, I don’t think I will learn as much because I am more of an interactive learner and online learning doesn’t really give me a chance to interact with other students and my teachers. Even though we have breakout rooms, they tend to be really awkward and boring. We also can’t really work one on one with our teachers. One piece of advice I would give to the school leaders on how to make online learning better is to maybe find more ways for students to connect and make bonds online whether it’s playing games with their class or making breakouts room less boring. It will give the students a chance to interact even through an online environment. Also, maybe lessening the workload would help, because sometimes students don’t have the resources to get their work done because parents are working, they have siblings to take care of, or maybe they have a hard time reaching out to their teachers because we all know that teachers have a big workload as well. Preparing for classes and grading worksheets is a lot of work.
I think I will learn more at normal school because the classes are longer. Teachers can make online school better by only using one website, such as google classroom, to turn in work instead of using a 3rd party website. Online schooling has worked for me because I can do a lot more fun activities than in physical school.
I am not sure. It kind of depends on the teacher and the student. If the student is putting in the effort to learn then yes we can learn as much as if we were in actual school. The teacher also has to put in effort (most teachers are doing that). We might not learn everything we need to learn completely but we would be pretty close. So far all the teachers I have are doing good. They would ask us questions like do we need help or stay after class if you have questions or need help. They are willing to help if we need help on something. Online school has its ups and downs. It has worked for me so far just that sometimes I can’t go into zoom or the zoom is lagging. I am still learning even if I am having trouble with zoom.
If we do not end up going into school for the rest of the year, I do not think it will be as good because there are a lot more distractions at home and we also will not have wifi problems or other problems that have to do with technology if we are just in class. It would be easier.
For virtual learning, I’d be easier to cut some slack off the work. My assignments are piling and with my uncontrollable lack of focus it’s difficult to keep up while learning what is going on and I have friends who are struggling nearly as severe as I am and it’s impacting us really badly.
I love distance learning because I don’t have to wake up as early and the classes are shorter. But I dont think distance learning helps me obtain information as much as going to school in real life.
I don’t think I would learn nearly as much as I did in real school. We would have more time and of course a better visual of the class and whatever material we would have. I have no advice to teachers on how to make online learning better. Honestly i don’t think it can get better, and online learning isn’t so bad. Yeah it’s annoying, but manageable. I think if we go back to class, especially during big tests that it will help students. There’s just something different about learning through a screen.
I think that if we do stay online with school then going back to in contact school I would be learning less than what I would be learning when I was in school.
I am definitely doing much worse than before, I definitely think i will not learn as much. I am a very hands on learner and tend to forget things easily so that makes online school very frustrating for me. I don’t know, but I think that some teachers(not you) should be more lenient about late work. This is totally new for some people and I know I personally have trouble remembering to turn in work sometimes when I’m not physically handing it in. I would say online school hasn’t worked well for me.
If we remain in Virtual school next semester, I feel like that I won’t learn as much as I would in school.The reason I say that is because some assignments require talking about it, and also in science, specifically chemistry wouldn’t be fun and maybe that would in turn make the Juniors unhappy and in a bad mood during class. Also a lot of teacher’s don’t realize that some people’s wifi isnt where they could be in a quiet space so they have to be around the house with all of the commotion in the background. And during Covid, a lot of parents are working from home which makes more noise. Some teachers are down grading students for something that isn’t completely their fault. I have seen parents start to walk into the camera, and then as soon as the child notices, he turns off his video so everyone else doesn’t but into his life about having a cramped house where behind you is a busy travel between places in your house. Also, more teachers need to see kids’ chins, which doesn’t make sense because you can’t do anything with your chin. All the kids are trying to hide as much of their life as possible so not everyone knows how they live and how their lifestyle is.
I think that I would not learn as much online then in physical school. Online school hasn’t worked for me much I prefer physical school because I also get to be around people including my friends and my house isn’t a good spot to do online school.
If we continue to do school online I don’t think it will be a good thing. I think some students can learn the same amount of school work online but the majority of students will fall behind. I think learning online is very distracting and it is hard to get students full attention as there is always some kind of distraction at home. There are some kids who might be embarrassed to ask a question online with all their peers looking and listening to them so they can fall behind if not understanding the subject. There are many ways of teaching and unfortunately we can’t learn everything online. Some students learn more from being in class and seeing visuals and having hands-on experience with students and teachers. I don’t know what else teachers can do to help us learn online as they are doing their best but I do think once we go back into school you might see a lot of students who are behind and we might need to review the school work prior to moving forward. Actually there is one thing that can help us students. When test, homework and class work is returned it would be nice to actually see what you got wrong so we can learn from our mistakes. It is hard to understand what we did wrong when the teachers just return our papers with a grade and no markups. Online has some what worked for me but I do get a lot of help from my mom. I go to classes, listen to my teachers but there are times when I am confused about the work and don’t get a chance to ask questions and that is where my mom steps up big time and really helps me and pushes me to be a better student.
I think that for me personally, I would probably be learning the same amount online vs in person school because I prefer working and learning independently and feel that my best work is done independently. Unfortunately there are some instances in which I feel as though distance learning is more difficult in the sense of communicating and directions for work and assignments because we don’t have teachers or other students around us to help explain or ask questions. Some advice I would give is to make sure that directions for work are very clear, so that no confusion around what we are doing occurs. Being an independent worker, I do think distance learning has worked for me because I am able to keep track and be accountable for my work and assignments. A downside is that I do tend to procrastinate and though I always get my work done, being more easily able to be sidetracked and procrastinate ultimately makes me stressed out when I have to do my work at the last minute.
I believe that we did not learn as much as we should have because of the circumstances. If we go back to school this year it is going to be weird because it is the first time that teachers are going to see more than just our heads.
In my opinion I feel like we don’t want as much in school because we don’t go to school as much as we do in real life and I feel like I learn more in person. I honestly don’t feel like you can make online school much better, I feel like we just have to deal with it which sucks because I’m not having the funnest I’m doing it. To keep it short and sweet I feel like online school has not worked for me in the slightest bit possible because I’ve been having to juggle Sports around especially lately because I have been starting to do more training. I feel like me and not seeing my friends on The Daily when we go to school makes my friendships harder to maintain because I’m not seeing them as much. And I feel like we are all losing out on that interaction in general with people, because I’m assuming most of us are staying home most of the time like me.
If online learning was to go into January and beyond, I personally don’t think I would learn as much, compared to, if I was at normal school. I think this because it has been harder to learn and communicate through Zoom and whatnot. However I think for me at least online learning has been ok, but I still think in person school is better, but if there is no in person school for the foreseeable future then that may be a problem for me and other kids. It may be a thing with me needing to concentrate on class more, but online school makes that trickier and it’s always better to do it in person in my opinion since it’s harder to get distracted. To be honest I’m not quite sure what teachers could do to improve online learning because the only thing I think could help me would be to go back to normal school, however obviously that’s not possible right now. Other students may have good ideas for online learning improvements and hopefully it will get better.
If we were to keep going with this online learning environment I don’t think we would learn as much as we would if we were in school. Advice I’d give to teachers is slow it down and keep in mind that people have a higher chance of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Personally though I like online learning better because it’s easier and quicker. The one thing I don’t like and probably many others are breakout rooms where other students who you aren’t that comfortable with are in there and nothing happened.
I don’t think I have learned nearly as much as I would have in school. Group work and talking to teachers about assignments is very difficult. Most group work assignments the group members have the option to mute and turn their cameras off and don’t do anything, where in person they don’t have the option to act like they aren’t there. My grades are lower than ever and I have more missing assignments because it is hard to talk to teachers about fixing work so they mark it missing. It is definitely harder and I feel bad after staring at a screen for three hours everyday (which doesn’t include the few hours for homework). Online school definitely hasn’t worked for me because I feel like it is more stressful and negative than it is beneficial. With one hour for each class, I feel like we always run out of time and we don’t have enough time to work on projects and do more classwork in class. With more time on a screen it would be more stressful.
If we did online school for the remaining of the year honestly i do think we will learn as much as if we would be physically at school. I feel like the teachers are doing a really good job with teaching us online and well for me I even found liking online more. Online school has worked for me a lot because it gets me to participate more in school knowing that not everyone is staring at me. Also since we end class at 12:15 it really gives me that whole day to do other things that aren’t school related. As if we were physically at school we would have less time to do our hobbies and more time spending our rest of the day worrying about if we would have enough time to finish our homework.
In virtual school I think I would have learned as much as I have if I were in a physical school. For teachers to make virtual school better just keep teaching and you’re doing just fine. Online learning has worked for me since I get to not only stay home but I get to basically choose where I sit to do school.
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One remarkable note from the student comments is the similarity of perspective. They almost universally dislike a “full” online experience. (It’s important to note that online experiences can be tailored for the individual with much more success than the whole class.) Much of the initial anecdotal and research on online suggests that some students are far less likely to succeed than others.
In my district, the performance gap we have tried so hard to close is widening in an online instruction model. After the first grading period of the year, the number of students with an “F” increased from 15% to 22% when comparing Fall of 2019 with this year. But for socio-economically disadvantaged (SED) students, the percentage went from 25% to 34%. One in three students in poverty are failing something. We’ve got to do something fast.
So, where are we now? The significant challenges to public education have been underlined by Covid and the almost impossible task of keeping everyone – parents, students, teachers, staff, board members, community – happy about online learning, hybrid approaches, or return to school. Most notable but now almost lost in the day-to-day challenge of teaching students, is the need to address the system itself, particularly the question of whose voice is heard and whose voice has power in decision making.
That’s the work of 2021. Starting in January, this space will focus on how to specifically address the issues of systemic racism, student poverty/equity, the reallocation of resources, and the need to change the leadership paradigm that plagues education. Watch this space and let’s fix this!
David Stirrat 