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Roane County offers a stark picture of how West Virginia's 'distance learners' may not be learning
My latest for
@mtnstspotlight
@Report4America
: Over 100 kids in Roane County have completely fallen through the cracks of West Virginia's education system.
Link to tweet
NEWS
Roane County offers a stark picture of how West Virginia’s ‘distance learners’ may not be learning much at all
by Lucas Manfield
January 22nd, 2021
SPENCER, W.Va. — On a frigid January afternoon in Spencer, the Lesher brothers were chatting on a stoop of their apartment complex, enjoying the sun. They’re worried about their grades. ... Hunter, a third grader at Spencer Elementary, said he’s been struggling with reading and math. The assignments are over his head, and even when they’re not, he can’t figure out how to submit them on his school-issued iPad. ... “I was an honors student,” he said. “And now I’m not.” ... His older brother jumped in. For Josiah, a sophomore at Roane County High School, the year has gone even worse. “Straight F’s – right off the bat,” he said.
The reasons spill out, and then multiply. The brothers have been learning remotely, and the family’s internet service is spotty. The local cable provider gave them sixty days of free service early on in the pandemic, but that ran out a while ago. Josiah said it has been a struggle to turn in work.
For a while, he made do. The family — the two brothers, their sister, and their mother — crammed into a yellow Mercury coupe, parked in front of the library, and logged in there. But it was painfully slow. Everyone had trouble getting into their respective school’s various portals. Wires got crossed. Josiah turned in his assignments, he said, at least at first. But they never got marked. Before long, school officials were dispatched to their door. ... Frustrated, Josiah gave up. “I quit doing [the work],” he admitted.
He’s not the only one. In late December, State Superintendent Clayton Burch dropped a startling statistic during a press conference: one-third of remote students were failing a core class, like reading and math.
{snip}
The empty track at Roane County High School. Photo by Lucas Manfield
{snip}
A previous version of this story incorrectly misstated the classes with which Hunter Lesher is having trouble. He is struggling with reading and math.
Lucas Manfield
Lucas Manfield is a Report for America corps member covering business and economic development. He has covered housing, health care and government accountability for the Dallas Observer and interned at inewsource, another nonprofit news organization, in San Diego. Manfield graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 2019, where his investigation into a death at a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital earned an Award for Excellence from the Association of Health Care Journalists.
lucasmanfield@mountainstatespotlight.org
Roane County offers a stark picture of how West Virginia’s ‘distance learners’ may not be learning much at all
by Lucas Manfield
January 22nd, 2021
SPENCER, W.Va. — On a frigid January afternoon in Spencer, the Lesher brothers were chatting on a stoop of their apartment complex, enjoying the sun. They’re worried about their grades. ... Hunter, a third grader at Spencer Elementary, said he’s been struggling with reading and math. The assignments are over his head, and even when they’re not, he can’t figure out how to submit them on his school-issued iPad. ... “I was an honors student,” he said. “And now I’m not.” ... His older brother jumped in. For Josiah, a sophomore at Roane County High School, the year has gone even worse. “Straight F’s – right off the bat,” he said.
The reasons spill out, and then multiply. The brothers have been learning remotely, and the family’s internet service is spotty. The local cable provider gave them sixty days of free service early on in the pandemic, but that ran out a while ago. Josiah said it has been a struggle to turn in work.
For a while, he made do. The family — the two brothers, their sister, and their mother — crammed into a yellow Mercury coupe, parked in front of the library, and logged in there. But it was painfully slow. Everyone had trouble getting into their respective school’s various portals. Wires got crossed. Josiah turned in his assignments, he said, at least at first. But they never got marked. Before long, school officials were dispatched to their door. ... Frustrated, Josiah gave up. “I quit doing [the work],” he admitted.
He’s not the only one. In late December, State Superintendent Clayton Burch dropped a startling statistic during a press conference: one-third of remote students were failing a core class, like reading and math.
{snip}
The empty track at Roane County High School. Photo by Lucas Manfield
{snip}
A previous version of this story incorrectly misstated the classes with which Hunter Lesher is having trouble. He is struggling with reading and math.
Lucas Manfield
Lucas Manfield is a Report for America corps member covering business and economic development. He has covered housing, health care and government accountability for the Dallas Observer and interned at inewsource, another nonprofit news organization, in San Diego. Manfield graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 2019, where his investigation into a death at a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital earned an Award for Excellence from the Association of Health Care Journalists.
lucasmanfield@mountainstatespotlight.org
2 replies
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