As the experimental fall semester hits winter break, leaders, educators, and families continue to debate the effectiveness of education during the pandemic, as well as how the state’s high-caliber academics and students have held up in the new environment.
Massachusetts schools have been functioning under a variety of models that reflect public health experts’ advice and can be adjusted to accommodate fluctuating coronavirus case numbers. Schools have proceeded with in-person classes, hybrid models that consist of in-person learning on a rotation and Zoom classes or emailed assignments to turn around on the remote days, as well as all-remote learning.
According to a MassINC poll, 52% of parents say the current school year is having a negative impact on their children’s education.
“There are parents who certainly are worried about how much of an education their kids are getting these days and there has been some frustration among parents that school is not what it used to be,” said Doug Page, a parent of two Medfield High School students. “My sons have said to me, without any prompting, that school changed considerably with the pandemic and that it doesn’t seem to be as rigorous as it once was.”
These concerns have been echoed across all learning models this semester, but parents of hybrid students balancing both in-person and remote learning responded with more unhappiness.
“I think the idea going into the fall was that any amount of in-person learning would be most beneficial to students and our survey found that hybrid parents are the least satisfied and this also reflects some national polling,” said Maeve Duggan, research director at MassINC.
The unanswered question of how much learning is actually being achieved still looms over parents, teachers, and administrators, and 28% of parents polled say their children are falling behind grade level. This rise looks steeper compared to 22% of parents in May and June, and 13% before the pandemic.
“We aren’t in normal times, but we still do have expectations of our students growing and learning; the expectations are just going to be different,” said Merrie Najimy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “The disruption has been unavoidable but it isn’t accurate to look at it as kids are falling behind; we’re all moving at a readjusted pace.”
“The biggest thing I’m hearing is that sometimes it’s a challenge to focus on the schoolwork,” Page said. “There have been those issues.”
Page’s sons attend school in person on Thursday and Friday with their half of the alphabetical directory but are remote the other days of the week. The entire school is remote on Wednesday.
“Districts that have coherent, high-quality curriculum have been able to pivot more easily and have seen more coherence among teachers during the pandemic,” according to remote learning guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “They help teachers align their expectations to state standards designed to keep students on track for success while providing guidance on how to tailor instruction to individual students’ needs.”
The fall has been an adjustment period with heightened pressure on educators, especially since a singular approach to statewide education is neither realistic nor applicable, Najimy said. The data recording how many students are learning under each model is not easily accessible, and changes frequently as individual schools and districts shift to reflect local public health regulations.
“This model of learning is not a one-size-fits-all impact, it’s different depending on the learning style of the child, the resources that a family has, et cetera,” Najimy said.
The hybrid model where teachers simultaneously teach in person and asynchronously is not working, according to Najimy. This disruptive routine is difficult on students as well as teachers.
“They have turned in assignments and, on occasion, an email gets sent from one of the teachers saying that they’re missing something, and indeed it was turned in,” said Page on his students’ experience in the hybrid setting. “There have been some communication miscues, not intentional by any means, it’s just that sometimes things aren’t seen or realized and that’s what happens.”
Miscommunication and limited class time contribute to the overall disruption, but there are other elements at play too, including students’ mental health and the ever-changing environment.
The poll revealed 49% of parents say their child’s mental and emotional health, as well as their social and behavioral skills, have declined.
“Across the board of what makes a student have a good school experience, hybrid parents were less positive about those things which I think certainly came as a surprise to us,” Duggan said.
Hybrid parents considered various aspects of the school experience including mental and emotional health, social and behavioral skills, but also academic learning to determine whether they believe their child has been positively or negatively affected.
“We’ve always been working to take into consideration all of the health and safety measures that have to be put in place so that the buildings are safe, and how we keep our students emotionally well no matter what the model, be it hybrid or remote,” said Najimy.
The governor’s office has worked to restore in-person learning across the state, citing student, faculty, and staff well-being as a top priority.
“Not being in school poses significant risks for kids, both related to COVID and related to other health concerns,” said Gov. Charlie Baker in a press conference. “Parents helping kids learn at home have been through a lot, children separated from their teachers who care deeply about them have also been through a lot, and teachers and school administrators have been doing their absolute best to make this all work.”
Some teachers, administrators, and parents feel this focus does not lead to the best results for all.
“What we hear the governor say is that the benefits of being in the building outweigh the risks, and that’s simply not his decision to make,” Najimy said.
Statewide mandates and educational initiatives have put pressure on local school districts.
“The governor’s office has been as transparent as suits their needs,” said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. “The governor has been available, but he’s very hard to argue with because the sense is that he doesn’t take well to being criticized or argued with in public.”
Finding and implementing solutions that provide the best support has proved to be a challenge when faced with the broad range of resources and COVID-19 case numbers across cities and towns.
“There’s a lot of pressure,” Najimy said. “There’s different needs in different communities and there’s different needs from family to family.”
For example, the Boston Teachers Union recently approved a no-confidence vote in Superintendent Brenda Cassellius over her approach to reopening schools in the pandemic. The debate surrounding the handling and effectiveness of education across Massachusetts since COVID-19 will be ongoing.
“Usually, when there’s a public policy problem in education, the bureaucrats run regulations, they impose penalties, they threaten everybody who doesn’t comply, but this year, the virus has said, ‘I don’t report to you,’” Koocher said. “They can’t regulate and punish their way out of this crisis.”