The decision by districts across California to shut K-12 schools last month to slow the spread of coronavirus remains a smart and practical move that aligned with other “social distancing” measures to keep virus deaths at a lower level than in other states — and to allow health-care providers more time to prepare for a projected onslaught of patients. But besides managing the public health crisis, leaders in San Diego and statewide also face another huge challenge: the need to make online education for stay-at-home kids as effective as possible to keep them on pace for productive futures.
The first priority is ensuring that students can get online on home. It’s estimated that 20% of the state’s 6.2 million students don’t have internet access, including one-third of those in rural areas. The fact that many school districts, including San Diego Unified and Los Angeles Unified, have already provided internet devices to many students from poor families may make this less difficult than it seems. Google’s generous decision to provide 100,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots in rural areas will also help.
The second priority is providing professional training to hundreds of thousands of teachers and administrators to help them with the transition from classroom to distance instruction. San Diego Unified is running seminars for teachers in advance of the formal April 27 launch of online classes.
Complicating the entire effort is this: While there is a great deal of research on what works for online education, it is largely about college and graduate coursework, with older, more mature students. It’s not possible to expect a 10-year-old will handle online instruction the same way a 20-year-old will.
A third priority must also be addressed quickly, one that will have a big effect on both student access and quality of online instruction. State and federal governments need to figure out as soon as possible how much more money they’ll provide California public schools to ensure the 2019-20 school year includes the minimum 180 days of instruction specified in state law — or if they will ensure that at all.
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