Homeschooling during the coronavirus will set back a generation of children

[Zorro]

As the coronavirus pandemic closes schools, in some cases until September, American children this month met their new English, math, science and homeroom teachers: their iPads and their parents. Classes are going online, if they exist at all. The United States is embarking on a massive, months-long virtual-pedagogy experiment, and it is not likely to end well. Years of research shows that online schooling is ineffective — and that students suffer significant learning losses when they have a long break from school. Now they’re getting both, in a hastily arranged mess. And the kids who suffer most from the “summer slide” are the low-income students, the ones already struggling to keep up.

Schools and teachers are mobilizing to roll out instruction. Many are showing entrepreneurial spirit and creativity, and the ad hoc home-school universe is awash in ideas and resources. District leaders are working long hours, trying their best to serve kids. While larger districts have at times struggled with communication and rollout, some schools and districts are showing a more nimble and collaborative approach. Achievement First, a charter network with schools in multiple states including Rhode Island, has jumped in and offered to share all resources with the Providence Public School District, which is under a state takeover for low performance. And Chiefs for Change, an organization of state and local education leaders, is hosting a virtual forum for school districts to share how they are collaborating with charter schools during this crisis. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, those jurisdictions struggling to support online coursework will catch up and find workarounds for students without access to technology, learning from the more entrepreneurial players.

But the barriers they face are daunting.

First, research shows that even with great planning, a willing audience and lots of effort from teachers well-schooled in distance learning, results for K-12 students are lackluster. The author of one study of virtual charter schools (which have more online offerings and thus more to study than public institutions) noted that “challenges in maintaining student engagement are inherent in online instruction,” in part because of the limited student-teacher contact time. “Years of evidence [is] accumulating about how poorly these schools are performing,” the author of one multiparty report held in 2016. That report concluded, “Full-time virtual schools are not a good fit for many children.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/coronavirus-homeschooling-will-hurt-students-badly/2020/03/27/f639882a-6f62-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Same with med schools, law schools. vet schools

You can't replicate classroom experience

[CrispyQ]

2. Leaving the poor and low income kids behind is exactly what the GOP wants.

They are going to milk this crisis for everything they can. We are going to see disaster capitalism on steroids, starting with the CV bill that pretty much opened the Treasury to the corporations.

I had never heard of the summer slide before. Fascinating. I also wonder the impact it will have on socialization, how many kids are going to lose social skills due to lack of interaction with people other than family.

I hate that orange pustule so much. Everything about this crisis is going to be so much worse because of president shithole.

[Aquaria]

5. I was a homeschooling parent

For reasons that I won’t go into here, other than to say that it’s not because I’m one of those fundagelical anti-science loons (far from it!)

Regarding socialization:

It’s total fucking bullshit that homeschooled kids miss out on socialization. A social kid will find friends, period. My son met his best friend at a video game store while we were homeschooling. They have been friends now for over 20 years. When he lived at home and was doing his learning thing, this pal and their extended circle of friends just about lived at our house, they were over so much.

None of them are on drugs or in jail, either. They’re typical guys who are into video games, cars, sports, movies and music and are now all settled down in one form or another.

Even the religious loon homeschoolers have socialization outlets for their kids through churches, extended family and neighbors. In some places they have organizations that offer orchestras, bands, arts and crafts, hobby-type clubs, and even sports.

So this ridiculous notion that homeschooled kids miss out on socialization is fucking bullshit.

If anything, getting my child out of his toxic public school environment improved his social skills. He became far less disrespectful to us and to other adults and more communicative, too. He became calmer, more considerate and far—FAR—less materialistic. There was no more, “I want” this idiotic thing that was popular at his school.

I felt like I got my child back that middle school had almost taken away.

And I’ll also put up the education I gave him against ANY AP program.

[Squinch]

8. Parentally scaffolded socializing is very different from children

having to learn how to deal with each other all day every day.

[CrispyQ]

10. I didn't say anything about home schooling.

I'm thinking of the kids whose parents depend on the public school system, kids who are going to be put in front of a TV or computer because that's all the attention their parents have to give them, for whatever reason, like maybe they are working three fucking jobs to make ends meet. So get off your high horse and save your home school rant for someone else.

[jimfields33]

3. It will be interesting to see if some of the kids continue with homeschooling

Forever. Not a proponent but some will excel at it. I did a few on line college classes and hated it. Always tried to get classroom as much as possible. But there are a certain kids of the population that will excel. And those that were bullied I’m sure are better off. I wish that ended. I know schools try but kids can be mean.

[Hoyt]

4. The homeschooling memes are kind of fun.

[Squinch]

6. What is the alternative?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Isaac Asimov wrote this story in about 1950.

https://lewebpedagogique.com/anglais/wp-content/blogs.dir/16/files/the-fun-they-had.pdf

[Harker]

12. Thanks for the SF break...

Truly a mind out of time.

[CaptYossarian]

9. My wife and I both have teaching degrees. However,

I refuse to be my daughter's prom date!

[Igel]

11. Research reports overall averages.

I can't repeat often enough that averages often hide the actual story.

In the '80s I knew two homeschoolers. Both were church parents. One was a single dad with an 8th grader boy. The other a stay-at-home mom (working class family, they scrimped a lot) with a 10th grader girl, 5th grader girl, and a boy in kinder.

Both pulled the kids out because they didn't like the group their kids were falling in with. Both kids were borderline failing.

The mother made sure that every morning at 8 the girl was at her desk, had breaks, had her signed up for 2-3 sports, tested her, and if school was out, so was homeschool. Same schedule. The girl was free at the end of the day not when school let out, but when she finished the assignments--she was often done by lunch. After a year of homeschooling, the mom with the 10th grader decided to let her try public schools again. She had to take a placement test. After 1 year, her kid went from barely passing 9th grade to easily placing in 12th grade. She skipped 11th grade.

The boy who was home schooled by his father? Well, the father worked and watched tv. "Doing okay with schoolwork, Mike?" "Sure." And the dad was done monitoring. The kid turned 18 and had to take a test to be freed from school--not pass it. More of a monitoring, thing. If the score's high enough, state diploma's awarded. The kid came in at the 8th grade level for math and reading.

Same church. Town. The parents were friends with each other, lived a couple of miles apart. Both white. The father finished high school, the mother had 1-2 years of unaccredited church college. Completely different results.

Which is why reporting averages hides the real story. Distance learning is great with some kids. My kid does well with it. He finishes early. He sits, listens, reads, re-reads until he gets it. Does practice tests, turns in assignments. When there's feedback on assignments, he reviews the feedback.

Most of my kids in school don't like doing the reviews. I have to push them to do work in class when they're *in class*. Most don't read feedback. "Here's your work, pick it up" and most sits there untouched. > 69? They're ecstatic. And their parents are okay with passing.

Home schooling requires time. Distance learning requires self-discipline or effective imposed discipline. Most kids lack those things. It's a bad fit for most kids. Some kids, bless their hearts, know this and avoid distance learning.

It's a good fit for some kids. The data, as an argument for shutting down online schools, are a miss. There is an argument for being selective in who takes the courses, but it's a good fit, cost effective *and* faster, for some kids. And I'm not one of those who thinks closing racial/class gaps by limiting the right-end of the curve is an acceptable thing. Better a gap than no gap, if that's the price.

But it's a horrible fit, esp. distance learning, for most kids.

I'd venture to say that it might work even for those kids, but not at a huge cost savings. Put them in a class with the computer, a teacher/monitor (preferably one who can tutor a bit) and enforce discipline. No phones, computers are locked down to prevent cheating, etc. That might work. Don't see that researched, though.

The closest I've seen to that is credit recovery, where the kids are put together in a class, but cheating is rampant. Watching the video or seeing the text go by, they watch movies on their phones or text. There's a nice app that will grab a picture of the screen, OCR the text, search Quizlet or Brainly and return the answer. Pretty good. But the kids don't actually have to even *read* the question. And Course Hero often has screen shots of the assignments--pay for access, and the assignments are there, behind a firewall so that the proctors don't even know the kids are cheating. Thing is, it's credit recovery and the schools worry more about passing the kids who failed than making sure their grades reflect learning.