It was revealed during an April 23 Zoom conference with the San Diego Unified School District hosted by Assemblyman Todd Gloria, that the temporary transition into distance learning caused by school closures due to the coronavirus is likely to be a prelude of things to come.
Not saying students will never eventually return to brick-and-mortar classrooms. But noting distance learning was already an important part of the curriculum. And, that it is almost certain to increasingly become a larger part of education’s future.
The conference was called to answer public questions about distance learning, which had a soft opening in early April and officially began with grades now counting on April 27.
“Our schools are still in session, and our kids are still receiving an education, just in a different setting,” said SDUSD superintendent Cindy Marten during the conference. “What hasn’t changed is our core mission. This crisis may change everything we know about our regular routines. How we face this crisis may change how we operate. But it doesn’t change who we are. And who we are is about how to reach each student. If we can’t reach them, we can’t teach them.”
“At the state level, we’re trying to allow the data to drive our decision making on these emergency orders,” said Gloria who added, “Returning to the classroom for the remainder of the school year is extremely unlikely.”
“That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen,” agreed Marten. “It’s been widely discussed.”
Gloria asked how long-distance learning will last. “None of us has a crystal ball,” replied Marten. “From the beginning, SDUSD has continued our food and nutrition programs for students, and gotten ourselves up and running with distance learning.”
However, Marten pointed out, “As hard as we try, as connected as we can get, it (distance learning) is never the same as learning in the classroom with a teacher.”
Added Marten: “We believe there will probably be a need for some type of summer school. But what does that look like? How do we make up for the learning loss during the time that schools were closed? We just don’t know how long this is going to last.”
Shifting to graduating high school seniors, Gloria noted, “My heart is breaking for seniors. What can you tell us about them?”
“We did not want to concede that this year was over,” responded Marten. “We thought, ‘Let’s get to work here.’ It really does matter for our students to get their grades so that they can graduate. No student will be issued an academic grade that was lower than what they had before the outbreak.”
Continued Marten: “We don’t want people to be disadvantaged by this. We want to make sure that they are able to continue learning, though we know the environment has changed.”
SDUSD soft-launched its distance learning program on April 6. Leading up to the return of graded instruction, the district provided teachers with the professional resources they needed to shift their work online. At the same time, computers were distributed to students allowing them to reconnect with teachers during the soft launch period.
SDUSD was the state’s largest district to announce a plan to return to formal graded instruction.
For the three-week period between April 6 and April 24, students received credit for work that was done, although the material was not graded. On April 27, graded instruction resumed for traditional schools, and will resume on May 11 for year-round schools, for the remainder of the academic year.