How have schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, been faring since the coronavirus pandemic pushed school systems to switch to distance learning?
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Monifa McKnight updated the school board Tuesday on how the Continuity of Learning plan has been working.
The first hurdle was making sure students could join an online platform, and in order to do that, McKnight said that 65,240 Chromebooks were distributed to students and 11,376 were given to staff, as well as 4,200 MiFi devices to students and 360 to staff.
“We know for students to engage on a continuity of learning online platform, we do not want technology or the access to the internet to be a barrier to them to be able to do that,” McKnight said.
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Montgomery County Public Schools is in the last phase of handing out technology, trying to connect with the families that have not yet gotten the equipment they need.
They are also monitoring those logging in to the system. “The number of logins to our digital platform between March 30 and April 13 was 4,680,674 logins,” McKnight said.
They are not only looking at how many people are coming online, but they are also trying to find out which students are not logging in.
“We’re looking at who is logging and who those students are who we’re not hearing from, so we can work on a case-management type basis to reach out to those families and students, so we can figure out what are the circumstances that could be keeping them from engaging,” McKnight said.
As far as the education being offered online, she said that they rolled out in phases, and she reminds everyone that it has not been as long as it seems.
“The first weeks we were out were emergency closure March 16-27. We were not implementing an online platform during those two weeks. We started on March 30. We had a couple of days of spring break. We’ve really only had this platform up and operating for about two-and-a-half weeks. I know with us managing COVID-19, days seem longer, weeks seem longer, but it hasn’t been as much time as it seems.”
Phase 1 of the Continuity of Learning online plan began March 30, and it ran through April 17. Phase 1 focused on logistics, independent self-paced, periodic student check-ins online and sorting out scheduling that worked best for families and students.
From a schoolwork perspective, it focused on getting elementary students back into a routine, and getting students in middle and high schools to connect with their teachers to wrap up the third quarter.
Montgomery County schools are entering Phase 2, which runs through May 15.
“This week is really about us coming back and saying we have until the end of the quarter. What we want to do in Phase 2 … really focuses on online learning models and making sure there is independent and self-paced interaction with the teacher, and to make sure there is content and new assignments available at all levels,” McKnight said.
And there’s also a plan if the school closures are extended far longer. That’s when Phase 3 comes in.
McKnight said there is a plan for what a Phase 3 would look like, just in case the closure extends beyond the middle of May. “We are not waiting for someone to tell us what to do, but we actually have a plan in place if those circumstances happen,” she said.
