Our district got caught with their pants down as well. In fairness, there was never any sort of planning for such an event. Nobody really knew what to do.
Our teachers decided to go a bit overboard with the assignments and required online meetings, etc. -- which led to adopting the completion grade system (they started out actually grading everything) because the parents and students were getting overwhelmed.
Well...at least they were overachievers...but it was a freaking mess. [We are a bit spoiled with having pretty decent schools, and relatively conservative ones as well -- rural area; a lot of our teachers/admin. are either natives or retired from city postings because they couldn't take it anymore.]
It happened so suddenly and with little to no guidance from the state as to what, exactly, was to be done (at least here) that I don't really blame my school for being at a loss (they really did try to do their best). It was truly a wtf moment for everybody.
It does point to some particular problems that do need to be addressed:
we have no true disaster protocol (we still don't, the draft plans for this year are full of horse shit) -- we need to develop one (yes, my husband and I wrote a letter)
the schools are way too dependent upon the state boards of education -- it is far too centralized; there needs to be more independence -- what works for Chicago will not work for DeKalb, will not work for Chester, for example (this is a future letter in the works); and waiting around for the state to do something is a bad idea -- improvise, adapt, overcome needs to be the rule
parents (not all, but far too many) are/have been far too dependent upon the schools to raise their kids and have only really demanded that they act like glorified day care...they had little to no knowledge about curriculum and policy (this may be changing at least in some areas -- I think the parents got a bit of a wake up call, I hope).
Chicago runs the ISBE and they made elearning optional because of their own low expectations for CPS students. Then they tried muscling for more devices and free internet-even though there is already discount internet for welfare recipients
That's part of the problem with education in Illinois: Chicago runs it.
IL schools will be open in the fall though -- they need to federal money.
I've often wondered what happens to all those devices -- I have a hard time believing they're used for educational purposes...it might be something to investigate (not that any journalist would).
Our district got caught with their pants down as well. In fairness, there was never any sort of planning for such an event. Nobody really knew what to do.
Our teachers decided to go a bit overboard with the assignments and required online meetings, etc. -- which led to adopting the completion grade system (they started out actually grading everything) because the parents and students were getting overwhelmed. Well...at least they were overachievers...but it was a freaking mess. [We are a bit spoiled with having pretty decent schools, and relatively conservative ones as well -- rural area; a lot of our teachers/admin. are either natives or retired from city postings because they couldn't take it anymore.]
We have a really good school system too with minimal BS fortunately. I think that’s what it made it more frustrating I just expected more.
It happened so suddenly and with little to no guidance from the state as to what, exactly, was to be done (at least here) that I don't really blame my school for being at a loss (they really did try to do their best). It was truly a wtf moment for everybody.
It does point to some particular problems that do need to be addressed:
Chicago runs the ISBE and they made elearning optional because of their own low expectations for CPS students. Then they tried muscling for more devices and free internet-even though there is already discount internet for welfare recipients
That's part of the problem with education in Illinois: Chicago runs it. IL schools will be open in the fall though -- they need to federal money.
I've often wondered what happens to all those devices -- I have a hard time believing they're used for educational purposes...it might be something to investigate (not that any journalist would).