Schools are using online programs at an unprecedented scale, but parents and educators are dismayed by online class sizes as high as 100 students.
PHOENIX — With family members at high risk to COVID-19, Norma Hernandez felt she had no choice but toIt’s a decision most parents have had to contemplate this year, but the virtual option comes with worrisome trade-offs. In Hernandez’s case, her son's fourth grade class in a virtual program in Gilbert, Arizona, has as many as 55 students, an “overwhelming” load for his teacher, she said.
Arizona's school Superintendent Kathy Hoffman wrote in a statement that she has anecdotally heard of more teachers leaving the field. The heavy workload for teachers raises questions about the virtual experience for students who don't have a parent present to help or who don't have ready access to additional resources.
“If they’re not engaging, something’s not working and we need to get them back into a model that works,” Hoyer said.In West Virginia, one fourth grade teacher was expected to teach math and science to 82 students virtually, said Tega Toney, president of the American Federation for Teachers in Fayette County.“Some districts are trying to skirt this rule by saying virtual classes don’t really apply,” said Toney, who also serves as vice president of West Virginia’s state teachers union.
Teachers of special subjects like physical education and art are accustomed to working with large numbers of students throughout the day. In normal times, they can attend to everyone face-to-face. But engaging everyone is harder when trying to teach kids remotely and at school, said Rachel Mita, an elementary physical education teacher in Florida’s Pinellas County schools.Mita does not have to teach her in-person and online students simultaneously, like many of her colleagues.
However, the same report also recommended that virtual schools reduce student-to-teacher ratios, finding virtual school students often performed poorly academically.Coronavirus and schools:Sirko said it was difficult to anticipate how many of her Colorado district's 22,000 students would opt for the virtual option over in-person.
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