How Much Distance Learning Is Too Much Amid Coronavirus?

NORTHERN NEW JERSEY —On one hand, you have parents who want their kids to get a stringent education during the coronavirus spread, as if they were still in school.

On the other hand are the parents with sick relatives, or who are sick themselves, or who are teachers themselves, or have more than one child, who have a special needs child, or who work all day, or face some other challenge — and can't call for a substitute.

Ever since New Jersey's constitution was amended in 1875 to say all students should get a "thorough and efficient" education, leaders have struggled to provide a solid education to students in all different situations. Gov. Phil Murphy said on Thursday that the reopening of schools won't be revisited until at least April 17, meaning most students will be learning at home for at least three more weeks (probably longer) without aides and specialists to help.

It was only on March 2 that the state's Department of Education asked the schools to plan for possible distance learning — with little time for them to figure out how students with different home lives could adapt to the paradigm.

The state said that students would meet the state's requirement for 180 days of school if they undertook virtual learning. It's rare for the state to allow any exemptions, and they did not during Hurricane Sandy.

Don't miss local and statewide announcements about coronavirus precautions. Sign up for free Patch breaking news alerts and daily newsletters.

Now the districts face trying not to let students lag while also trying not to overwhelm people who are struggling.

Coupled with the stress of teaching while working, parents have had to occupy their hardware with new programs and juggle multiple communications amid their own distance meetings.

In a press release last week, reflecting on the Westfield School District's first week of distance learning, Westfield High School Principal Mary Asfendis said, “I think the biggest challenge for our school was that we had prepared and started to plan, yet the situation escalated so quickly that we did not have in-person training/planning sessions. However, our teachers met that challenge by modeling distance learning and were able to learn additional tools remotely.” Asfendis said she was thankful for “the flexibility of the students, parents and staff as we are working through this new approach to instruction.”

In Millburn, a district that has been ranked among the top five in the state, parents have been debating how much pressure to put on students in this new model.

Several dozen community members posted comments on a Millburn Facebook group last week about a letter sent out by the principal of Millburn Middle School, which referred to awarding students "points."

"We will be making the following adjustments to our Distance Learning plan effective Tuesday, Mrch 24, 2020," wrote the middle school principal, John Connolly. "Teachers will have the ability to increase the available daily points for classroom and assignments to (2) points. Points awarded will be based on effort, accuracy, and competition. In week 3, teachers will be incorporating additional assignments." Periods 1-4 of school will start at 9 a.m., 5-9 at 11.

The letter received mixed responses.

"Adding worry about grades to the nearly absurd amount of worry we are all collectively experiencing right now is a serious misstep," wrote one commenter.

"I get that this is Millburn and the school district’s reputation for academic excellence precedes it, but my kids’ physical and emotional well being comes way before grades," wrote another.

"The high school isn’t grading anything right now," wrote a third. "Why does my 8th grader need even more stress. Let the teachers teach interactively but they don’t need to ramp up and complicate a points system."

Some begged to differ.

"I’m pretty sure that many people think that their MMS students can do more and can be accountable even in these uncertain times," wrote one. "This isn’t looking like two weeks. We are all grappling with how much we can do, but expecting less isn’t the way I want the school to approach things."

And someone said, "What is really needed is some ACTUAL virtual teaching — instead of the kids teaching themselves and receiving emails from teachers that they did the assignment wrong."

Districts have been handling the expectations on students (and parents) differently. Some have said work must be turned in daily, while others have eased up or provided more open-ended assignments with less time on their screens.

Millburn officials held off on commenting on the controversy. In other schools, some said they were trying to strike a balance.

"Our virtual learning plan includes a combination of strategically balanced live instruction as well as videos, activities, and assignments for students to engage with on their own schedules," said Timothy Saburn, the head of the private Oak Knoll school in Summit. "We set out to create a schedule for virtual learning that was up to our standards as educators but also flexible enough to accommodate many different types of families."

He added, "Some families have multiple children who are all struggling to get online at the same time or have a child who needs their parent's help while that parent may need to be on a conference call."

A parent on the Millburn Facebook page noted, "I know teachers who are teaching from home with two [or] three children. I'm just asking us to take every family's situation into account."

Residents who have questions about coronavirus can call 211 or contact the State of New Jersey's hotline at 1 (800) 222-1222.

Got a news tip? Email caren.lissner@patch.com.

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhFrp_GSrdsYuL7t9XHihdyeOVEN2JSPmytoVUdmbQturdLA/viewform?embedded=true" width="100%" height="1960" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading…</iframe>