By Patrick Adrian
[email protected]
CLAREMONT — Claremont School Board members expressed frustration on Wednesday over reports of a troubling inequality at Stevens High School between the quality of instruction received by students learning remotely and students learning in-person.
Nearly half, or 48%, of Stevens High School’s student population is currently participating in the school’s fully-remote learning program, a number that has increased significantly in recent weeks with the resurgence of the novel coronavirus in New Hampshire.
Unlike some school districts, most Stevens High School teachers are expected to provide instruction for both their students in-person and at-home and most classrooms are not set up to record or live-stream the in-class discussions to the students at home.
“We are reaching a point right now where half of the student population is doing significantly less work and getting significantly less challenged than the other half,” shared Stevens High School Student Representative Prescott Herzog.
Herzog, who attends school in-person, noted the disparity prior to the Thanksgiving Break when he had to briefly learn remotely due to a potential exposure to a Stevens High School student who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Herzog said he found that the inability to access the in-class discussions, particularly in the maths and sciences, makes it more difficult for remote students to attain the same level and depth of understanding as in-class learners.
“In [some classes] the teachers sent the work that they did in class and some explanation, but really it was giving us the work without showing any of the context or experience,” Herzog said.
Additionally, remote students only receive a total of 4.8 hours per week to interact directly with their teachers, whereas the in-person students receive 17.6 hours per week of direct teacher access, as well as additional meeting opportunities during their flex periods or advisory. as well as additional opportunities during their flex periods or advisory.
Superintendent Michael Tempesta, in an effort to make the educational experience equitable for all Stevens High School students, proposed moving the entire school to a “synchronous” remote-learning model at the start of the second semester.
In a “synchronous” model, all students would be required to attend their classes via remote technology. Currently the remote program is “asynchronous”, which means the remote student has scheduling flexibility in regard to completing lessons and classwork.
But the school board rejected this proposal by a unanimous vote.
Board members, though concerned about the struggles in the remote program, contended that moving all the students to a remote model would be unfair and potentially detrimental to the students learning in-person while having minimal benefit for the overall population.
“I have a fundamental problem taking 53% of the kids whom we know the [in-person] instruction is working and moving them into a remote learning experience, and then rolling the dice and hoping the remote experience will be equal or better for them as well,” board member Jason Benware said.
Many board members questioned why the district is still unable to live-stream the scheduled classes to the remote students.
“We have been talking about this since March,” said board member Rebecca Zullo. “And I feel like the technology piece is on us, as school board members and a school district. That really should have been figured out by now.”
Tempesta said that recording a live classroom is more challenging than a teacher, in part because of a federal privacy law that prohibits the taping of minors without having lawful consent.
“I think we’re closer [in regard to] the number of teaching stations and broadcasting out that we have, but I don’t think we’ve had enough training with the staff to pull it off as well as we would like,” Tempesta said.
The school board plans to resume the discussion of Stevens High School on Jan. 2. The board has requested the administration research some alternative solutions that would include an access to classroom instruction for the remote students and data showing the educational impact, such as passing rate, on students currently in the remote program.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.
