Quarantine Widens Existing Chasm in Educational Access

On March 16th, Alex Graber was expected to be in uniform and in advisory at 8:30am—via Zoom video conferencing. National emergency or not, Manhattan’s Regis High School expected students to keep learning and receiving grades through “synchronous and asynchronous remote instruction.”

Alex described his experience of distance learning as “basically exactly the same” as an in-person class; listening to his teacher and classmates, and using the raise-a-hand feature when he had his own comments to share, he participated in a “very effective” discussion about Huxley’s Brave New World.

But that wasn’t the case everywhere.

I surveyed 65 high schoolers throughout the Philadelphia area to understand how the shift to online learning was impacting students. Across the board, public and private school students reported a loss in educational quality and instruction. But it also showed that the sudden move to online education appears to have exacerbated existing inequalities in educational access.

Most students I interviewed in the Philadelphia area felt that their schools were not prepared for the sudden shift to online learning, though there was a disparity between the preparedness of public and private schools. Public school students rated their school’s preparedness for remote learning a 4.2 out of 10, versus 7.5 for private schools students. These results accord with anecdotal reports from students across the city. For instance, when schools suddenly closed in Philadelphia, several classmates whose cautious parents kept them home from Masterman that Friday found themselves home for the remainder of the school year without textbooks, let alone loaner technology. In contrast, Germantown Friends School provided its faculty with a day of training in remote instruction during the second week of March and distributed loaner technology and even athletic equipment before schools closed.

The quarantine has created serious differences in educational quality, too. Public school students rated the quality of their quarantine education a 4.5, whereas private school students averaged a 6. At home, public school students have an average 2.6 hours of schooling per day, versus 4.5 at private schools. Because many private schools ensured technology access before the closing of school, attendance and participation is therefore mandatory. Maya Phan, an eighth grader at Science Leadership Academy Middle School, tells me that just two out of 90 students attended her optional virtual math class last week. “People who don’t show up don’t want to,” she says. “They go to other classes, we know that they have the internet but don’t choose to go.”

Now public schools are catching up. In April, the Philadelphia School District was able to provide thousands of chromebooks for students. After nearly two months of optional learning, teaching new material will begin on May 4th.

Students have ideas for the individual school or teacher to improve their education. I heard two themes across the board: students want consistency and engagement. Consistency means holding regular synchronous classes at the same time week after week, contacting students on the same platforms, and being clear about what work is expected of them. Engagement means holding more synchronous classes with live teaching, versus just giving independent-study assignments. As one student put it, these students want to “try to replicate the original teaching model as much as possible.” “Most students want to learn,” another student said, “it’s just that home environments aren’t motivating.”

Student learning increases as a function of instructional time, and this simple fact raises equity concerns. How does a student who hasn’t been in class for weeks compete with a student who has? How do you advance to Calculus if you haven’t mastered Pre-Calculus? How do you advance to Spanish 2 if you missed out on 3 months of Spanish 1?

I am fortunate to attend Masterman, a competitive public magnet school, and live in a home with internet access. My dedicated teachers have taught us through the crisis to prepare us for our AP exams, as they emphasize that remote learning is not mandatory.

Yet clearly, the coronavirus is exacerbating existing inequities in educational access. The resource disadvantages of our nation’s school systems are only more apparent in times of crisis. For every day that Regis students discuss Huxley, there are many more students who will not participate in any form of class discussion. When this crisis is over, there will be students entering college or the workforce who have learned throughout the hiatus—and there will be students who have not. It’s really hard to make up for lost time in education.