Distance learning?

There are plenty of free resources on the web to help.
Sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself. For example I am teaching my little one how to play the piano.

It goes to my core philosophy. Do not rely on the system.

Great things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Abraham Lincoln
 
Just got an email, IUSD moving to "credit/no credit" grading for the final reporting of the 19-20 school year:

Dear IUSD Community,

As previously communicated, in accordance with the Governor?s Executive Order to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, all IUSD schools will continue to provide emergency distance learning through the end of this academic school year. The District?s goals during this time are to provide learning activities that build appropriate grade-level skills and content knowledge, maintain a connection between students and teachers, and account for the variety of demands this unique time places on students, families and staff.  This transition to distance learning requires a different approach to student grading that will hold students harmless from the difficult circumstances they may face.

We know some students may struggle to process new material or demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of course content under these extraordinary circumstances.  Our lower income students and students with special needs may experience even greater challenges, while students whose families have been impacted by this disease may not have the ability to fully engage in distance learning.  In recognition of the anxiety, stress and inherent educational inequities that exist across our nation, institutions of higher education are encouraging a credit/no credit model as the most equitable approach to codifying student learning. 

To this end, during last night?s Board Meeting, after thorough discussion and deliberation, the Board of Education approved IUSD staff?s recommendation to move to ?credit/no credit? grades for the final reporting period of the 2019-20 school year for all students. The Board?s decision included direction from the State Board of Education that requires districts to implement grading practices that ?do no harm? to students during emergency distance learning.  This decision also included guidance from UC, CSU, state community colleges, Stanford?s Challenge Success, admissions officers from elite universities and feedback from IUSD principals, teachers and leadership, the Orange County Department of Education and Orange County school districts. Please review our frequently asked questions for more information on this topic.

In response to the pandemic, colleges and universities are leading the way in the transition to credit/no credit options. In order to eliminate the inevitable inequalities presented by distance learning, CSUs and UCs will accept credit or passing grades for A-G courses in winter/spring/summer 2020. The message from higher education institutions is clear: students will NOT be penalized for grading changes enacted by school districts in response to COVID-19.

Colleges lean heavily on an official document from all high schools called the School Profile. School Profiles explain circumstances to colleges, including graduation requirements, grade point average calculations, honors courses, average SAT/ACT scores, and other elements that make schools unique. In this case, the shift to credit/no credit in the face of a national pandemic will be described and accepted without penalty. The move is temporary and will be discontinued when students and staff return to school in 2020-21.

Furthermore, Stanford?s Challenge Success program and Joe Feldman, author of Grading for Equity have issued grading guidelines for distance learning: Guidance on Grading/Crediting Policies During COVID-19 and Recommendations for Grading During COVID-19. Their research suggests that stress related to COVID-19 will negatively impact student academic performance. In order to ease this negative impact, our District?s transition to credit/no credit will allow students and families to eliminate the pressure of performing competitively in this altered school environment. It reassures families that student work during this pandemic will be valued, but students will not be penalized for not being able to perform competitively under these circumstances. Our goal is to continue to support our students? learning, build connections with them, and find ways to support them during distance learning.

Teachers, staff and administrators will remain focused on keeping our students highly engaged, connected, and invested in their learning.  Teachers will continue to have daily contact, to assign work, to provide feedback on the work, to host online discussion forums when age appropriate, and provide resources to ensure that our students have a variety of opportunities to strengthen their understanding of essential learning targets.  IUSD remains committed to preparing students to be successful at the next level.

For more information and resources, please continue to visit our dedicated COVID-19 resource webpage at iusd.org/COVID19.  Included on this page is information about distance learning information and supports, mental health and wellness resources and contacts, food and other assistance for families in need, enrichment resources and more.

Thank you for your understanding and partnership.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Walker
Superintendent of Schools
???????Irvine Unified School District
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irvinehomeowner said:
So if locking down was such a mistake why are educational institutions and local governments extending safety protocols?
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Because they can, they have no skin in the game. They are playing with other people?s money.
 
Sweden never closed schools. I believe Germany reopened their schools.

Also, at the college level you are dealing with adults. They can actually learn online. Many schools offer online mbas. You can?t do this with k-12
 
That's what I'm interested in.  The K-12 situation in the fall.
There's such a disconnect from where we are now in mid May to mid August when schools are supposed to start (less time actually for year round schools). 25-30 kids in a small space on top of each other for 6+ hours.  I know there's been talk of splitting the school day in half, rotating kids in and out, but I have little faith in K-12 administrations to pull that off as well as getting all that past the teacher's union.
But I can't see how schools don't open as pressures mount for "babysitting".
 
qwerty said:
irvinehomeowner said:
So if locking down was such a mistake why are educational institutions and local governments extending safety protocols?
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Because they can, they have no skin in the game. They are playing with other people?s money.
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There's actually a lot of skin in the game.  Decline in enrollment, loss of housing revenues, international students who pay full tuition not coming over, etc, etc all leads to $$$$ losses.
 
Germany is testing their students every four days.  Classes have been cut in half,  windows and doors are open for air circulation, etc.

I have a hard time imagining the uproar if we try to say the kids have to be tested to go back to school.

Australia is trying 1/4 class with each group doing 1 day a week.

I was asked by one of my sons program when we'd come back if they opened following protocols.  I'm not concerned about the protocols that my providers follow when they follow them, I'm concerned about the patrons that are chomping at the bit to go and what they're not doing.

As for the colleges, many schools have faculty and students reporting positive.  Not a lot of positives, just a handful.  One person in the class is all it takes.

Which brings us back to handling the people that won't follow minimal safety protocols.
 
nosuchreality said:
Germany is testing their students every four days.  Classes have been cut in half,  windows and doors are open for air circulation, etc.

I have a hard time imagining the uproar if we try to say the kids have to be tested to go back to school.

Australia is trying 1/4 class with each group doing 1 day a week.

I was asked by one of my sons program when we'd come back if they opened following protocols.  I'm not concerned about the protocols that my providers follow when they follow them, I'm concerned about the patrons that are chomping at the bit to go and what they're not doing.

As for the colleges, many schools have faculty and students reporting positive.  Not a lot of positives, just a handful.  One person in the class is all it takes.

Which brings us back to handling the people that won't follow minimal safety protocols.
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That would be qwerty's kids. :)
 
irvinehomeowner said:
nosuchreality said:
Germany is testing their students every four days.  Classes have been cut in half,  windows and doors are open for air circulation, etc.

I have a hard time imagining the uproar if we try to say the kids have to be tested to go back to school.

Australia is trying 1/4 class with each group doing 1 day a week.

I was asked by one of my sons program when we'd come back if they opened following protocols.  I'm not concerned about the protocols that my providers follow when they follow them, I'm concerned about the patrons that are chomping at the bit to go and what they're not doing.

As for the colleges, many schools have faculty and students reporting positive.  Not a lot of positives, just a handful.  One person in the class is all it takes.

Which brings us back to handling the people that won't follow minimal safety protocols.
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That would be qwerty's kids. :)
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Inland empire no mask required. (just saying)  ;)
 
bones said:
qwerty said:
irvinehomeowner said:
So if locking down was such a mistake why are educational institutions and local governments extending safety protocols?
Click to expand...

Because they can, they have no skin in the game. They are playing with other people?s money.
Click to expand...

There's actually a lot of skin in the game.  Decline in enrollment, loss of housing revenues, international students who pay full tuition not coming over, etc, etc all leads to $$$$ losses.
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Well when I say they have no skin in the game I mean they are probably not going to get fired for doing ?the right thing? following California guidelines, so their jobs are probably safe. And these folks making the decisions are administrators so they probably are not going to get fired as a result of the losses. The professors and office staff will get fired. And if the top admin get fired they probably still get whatever pension they have earned.

Also, there may be operating under the presumption that they will get bailed out for doing ?the right thing? by the feds. California probably won?t have any funds to bail them out. They may try to raise tuition and hope suckers still sign up as the federal government guarantees student loans.
 
Got it. Which leads me back to my K-12 question. No way we implement any of what NSR posted about what the other countries are doing. If I had to guess, I would say masks wouldn?t even be required.

But who knows, maybe all these unifieds surprise me.
 
Our kids Montessori said they are reopening on 5/18 to families of  essential workers. You need a letter from your employer and badge to prove you are an essential worker.

The CDC we attend send us a quick update that they hope to open soon. They were already open for daycare to essential workers but our local Cdc site was closed and is still closed. The designated site for essential workers was somewhere else, not sure where.

The Montessori school already said as a school they can not follow social distancing guidelines. Which is a practical statement. They said they will have more cleaning etc.

At some point public schools will come to the same conclusion. Or maybe not because they don?t have skin in the game. The Montessori school is a business and knows that it is not realistic for them to follow social distancing guidelines.

They are even going to close at 5:30 vs 6pm so they can clean which will impact parents as they will have to leave earlier to get there by 530. 
 
CDCs and Montessori?s are essentially daycares. Many of them have stayed open for essential workers and parents who just can?t deal. Way different than k-12 schools.
 
bones said:
CDCs and Montessori?s are essentially daycares. Many of them have stayed open for essential workers and parents who just can?t deal. Way different than k-12 schools.
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Agree.

So how have those daycares been doing?? Have they resulted in a lot infections in kids or their households?  I?m guessing the answer is no because the media would have been all over it. So if they have not had an explosion in cases one can probably assume schools will fair OK. The issue is when dealing with the government/schools they are extreme and it seems like they are all or nothing. Meaning if one kid in public school gets sick they are going to want to shut it all down. There seems to be no flexibility with these people.
 
What?s open now are very controlled environments within a shelter in place community. The Montessoris I know that are open has a limit of 10 kids in a space with no mixing of kids, shoes off, diligent cleaning, etc.  Maybe K-12 schools will be doing the same. I don?t know but I?m guessing they won?t be.  As a parent, I?m hoping schools open this fall but I?m just musing on here that I don?t know if they will be and even if they are, it?ll be a free for all.

Schools can?t shut down with one case. That?s a non starter. You can?t mobilize it all and then stop. The NBA already conceded this point. If the season resumes, the train keeps going unless it?s something really bad.
 
bones said:
CDCs and Montessori?s are essentially daycares. Many of them have stayed open for essential workers and parents who just can?t deal. Way different than k-12 schools.
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As Germany shows, clearly they can socially distance. 

There is a practical limit though as the students get younger.  Especially K, 1 & 2.  The older elementary a little better but with still developing impulse control, recess, etc, they won't follow although masks may be possible as we had some children wearing them through the winter as is.

All play part in what the districts need to do with staffing para-educators, expectations and/or they just throw up their hands.

 
bones said:
qwerty said:
irvinehomeowner said:
So if locking down was such a mistake why are educational institutions and local governments extending safety protocols?
Click to expand...

Because they can, they have no skin in the game. They are playing with other people?s money.
Click to expand...



There's actually a lot of skin in the game.  Decline in enrollment, loss of housing revenues, international students who pay full tuition not coming over, etc, etc all leads to $$$$ losses.
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Not AS MUCH skin in the game for regional colleges like the Cal St schools. 
 
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