Computer & Technology
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Edgenuity’s software wasn’t meant for a pandemic. That didn’t stop some school districts.

John A. Ratliff

When Nevada high schooler Simone Gardella scored a zero on a short writing assignment early last fall, she thought the grade was inaccurate. But she couldn’t find out what she might have done wrong. No human teacher had read what she wrote, and the computer program that had given her such a low mark didn’t provide any feedback.

“A robot is my teacher,” said Gardella, a senior who had taken Advanced Placement classes before the coronavirus pandemic arrived. “I put thought into it. I felt like I answered the question. But I didn’t get to find out what I did wrong.”

She saw more problems with the online lessons, and eventually, she spoke up, writing a letter to her local newspaper to criticize school administrators and Edgenuity, the vendor that her district had hired for remote learning.

It turned out that there were a lot of critics of Edgenuity, an

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Computer & Technology
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Miami-Dade County Public Schools to begin school year online only and later Aug. 31 date

Miami-Dade County Public Schools will start the school year remotely — and late — on Aug. 31, school officials announced Wednesday.

Students, parents and teachers have been anticipating what some would say was an inevitable decision by school officials. With less than a month to go and an infection rate in Miami-Dade County more three times higher than the school district’s goal of 5%, reopening schools by the original Aug. 24 date was deemed impossible.

The announcement came during a special School Board meeting.

“We are ever cognizant that many families have already begun planning for a return to schooling through their preferred model for Stage II,” said Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. “However, in light of the viral surge in our community, we believe it is in the best agen ppob terlengkap interest of our students and employees to delay the return to the schoolhouse and commence the 2020-2021

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Computer & Technology
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Back to school? Despite CDC recommendations, most major schools going online as COVID-19 cases spike

As COVID-19 cases rise in most states, the prospect of in-person learning this fall at the country’s major school districts is becoming increasingly remote.

So far, nine of the top 15 school systems by enrollment plan to start the fall semester online, with two more currently planning a hybrid of in-person and online classes, according to Education Week magazine’s reopening tracker. Other top districts shifted school schedules later, hoping for cases to decline or for teachers and administrators to have more time to plan for the school year. 

As back-to-school season approaches, it’s highly likely the majority of big districts will start learning remotely while they work out plans for socially distant reopenings, said Annette Anderson, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools.

The biggest factor: whether the community where the school is located is seeing infection rates decrease, said Kristi Wilson, superintendent of the

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Computer & Technology
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Online school? In-person? How parents are making their own fall 2020 decisions as COVID-19 squabbles continue

John A. Ratliff

As officials play political football with K-12 school reopenings, parents such as Johanne Davis are formulating their own game plans for the fall.

“To exercise an abundance of caution, I’d like to keep my kids home with me where they’ll study online,” says Davis, a mother of three from Indian Land, South Carolina, one of countless states where COVID-19 cases have spiked in recent weeks.

“Health is the issue, not just for my children, but also school workers,” Davis says. “Teachers shouldn’t have to be front-line soldiers in this pandemic.”

Families across the nation are busy making their own calculations about whether to send children back to school. While Davis seems resolved, many parents are still mulling.

Johanne Davis, left, in a photo with her three children. Davis and her husband say they're both fortunate enough to work from home and can manage the children if they have to spend a lot of next year studying remotely. But she acknowledges that hers is a privileged position not afforded to lower-income parents grappling with child care in order to go off to work.
Johanne Davis, left, in a photo with her three children. Davis and her husband say they’re both fortunate enough to work from home and can manage the children if they have to
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