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Prince William to conduct virtual learning in fall, transition later into hybrid model

Prince William County Schools (PWCS) students won’t be headed back to the classroom to school in fall, but they will likely return later in the school year.

During its six-hour meeting on July 15, the county’s school board unanimously approved a return to learning plan in which students participate in solely virtual learning for the first quarter, starting on September 8 and ending October 30. A goal of transitioning into a hybrid of in-person and virtual learning later in the school year remains in place, with the option for students to stay virtual.

Certain special education and other vulnerable student groups, however, will receive “some in-person services” during the completely virtual first quarter, as feasible, according to a press release from the division.

The reopening plan was passed after the board denied PWCS Superintendant Dr. Steve Walt’s plan for a 50% hybrid model for the school year, in which students would attend school two days a week.

“We know that none of the plans perfectly meet the needs of all staff, students, and their families; however, the board and staff have done their best to balance critical health and learning needs as safely as possible,” stated a press release from PWCS.

The official school reopening resolution is as follows:

“That, in order to reopen schools this fall, while protecting the health, safety, and well-being of students and staff, the Prince William County School Board will plan

  1. to reopen schools for the 2020-2021 school year on September 8, 2020, with a 100 percent distance learning model for the first quarter. The Division will consider offering in-person services to special education students as determined appropriate by their IEP teams, and to the most vulnerable English Language Learners and students with interrupted learning, as determined to be instructionally appropriate and feasible. It is the goal of the Division to transition to a 50 percent Capacity In-Person and Distance Learning Model for the second quarter, with the option for students to remain virtual while maintaining flexibility throughout to adapt to public health guidelines as needed, and
  2. to adopt the proposed Return to Work and Health Plans, modified as needed to adapt to the Return to Learning Plan and public health guidelines, and
  3. to authorize the Superintendent to implement any additional mitigation measures as appropriate to accommodate these models.”

The new plan comes in the wake of #PWCSStudentVoice, a hashtag that students across the school division utilized to amplify their voices on the issue of reopening schools, due to feeling as though they were not being heard by the school board. Many of them voiced their opinion on the matter during the citizen comment portion of the school board meeting, and many were happy with the final resolution.

“This is my own opinion that doesn’t represent all students or anyone else but myself, but I am glad that the school board made the decision to keep schools closed for the first quarter. Student, staff, and community safety has to be the first priority. Students cannot be expected to learn in the same way during a pandemic, and learning and grading will have to be changed to reflect that,” said Caroline Silvera, one of the two student representatives to the Prince William County School Board.

Many, however, still had doubts about its effectiveness.

“I believe the current PWCS plan is the best they could devise. It’s good that they prioritized safety of stuents, but there are still many problems with virtual learning. I hope schools have a more uniform plan for teachers because in May it was a mess,” said Daniella Saforo, a recent PWCS gradute and rising freshman at Harvard College.

Due to the plan being created within the midst of the school board meeting, the school division has not yet outlined a plan for how it would be conducted. It is possible, however, that it would merely take its original plan for the virtual model and the hybrid in-person and online model and tack them together into something cohesive.

The original proposed 100% virtual model had students using the learning management platform Canvas, which allows teachers to conduct live and recorded lessons, create/grade assignments, and proctor tests completely virtually. The original plan was to also use MasteryConnect, a “unified assessment system for elementary, middle, and high school” that “allows for development and sharing of common assessments,” according to a presentation by Walts.

Each grade level would also have different schedules and daily amounts of screen time, in the original plan, with a general recommendation of 20-30 minutes of live instruction per class.

 

The proposed schedule for a completely virtual elementary school in Prince William County.
The proposed schedule for completely virtual middle school in Prince William County.
The proposed schedule for completely virtual high school in Prince William County.

The original 50% hybrid model, which is planned to occur after the first virtual quarter, had alternating groups of students in school two days a week with staggered schedules and participating in virtual learning three days a week. Special education and other student groups with additional needs were scheduled to attend four days of in-person school.

A sample model of 50% capacity school schedule in Prince William County Schools.

In order to supplement both the virtual and hybrid models, the county ordered over 15,000 HP Touchscreen laptops that were distributed to students in May, an action that occurred to aid in putting a device in the hands of all the county’s high school students, and eventually all of its students.

Many parents, however, are concerned about the social-emotional needs of students and equity within virtual instruction, according to a parent survey conducted by PWCS completed by 16,708 parents. The most common concerns were about the social-emotional needs of students, 58.7%, and equity in instruction, 51%.

“My main concern is about the technology that they’re going to use, its effectiveness, and the access kids will have to it. Also for children under the age of 12 whose, parents are working […] they’re unsupervised. How are they going to be taken care of?” said Veronika Murrut, the parent of three PWCS students.

More information will be released by the school division as the school year draws closer. Additional information on the return to learning plan can be found here.

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