It was supposed to be a two-week break added to a week of spring vacation. It turned out school was out in March for the rest of the year.
But Eirik Nielsen, a teacher in San Francisco, was determined to prepare his students for the Advanced Placement World History exam, writes Laura Meckler in the Washington Post. It’s a great story.
“For Jonathan, Lilian, Am’Brianna, Ryan and their peers, the pressure will steadily build over 69 days, as they prepare for an exam that might persuade an elite college to give a kid from a non-elite high school a second look,” she writes.
Nielsen’s work keeps coming. The first week, he received 150 student emails. One day, he holds 35 back-to-back, one-on-one Zoom meetings with students. He grades essays all day long and late into the night.
He’s also under pressure from his union, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with the district that says teachers shouldn’t be online more than four hours a day. Between teaching, office hours and meetings, Nielsen blows past that every day, frustrating some colleagues. He supports the union but sees this moment, for teachers, as uniquely demanding: “This is our World War II.”
The shortened exam would cover 1200 to 1900, the College Board told teachers. Nielsen didn’t want to cheat students out of 120 years of history, writes Meckler. But time is short. “The school’s leadership team had voted for a schedule where each class meets just once a week, for one hour.”
The principal tells teachers to assign less work.
Nielsen wonders whether she’s right and sends a survey for students to fill out anonymously. The results are sobering. Nearly 4 in 10 students say they feel totally overwhelmed. An additional 27 percent say they feel “at or near my limit of what I can currently complete.”
Only a few students lack Internet access, but about 4 in 10 are responsible for younger siblings. One in 5 say there is more arguing and fighting than usual at home. Nearly 4 in 10 say they do not have enough space.
“After that, he reluctantly dials back the work,” writes Meckler.
How did the students do? The scores haven’t come back yet.
Chicago Public Schools hopes to improve student engagement in online learning, writes Mila Koumpilova on Chalkbeat. Black and Latino students were more likely to receive “incomplete” and “pass” grades, instead of letter grades, than whites, the district data show.
CPS will set clear expectations for teacher participation in virtual learning, LaTanya McDade, the district’s chief academic officer told the school board. “About 80 percent of high school teachers logged on to the district’s Google digital learning platform at least three days a week last spring,” as did 55 percent of elementary teachers, Koumpilova reports.