{"id":142938,"date":"2020-10-08T07:29:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T14:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/?p=142938"},"modified":"2020-10-08T07:29:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T14:29:56","slug":"school-reopening-hybrid-learning-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/_zh\/education\/2020\/10\/school-reopening-hybrid-learning-california\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s complicated: School reopenings, hybrid learning look different across California"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\n\t\t
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In summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

As schools get the green light to reopen, the form their teaching will take will vary widely, sometimes even within the same district. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n

The night before the first day of in-person instruction for elementary students in San Diego County\u2019s Poway Unified School District, principals sent families detailed instructions on how to drop off their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following Thursday morning, \u201cwelcome back\u201d balloons adorned campuses\u2019 front gates and school employees took students\u2019 temperatures as they waited inside their parents\u2019 cars. Principals from other schools in the district watched the process unfold, looking for processes they could implement at their own soon-to-reopen schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So began for Poway the hybrid learning experiment playing out across the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Poway, one of the largest California school districts to attempt reopening campuses, elementary students learning in person will attend their school in cohorts for part of each weekday \u2014 either morning or afternoon \u2014 and learn asynchronously, or on their own, the rest of the school day. Families also have the choice to keep their students in full-time remote learning programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of Poway\u2019s 26 elementary schools will be open for a hybrid learning option Oct. 12. While the smaller continuation high school will launch its hybrid program this week \u2014 kids will alternate days on campus \u2014 still to be determined is how the district of more than 36,000 students will bring back its middle- and high-school students on campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even that you\u2019re building the plane as you\u2019re flying,\u201d Marian Kim Phelps, Poway\u2019s superintendent, said. \u201cWe\u2019re actually flying the plane and inventing what we\u2019re building as we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t please everyone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As more California schools gain permission from the state to offer in-person instruction, they are grappling with a massive logistical puzzle: How, exactly, do you operate schools within schools, where some students attend classes in person in some form while others learn remotely full-time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving families the option to choose between a hybrid, or blended, model \u2014 meaning students split their time learning on campus and at home \u2014 and full-time remote learning appears to be the course that many of the state\u2019s school districts are charting toward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have parents on one end of the spectrum begging us to reopen the schools, and we have parents clearly on the other side saying it is absolutely foolish to open the schools. And then there\u2019s a whole bunch of people in between.\u201d<\/p>jim hanlon, chico unified school district<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some of that is born out of necessity. The state signaled this summer<\/a> that schools would likely have to implement some form of hybrid scheduling<\/a> in order to reduce class sizes and implement the social distancing and safety measures<\/a> that help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plans to give families a choice also reflect the fact that, in any given community across the state, there are widely diverging thoughts from families and educators on when, how and if schools should physically reopen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have parents on one end of the spectrum begging us to reopen the schools, and we have parents clearly on the other side saying it is absolutely foolish to open the schools. And then there\u2019s a whole bunch of people in between,\u201d said Jim Hanlon, an assistant superintendent in Chico Unified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest school district in Butte County has tentatively circled Oct. 19 as its transition date toward a hybrid learning option. Hanlon said while it\u2019s not possible to satisfy everyone in the community, the district plans to \u201coffer options where everyone along that spectrum can have a choice that they\u2019re at least OK with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the complexity, the preferences from teachers and parents do not neatly align in some Poway campuses, Phelps said, noting that at one campus, 80% of staff want to return in person, compared with 40% of families at that school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, secondary schools present an altogether different challenge in a district the size of Poway\u2019s because older students have multiple teachers, likely requiring a different approach from elementary schools. One possibility could be \u201csimultaneous learning,\u201d Phelps said, in which teachers instruct a cohort of students in person while another group of pupils tune into lessons online at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hybrid headaches<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hybrid models vary widely across the state, with some school systems offering to bring students back one day a week, others planning on doing so on alternating days and still other schools planning on five days a week under a shortened schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western Placer Unified, a district of 9,700 students, settled on the latter option as it began its hybrid program Tuesday, in part because most parents in the community told the district a 5-day schedule gave their families the most stability, according to district superintendent Scott Leaman. With roughly 30% of students enrolled in full-time remote learning, teachers in Western Placer will have groups of students both learning in-person and remotely, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers will have the flexibility to determine how they will handle the two cohorts, with some potentially teaching their in-person cohort in the mornings and remote group in the afternoon, or simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you look from district to district, everyone\u2019s making decisions based on their student population and how they need to service their students,\u201d Leaman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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