Yet another last minute DOE revision of their school reopening plan & even more crowded classes & less live teaching for NYC kids

Sept. 17, 2020

This morning, the Mayor announced that in-person schooling for those students opting into blended learning would be delayed once again. The new schedule is below:

• Kids in 3K, preK and District 75 ONLY will return to school on Monday.
• Kids in K-5, K-8 schools will return on Sept 29.
• Kids in middle and high school will return on Oct 1.

At the same time, the Mayor and Chancellor said that to address the staffing shortages, they had already hired or reassigned 2,000 teachers; and were in the process of hiring 2,600 more, including CUNY adjuncts and graduate students . Meanwhile the IBO released an estimate that schools need 11,000 more teachers, at an approximate cost of $20.4M per week.

While phasing-in school attendance is a smart idea, and is being done in other districts including Boston, this delay creates even more confusion. Again, DOE had six months to come up with a safe, orderly and sustainable plan and utterly failed.

Also unacceptable is the fact that they are allowing class size limits for students receiving remote learning to double, to 64-68 kids per class, when common sense and experience show that even smaller classes than usual are necessary for remote learning to keep kids engaged in learning.

Yesterday, we also heard from parents that their children’s remote learning classes were even bigger than this – including reports of 72 –129 students per class, which is outrageous and a complete violation of their right to an adequate education. Please email me at info@classsizematters.org to let me know what class sizes your children are experiencing.

To make things worse, as DOE announced yesterday, students who are doing blended learning will no longer be guaranteed any live instruction while at home. And some of them even while in school will be on computers the whole time, getting remote instruction, that is, if they are provided with any live classes at all.

I really hope that some of the thousands of new educators are allowed to stick around to help reduce class sizes when NYC schools go back to normal. Our kids will need those smaller classes more than ever to make up for the confusion and chaos of this year. More thoughts on the various versions of the DOE’s school reopening plans here.

2. You can also check out recent blog posts and my “Talk out of School” podcasts dealing with the various issues related to school reopening and problems with online learning:

• Today’s “Talk out of School” on PreK reopening and how to improve remote learning.
• Bobson Wong, HS teacher, on why before reopening schools, NYC needs time and resources to get it right.
• Podcast on school funding cuts & how to minimize the damage of screen-based instruction.
• “Talk out of School” with former principal Jamaal Bowman on what he intends to do when he gets to Congress & Randi Levine of Advocates for Children, on whether the DOE plan does enough for the 200,000 students with special needs &14,000 who are homeless.
• Thoughts on school reopening from Gladys Sotomayor, a teacher who has worked in the system for 21 years.

Crossing my fingers that your family stays safe and NYC kids are able to receive an education this year.

 

Sincerely yours,

Leonie