Oct 21, · Writing About COVID for a College Application Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins Jul 28, · Updated on Feb 16, at AM. This application cycle, many healthcare professional school applications have been affected by COVID Many professions have dropped official transcript requirements, altered the interview process, and changed the requirements for prerequisite coursework. Notably, many future healthcare professionals are also being asked to respond to essay questions Reviews: 1 Computational Essay on COVID Pandemic Government Measures and their Effect on COVID 19 Positivity Rate Introduction The emergence of COVID disease in Wuhan China in late and its eventual spread to other countries and the declaration by the World Health Organization as a pandemic caused panic across the world. At the time of its initial spread, there are scramble for the limited
High School Students’ Personal Essays Turn Into a Memoir: ‘The Class of Covid’ - WSJ
The COVID emergency is unprecedented, and the potential impact is still uncertain. Given this uncertainty, the Puerto Rico Department of Education PRDE must carefully evaluate medium- and long-term implications for teaching and student achievement.
Based on current epidemiology models, there are three possible scenarios: an optimistic, a somewhat optimistic and a pessimistic one. School essay about covid 19 optimistic scenario assumes schools will be closed until the end of the school year and will be school essay about covid 19 to open in the fall semester. The somewhat optimistic scenario assumes schools will remain closed during the fall quarter and resume classroom instruction in January While a pessimistic scenario assumes schools will school essay about covid 19 closed the entire school year.
Given all these possibilities, a meticulous scenario planning exercise would be necessary to map out all potential actions to minimize learning interruption in Puerto Rico. Although PRDE has announced a set of initiatives, we have concerns that they are not part of a larger coordinated effort to address student needs during the crisis, in any of these scenarios. PRDE recently announced that it was terminating the semester early and that all students would pass grades or graduate regardless if they participated in any distance learning activities.
PRDE offered two main academic alternatives to students during this time. One was a set of remedial modules on their website in PDF format, which contained lessons and practice exercises per grade and subject. These PDFs were able to be printed or downloaded for use or shared via email, text, WhatsApp, etc. The other alternative was an application for iOS, Windows 10 and Android, among others, called EduPR, which had content, reading exercises, interactive material and videos per grade and subject.
Although these platforms and tools provided students opportunities to remain engaged, it was far from a comprehensive and coherent distance learning plan. A distance learning plan requires guidelines on content, curriculum and assessment, teacher professional development and support and a plan to actively engage parents.
Several districts in the US of similar size to Puerto Rico have produced detailed school essay about covid 19 learning guides and are currently implementing them, with information on content delivery, student assessments, technology, and support. There are about 85 detailed distance plans from districts across the US that PRDE could have emulated. Here are some of the best examples we have seen so far. Given extreme circumstances, it is tempting for PRDE to say that these worksheets and websites were the only realistic options for students.
But the Department should have been required to provide a robust distance learning plan; one that gave manageable and achievable goals to students to work on each week and provided immediate or at least frequent feedback from teachers through online knowledge checks, comments or chats to keep students motivated and moving forward. While distance learning can replace in-person instruction, we do recognize the limitations of this practice. Many students lack school essay about covid 19 to the technology needed to learn remotely.
We suspect that access to internet and electronic devices is much lower in Puerto Rico, but unfortunately, we have no data to validate, and neither does PRDE. Families do have different circumstances that will impact their ability to use these educational alternatives family health, work obligations, childcare concerns, internet connectivity, access to devices, etc.
In terms of equity, lower-income students suffer disproportionately under these conditions. They are less likely to have resources, such as PCs and high-speed internet access, to enable them to succeed or even participate in an online learning environment. However, equitable access does not require that all students receive instruction in the same format e. School essay about covid 19 way, PRDE should have moved to address equitable access to instruction for all students right away.
One important step PRDE could have taken as it planned to use distance learning was simply to ask families. However, there school essay about covid 19 no way to currently validate or track exactly which student accessed an alternative, as web traffic and engagement was reported at school essay about covid 19 macro level, meaning site visits included everyone school essay about covid 19, parents, guardians and students.
By way of comparison, a lot of districts that we looked at e. Due to a variety of reasons, PRDE was unable to purchase these devices until recently.
Based on a preliminary analysis done by PRDE, the number of devices to be purchased with both state and federal funds is approximatelyContracts have already been finalized for the Federal funding portion of the purchase, but the state funds purchase requires urgent planning and implementation.
Under one of the Restart contracts, which was already signed, devices are expected to be received between July to October of As far as to state fund purchases, it is estimated that devices could be received by Januaryway past the time where they are most needed.
PRDE states that the delay is due to internal procurement processes and interruptions in worldwide manufacturing as a result of the COVID emergency. However, many districts in the US have already distributed hundreds of thousands of devices to their students, school essay about covid 19. For example, Broward County Florida has already distributed 84, free laptops to students between March 20th and April 1. Most students at Broward picked up the laptops at the school they attended or at school essay about covid 19 participating schools.
Some schools even offered drive-thru service. In Fort Worth Texas, school essay about covid 19, the district asked parents to fill out a survey about their technology needs and has been handing out iPads, laptops and hot spots to families that indicated they need school essay about covid 19. Some districts, like Baltimore City, Palm Beach and Tulsa Public are lending devices to students.
Families can fill out an online form or reach out directly to their school principal to schedule a pickup. In New York City, school essay about covid 19, to supplement thedevices schools have already given out, the state Department of Education is working with Apple and T-Mobile to school essay about covid 19 LTE-enabled iPads topublic school students without access to devices.
The same goes for mobile hotspots and internet access. PRDE was evaluating different alternatives to make sure all students have access to online alternatives and resources, but these internet options will be most beneficial only after students receive their devices, which unfortunately would be after the start of the fall semester.
Most of the large districts have moved quickly by distributing hotspots or by partnering with local telecom providers. Some districts like Broward County have negotiated rates with internet providers and have given that information to parents. Some internet providers like Comcast, are providing high-speed internet service to students, families, and staff through their Internet Essentials Program. This program offers 2 months of free internet service to eligible participants and is now available.
In Kansas City, the district has partnered with T-Mobile and Sprint to provide Wi-Fi hotspots to families without the internet. Some districts have been more creative. The Charleston County district is placing school buses equipped with Wi-Fi in select community centers and schools throughout the area for families without home internet access.
As mentioned before, most districts moved aggressively to enhance technology access, but in Puerto Rico, only some computers will be available after this semester is over, and there is no plan to provide internet access to families in case there is another lockdown in the future, school essay about covid 19.
While PRDE was waiting on the Governor to authorize the distribution of materials, some districts in the US have been using school buses to drop off and pick up hard copy work. While Charleston County School District teachers prepare day worth lessons in written form, which all students receive in a printed packet.
In Cincinnati Public the district is providing weekly work packets with clear learning outcomes each week. Packets are provided online, distributed at meal service sites, and parents can print them for free at Staples locations. A lot of districts are also broadcasting learning lessons on public access television. For example, Nashville Public Television is broadcasting at-home learning programming during weekdays and in San Antonio education programming is available on local public television as well.
There are many other examples we can point to. Hence, by seeing what other districts have done and are planning on doing to save the semester and provide students, teachers, and parents with the necessary tools to assist learning, the lag of Puerto Rico Education System is upsetting.
Particularly when the Department has over employees in central office and another 2, school essay about covid 19, in the regional offices who continue to get paid. Thus, PRDE has plenty of resources available to devise and implement a robust plan. Although PRDE put out some learning alternatives on its website, it was not tracking individual use of these tools.
PRDE initially indicated that students had the option of completing assignments from the remedial modules. In the event that teachers were unable to contact a student or if a student were unable to complete assignment, they would not be penalized. PRDE cited equity concerns for wanting to pause traditional monitoring schemes or not grade students, pointing to ways in which grades could penalize students who are low-income, lack access to a device or the internet, or cannot rely on parents to help with home-based learning.
With the recent decision by PRDE to end the semester early, many students in Puerto Rico will find that work they do while at home did not count. Even under the current circumstances, we are seeing some districts making significant efforts to evaluate distance learning strategies, provide feedback to students and inform parents of the next steps.
And unlike Puerto Rico, school essay about covid 19, these districts have already distributed thousands of electronic devices and have begun distributing printed materials to families to minimize the digital divide. Atlanta Public will continue to grade students, although it has adjusted credit requirements.
New York City is tracking attendance and grading work for all students for credit, school essay about covid 19. Of all the larger districts plans reviewed, school essay about covid 19, it seems like Puerto Rico had the most relaxed student monitoring policy. But even if PRDE reaffirms its policy to end the semester, it should at least prioritize the assessment of essential skills and continue to communicate feedback on a regular and consistent basis to ALL students and families to minimize the "incomplete learning" from this time.
And to do that, PRDE will need to track teacher and student school essay about covid 19 at a detailed level, even if they are not grading all of them. While all school districts and state officials grapple with distance learning, many are wondering what comes next for students who will have missed several months of face to face education.
School districts could institute large-scale summer school, but that could be prohibitively costly in many places, school essay about covid 19. Douglas Harris, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D. Although one can argue that funds spent on summer school could also serve as a form of economic stimulus, school essay about covid 19 teachers could earn higher incomes at a time where you have high unemployment in the Island.
Another option is starting the school year early, giving teachers more time to help students catch up as well. Although the USDOE has granted waivers of federal testing requirements for all states, including Puerto Rico, PRDE could also require the META standardize test during the summer or at the beginning of the school year to assess how much progress students made during the lockdown. This information would then inform district officials, and most importantly teachers on what to expect during the fall semester.
Maybe this emergency can force PRDE to get up to speed on technology offerings. This increased level of tech fluency could be sustained post-crisis to assist student learning in normal times. One-way technology can aid learning is by making schools more productive. In California, schools have been using software, way before the virus, to overhaul the conventional learning model. A study in suggested that children in the early adopters of this model score better in tests than their peers at other schools.
Perhaps this is a perfect opportunity to allow adaptive, interactive, evidence-based learning platforms to take hold in Puerto Rico. But the potential for technology will be realized only if PRDE can embrace it. It may be too late to save this semester, but it is not too late for the next school year.
Sadly, the COVID outbreak has provided a revealing and slightly disturbing look into how unprepared the education system in Puerto Rico is for an emergency like this, let alone a technology revolution.
However, this also presents an opportunity. Skip to content. Author: Arnaldo Cruz, school essay about covid 19. Miami Dade — Florida Minneapolis Public Schools Orange County Public Schools Given extreme circumstances, it is tempting for PRDE to say that these worksheets and websites were the school essay about covid 19 realistic options for students.
Technology Needs. Robust Learning Experience.
5 Tips for Writing About Coronavirus in Your Personal Statement
, time: 2:50Essay: I try not to worry much when thinking of COVID, but one fear always creeps in
Jan 07, · High School Students’ Personal Essays Turn Into a Memoir: ‘The Class of Covid’ New book’s 67 essays describe missing grandparents who succumbed to coronavirus, worry about parents losing jobs Although Covid is new and unfamiliar to everyone, the isolation and separation we now face is not. For many, this type of behavior has already been a lifestyle choice for a long time. However, the current situation we all now face has allowed us to gain a more personal insight on how that experience feels due to the current circumstances Jul 28, · Updated on Feb 16, at AM. This application cycle, many healthcare professional school applications have been affected by COVID Many professions have dropped official transcript requirements, altered the interview process, and changed the requirements for prerequisite coursework. Notably, many future healthcare professionals are also being asked to respond to essay questions Reviews: 1
No comments:
Post a Comment