Tag: Beth Cheuk

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Coronavirus News

Class dismissed: School closings intensify equity issues

Jack Jouett teacher Heather Dow sits in her car outside the middle school to utilize the public WiFi. Dow lives in Greene County, and does not have a fast enough internet connection to take Zoom calls for work. PC: Zack Wajsgras

With Virginia’s K-12 schools shuttered for the remainder of the academic year, our city and county districts have moved into uncharted territory: figuring out not only how to teach thousands of students outside of the classroom, but also making distance learning accessible and equitable for all.

The districts say they are still developing formal distance learning programs, which will be rolled out after spring break, on April 13. In the meantime, some teachers in both the city and county have provided students with optional online modules and activities, reviewing previously taught material. Educators have also been using video conference services like Zoom and Google Hangouts to bring kids together.

Accessing these resources, however, is more difficult for some than others. Up to 30 percent of Albemarle County Public Schools students don’t have adequate access to the internet at home. And while Charlottesville City Schools do not have division-wide data on students’ internet access, its most recent CHS student survey indicated that 6 percent of households have no internet.

To bridge this digital divide, ACPS has boosted the WiFi signal at all of its schools, as well the Yancey School Community Center, allowing anyone to get onto the internet from parking lots. Several hundred cars have already been spotted taking advantage of this crucial resource, according to ACPS spokesman Phil Giaramita.

ACPS has also leased part of its broadband spectrum to Shentel, enabling the company to expand internet to more rural, underserved households in the area. With the lease revenue, it’s ordered about 100 Kajeet Smart Spots, which are “devices you can install in your house that will access the network of local carriers in your area,” explains Giaramita. Once they’re delivered, “we’re going to start distributing those to teachers [and students] who don’t have internet access at home,” and will order more as needed.

In the city, CCS recommends that students who have inadequate internet access connect to an AT&T or Xfinity hot spot, as both companies have recently opened up all of their U.S. hot spots to non-customers. The district is also distributing hot spots to students who are unable to use those publicly available.

Both city and county school districts are giving laptops to students in grades two and up who need them. ACPS also plans to distribute iPads to kindergarteners through second graders.

At CCS, learning guides are available online for pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students with suggested activities that do not require access to the internet.

Despite these efforts, CHS senior Jack Dreesen-Higginbotham remains concerned about the city’s transition to distance learning. “I know they’ve been working on trying to set up hot spots for students, but I don’t know if it will be accessible to everybody. And [still], not everyone has a school-provided laptop,” he says. “My brother, who is in sixth grade, wasn’t provided one, so he’s had to use mine to do his work.”

However, Dreesen-Higginbotham’s CHS teachers, who currently use Zoom, are doing a “very good job at instructing their classes and organizing lessons, so that they can be inclusive to everybody,” he says.

After spring break, both CCS and ACPS will provide more formal online—and offline—academic instruction and enrichment for each grade level.

“We’re looking at finding specific solutions for individual families, whether online, offline, or a combination,” says CCS spokeswoman Beth Cheuk.

“Offline could simply mean working with kids by telephone, by regular mail. We’ve asked teachers to be creative, so that there isn’t any student who is disadvantaged by their access to technology,” adds Giaramita.

While students will learn new material through distance learning, there will be no grading (or SOLs). Instead, teachers will provide feedback on a regular basis.

To former CHS teacher Margaret Thornton, now a Ph.D. candidate in educational leadership at UVA, this is an opportunity for local schools to explore different types of evaluation systems.

“I hope that we can make lemonade out of these lemons, and re-evaluate a lot of our policies—grading is certainly one of them,” she says.

“We’ve [also] known for a long time that our standardized testing system has created a lot of inequality,” Thornton adds. “We can be rethinking assessments at this time, and how we can make it more formative and more useful in instruction.”

Both school divisions want to ensure that as many students as possible graduate or are promoted to the next grade level. Per guidance from the Virginia Department of Education, students who were on track to pass before schools closed will do so. But on April 6, ACPS announced that if distance learning is not “the best fit” for a student, they will have the option to complete the school year by attending classes in July, or (excluding seniors) during the next school year.

While ACPS’ lesson plans will not go into effect until April 13, Giaramita says one of its distance-learning initiatives has already been implemented: Check and Connect. Students will now be contacted at least once a week by a teacher, counselor, administrator, or principal to talk about their distance learning experience, what assistance they need, and what their internet access is like. So that no student is left out, this contact can take place by phone, email, video call, or even snail mail.

CCS has also asked teachers to connect with each of their students to identify which ones need additional support, regarding WiFi or other issues.

Such practices may be particularly beneficial to those who do not have parents at home to help and support them throughout the day.

“So many service workers are being considered essential, and are doing essential work. But that means often that their kids are going to be home alone without adult interaction,” Thornton says. “The relationships between teachers and students are [going to be] key.”

Other teachers, parents, and community members have expressed similar concerns for students with limited access to adult instruction and interaction, such as those from refugee or ESOL families. And with a significant amount of students without adequate internet access, some fear students won’t be prepared for the next school year.

“It is really hard to live in the county and not have reliable [internet] access. We don’t even have cellular service so we can’t utilize a hot spot,” says Jessiah Mansfield, who has a senior at Western Albemarle High School. “If we need something important, we have to go to Charlottesville to download it. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this issue, but it will impact our children.”

However, others remain hopeful that teachers will be able to help their students make it through the rest of the semester.

“As the crisis continues and escalates, so does anxiety for all. Learning should be suggested. Remember we are at home trying to work not working from home. Connecting with my students is just as important for them as it is for me,” says Libby Nicholson, a fourth-grade teacher at Broadus Wood Elementary School. “We are in this together! We got this!”

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News

YOU Issue: Recess report

Here’s what readers asked for:

What the hell happened to recess in our schools?—Rebecca Coleman Cooper

After her daughter had recess time taken away twice for talking during class, local mom Christa Bennett started a petition to end this punitive practice in city schools. And she thought it had worked.

The city’s school board approved a new wellness policy in September 2017—one that just won an award from the Virginia Department of Health—which mandates that teachers and administrators can not take away any recess, physical education, or physical activity as a form of discipline.

“I definitely consider getting this policy approved as a win,” says Bennett, who volunteers on the school’s health advisory board. “However, it is also true that taking away recess for punishment still happens. It happened in one of my daughter’s classes just today.”

The issue, she says, is that some teachers and administrators just don’t know the new policy.

The good news, she says, is that all of the principals are now aware of it, and “when approached with a parent’s concern, I’ve found that they’re able to work with the teacher to ensure recess isn’t taken away in the future.”

In city schools, kindergarteners now get extended play. The youngsters get two recess periods a day for a total of 45 minutes, according to schools spokesperson Beth Cheuk. From first to fourth grades, students get a minimum of 30 minutes of recess each day, and in fifth and sixth, they’re required to have at least 25 minutes of daily physical activity.

And how do we know that teachers are actually giving kids their recess time?

Cheuk says she spoke with one school secretary who “literally sees the kids on the playground, and watches a parade of them come into the office for bathroom breaks.” And other secretaries told her they routinely have to pull kids out of recess for early pickups. Principals and other administrators have eyes on all parts of the schools—including the playgrounds—to make sure teachers follow the master schedule.

“Bottom line: School secretaries know everything,” says Cheuk.

Over in the county schools, spokesperson Phil Giaramita says teachers don’t have the authority to take away recess time, though they don’t specifically have a policy that prohibits it. Kids in county schools get 20 minutes of recess per day, he adds.

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News

Transfer rate: Are Charlottesville schools leaving city kids behind?

Teacher Robyn Davis requested the city’s only trailer, aka learning cottage, for her preschoolers at Greenbrier Elementary, and says they can be a little louder and feel part of a smaller, age-appropriate community. Photo courtesy of Beth Cheuk

By Natalie Jacobsen

Recent Charlottesville City Schools data suggests a trend among its elementary schools: Non-resident students, typically from Albemarle County and colloquially referred to as “county kids,” are surpassing resident students in transfer rates across the school system. And that’s putting city kids in standalone modular classrooms to handle the excess capacity, says a former Charlottesville School Board chair.

Not so, says city schools spokesperson Beth Cheuk. “We have exactly one trailer.” Or “learning cottage,” as it’s known in educationese.

The enrollment of non-resident students is not new. “In 1983, enrollment for resident students was declining,” says Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins. School administrators calculated how a tuition-based program would boost the bottom line and the school board approved the enrollment of non-resident students.

For the 2016-2017 school year, of 292 transfer students, 210  paid tuition: $1,337 a year for K-8 students and $1,701 for high school students (additional siblings get a price break). The 82 children of city employees don’t pay tuition.

“One of our goals is to keep expanding, and that means accepting non-resident students,” says School Board Chair Juandiego Wade. “If out-of-district kids want to come to our schools and pay tuition, we will welcome them.”

Within the city, students may transfer to another school—if that school’s principal agrees.

“Most of the time, [transfers are requested] for child care reasons,” says Atkins. “Maybe their babysitter or after-school care is located in another school zone, and the parents want their child to stay with the same sitter or facility.” Transportation can be another factor in granting a transfer, and non-resident students do not have a city bus option, she says.

Last year, Greenbrier Elementary reached capacity—a maximum of 24 students per classroom—and installed a $70,000 trailer-like classroom outside of the school at the request of a preschool teacher, says Cheuk.

“The modular classroom is very modern, clean and even has a better bathroom than the school,” says Wade. “We are one of the fastest-growing districts in Virginia, and using these modulars is not uncommon.”

Seven classrooms in elementary schools were added this school year.

Former school board chair and city councilor Dede Smith says that was to accommodate the incoming non-resident students.

Cheuk puts that number at two additional classes to accommodate non-resident students, whose enrollment is flat. She says the school system’s 3 percent growth is fueled by residents, not non-residents, whose numbers are declining.

Smith contends the learning cottage at Greenbrier houses city kids, and not a single “county kid.”

“The preschool classes are held there,” she says. “They are isolated from the rest of the school. Even the school doors automatically lock, so the students stand outside after class, waiting for someone inside to let them back in so they can go home.”

Smith also expresses concerns for the in-district student transfers who were rejected.

“Last year, of the 65 resident transfer requests, 33 were by white-identified students, and nearly 100 percent of requests were granted. Of the 27 black-identified students, that acceptance rate dropped to under 50 percent.” The other five “Asian” or “unidentified” students were accepted.

“That is unacceptable,” says Smith. The city “is blatantly telling resident kids that they are not a priority, especially black students.” Of all city students, 42 percent are white and 33 percent are black.

“For what it’s worth, we do not ask a student’s race on the transfer application,” says Atkins. However, information on a student is accessible by any principal. “Last year was an anomaly in the acceptance rates,” she says. “In some cases, some families applied more than once, so some numbers are repetitive.”

“Saying we prioritize by race is disrespectful in my eyes and goes against everything I stand for,” says Wade.

In 2013-2014, 100 percent of black students’ and 98 percent of white students’ transfer requests were granted, and more recently in the current 2017-2018 year, 100 percent of white students were allowed to transfer, while 89 percent of black students were, according to the city.

“When you make decisions like we do, not everyone is going to like it,” says Wade. “I’m willing to take the hit. We do our best to reach every student.”

A lot of a student’s success depends on parents, says Wade: “Some economically disadvantaged homes may not be able to provide a quiet space or materials or parental help with homework.”

“More and more pressure is put on families, even though they may not be able to provide,” says Smith. City schools need to take responsibility and provide more resources for those who do not have it at home, she says. “But first, they need to return to prioritizing the resident kids, as their application policy suggests. They need to spend their budget on helping these students excel, not buy trailers to make room for non-residents.”

By the numbers

Charlottesville City Schools

Budget: $78.5 million

Resident students: 4,313

Annual spending per student: $16,840

Non-resident transfer students: 292

Tuition: $1,337 for K-8 , $1,701 for high school students

Learning cottages: 1

Courtesy Charlottesville City Schools