Should schools just have a "do over" year?

[DLgal]

I think we should give the kids a pass on this year. Just advance everyone to the next grade level, and graduate the seniors. There isn't much extra learning that happens in the last grading period anyway, we are re-teaching and reviewing concepts that will be on the state standardized tests, introducing topics that will be taught in the next school year, and going on field trips. The loss of the last quarter of the school year isn't enough of a reason to take away an entire year of these kids' lives by adding on an extra year of school.

I mean, I'm open to this too, to be honest.

I just don't feel that the "let the kids do school at home" is serving any real purpose other than frustrating the heck out of parents and adding stress to an already stressful time.

However, my son currently has an F in science because, as I said, it's still fairly early in the semester and he missed a test due to illness that he hasn't been able to make up yet, and there haven't been enough assignments to base the grade on, so that zero is bringing his grade down to like a 59%. It really wouldn't be fair in our district to just give. a grade based on the current grade each student has. We still should have 11 weeks of school to go. Our students have only really completed half the year.

 

[Jennasis]

What? How is this even a thought? Kids have been homeschooling successfully for a long time.

No.

 

[monarchsfan16]

No. That would be a slap in the face to both the kids and teachers in all of the schools where remote learning is being implemented. Additionally, this last quarter of the year is typically so disrupted by testing, field trips, and events that honestly, they'll probably get more instruction from remote learning than they would have ordinarily. I feel horribly for the seniors though.

 

[Meriweather]

no.....we are most of the way through the school year

 

[Colleen27]

No way. Most schools have gotten through 3/4 of the year and the majority of new content. Testing takes weeks out of the last quarter, and then there's the whole spring fever thing that limits the amount of new content that younger students get through. Toss in all the end-of-year field trips and parties and picnics, and it is really the marking period with the least educational impact. And at the high school level, it seems really cruel to hold kids back and tell them they have to repeat classes that they'd nearly completed because of something entirely outside of their control.

Besides, logistically it would be extremely difficult for school systems to adapt to. They'd have one class (incoming kindergartners) that is double the size of normal classes within the school system, which means reallocating classrooms and reassigning teachers year after year as that class moves through.

 

[kaytieeldr]

It really wouldn't be fair in our district to just give. a grade based on the current grade each student has. We still should have 11 weeks of school to go. Our students have only really completed half the year.

Your students only go to school for about 22 weeks? But no, the entireschool system nationwide (or worldwide) should not be expected to "do over" the entire year because some/a few students are having issues with home schooling or grades.

 

[disneychrista]

Some kids will be just fine. Others will struggle in the coming year. I don’t think have everyone repeat is necessary. I thought summer school for “all” would be necessary but at this point I am not convinced that the need for social distancing and staying home will be over by June.

 

[Colleen27]

I just don't feel that the "let the kids do school at home" is serving any real purpose other than frustrating the heck out of parents and adding stress to an already stressful time.

I think there are a lot of parents who would disagree. Our school has moved online relatively smoothly, and in the parents' group there are only a few that have expressed issues or difficulties with the new system. We're working out a few bugs, to be sure, but the kids are adjusting and still getting the work done (so far, anyway - this is only week #2). I'd much rather have this inconvenience now than the longer term hassles of repeating a grade (especially since we send her to private school).

Middle school is hard enough when it is only three years. I don't think the kids would benefit from making it four!

 

[Deploraboo]

My kids’ are enjoying the teleschooling, actually. Myself and my wife, not so much.

 

[indimom]

No. My college senior would be ticked!

 

[dclpluto]

First it’s not fair for the kids. Than taxes will be more like they are not high enough.

 

[JimMIA]

What do you think? Should schools nationwide just call it at this point and reconvene in the fall and have everyone just repeat the grade they are currently in?

I kind of feel like they should. If our schools don't go back, the kids will have missed an entire semester almost. Our last semester only ended 3 weeks ago.

No matter how hard they try, home based learning will never capture the full breadth of what kids would have learned in a classroom environment. Already, it's pretty clear to me (kids in middle and high school) this is not going to work well long term.

The logistics involved make it impossible for families with multiple kids to dedicate the amount of time each kid would need to receive an equal education, and that's not even accounting for parents who need to work from home during all this!

I'm all for a do over. Everyone will be one year older. Kids start school too young nowadays anyway.

WHAT??? NO!

Our school just finished Q3 Friday. AP and EOC tests are in April, although the EOC's have been canceled. Prom is in a few weeks, DD's graduation is at the end of May, she starts college Summer B -- and you want her to re-do her senior year?

That's a well-meaning, but really silly suggestion.

 

[Disneylover99]

The lessons kids learn of hope, resilience, accomplishment, doing without, adjusting and going with the flow and helping your neighbors among others are so much more valuable to me than any school learning.

Amen.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

No.

I personally think school should just stop now and everyone gets passed.

I work in healthcare and I know a lot of parents with young kids who are bombarded all day with messages from teachers. Teachers wanting work done by 2 pm but we are at WORK. How can you homeschool a 2nd grader if you’re at work?? They are at home with their teenage sibling who has their own work to do.

Luckily my kids are in college and 8th grade so they do their own work. I couldn’t imagine working a FT job and then going home to homeschool. Some of us are working OT too.

 

[kymom99]

What do you think? Should schools nationwide just call it at this point and reconvene in the fall and have everyone just repeat the grade they are currently in?

I kind of feel like they should. If our schools don't go back, the kids will have missed an entire semester almost. Our last semester only ended 3 weeks ago.

No matter how hard they try, home based learning will never capture the full breadth of what kids would have learned in a classroom environment. Already, it's pretty clear to me (kids in middle and high school) this is not going to work well long term.

The logistics involved make it impossible for families with multiple kids to dedicate the amount of time each kid would need to receive an equal education, and that's not even accounting for parents who need to work from home during all this!

I'm all for a do over. Everyone will be one year older. Kids start school too young nowadays anyway.

Lord no

 

[billlaurie]

Absolutely not, and waste a whole year for a couple of months. The kids will catch up, they are resilient. My son is a senior, gone through the whole college app process and so forth. The thought of going through that again, plus the expense involved, is unbearable. Seniors are wrapping up anyway, getting ready for AP tests, and most in our area are finished mid-May so to have them repeat would be absurd.

 

[kdonnel]

An immense amount of profanity....NO!

 

[robinb]

No. Unless the child is failing their grade and would be held back anyway and then even in that situation I wouldn't be against a social promotion. These kids are going to go through a lot.

 

[daisyduck123]

Absolutely not. Here in Maryland, we were exactly 2/3 finished with our school year. Missing the last third isn't going to make or break anyone. I am a public school Grade 2 teacher, by the way.

 

[siren0119]

Absolutely not.

As someone mentioned, you'd have colleges all over the country crippled because they had no incoming freshmen in the fall.

You'd be faced with an impossible decision with regard to the incoming kindergarten classes of the fall: either hold back the K class from this year and delay the incoming K class a year (essentially putting kids a year late forever) or allowing incoming K to still start school on time and overload the K programs with double the students.

They've completed more than half their school year, even in New England where we start later than many other states. Suspend the school year, or supply virtual learning as school systems are able, suspend standardized testing, and start fresh next year.