Individually bagged Legos are not enough for many military parents to feel safe sending their children to in-person schools on military installations.
The Pentagon said Thursday that the military parents of some 10,000 children have opted for a one-semester commitment to try student-driven, virtual learning, even where health conditions at bases allow for in-person learning.
“We have an impact on readiness, and we have an impact on retention,” said Director of the Department of Defense Education Activity Thomas Brady at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.
“We are trying to get to as many non-remote schools to open face-to-face, person-to-person,” he added. “Making sure that service members are where they should be is critical, and that’s why our emphasis is on brick-and-mortar.”
Nonetheless, not all of the parents of some 70,000 students spread across 160 schools in 11 countries, seven U.S. states, and two territories are ready to send their children back to in-person learning.
“We offered the opportunity for parents who are unsure or are not comfortable with sending their children to brick-and-mortar school to participate in a virtual school,” said Brady.
Commanders are also looking at ways to expand child care options when both parents are serving or one works full-time.
More than 10,000 students will be opting for the student-driven “virtual” curriculum designed for online learning. Other students will take part in “remote” learning, where a teacher manages a classroom over Zoom or Google.
Brick-and-mortar focus
Getting to in-person learning for children is a priority for the Defense Department’s schools in communities where the health protection condition is the lower A or B level.
“Talented teacher interface with the children and the social interaction between the pupils in the classroom, the ability to oversee tasks as they occur, make corrections, make sure their meeting standards — it’s just absolutely a better situation for student achievement,” Brady said.
In southern states with growing outbreaks, such as Georgia and North Carolina, schools at Fort Benning and Fort Bragg will remain closed.
In all, 30 of the 55 U.S. schools will open for in-person learning. In bases overseas, all 62 European schools will reopen, while two in Bahrain will operate remotely. In the Pacific, 26 out of 45 schools will be open to students, with the rest operating remotely.
Some 500 teachers have asked for reasonable accommodations, including training for virtual teaching.
The DoD experience in remotely educating students began in February when a base school in Daegu, South Korea, was closed following the coronavirus outbreak in that country.
“It was a remarkable shaky start,” Brady admitted. “We’ve had practice at it, and we’ve gotten better.”
“We will be open, in some cases open where children are in classrooms with teachers in a safe environment to CDC standards,” said Brady. “The next best, given the circumstances, is remote-trained teachers.”
