Michigan students saw more Fs on their report cards than usual this year, as many children struggled to take online classes alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite teachers’ efforts to keep students on track, K-12 schools have faced immense challenges when it comes to distance education. The abrupt closure of schools last March forced teachers to quickly switch to distance learning on an unprecedented scale.
School leaders say students at all grade levels have struggled with online lessons due to the lack of face-to-face interaction with teachers, as well as other issues such as technical issues and the lack of access to technology.
“It takes a lot to be an online learner, and a lot of kids weren’t ready for it,” Jenison High School Principal Brandon Graham said. “We found that there were a lot of obstacles preventing them from being successful.”
Data from the Jenison High School report card shows that students who took online-only classes performed worse in school this fall than students who attended school in person.
Almost a third of students taking distance education this fall failed at least one of their courses at Ottawa County High School. By comparison, only 15% of students taking face-to-face classes failed a class, Graham said.
The staggering failure rate has left administrators scrambling to help students without lowering grading standards. The school has created a credit recovery program, allowing students to recover credits they lost due to failing classes in the fall.
The high school has also asked all students who failed at least one online course this fall to take their classes in person this semester.
Since then, half of all students who failed distance courses last semester and moved on to face-to-face classes are now successfully completing their classes, Graham said.
“Our initial results seem very positive – kids who struggled online and are now back in person are doing significantly better in their classes,” Graham said.
Educators struggled to decide whether to assess student performance with the same academic standards before the pandemic, or to give more leeway given the difficult circumstances.
“We were all in uncharted waters,” Graham said. “I think we did all we could to keep our standards where they were, but also maybe to give the kids a little more grace to get their assignments.”
The Detroit Public School Community District has dramatically changed the way it will grade students this year, removing all D and F grades from report cards due to the number of students who have performed poorly in online learning in autumn.
About 20% of elementary and secondary students and 35% of secondary students failed at least one class in the first term. That’s about double the failure rate from the previous school year, said Clare Liening, a spokesperson for the district.
The district introduced a new G grade, which will be applied retroactively to all fall report cards to replace D grades. Officials will also replace all F grades with a “No Credit” grade to help save GPAs for students. students during distance learning.
Students will be able to re-take quizzes and tests up to two times to demonstrate understanding, and homework will be limited to reading and studying, according to neighborhood documents.
The new grading system was recommended by a working group of 200 members to improve online learning.
Lansing Public Schools Superintendent Sam Sinicropi said the level of concern about academic performance is high for educators statewide.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone in a virtual format that doesn’t have almost the same issues as everyone else,” he said. “Loss of learning is everywhere.”
Sinicropi said that while some students have performed better in online learning purely because of flexibility and independence, most students have struggled and are not performing as in the past in this environment.
“Our biggest concern is getting kids to the screen, let alone being careful about doing the things they’re supposed to do,” he said.
But at this point, it’s unclear what level of learning loss Michigan students are facing. The Michigan Department of Education is once again calling on the federal government to waive standardized testing requirements this spring.
A waiver has been granted for 2019-2020 to bypass testing due to the coronavirus pandemic, so Michigan could go without two years of academic data for school districts.
Reeths-Puffer Superintendent Steve Edwards said he has seen very different levels of learning loss among students, making it difficult to know for sure what impact the pandemic has had on student performance.
For example, Reeths-Puffer High School in Muskegon County had a higher failure rate for Grades 11 and 12 students in the fall compared to 2019/20, while Grades 9 and 10 years fared slightly better during the pandemic compared to the previous year. .
“I think a lot of times people want to make a direct link between the pandemic and competence, but this year was less predictable than expected,” Edwards said. “I think one of the things we see is that there isn’t necessarily a direct connection. Honestly, we are always trying to make sense of our data.
Without standardized test data, schools primarily rely on benchmark assessment data to see how much students have progressed academically throughout that year.
“If Michigan does full assessments this spring, parents and educators will have a very clear idea of how late their children are,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the non-partisan Education Trust-Midwest group.
“We know that children in rural Michigan lack Internet access and a reliable device. It would make sense for us to see some of the biggest learning losses in rural communities, but we cannot understand this better without the evaluation data.
Almost half (45%) of parents in the state say the quality of education and instruction their children receive is worse during virtual learning, according to an Education Trust-Midwest survey of 400 Michigan parents in December.
A survey shows that 91% of black parents and other parents of color feared their child was falling behind in school because of the pandemic, while 83% of white parents shared this concern.
“While we cannot yet document all of the problems created by school disruptions, what we do know is that parents are really worried about it,” Arellano said.
The poll found that 85% of parents agree that state leaders should have a plan to tackle learning loss and ensure students catch up to their current grade level.
On Thursday, February 4, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced a new Advisory Council on Student Recovery, comprised of 29 members with a variety of educational, medical and professional backgrounds, who will make recommendations on how to help students recover.
“It’s important to remember that schools also provide other services that students need to be successful, including reliable Internet access, nutritious meals and mental health supports. COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities in our education system, and we know more work is needed to address the significant impact this pandemic has had on our children, ”Whitmer said in a press release.
State Superintendent Michael Rice said on Tuesday that adding additional learning time next year would help students cope with learning lost during the pandemic.
He said the current minimum of 180 days of instruction required was too low before the pandemic and the state legislature should increase it.
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