Younger the age groups have suffered the worst from online learning
Credit: AP
America’s great experiment in "remote learning" during the pandemic has proved disastrous for many children as the first figures from one of its largest school districts showed an explosion in failing grades, and a widening gulf between thriving and struggling pupils.
Unlike in the UK, thousands of schools across the United States have still not reopened, having been closed since March. Children from age five up are instead being taught on computer screens at home. Many will end up missing an entire academic year of in-person schooling.
An internal report from Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, just outside Washington DC, which has 188,000 pupils, was released this week following a Freedom of Information request by a local parent. It confirmed what many families around the country had feared for months.
Among children aged 11 to 18 there was an 83 per cent jump in those with two or more ‘F’ grades, in the first quarter of the 2020-21 academic year, which has just ended.
The younger the age group the worse it was. For those aged 11 to 13 the increase was 300 per cent. Among girls in that age group it was 600 per cent.
For children with special needs the jump in failing grades was 111 per cent. And for those with English as a second language, it was 106 per cent.
Coronavirus USA Spotlight Chart — cases default
Donald Trump has repeatedly called for US schools to reopen. His education secretary called remote learning a "tragedy" for young children.
Joe Biden has promised billions of dollars for schools to "reopen safely" with extra teachers, protective equipment and ventilation systems.
This week, Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s highest profile public health official, joined the chorus. He said: "It’s much better to close the bars and keep the schools open, than to keep the bars open and close the schools."
However, reopening decisions are taken at the state, and local school division, level, based on virus metrics established there.
Strong opposition to reopening remains from teaching unions, and many parents concerned about virus spread.
That has led to a patchwork of open and shut schools across the US, and even within states.
In Washington DC, which opted for remote learning, figures show the number of kindergartners meeting literacy targets has plummeted 11 per cent since last year. For first graders the drop was 12 per cent, and for second graders seven per cent.
Last week the US capital saw the first 400 of its 50,000 pupils return to school.
They were primary school children with special needs, or little English, and they will still learn on screens while teachers stay at home.
Second-grader Winona Begaye uploads homework in her family's vehicle in a dirt lot near Blue Gap, Arizona as she has no access to internet at home
Anecdotal evidence from parents suggests younger children are struggling most with remote learning, academically and emotionally, with accounts of them becoming withdrawn, anxious and desocialised.
Five year-olds, unsupervised while parents work, have been left bamboozled and frustrated trying to type in a Zoom chat room when they barely know their alphabet.
Some parents have quit their jobs to homeschool. Others have moved to US states where schools are open, or even to different countries. The wealthiest are hiring tutors, or searching for rare vacant spots at private schools.
For many parents the early amusement of rogue children wandering into their work Zoom meetings has given way to genuine anguish over their futures.
Megan Jaster, a mother of a seven-year-old with special needs in Virginia, told NBC Washington: "I’ve had to quit work just to sit by him and help him access anything that is up on the computer.
"When things get hard, a lot of these kids who struggle anyway just give up very easily."
The Washington Post asked parents of young children doing remote learning to send in pieces of artwork.
Children produced drawings of themselves crying. One wrote: "Nonononononono".
Benjamin Saling, a first grader from Queens, makes a sign that says "I want to be in scool" before joining a protest against closures in front of New York's City Hall
Credit: AP
Experts have warned of increasing child depression. Mary Beth Miotto, a paediatrician in Massachusetts, reported emergency room doctors there were "seeing more children with suicide attempts hospitalised than children with covid."
The academic figures from Fairfax, Virginia contained one surprising result, more ‘A’ grades than previously. Teenagers who did well before the pandemic performed even better with remote learning. But those at the other end fell further behind.
Around the country parents’ groups are becoming more vocal about reopening.
In Fairfax one called the Open FCPS Coalition has raised thousands of dollars for a legal fund to remove school board members it accuses of "dereliction of duty".
In a statement the group said: "The continued isolation, mental strain and educational harm to our children is far worse than the actual risk this virus poses. It is time to allow children to go back to school."
Fairfax’s superintendent Scott Brabrand, in a statement this week, said many pupils "continue to do well" and "specific interventions" were being made to support those that were not, including "catch up days".
Similar figures from the biggest school division in Houston, Texas, which also chose remote learning, showed pupils with two or more ‘F’ grades up around 300 per cent. In one of the city’s poorest districts the rise was 500 per cent among 11-to-13-year-olds.
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