After being closed for a good six or seven weeks, the Elk Grove Unified School District is hoping to roll-out another four or five weeks of instruction for this school year. Seems like it took a while to greenlight the concept (this is the third week since the shutdown) and now they are giving teachers an additional month to figure out how to implement the details. The goal is to have the district “go live” with online instruction for the last week of April with all instruction terminating by the end of May. All schedules year round to traditional are included in this new and truncated calendar.
Please note my son’s private school went live (K – 12) with full blown instruction in all classes on their third day following a shutdown. Ditto for many other public-school districts. Why Elk Grove is taking their ever lovin’ sweet time is a mystery. Why they need another month now that they have a plan of action is ridiculous.
Meanwhile, teachers have been given the green light to make suggestions to parents for online resources (which is good) but teachers are still forbidden to continue with any new material for their children (which is bad). I guess the lowest common denominator governs not just the student’s but the teacher’s instruction as well. Sad.
I’m left with many concerns and questions besides the ones I’ve already mentioned. Will the grades count? If so, will they be weighted the same? What about teachers that don’t even know how to check email? (This is not a rhetorical question because a bunch of teachers get stumped when asked to press the “Any Key.”) What about AP classes or special ed classes? Both extremes pose challenges. What if Johnny or his folks want the district to supply the computing device and/or internet access?
The District’s correspondence makes it clear that their relationship with the union comes before the children. No surprise to me. Had they let their principals take the lead, instruction would be happening for most children, but education is a top-down world. This experiment in “Distance Learning” will result in an uneven quality of education; limited by the abilities of the teachers. Hopefully it will encourage a few to either retire or up their tech skills.
Anyway, it looks like my pronouncement of no more school this year, may be proven wrong. Let’s just see what happens. Whether it can be called distance daycare, or entertainment, or education may be in the eye of the beholder.