I agree it would be shocking, but I have seen multiple elected officials (none in TX) float the idea on the news today.Belton Ag said:
I can see them cancelling STAAR testing, but based on current information regarding the epidemic, cancelling the rest of the school year would be shocking to say the least.
Charpie said:
Talked to the teenager who attends Westwood in Austin. Her teachers said that they are prepared to go through google classroom. The district is planning on issuing laptops to the kids on the east side of the district who may not have access to a computer.
This sucks for seniors.
I teach in a similar high school and while I agree that many kids have smart phones and data, its that 1% that concerns me. I'm sure we could find a work around, but I just don't see it as being as simple as flipping a switch and now we are online. Even within the school I teach at, not everyone uses canvas or google classroom. I don't even have a class set for some of my textbooks and no online access for any of the 3 subjects I teach. Overall its a pretty fragmented system IMO. And I teach in a fairly well funded larger district. I can't imagine every school has the same resources.3rd Generation Ag said:
Canvas works well from a smart phone. I teach at an urban high school with lower middle class kids. 99 percnt of them have newer and nicer smart phones than I have with zero data issues. Many of them actually type faster on their phones than on the chromebooks the schools provide. While we are NOT one to one, there are still chrome carts in every core subject classroom. If I were an adminsitrator, I would allow those to be checked out to individual students who claim not to have home technology. I would also think that large districts would have the negoitating ability to get some sort of wifi access for students who do not have it through their phones. At the high school level that might be less than one percent. About thirty kids at my school For younger students the ratio not has high, but my daughter taught for 20 years at Arlington's lowest income elementary, and she said by age 10 over half the kids had smart phones. My prek grandaughter said some of the kids in her class in grand prarie have phones. Parents and grandparents said dream on baby. But she does have a Kindle Fire that would be good enought I would think for school.
As I said above K12 is 100% online and run by Huntsville ISD - those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged have their laptop, printer, etc. provided by the program. It IS possible...but you would have to convince everyone of it first.BBRex said:
I posted this on the Houston board, and I think it is relevant here:
I went last fall to a k-12 conference about technology in education, and most school districts are still caught up with the idea that every student needs a teacher trying to differentiate instruction for 28 kids with different educational needs. Technology could help k-12 education on a bunch of levels, not just emergencies like this, but I don't think there are any districts in Texas really ready to offer classes online at this scale.
Also, parents and community groups in economically disadvantaged areas will scream that their kids don't have access to the technology they need to work from home.
Fitch said:
I was chatting with a friend's wife (school administrator in Spring Branch ISD) and her friend (teacher) yesterday at a crawfish boil - they've been on twice daily phone calls with area ISD's and the CDC about how to coordinate. They did not have an idea how long this is supposed to go on and reported the phone calls are largely repeating the same information. Without going into details it sounded like there was a late-breaking reversal by HISD on closing that caught area ISD's off guard, so it's entirely possible there's not a reliable answer at this point.
I think it can be safely assumed the duration of closures will be made on a case by case basis by region until there's a central directive from the state (if that ever happens). At this point I would wager at least through March 31 is a safe bet, with a strong likelihood (better than 50%) that April and May will follow in the next 10 to 14 days. Big asterisk -- that is merely my speculation.
