Coronavirus and Schools: “Failing” Virtual Instruction
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
If a school district moves online for planned instruction, including providing devices to families and information for free internet services through local providers, must the school district still provide packets of work if families request them because they either refuse to use a device or do not have internet service? Can students “fail” if the district is using a pass/fail system for the 4th marking period and if students fail to complete work (with the year average only coming from work being completed the first three quarters)?
As a threshold matter, we ask why the district is choosing to grade “continuity of education” work at all, albeit on a “pass/fail” basis? If it is to incentivize students to participate, we understand and support the idea, but understand that if you issue fourth quarter grade or progress reports for the general population, you will need to issue fourth quarter IEP goal progress reports for students with disabilities. That will mean you will either have to collect progress monitoring data upon which to base your reports or you will have issue IEP goal progress reports based solely on student participation. A report for a reading goal, for example might read—
We did not collect data concerning progress toward this goal for the fourth marking period. [Student] participated satisfactorily in weekly reading instruction and teacher-prepared reading activities.
If you are reporting “pass/fail,” or any, grades because you intend—at least at the high school level—to assign “credit” for this work, we recommend against doing so. Given the novelty of virtual instruction, and given the lack of access that some households have to internet connections, the higher the stakes this instruction has for a student the more the “equities” will matter. Problems of geography and family income affecting connectivity will only be all the more significant if the classwork you are requiring as part to your “continuity of education” plan is credited for high school graduation. We do note that you intend to use each students grades only as of the end of the third quarter to calculate grade point average, which is consistent with our recommendations in previous opinions. Coursework that contributes to GPA and coursework that contributes to credit accumulation, however, are two different things. We do not recommend that “continuity of education” coursework be credited toward grade advancement of high school graduation.
To your questions:
If a school district moves online for planned instruction, including providing devices to families and information for free internet services through local providers, must the school district still provide packets of work if families request them because they either refuse to use a device or do not have internet service?
There are very few hard rules governing “continuity of education.” Your question addresses one of the softest areas in the guidance PDE has offered to date on this new area: that schools must base their “continuity of education” plans on “feasibility, availability of resources, access and equity considerations.” Among the “equity” considerations the department has identified are household poverty, internet access, and equipment access—certainly issues that are beyond the direct control of schools. No law directly requires that schools compensate for every disadvantage of poverty and geography. Thus, the question is really not whether you must offer paper-and-pencil options to students living in households without Internet connectivity. The question is whether you should. PDE is not actively reviewing “continuity of education” plans that school entities are submitting to it under Act 13. We suspect, however, that if it is presented with a complaint based on the “equity” of denying all education to students who live in households without connectivity, PDE will direct you to create paper versions of materials for such students. As we suggest above, the problem will be all the greater if the work the students are unable to access is credited for high school course completion.
Can students “fail” if they fail to complete work?
If the student has the connectivity and the device he or she needs to participate in your “continuity of education” instruction, he or she can certainly “fail” for non-participation. As we discuss above, however, what “failure” means is another matter. Given the novelty of virtual instruction, you are only inviting problems if you impose a high-stakes consequence for failure, such as denial of credit toward high school graduation.