I bet I would have loved that too. Focusing on fewer subjects at a time sounds great. The pace would probably take some getting used to, but I’m sure it would soon feel normal.
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I saw this and thought of you. Don’t know if you saw it or not.
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Oh! I love that! I am so scared that September 2021 will come and the state and federal government will say if a student is not in a building, they are absent. We have the tools and skills to include students in our classrooms from alternative settings. Imagine that world!
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I prefer my own kids in school in person, as that is what is best for them. Our state at least gives us 5 educational trip days (which we have used for Disney trips). Our school funding is not based on kids’ attendance in school, but there is the truancy issue. Too many unexcused absences and fines and children and youth start to become a problem. I have found that kids that require time out of school for major illnesses or issues that require a lot of time out of school usually have families that home school or they choose a cyber school. I think it is ridiculous to tie funding to school attendance. And both schools and the business world are going to have to deal with illness issues, as you see students and employees coming in sick even without a pandemic. People can’t afford to take off and not get paid and then you have the funding issues for schools mentioned in this article.
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For us it is just accountability and one of the indicators the state “rates” is on. There is school funding based on enrollment to every district but not daily attendance.
I know here, where I don’t think funding is based on attendance either, we are still reminded that the schools are taking attendance, even though, this month, we are 100% remote. They are checking who has logged in to the synchronous sessions and I think even noting if you log out. Obviously, they can’t make sure you’re in the room or paying attention, but they are still reminding parents that attendance is being taken and is important. Furthermore, if a child is going to be absent, parents are still to inform the school of that absence, just as if they were out of the school building. I assume that’s to make sure parents are aware of their child’s attendance.
What I think they are doing is building the case that they were successfully reaching the intended number of students and still using that attendance to help with assessing success. This could be to defend against accusations that the education was substandard, but it also could be to provide data on how education could evolve.
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