Verified by 
1. Education funding for K-12 will go down at least 15% if not significantly higher (some districts are expecting 40% cuts) which means: teacher layoffs, less funding for professional development, food insecurity, larger class sizes, less personalized instruction, cuts in curriculum, and unequal technology and access.
Parent Action: Be most prepared by getting as much information as possible from your teacher, school, and district. Stay informed daily. Advocate at your state and federal levels. Share your thoughts with your school and district heads because nobody knows, it’s all uncharted territory for everyone. A global opportunity is required here to learn what works and what doesn’t from one another. Our schools are looking at those overseas as models.
2. According to recent research by EdWeek, most students are not receiving letter grades this term and most of the studying now is purely review of previously taught content — not new content. In addition, our kids are spending on average 2 hours+ less studying per day. A majority of parents believe their kids are at grade level because they received Bs or higher. However, this grade is not an accurate reflection of content knowledge.
Parent Action: Pull apart your kids' grades and examine if it truly represents content mastery. Or, is it for class participation, attendance, good citizenship, time management, participation, organization? Speak to your teachers before the end of the school year (now!) to find out. Whatever gaps you may find, create an action plan with your kids’ input to fill them this summer.
3. Students are losing motivation to study or even show up for distance learning without challenging academics, socialization, letter grades.
Parent Action: As much as you can, have open communication with your kids about how they are feeling about school and their upcoming summers. Re-evaluate. Adjust. Some iteration of distance learning will most likely continue through the 2020-2021 academic year, so use the summer to set a new action plan in place. Then you can all breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy.
References
Benjamin Herold and Holly Yettick Kurtz. (2020). EdWeek. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/05/11/teachers-work-an-hour-less-per-day.html
Edweek (2020). https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/data-lookup-assess-your-school-districts-risk.html
The Learning Network. New York Times. (2020). https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/learning/what-students-are-saying-about-remote-learning.html
Stephen Sawchuk (2020). Edweek. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/04/01/grading-students-during-the-coronavirus-crisis-whats.html
