virtual learning

Distance Learning Especially Challenging for Students With Disabilities

September 14, 2020 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

Noah, a pseudonym for a middle school child with autism, had been doing well in his public education program until school buildings closed in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to understand why his routine was disrupted, he sometimes displayed aggressive behavior with his mother when she encouraged him to participate in distance learning. Once, he headbutted her so hard that she blacked out.

Despite these hardships, Noah’s mother was unsuccessful in getting in-person services for her son, Leslie Margolis, managing attorney of Disability Rights Maryland, told state lawmakers during a briefing Friday on students with disabilities and virtual learning. Instead, Noah’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) team, which helps create a plan with specialized services for students with disabilities, told his mother they could only provide those services virtually.

Similarly, Eduardo, a pseudonym for a 6-year-old boy with autism, has not been able to engage with people on a screen and his mother does not speak English. As a result, he has gotten no educational services from March to August and his IEP team did not recommend in-person services because “it’s not the policy of the school system to do that,” Margolis said.

These are the realities of families with special needs students — who make up 12% of the Maryland student body.

“Our clients face huge barriers and they’re often not successful in obtaining the appropriate services for their children, despite the guidance coming from [the Maryland State Department of Education], despite the PowerPoints, the reality for families looks very different from the ground,” Margolis said.

The main challenges facing students with disabilities during distance learning include the need for additional assistive technology that goes beyond having reliable internet connection and a laptop — such as customized keyboards and audiobooks, Rachel London, executive director of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council, said. It has also been difficult when students with disabilities cannot return to school buildings for small group in-person learning because they are immunocompromised.

The state Department of Education has given guidance to local school systems to enforce IEPs as best as possible during distance learning, but there is a huge variance among the 24 districts, Margolis said.

Del. April Rose (R-Carroll) asked how the state will push counties that currently have no plans for any in-person services for students with disabilities to do so. She noted Harford County Public Schools, which is all-virtual through the first semester, as an example.

Schools that had originally planned to stay online until the second semester are looking for ways to bring small groups of students for in-person instruction in the fall, Carol Williamson, Deputy State Superintendent of MSDE, said. In late August, State Superintendent Karen B. Salmon and Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) strongly urged schools to do this by the first quarter of the school year, which is in November.

While there are special education liaisons in five regions of the state who are trained to coach and support IEP teams and local school systems in instruction during distance learning, “the best for this response is that our children re-enter schoolhouses in a safe environment,” Marcella Franczkowski, assistant state superintendent of MSDE, said.

Like many teacher unions, local school systems and state officials, Margolis expressed disappointment in the “lack of leadership” from MSDE.

There’s a difference between the state creating a framework for local school systems to choose from and delegating local school systems to develop a framework almost entirely on their own, she said.

The result has been a “complete patchwork collection of approaches that vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, not necessarily based on the needs of the jurisdiction or the children within that jurisdiction, but seemingly based on whim,” Margolis said.

Local school systems must offer other options for students who are unable to participate in distance learning, whether it means bringing small groups of students into school buildings or contracting with private providers, Margolis said. Schools cannot simply default to all-virtual learning, she said.

“We will monitor, there’s no question,” Franczkowski of MSDE said. “Monitoring is not for an ‘I gotcha’ monitoring, it is for a support of technical assistance and need so that we can see where there are gaps and provide feedback to support.”

However, some experts do not think that schools should open solely for students with disabilities, but should be more nuanced in how they select students to return for face-to-face learning.

“If schools are going to open, they can’t just open for students with disabilities,” London said. “Not only are there other students in need of critical supports, there is a variety of reasons students with and without disabilities may need to return or may not need to return…it is based on an individual assessment.”

By Elizabeth Shwe

Franchot: In-Person Instruction Is a ‘Huge Medical Experiment’

September 4, 2020 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

With a new academic year starting, and local school systems wrestling with how best to educate children amid a public health crisis, Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D) came out this week squarely for remote instruction, urging county leaders not to give in to “pressure” to bring students back to the classroom.

In urging caution, Franchot, an announced candidate for governor in 2022, is aligning himself with the state’s powerful teachers’ unions. His views are in stark contrast with those held by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R), a frequent ally.

“I happen to have very strong concerns about in-person K-thru-12 and even higher ed institutions,” Franchot said on Wednesday, during the freewheeling opening moments of the Board of Public Works’ twice-monthly meeting.

“Let’s be honest about what young people do. They get together in groups,” he added. “I just think we’re being prematurely rushed — I hope we’re not — in the face of a virus which is far from contained nationally.”

Over the last two weeks, Hogan has pushed local school systems to incorporate at least some in-person instruction into their fall calendars, saying Maryland’s COVID-19 metrics have sufficiently improved for them to do so. Some local leaders and the Maryland State Education Association said his statements would have had more value weeks earlier, when plans for the 2020-21 school year were being formulated.

And as if to buttress Franchot’s argument, the University of Maryland College Park announced this week that it was canceling all fall athletics.

Franchot didn’t accuse Hogan of applying untoward pressure, instead blaming national leaders. “I want to applaud the majority of county school boards that have chosen to heed the advice of experts and follow science, and not cave in under pressure from folks down the road in Washington who want to downplay the gravity of this disease,” he said.

Observers suggested that Franchot is positioning himself to be a contender for the coveted teachers’ union endorsement two years from now when he seeks the seat Hogan will vacate because of term limits.

“He’s got a platform and he’s trying to use it to form as much of an alliance as he can with folks he thinks he’s going to want supporting him down the road,” said former Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), who ran for governor in 2018.

Franchot has clashed repeatedly with Democrats in the General Assembly on a wide range of issues during his lengthy tenure as comptroller. Baker, a former state delegate, sees repair work taking place.

“The relationship between Franchot and the Democratic Party has been strained,” he said. “So now he’s looking for an opportunity to walk back some of those things or make up for it.”

Another Democrat who ran for governor suspects Franchot and his team have glimpsed polling on the ongoing debate about in-person instruction.

“He must have done polling in Montgomery, for sure, and maybe Prince George’s, where parents want their kids home,” said the Democrat, who declined to be quoted by name. “So he must have access to information — polling information and that kind of data — that totally supports what he’s saying.”

Franchot’s discourse on the perils of bringing students back to the classroom went on for several moments, as a stone-faced Hogan and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D), the other members of the Board of Public Works, listened.

Franchot said any school that opens its doors now is engaging in a “huge medical experiment.”

“I would be very concerned if a family member of mine was forced to teach in-person, given the widespread existence of the virus as we head particularly into the flu season,” he said.

Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, the state’s largest school districts, have said it will be January at the earliest before traditional teaching resumes.

“I for one would not be personally comfortable sending my kids to school in this environment,” Franchot said. “I would wait and try to do it virtually until January when the picture will be clearer as far as what the virus’s impacts on young people is.”

Senate President Emeritus Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said each county is “very much unique” and therefore entitled to make its own decisions. He believes a “hybrid” approach — a mix of in-person and virtual instruction — “is probably the best we can hope for” given the current state of the pandemic.

Because local superintendents and boards have been working with their teachers and PTA’s for weeks in preparation for the start of school, Miller said it’s “way too late” for Franchot, or other state leaders, to offer meaningful advice.

“For him to opine at this point in time is as bad as what the governor did two weeks ago,” he said. “The plans are in place. School has started. And we need to move forward and let each board of education and each county move forward at its own pace.”

By Bruce DePuyt

State Ed. Board Mandates Average of 3.5 Hours of Live Learning a Day by Year’s End

September 2, 2020 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

The Maryland State Board of Education Tuesday approved a measure to require all school systems to have an average of 3.5 hours a day of live virtual learning by the end of 2020.

State Superintendent of Schools Karen B. Salmon emphasized that this standard is to ensure equity and consistency for all students across the state, especially those in school districts that were “planning last minute to go virtual for a whole half of the school year, which is 90 days,” she said.

The board also asked school systems that have indicated that they were not returning students to in-person learning until the second half of the school year to reevaluate their reopening plans by the end of the first quarter — or after nine weeks — and to submit their new plans to the Maryland State Department of Education.

Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, the two largest school districts in the state, have announced that they are remaining virtual for most of the first semester.

Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) applauded MSDE for its decision.

“I want to thank the State Board of Education for their vote today, which calls on those counties to at least go back and reevaluate their modes of instruction before the end of the year,” he said during a late afternoon news conference Tuesday.

Late last week, Hogan announced that every local school system is allowed to begin safely reopening their buildings for in-person learning due to low COVID-19 case numbers. He urged the eight districts that planned to remain virtual for most of the first semester to reconsider their plans to include for at least some face-to-face learning.

Many local school boards, elected officials and the teachers’ union pushed back last week, saying that local schools were not given enough time to change their schedule to meet these newly established standards, especially with only a week left before the first day of school.

“I’m still really disappointed in the timing and manner at which this has played out,” Lori Morrow of Prince George’s County, the parent member of the state school board, said during Tuesday’s board meeting. The board only received these new recommendations Friday evening and the presentation slides were not posted publicly to MSDE’s website until Saturday morning, she said.

In response, the state board revised the requirement to an average of 3.5 hours of synchronous learning across all grades (K through 12) every day, instead of a minimum, to give schools more flexibility. Half-day pre-K school days must include a minimum of 1.5 hours of live learning spread out over the half day, according to the new regulations.

A school district can offer more hours of synchronous learning one day and less on other days, as long as the average is 3.5 hours, school board member Gail H. Bates said.

The deadline to meet these standards was deferred to the end of the calendar year, instead of the end of this month.

The Maryland State Education Association hailed the more than 20,000 Marylanders who signed an online petition in recent days that called for no mandated schedule changes until after the first quarter of the school year.

“We appreciate that the State Board of Education rejected Superintendent Salmon’s last-minute proposal to rip up local school schedules in a matter of weeks without thought for the confusion, stress, and chaos that would ensue,” Cheryl Bost, the president of Maryland State Education Association, said in a statement during the board meeting.

This conversation would have been useful months earlier, Bost said. “The poor communication and sudden changes coming from the State Department of Education and state leadership are deeply concerning and in dire need of improvement.”

School superintendents similarly expressed their frustration with the late timing of these new standards.

Kelly Griffith, superintendent, Talbot County Public Schools

“These untimely requirements after our plans have been approved are a powerful departure from the traditional cooperation between the LEAs (local education agency) and the Board. These recommendations are rigid, lack basis in any specific academic research, and are extremely severe in what to date, has been a partnership during this crisis,” Kelly Griffith, the president of the Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland, wrote Monday in a letter to Salmon and Clarence Crawford, the president of the state Board of Education.

Superintendents said they appreciate statewide standards and the goal to ensure equity, but believe these decisions should have been made collaboratively with local superintendents, Griffith continued.

‘You can’t have a blanket number for all students’

Some educators doubt that mandating a set amount of live learning would achieve more equity.

There are hundreds of students who do not have resources at home where they can sit quietly and log on for class, Kevin Shindel, a social studies teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, said in an interview. Children of working class families, who cannot help younger children as much, will especially will be at a disadvantage

“That’s [mandated average of 3.5 hours of live learning], not equality, it actually further diminishes their capacity to keep up,” Shindel said.

Rose Li, a school board member from Montgomery County, asked multiple times how Salmon decided on 3.5 hours as the optimal synchronous learning allotment. If the requirement was 3 hours rather than 3.5 hours, 16 of the 24 districts would not need to change their schedules, Li said.

“We believe an average of 3.5 hours of synchronous instruction daily across all grades allows students to remain connected to their teachers and is the best solution for replicating a level of beneficial interaction in a physical classroom with the synchronous time spread out throughout the day more like a real instructional situation when not virtual,” said Lora Rakowski, a spokeswoman for MSDE.

Henry Smith, an assistant professor at John Hopkins School of Education, said he thinks these new standards are not going to help anyone except the school board and superintendents to use as metrics and to be able to record the total hours of live learning they have offered to students.

“You can’t have a blanket number for all children,” he said in an interview. “Especially younger students, special needs students and ESL students cannot have the same metric as a high school student whose first language is English.”

Having a qualitative metric, instead of a quantitative one, that thoroughly assess the quality of synchronous learning, no matter how long they are, would be much more effective, he said.

“The debates about the amount of time of synchronous learning are so off target from what we should be talking about,” Shindel said. “If you really wanted to enhance student engagement, you have to give teachers training and time to plan, not just make them put students in a Zoom [meeting] more often.”

“Quantity is not the same as the quality of instruction.”

By Elizabeth Shwe

Superintendent Stresses ‘Flexibility’ for Local Schools in Decision on Starting Academic Year

July 23, 2020 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

Almost one month away from the beginning of the academic year, Maryland’s schools superintendent on Wednesday provided additional guidance for public schools as they set their reopening plans during the COVID-19 outbreak. But she left it to the local school districts to decide whether to start the school year virtually or not.

“The imminent safety and health of students and staff must and always be the first priority,” State Superintendent of Schools Karen B. Salmon said during a State House news conference alongside Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R).

Local school systems will have the flexibility to choose how they reopen in the fall and which students to prioritize for in-person learning, Salmon said.

“We want to get our students back in school as soon as possible for in person instruction, and this should be the driving goal and basis for all of our decisions,” Salmon said, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics position on whether to provide in person instruction at the beginning of the academic year.

All school systems that reopen buildings must follow CDC guidelines, specifically for handwashing, physical distancing and face coverings, Salmon said. All students and teachers will be required to wear masks in buildings.

School systems must also have a clear process of what to do in the case of a COVID-19 outbreak, which is defined as one positive case among students, educators and staff in a school building. Schools are responsible for providing a written notification to all identified contacts of coronavirus, as well as specifying how long they should remain in quarantine.

Last week, a group of Maryland teachers’ unions and parents wrote a letter to state officials, asking for all public schools to reopen entirely virtually in the fall. Already nine local school systems, largely in Central Maryland, have announced that they will begin the school year fully online: Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Caroline, Charles, Harford, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

In a statement shortly after Salmon’s news conference, Maryland State Education Association President Cheryl Bost, a Baltimore County elementary school teacher, urged more school districts to follow suit.

“Virtual learning is not a perfect solution, but it’s the safest and focusing on just one mode of education enables educators to direct their total attention to making it more rigorous and equitable,” Bost said.

However, Salmon did not specify whether she is thinking of imposing a statewide mandate for first semester distance learning. School districts have until Aug. 14 to inform state officials of their reopening plans.

The state has committed a total of $255 million in CARES Act funding for education, Salmon said. Included is $100 million dedicated to address the digital divide and another $100 million for tutoring and relearning programs for students who experienced significant learning loss during the crisis learning phase last spring. $20 million has been used to expand rural broadband services, as well as $5 million for urban broadband.

Bost said robust funding is a must for this pandemic-influenced school year.

“We also know that the success of this school year and our ability to reopen schools as soon as possible will depend on a commitment to funding from federal, state, and local levels that we have not seen to date,” she said.

By Elizabeth Shwe

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