With remote learning, many students slip through the digital cracks

On a normal school day, Paul Oakes teaches about 90 students in his special education math classes. 

Now, almost two weeks into remote learning at Newark High School, he’s managed to make contact with about 12 of those students. Only three have turned in work online. 

In the past week, he’s been able to reach three parents to figure out what’s going on. Emails go ignored, and phone calls home either go to disconnected numbers or end with voicemails that are not returned. 

“I’ve had classes where only one student has shown up. Others with three or four,” Oakes said.

Closing Delaware schools a month ago to slow the spread of COVID-19 exposed inequities: Not every child has access to a computer or the internet. For many, school is their main source of food during the day. 

As public schools have shifted to remote learning, another educational challenge has re-emerged — chronic absenteeism and making sure students are logging on or completing assignments without the structure of a school building or normal school day. 

Schools across the state have their own systems with most relying on spreadsheets to track every point of contact. The data includes metrics like who’s logged onto learning platforms like Schoology or Zoom, who’s completed assignments and who has not been heard from at all. 

Because most of this data is kept at the school level, districts are still compiling who has and hasn't been reached and the numbers shift daily. 

But already, teachers are struggling to reach some students, worrying for both their safety and academic progress. 

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Students who don’t participate in remote learning will have gone two months without education if schools resume in-person teaching in mid-May. And if schools don’t reopen in May, that’s a nearly five-month pause in learning until students return in the fall. 

“At the end of it all, you want students to still be engaged and still have a routine,” said Shaheda Khan Pine, a counselor at Gunning Bedford Middle School in Colonial School District. “Let’s say we do go back after May 15. It’s going to be a shock for a child who hasn’t had any type of instruction or routine. They are going to struggle.” 

Exacerbating an existing problem

Chronic absenteeism — or missing at least 10% of school days — plays a big role in academic achievement. Missing too many days of instruction puts students at risk of falling behind, and is an early warning that students could be off track to graduate. 

It also tends to be more prevalent among low-income students, students of color and those with disabilities. Students who are homeless or in public housing are at an even higher risk. 

Students living in poverty can face obstacles even getting to school under normal conditions. For example, a parent’s broken-down car could mean a fifth-grader doesn’t make it to class. Or a teenager could be expected to watch younger siblings during a school day. 

Those obstacles don’t disappear with remote learning — if anything, they are exacerbated. 

Since Colonial started remote learning on April 6, Pine has been compiling attendance lists of her eighth graders. On Tuesday, she had split the list into two columns: students who had logged on but not turned in any work and those who had vanished entirely. 

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Out of 305 eighth graders, 45 had not logged on at all. Based on past interactions, there are about 11 that she thinks she won’t be able to reach. 

“When you have students who are typically truant, they’re likely not going to attend remote school,” Pine said. “Now that there is no ‘real school,’ why would it be any different?”

Even during a normal school year, Oakes said about three-quarters of his students face some sort of truancy issue.  

Across the state, teachers tracking down missing students are finding there are a variety of reasons they aren’t logging on. 

For some, the sudden lack of routine is jarring. It’s easy to stay up late playing video games and sleep through Zoom lessons in the morning. 

Especially for younger students, time management without the structure of school is difficult. Some students assumed no one was monitoring their participation, Pine said. 

Students living in poverty face bigger barriers, she said. And the health and economic stress of the coronavirus pandemic only makes things worse. 

Stephanie Hart, a fourth grade teacher at New Castle Elementary School in Colonial, is concerned about her students and their parents. Out of her 23 students, there are two she hasn’t been able to track down. 

“The reality is, for some families, because they have all of these other things for survival that they have to deal with, school is kind of low on the priority list. And understandably so,” Hart said. “When you’re worried about where you and your family are going to live, or how you’re going to pay your bills, that has to be your priority.”

Losing the physical space of a school building also means teachers have lost the informal check-ins they normally rely on to keep tabs on students' well-being, Oakes said. 

In the classroom, Oakes is able to watch his students to tell who needs some extra help. Not being able to walk over, tap a student on a shoulder and nudge them in the right direction has been a challenge, he said. 

Across the building, he said, fellow teachers have also seen drops in participation. 

"They're going to get used to not working," Oakes said. "That's going to be difficult to break them out of. It already takes us time to do it after the summer. Relationships really flourish in the spring. That's what we got robbed of this year." 

Natalia Alamdari covers education for The News Journal. You can reach her at (302) 324-2312 or nalamdari@delawareonline.com.