The first bulletins of the school year are arriving with far more Fs than normal, in a dark sign of the difficulties that students are facing with distance learning.
American school districts from coast to coast reported that the number of students who failed classes increased by two or three times – with students learning English and disabled and disadvantaged students suffering more.
“It was completely different from what is normal for us, and that was obviously very alarming,” said Erik Jespersen, principal of Oregon’s McNary High School, where 38% of grades in late October failed, compared to 8% on normal times.
Educators see a number of factors at play: students who learn at home skip homework – or school altogether. Internet access for many is limited or inconsistent, making it difficult to complete and upload assignments. And teachers who don’t see their students in person have less ways to detect who is falling behind, especially since many keep cameras off during zoom sessions.
The increase in low grades has been seen in districts of all sizes across the country.
At the Jespersen school in the public school district of Salem-Keizer, hundreds of students initially had not only Fs, but 0.0% marks, indicating that they were simply not participating in the school. In New Mexico, more than 40% of elementary and high school students failed at least one class in late October. In Houston, 42% of students received at least one F in the first assessment period of the year. Nearly 40% of high school students’ grades in St. Paul, Minnesota, were Fs, double the amount in a normal year.
In response, schools have intensified outreach efforts, prioritizing the return of students with difficulties for face-to-face learning and, in some cases, changing assessment policies and giving students more time to complete tasks.
Jespersen said his school started seeing grades improve after bringing groups of 300 students into the building in small groups to receive support from teachers, although this has recently stopped because of the increase in coronavirus cases in the region. Counseling teams have increased contact with students and teachers have been asked to temporarily stop assigning assessed homework assignments. Hispanic students’ parents were invited to a session to learn how to access their children’s grades online.
In Charleston, South Carolina, administrators and teachers are raising the possibility of adjusting grades the way they did in the spring, when instructors were instructed to give 50s instead of 0s to make them less punitive for disinterested students, according to an eighth grade English teacher Jody Stallings. “I’m an English teacher, not a math teacher, but I learned that zeros are very, very devastating,” he said.
Most of the low grades he gives come from missed assignments, not assignments that were delivered with many wrong answers.
“You talk to them later and they say, ‘You know I just didn’t do it. I didn’t know the answer, so I just didn’t do it, ‘”said Stallings, who teaches most of his students in person and the rest online simultaneously at Moultrie Middle School. “When you have a child in person, he will get tested … Even if he doesn’t know anything, he has a chance.”
The son of Jillian Baxter, a sophomore in Fairfax County, Virginia, usually scores well but has failed all classes at one point, including physical education. Her daughter, a veteran, was taking out all the A’s. Both students are learning remotely full time.
She attributes the difference to the way her children learn. Her daughter is excited to work independently in her room. Her son is a “tactile learner,” she said.
“You don’t have that impulse to do that if you’re not there,” she said.
Low scores during the pandemic also revealed how the equity gap in the education system is growing.
An analysis of the Fairfax County school system found that students who learn English and students with disabilities are among those with the biggest increases in low grades. On the other hand, students who performed well previously performed slightly better than expected.
In Hatch, New Mexico, high school registrar Blanca Ramirez said her work evolved during the pandemic to serve as a translator, ombudsman and life coach for students and parents who speak only Spanish. In conversation, she asks students how they can get such low marks.
“The first answer is’ it is so difficult – miss – there is no understanding [I don’t understand], ‘”Ramirez said.
“I found that children often don’t even make the first attempt because I think they are afraid. And so, just making that call opens up this encouragement and they start to try a little harder ”, says Ramirez.
In some cases, the biggest barrier for a student learning English is simply that they are unable to log in to Zoom calls and the online education platform, which are essential for attending classes. A few times this semester, Ramirez asked students to meet her in the school parking lot, all in masks, while she showed them and their parents how to log in.
Hatch High School reported that 79% of students failed at least one class during the first assessment period of the year. That was reduced to 46% in just a few months, said spokeswoman Audra Bluehouse, because the school has become easier and students are more engaged.