By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A serious concern with all of the changes inherent in education due to COVID-19 is that not every student has the infrastructure at home to do what they have done at school.
"The great experiment that we're in now, that we have no choice but to look at, what does this type of not face to face learning mean for all students," said Mark Tallman, Vice President for Advocacy with the Kansas Association of School Boards. "The concern we is that, there's kind of an old saying, students that are already well engaged, well supported, doing pretty well in school, have good study habits, etc., can do pretty well in a virtual environment."
There are also individual students who have the grit to go it alone in spite of other adversity.
"A handful of other students that may be just incredibly well self-directed and learn better on their own can do well," Tallman said. "If your students that don't have a good environment, that work, if your students that aren't particularly well-engaged, if you simply don't have access to these things, then I think, the real fear is that learning is going to be much lower than what we would normally expect."
Right now, it's about mitigating learning loss, not necessarily learning growth, and right now, we don't know what next fall might look like, either and not everyone is using technology for learning right now.
"It's important to remember that there are many students that are not doing it virtually," Tallman said. "Either they don't have access, the school didn't go that way, parents may not want to participate. I think, while many students are studying online, there are also a lot of students that are simply getting basically, take home packets of assignments and information, all of that put together in an extraordinarily short amount of time."
It is Tallman's opinion that schools are going to have to be ready to keep up or revive any current plans if the virus isn't resolved by the fall, or if there is a second spike in cases as the weather cools down.