How kids learn at home in coronavirus shutdown depends on their school and where they live
The coronavirus outbreak exacerbates inequality among kids because when schools closed and all of us began to shelter in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, some kids were positioned to begin learning immediately and without missing a beat while others weren’t.
That’s been plainly evident by simply talking to people across the Sacramento region in the last few days. Actually, it’s been plainly evident since the moment last week when Gov. Gavin Newsom said he told his daughter that her school – and most California schools - would very likely be closed for the rest of the academic year as Californians stayed home to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“I told her, ‘Honey, I don’t think the schools are going to open again,’ ” Newsom said. “If I can tell my daughter that and not tell your daughter … then I’m not being honest and true to the people of the state of California. Boy I hope I’m wrong, but I believe that to be the case.”
Newsom deserves praise for candor and for decisively responding to the coronavirus. But Newsom is a wealthy man whose children will be able to absorb being separated from their schools much easier than many kids in Sacramento and throughout California.
Whether Sacramento area school kids are actually working and learning today depends largely on where they live and where they go to school. It depends on if they go to small independent schools or if their parents have the means to send the kids to elite private schools.
At these schools, such as St. Michael’s Episcopal Day School in Carmichael or Sacramento Country Day School, learning began immediately and seamlessly last week, according to some parents.
“It’s been amazing,” said Lainie Josephson, whose daughter is a sixth grader at Sacramento County Day School. “I really appreciate the collaboration between the administration, teachers and parents. Assignments have been posted on the school intranet. Some teachers have created YouTube channels, which is great for kids because they can hit pause as they are taking notes.
”Kids are on FaceTime doing homework together. The school is trying to promote community while the kids are so isolated.”
At St. Michael’s Episcopal Day School, parents say the experience is similar. “I would say it’s been excellent,” said Christine Dariotis, whose son is an eighth grader at St. Michael’s Episcopal Day School, an independent private school.
“It wasn’t excellent at first,” she said. “He was a little grouchy that first morning. He needed to go to Google Classroom to get his assignments and he was a typical 13-year-old saying, ‘I don’t know what to today.’”
But Dariotis said her son quickly adapted. Like Josephson’s daughter at Sacramento Country Day School, Dariotis’ son began working on lessons almost immediately last week.
School districts transitioning
At these schools, transitioning to “distance learning” was not really an issue and the kids were learning and working last week.
Contrast that with the Sacramento City Unified School District. Formal online lessons not only have not begun, they are still being negotiated between the district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association.
Both sides negotiated Monday through Friday last week just to get an agreement to allow teachers to call students and determine what kind of technology they had. But when and if formal online lessons are performed district wide is still being negotiated. Some district teachers have reached out to kids and some work is being done, but none of it is formal yet.
Meanwhile, the Natomas Unified School District and the teachers union hammered out an agreement with the district to begin a distance learning plan.
“I’m so grateful for our collaboration,” said Chris Evans, superintendent of NAUSD. Evans said his district will now spend the next few weeks building the infrastructure for teaching kids online. The plan is to begin formal instruction on April 20, which would have been when kids returned from spring break. NAUSD would then be prepared to teach kids online for the remainder of the academic year, if it came to that.
Because it’s a large district, and not an independent private school, NAUSD has far more worries and obstacles to ensure learning. Many NAUSD kids don’t have technology at home, so the district is planning to fill the gaps as best they can.
“We’re trying to get 2,000 mobile hot spots for our kids to make sure there is equity,” Evans said.
The district is bringing teachers onto their campuses, no more than six at a time, to maintain social distancing, so they can gather their materials and teach from home, Evans said.
NAUSD is also preparing to reach out to kids who don’t have their own laptops and equip them with Chrome Books, Evans said.
“School psychologists and counselors will be available to kids virtually,” Evans said. “We’ll keep in touch with our kids and give them the emotional support they need.”
Loomis schools online
At the Loomis Union School District, a suburban public school district, online lessons are already underway.
“I’m not a fan of online learning, but I’ve been blown away,” said Bonnie London, whose daughter is in the fifth grade in Loomis Union. “The lesson plans have been very easy to follow and have been comprehensive. It’s the same work they were doing in the classroom.”
London said kids being without technology is less of an issue in their district. The problem for some is access to high speed internet if they live in more rural areas of the district.
At Sac City Unified, a lack of technology is a dire issue. Julie Del Agua sees the digital divide clearly as a Sac City teacher at Albert Einstein Middle School.
On her own, Del Agua said she attempted to connect with kids on Zoom, the video conferencing app. But out of her 170 students, only 30 had signed up for reminders that she could text them on the Remind app. And out of those 30, only five actually signed on for her online Zoom chat with them, she said.
“The biggest need in our district is that we have a lot of non-English speakers,” Del Agua said. “You have a lot of parents who are working and some of them are being laid off and now you have the stress of that and a child who is home 24/7. That’s the toughest thing.”
Add to that a district still trying to hammer out a deal with its teachers union and you have no formal instruction. Sac City kids are literally waiting to learn while other kids are learning right now.
This is how inequality is perpetuated in our schools. Newsom is getting kudos for how he is managing the COVID-19 crisis and much of that praise he deserves. But he and other state officials won’t only be judged by how they managed the front end of the coronavirus crisis. They will be judged by how they managed the collateral damage of kids whose educations were terribly shaken based on where they live and where they go to school.
