Newton Public Schools announced on Wednesday that they will be retaining the option for on-line education in Newton’s Middle and High Schools for the coming 2021-2022 school year.
Said NPS superintendent David Fleishman “While this school year was not something any of us would have wished for, some good things did come out of it. Out of necessity we all had a crash course on on-line learning and made great strides along the way. What we’ve found is that there is a sizable fraction of both our students and our teachers who thrive within the on-line education framework.”
Said Fleishman “I want to clearly emphasize that NPS will definitely be returning to classroom learning for fall 2021 but we don’t want to ‘throw out the baby with the bathwater’. For those students and teachers who thrive within the on-line educational modality, we want to continue to provide options for that style of learning/teaching. Our goal is to use what we learned over this difficult year to expand our educational offerings, use the best of what technology can offer us, and to meet students educational needs in what ever style of learning works for them.”
Next year’s Hybrid 2.0 plan will get a big boost thanks to a $1.4 million grant from the Newton Schools Foundation dedicated to improving the on-line educational experience with improved technical equipment in both the classroom and for students who need it.
NPS won’t know what proportion of students and teacher will go Hybrid 2.0 until the end-of-year surveys are conducted in June. Their initial informal estimate is that perhaps 15% – 20% of both students and teachers may opt for on-line only.
NPS says that yesterday’s announcement is merely a ‘road map’. A much more detailed presentation of the Hybrid 2.0 plan will presented at the end of April followed by a more quantitative analysis in June once the student/teacher surveys are complete.
(This was one of our 2021 April Fools stories)
There’s a typo in the announcement: Trust me, there are **NO** students thriving on the on-line model!!
For those TEACHERS who thrive within the on-line educational modality, we want to continue to provide options for that style of learning/teaching.
April fools?
Well, fwiw many students in the past have struggled with in-person for health and logistical reasons.
Especially concerning is our METCO students. Later in their academic careers the hurdle in getting to and from school prevents them from obtaining internships, jobs and volunteer options.
My own son will finish out the school year online. While he will go back in the fall, I know there are many students who could do with extra time to recover mentally from the pandemic before going back.
It would be great if online were here to stay as an option for those who need it.
It’s sad, i cant tell if this is April fools or not 🙂
Such certainty from Mr. or Ms. Bugek! Not a hint of doubt. Not a hint of humility. Wait, this person must be a regular poster on V14! As such she/he is certainly, to some extent, wrong.
In this particular case, my student is doing rather well this year in the on-line format at the high school level. I may be surprised. I may not like it for various reasons. But I cannot deny it. The reasons are many and varied. My student has an exceptionally good set of teachers this year. I am reasonably sure that at least one of her teachers is actually more effective over zoom than in a classroom. The hybrid model was poorly implemented back in January. Etc etc.
So, while on-line education may be a poor choice for many or even most, it is certainly not a poor choice for all. The lack of precision on this forum ends up degrading both the seriousness with which it is taken as well as the tenor of the resulting debate/conversation. Oh well, such is life in the virtual world.
@Bugek, Oh my. I don’t know if this post is because of April Fools Day, but I do know that some kids are doing really well with remote learning, since my wife is teaching remotely. For sure, others are not. But for some kids, not having to deal with having awkward social skills, bullying, racism, and other things that are an unfortunate part of in-person learning, remote learning has been a Godsend.
BTW, my wife wants to go back to in-person teaching. Now that she and other teachers are vaccinated against COVID-19, it will be safer (within 14 days) to go back to the school buildings.
Ted,
Eventually kids will have to deal with the real world. Normalizing education online for ‘children’ is doing them a disservice. Physical interactions is a vital skill for any child… no matter what obstacles they face.
Unless they plan to live their life online, its not healthy.. mentally and physically. Easier, yes but there is real long term damage
No more snow days.. ever again.
I suspect this will also be true for the working world. Zoom is here to stay. From what I am hearing (privileged) people will also have the option to work from home via zoom (or teams or skype) at least part of the time. Good news for commuters.
Newsflash: Opening day is postponed until tomorrow.
The sad thing about this great April Fools post is that I absolutely believed it could be real.
Families should be able to CHOOSE if they want in-person or remote school.
Now it should also be easy to let them CHOOSE their schools and CHOOSE their teachers.
SCHOOL CHOICE NOW!
If this was an April Fool’s Day joke, it is not at all funny. Many students and families would be thrilled to know remote school would be an option for next year. For students with disabilities, mental health issues, social anxiety, attention issues, etc., there are plenty of good reasons to attend school from home some/all of the time.
While this may not fit Bugek the Troll’s idea of conformity, it’s not crazy at all to offer this option (although I do think teachers should be in-person once vaccinated to control the physical classroom).
Given that many jobs are moving to remote/flex/hybrid scenarios, why wouldn’t education also offer that flexibility? I haven’t worked in an office for 8 years and have no interest in ever taking a full-time/on-site job again, and that will likely be the norm for many of these students when they enter the workforce.
JustAnotherNewton…
When i grew up, I lived mostly online outside school (modems and bulletin boards)…
Look how I turned out. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone 🙂
Its simply not healthy ‘long term’ for children to grow up online. Even the increase in social media in the world has driven society backwards, the polarization, the bullying