The US schools’ migration to digital platforms is facing challenges due to lack of access to internet and technology resources. This has led to the low attendance of students to e-learning classes.
New research by Fishbowl, a community app for professionals is shedding light on the effectiveness of online classes for US schools during this lockdown period. The app is analyzing data from states on the accessibility of the platforms for learning and the participation of students in these states.
Research on US schools e-learning attendance
The research was done on 5659 educators across the US, which found that 35 percent of these educators indicated their class attendance was as low as 0 to 25 percent. A further 55 percent of those interviewed indicated that their class attendance was less than half. This was a clear indication of a lack of accessibility to many students in US schools, something that has been a concern to the department of education.
For states which had over 100 educators interviewed during the research, Michigan state performed poorly with 62 percent of respondents saying their classes had less than a quarter attendance during e-learning. Data from North Carolina, Ohio, and California also showed that 40 percent of educators were concerned that the number of students attending online classes was very low.
However, states like New Jersy and Texas educators said that their online class attendance was more than 50 percent of the normal class size. This was a positive sign that some states had been able to transition smoothly and with the majority of students adapting to the new technologies during the lockdown.
Hard to compel parents during this pandemic lockdown
States and school districts with low online class attendance are finding it hard to compel the parents during this pandemic lockdown period. This is because most parents are working at home while others are dealing with layoffs due to the closure of businesses. Therefore, not adding pressure to these parents during this period has been recommended by many states.
Grading has also been a major concern for US schools especially for states such as Michigan. The fairness of giving students an F due to lack of access to technology has been weighed. Michigan, for instance, is implementing a pass or fail strategy to grade students. This will allow students to progress to the next classes based on their school performances before the coronavirus.
Illinois has also taken the same path as Michigan and has indicated that online classes should continue. It also indicated that students should not be punished for not participating in these classes.
