New School Year Tests Teachers, Students and Parents Like Never Before
As classes resume throughout the state, one thing is clear: This academic year will be unlike any before, as the pandemic shuttered classrooms and forced most of the state’s school districts to instruct more than 6 million K-12 students remotely. Despite a complex waiver process for elementary schools, most students will be getting and completing assignments online. But distance learning is fraught with challenges, as teachers, students and parents learned this past spring when school districts abruptly closed to comply with state and local public health orders. Some of those challenges remain, including technological barriers for low-income students and English learners, along with concerns teachers have about engaging and retaining students in a virtual setting.
Guests:
- Julia McEvoy, senior editor of education and equity, KQED
- Elisha Smith Arrillaga, PhD, executive director, The Education Trust-West
Pandemic Exposes Race and Equity Gaps in Education
This week, state education officials announced a plan to purchase up to 1 million internet-connected tablets for public school children. Although the digital divide existed before the pandemic, the public health crisis has exposed growing race and equity disparities between communities in school districts, especially for parents who are essential workers and can’t work remotely. This week, 29 teacher unions representing more than 300,000 students in Alameda and Contra Costa counties wrote a letter urging local health officials to use ZIP code data instead of county-wide averages of coronavirus cases to determine when it would be safe for in-person instruction and that currently “no schools should open until it is safe for all schools in the county to open.”
Guests:
- Marissa Glidden, president, United Teachers of Richmond
- Shakira W. Reynolds, co-founder, Parent Leadership Council, West Contra Costa Unified School District
Mental Health Struggles for Parents and Children
We hear from a clinical psychologist about how the pandemic is exacerbating the mental health struggles of parents and students alike as they grapple with uncertainty, upended routines, and for essential workers, the ever-present fear of contracting the virus and spreading it to their families.