Remote and In-Person Students

Covid has brought many changes to families and schools this year.  Many school districts across the United States have gone remote. Other school districts have allowed families to choose either one way or another. At our school, we have remote students and in-person students. Is the data showing that in-person students have an advantage over remote students?

Changing Perspective from Remote to In-Person

Originally, I was very scared of coming back to school. I had not had Covid yet, and I was afraid that students were not going to be able to wear masks or social distance. My students and all of the students in our school have really been able to follow protocols and have been staying as safe as possible. I realized after coming back to school how vital it is for students to be in the classroom and just how EXCITED students were to be back in the building! I really did switch sides on my thought process.

The data is showing that in-person students are on average growing at a rate of 15 points higher on standardized achievement tests than students who are remote. This is true from my stand-point, because I noticed a difference with performance between my own remote students and my in-person students. Students of mine who stayed home for the first semester of school scored lower on our MAPs assessment compared to my in-person students.

Now is The Time!

My in-person students right now are receiving at least 5 hours of instructional content from me 5 days a week. My remote students are still receiving the same amount of work, but I am not teaching live. I believe having a teacher in the same room as you giving you strong instructional content with immediate feedback is going to allow students to academically grow stronger than students who are at home. If you are a parent, and you are on the fence about sending your child back in-person, please consider sending the student back to school. 

There are going to be so many learning gaps to fill if we do not work together to get our students back to school.

Are you kids at home learning remotely? Do you have a choice? If your kids are back to in-person learning, are they making tremendous gains? Let me know in the comments below!