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https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/survey-teachers-and-students-are-struggling-with-online-learning/2020/11

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Several months into the new school year, the question remains: Is remote learning going better this fall than it was in the spring?

New data from the RAND Corporation show that many teachers are still struggling.

Teachers in all-remote environments reported higher student absenteeism and less student work completion than teachers in face-to-face classrooms. These online teachers also said that they needed more support and guidance in planning instruction than their colleagues who were teaching in-person.

These results are especially relevant right now, as COVID-19 cases are surging across the country, and several big-city school districts are weighing a return to fully remote classes.

"From this data that we've collected, it's clear that there are some students who are very likely falling through the cracks because of remote learning," said Julia Kaufman, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a co-author of the report, in an interview with Education Week.

RAND surveyed 1,082 teachers and 1,147 school leaders from the organization's American Educator Panels in October, asking about their experiences during the 2020-21 school year so far.

The results cover a wide swath of issues, from teacher morale to substitute shortages to technology access. But the data on instruction, specifically, hint at the pandemic's long-term effects on student learning.

Slower Pace of Learning

Classes are not proceeding at the usual pace, the report found:

Two-thirds of teachers said that the majority of their students were less prepared for grade-level work than they were at this time last year

56 percent of teachers said that they had covered only half, or less than half, of the curriculum content that they would have gotten to by this time last year

Only about 1 in 5 teachers said that they were on the same schedule as years past

Teachers in remote and hybrid environments reported more challenges than those in solely face-to-face instruction.

Absenteeism has been a persistent problem this fall across all learning modalities, as Education Week has reported. But teachers in the RAND survey who were working in person said that their students showed up more consistently:

In-person teachers said 91 percent of their students were present every day

Hybrid teachers reported 85 percent of their students attended daily

Teachers who were fully remote estimated 84 percent attended daily

Assignment completion varied by learning environment, too. Teachers who were fully in-person said that 82 percent of their students turned in most or all of their work, compared to teachers who were fully remote, who said that only 62 percent of their students did the same.

Some Students 'More Likely to Be Falling Behind'

Like the Education Week Research Center, RAND found that schools where most of the students qualified for free and reduced-price lunch, and schools that serve majority students of color, are more likely to offer remote learning, rather than in-person classes.

"These are students who are also more likely to be falling behind, less likely to have access to a digital device or the internet. The odds are kind of stacked against them," Kaufman said.
See also: Fighting for Fairness Amid a Pandemic
Online teachers were more likely to say that they needed guidance on how best to support students with severe disabilities, English-language learners, and students experiencing homelessness or poverty.

They also said they needed more general instructional support-in adapting curriculum, in motivating students, in accelerating them academically, and in assessing their learning-than teachers who are in the physical classroom every day.

Even as they struggle to make remote learning work, teachers still report deep concerns about the virus: 57 percent of teachers said that their health and the health of their loved ones was a major concern right now, and 27 percent said it was a moderate concern.

This picture leaves state and federal governments with a dual imperative, Kaufman and her co-author Melissa Diliberti argue. One, make schools safer to attend in person: Take precautions like universal mask-wearing, and then keep track of which precautions actually work. And two, direct much more funding and support toward making remote learning better.

As EdWeek's Catherine Gewertz and Stephen Sawchuk wrote earlier this month, schools are making these decisions with incomplete and imperfect information, and often face harsh criticism from community members whether they're open or closed.

"Regardless, we know that students who are getting remote instruction, especially if they're in high-minority and high-poverty schools, they need the most support," Kaufman said.
Image: Chicago charter school teacher Angela McByrd works on her laptop to teach remotely from her home in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

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Survey: Teachers and Students Are Struggling With Online Learning

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Several months into the new school year, the question remains: Is remote learning going better this fall than it was in the spring? New data from the RAND Corporation show that many teachers are still struggling.

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LiNk To ImPoRteNt StUfF (StUdEnT rElAtEd StUfF aNd TeAcHeR's ToO)

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LiNk To ImPoRteNt StUfF (StUdEnT rElAtEd StUfF aNd TeAcHeR's ToO)

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https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/learning-loss-from-virtual-school-due-to-covid-is-significant-.html

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https://www.edweek.org/technology/why-middle-schoolers-dread-or-enjoy-remote-learning-i-get-headaches-all-the-time/2021/01

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a very personal piece for Education Week, suggesting that, if there had been a pandemic when I was in middle school, I might have been better off because of remote learning.

I said I would have been grateful to get away from the 7th-grade social scene, where I felt lost. I wrote that, given my attention deficit disorder, I would have been better able to tackle difficult-for-me content, especially in math, with the extra time and personalized attention that online learning can allow.

I said I was jealous of some of today's COVID kids for being able to skip out on at least part of the miserable middle school experience that I went through.

The response from actual COVID-era 7th and 8th graders? You have no idea what you're talking about, lady. (Well, they put it nicer than that.)

Canye Letizia, who teaches literacy at Valhalla Middle School near New York City, shared my personal essay with his students. They are learning in a hybrid model, where most students split their time between remote and in-person instruction. He wanted to know if my vision of online learning was in line with their reality. Letizia asked the kids to write to me, sharing their thoughts about my perspective and their own experiences.

Bottom-line: The students were all very polite, but most made it clear they think I'm nuts for wishing I could put my 7th-grade self in their shoes.

Here's a sample of what they had to say:

"It is not as fun as it seems to be home all day. It gets boring in between classes, and you don't always get the attention you need for your questions to be answered. Take it from somebody doing it first-hand, learning is much easier in a building than at home," said one boy.

"I thought there was no way someone would want to live through this pandemic," wrote another. "I don't really enjoy wearing a mask, and I find it hard to learn anything when I am at home."

"I am in 7th grade and I've never really felt the way that you have," wrote a girl. "I have plenty of friends and I enjoy getting involved and being different. I try not to think of what others think about me, although I know it is really hard. During the pandemic, online school was so dull for me. I did well in school, got good grades, but every day felt almost the same and I missed seeing my friends and teachers and I missed the normal way of learning. Online school just wasn't the best for me and living through a pandemic at my age is torture."

For another boy, online learning is painful. Literally, "I currently get headaches all the time from staring at the computer screen for so long," he wrote.

And one girl said the arrangement has taken a toll on her mental health:

"Being a 'COVID kid' isn't that great. Last year [when the pandemic hit] I felt I was in a never- ending cycle of just school. You woke up and you went to school, you did your homework all day, ate, then you were just in a slump. The weekends merged into the weekdays. Birthdays felt the same, holidays, all of it came and left, instantly. I was up late at night getting no sleep staring at the ceiling. I'd have toddler meltdowns over nothing sometimes. (and they were absolutely hilarious)." Note: I didn't ask her parents or guardians if they also found her toddler meltdowns "hilarious."

Other kids said that they spent too much time dealing with technical difficulties.

"Learning from home isn't as fun and easy as it seems. Sometimes when my WiFi goes down because too many people are on it, we cannot join our google/zoom meeting," wrote another student.

But a few kids said they got where I was coming from:

"I am doing fully remote schooling and it does have some benefits. I can eat a snack, re-watch videos, and do assignments at my own pace. Also, I can pursue my own interests like science or coding," wrote a boy.

And one girl said she her middle school experience was similar to mine-right down to eating lunch in a bathroom stall in order to avoid the cafeteria social scene.

"I have to admit that I did eat lunch in a bathroom stall multiple times," wrote one girl. "I heard some students saying 'omg that's heartbreaking' while reading (which it is) and I was just silently thinking about every time I've done that. I really feel that your 7th grade and my 6th grade were almost identical. I've never really related to an actual human being besides my cousins and fictional characters."

Another boy, who seems to have some of the same learning differences I do, said he found it easier to concentrate at home. "Sitting at a desk all day can be boring and I often get distracted," he wrote. "That is why I like it at home where I can stand up and walk around to regain focus if I need to."

Still, it seems that loving online learning is the exception, rather than the rule. Want to know what kind of students are actually doing better academically under this arrangement and what schools can do for them going forward? Check out this story.

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Why Middle Schoolers Dread (or Enjoy) Remote Learning: 'I Get Headaches All the Time'

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a very personal piece for Education Week, suggesting that, if there had been a pandemic when I was in middle school, I might have been better off because of remote learning. I said I would have been grateful to get away from the 7th-grade social scene, where I felt lost.

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https://abc7news.com/stanford-study-elementary-school-learning-loss-literacy/10401783/

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STANFORD, Calif. (KGO) -- A new Stanford study has documented that distance learning had a negative impact on the reading skills at the elementary school level. Education is a key pillar o f Building a Better Bay Area.

Students and teachers alike had a steep learning curve when classes went virtual. Researchers at Stanford's Graduate School of Education say reading fluency suffered dramatically, especially among second and third grade students. This is an example from greatschools.org on how well they should be reading in third grade.

A girl reads, "One day in November 2006, a beekeeper in Florida went to check his beehives. What he saw, or rather did not see, was shocking."
RELATED: Learning Loss: Solutions for students struggling with distance learning
Instead, there was a 30 percent drop in fluency nationally from tests done using software from San Francisco-based Literably. More than 100,000 students across 22 states were given something to read.

"They then read that passage aloud and the iPad records that," explained Dr. Ben Domingue, assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. "That recording is sent off-site to a scorer, who computes the number of words read correctly per minute by the student."

Teachers at San Jose's Gardner Elementary saw the same deficiency across all grade levels. Interactive reading exercises were added.
RELATED: Falling behind while distance learning isn't just an academic issue for students, families

"We've been able to provide intervention support beyond the teacher for students who are really struggling at this point," said Gardner Principal Margaret Petkiewicz.

Principal Petkiewicz and the lead Stanford researcher both said progress was made by fall. Reading fluency has an impact on other learning.
RELATED: Here are 7 literacy activities your kids can do over winter break
"Their educations have been transformed by this experience in a way that it's going to have long-lasting effects that we need to document," said Domingue.

One year later, however, restoring fluency hasn't been achieved.

So there's catch-up to do?

"Oh, no question, no question, and it's going to take time," said Prinicpal Petkiewicz. "It's going to take us well into next year and potentially beyond to really close the gaps."

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Distance learning hurt elementary school students' reading skills, Stanford study shows

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STANFORD, Calif. (KGO) -- A new Stanford study has documented that distance learning had a negative impact on the reading skills at the elementary school level. Education is a key pillar o f Building a Better Bay Area. Students and teachers alike had a steep learning curve when classes went virtual.

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How has virtual learning affected teachers?

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How has virtual learning affected students grades?

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How has Virtual Learning affected Middle Schoolers?

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How has virtual learning affected Elementary Students