Come September, all schoolchildren ought to be back in the classroom. Yet, many politicians and school chiefs are afraid to promise: no more Zoom school.
It took Bill De Blasio to take the lead. “New York City public schools, 1 million kids, will be back in their classroom in September, all in-person, no remote. That’s the news,” announced New York’s often-feckless mayor.
De Blasio’s decision to get rid of remote learning altogether is important since many school districts plan on keeping it as an alternative even after health officials declare the pandemic to be over. In Minnesota, for example, Bloomington Public School District decided to make its distance learning program a stand-alone, digital-only option for families who would prefer to remain online for good. Hundreds of other school districts have established similar virtual schools with their own teachers and curricula designed for online learning.
The problem with this is that remote learning doesn’t work. Students in every grade fell far behind where they should be academically this past year, and educators had no good way of helping them catch up. Preliminary research suggests students will return to the classroom with less than 50% learning gains in math and 70% in other subjects. These projections are much worse for low-income students and students with disabilities.
Another study found that one-third of educators expect many of their students to repeat a grade as a result of remote learning. Ninety-seven percent of teachers said their students experienced “significant” learning losses and social setbacks that could take years to fix.
So, for school districts to hold up remote learning as a legitimate alternative to in-person learning is shockingly irresponsible. It is a system that has been proven a failure, a system that depends more on convenience than the accountability that a good education requires.
Don’t be fooled. Remote learning isn’t the same as homeschooling. The vast majority of families who choose to homeschool understand that this choice requires parents to be responsible and be involved intensely in their child’s education. Remote learning, on the other hand, was thrust upon busy, working parents who did not have the time to teach their children the necessary material and make sure they understood the day’s lessons. Perhaps if parents chose remote learning, knowing full well the time and effort it will require of them, things would be different. But the numbers speak for themselves: The majority of homeschooled students thrive academically, whereas a majority of students thrown into virtual classrooms this year suffered.
We need to stop pretending remote learning was a good idea and get back to traditional in-person instruction. It’s fair to argue New York City’s schools should have done that a long time ago, but at least they’re moving in the right direction now. The rest of the country should follow suit.
