Never more vital to close the tech gap
A few hours after a Facebook friend asked me to sign a petition to close New York City’s public schools, I forwarded an article to my daughter, a kindergarten teacher in Washington Heights, announcing the city planned to do just that.
Her relief was soon replaced with deep concern. “April 30th!!” she texted, followed by a slew of exploding head emojis. “OMG my kids … Some of them will suffer from the lack of consistency.”
Exactly. The closure of schools was certainly necessary — we still don’t know enough about the virus, and whether our little ones, who seem to be less impacted by it, are silent but robust carriers. That said, like so many systemic conditions in our country, the impact on the have-nots will be felt far worse than others.
The shift to online learning must take into account the technology desert that exists in underserved communities like Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport. The closures will mean food insecurity, and in some cases a lost safe haven for students like my daughter’s, those who are homeless, and students in Connecticut’s urban and rural areas. The shuttered schools will also leave many parents with limited options for where to send their children, necessitating the difficult choice between working and keeping their babies home alone.
Lest we forget, working from home is a luxury: There are no remote work options for food service workers, Uber drivers, home health aides and emergency service personnel.
Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona recently proposed to re-establish the Achievement Gap Task Force, which was responsible for identifying the academic achievement gaps that exist across various groups, highlighting efforts to close those gaps, and establishing annual benchmarks, among other recommendations.
Should the measure pass — also to be determined, with legislative activities at a standstill — that group will certainly have its work cut out for it, because this will undoubtedly exacerbate what is already a shameful chasm in our state. The question, therefore, is what can and should Connecticut do to mitigate the impact of the virus on its most vulnerable students and to ensure the achievement gap doesn’t continue to leave far too many children behind?
For starters, we can take some examples from the schools highlighted through Dispelling the Myth, an EdTrust awards program that recognizes schools that have demonstrated significant achievement in schools with high poverty and significant numbers of students of color.
Second, school districts should ensure that remote learning is equally accessible to all students, from laptops to work plans to broadband access. As my daughter lamented, many of her students will be staying with grandparents who are unfamiliar with technology. Closer to home, Hartford students were sent home without work but encouraged to work through online learning packets.
Third, municipalities should partner with community-based organizations that exist to serve English language learners and students with special need, and leverage support from philanthropic institutions to resource those entities.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, we must talk to, and listen to, those who will be the primary implementers of these shifts — the teachers.
Far too often, teachers are excluded from decision-making tables, from their local districts to the halls of the Capitol. As the key gateway to our children’s education, their voices should be a key part of any school closure plan. We cannot assume a learning plan is effective otherwise. After all, who knows better what their students need than their teachers?
My daughter has set up readalouds for her kindergarten students by video and phone. She spent her morning in her empty classroom, gathering supplies to ensure she could effectively teach them from a distance. Once home, she walked caregivers through lesson plans and tapped into a host of online resources to keep the learning going. More than anything, she is talking with other teachers about ways to provide consistency in learning for her students. As should we all.