Speaker 1: It's Monday, September five. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America
Speaker 1: even a pandemic. Disruptions have faded and most schools have
Speaker 1: returned to in person instruction. Permanent virtual classes are being
Speaker 1: offered to protect vulnerable children. Districts in Texas, California, and
Speaker 1: New York are creating full time remote learning programs for
Speaker 1: this school year. The virtual option may only be appropriate
Speaker 1: for a small percentage of students, but in an effort
Speaker 1: to fight declining enrollment and disruptions from families moving, virtual
Speaker 1: schools will remain part of the education system. Ben Chapman,
Speaker 1: education reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins us for
Speaker 1: What to Know. Thanks for joining us, Ben, Thanks for
Speaker 1: having me well. Coming off of the pandemic, I know
Speaker 1: a lot of things have been easing up right now,
Speaker 1: at least on the education front. I mean, we're almost
Speaker 1: completely back to normal. It seems to be in person
Speaker 1: learning is the way to go right now. But there
Speaker 1: are certain districts We're looking at Texas, California, New York,
Speaker 1: certain districts there that are providing full time virtual classes,
Speaker 1: and you know, some students are still signing up for it,
Speaker 1: you know, some with a certain health risk, others that
Speaker 1: might have anxiety about going to school. It could still
Speaker 1: be a really important way for them to keep on learning.
Speaker 1: So then what are we seeing with this UM So Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a lasting artifact UH that is coming out
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, which is that UM, when the COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen pandemic UM hit and schools shut down, schools UM
Speaker 1: sort of figured out how to deliver internet lessons UM
Speaker 1: to students over a period of a couple of years.
Speaker 1: And UM, what has happened is that school districts have
Speaker 1: added this tactic of delivering lesson and online to students
Speaker 1: who are not at schools UM to their toolbox. And UM,
Speaker 1: you know, so this is UM, you know, a new
Speaker 1: tool that school districts have UM that they're using to
Speaker 1: reach students. UM. And what we're seeing is school districts
Speaker 1: around the country are using remote internet based lessons UM
Speaker 1: to connect with the small percentage of students who want
Speaker 1: virtual lessons rather than showing up in school. And again,
Speaker 1: this is something new that that did not exist really
Speaker 1: UM in any significant way before the pandemic happened, and
Speaker 1: to be clear, right, this is for a small percentage
Speaker 1: of students right now. I mean, the vast majority of
Speaker 1: students and parents probably do prefer their kids to be
Speaker 1: in school for in person instruction. But we're seeing uh,
Speaker 1: you know, one of these UH schools in particularly, it's
Speaker 1: the I Learned Virtual School in Dallas. But they're saying,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe about four percent of students in Dallas
Speaker 1: this kind of option could be good for. So it
Speaker 1: is a small percentage of students that this would still
Speaker 1: work for. That's right. That that appears to be about
Speaker 1: the UM ballpark figure that UH districts seem to be thinking,
Speaker 1: UM and researchers seem to be thinking, would be um,
Speaker 1: uh you know, preferring UM remote lessons versus in in
Speaker 1: person would be somewhere on the order of five percent, um,
Speaker 1: four percent, three percent, six percent, some small percentage there. UM.
Speaker 1: And And basically, to to sort of contextualize it a
Speaker 1: little bit, UM, what we have here is UM this
Speaker 1: UH school year, something in the order of better than
Speaker 1: a quarter of school districts, to my best reckoning, are
Speaker 1: probably offering UM some kind of virtual school lesson UM.
Speaker 1: The research shows that before the pandemic happened, Um, it
Speaker 1: was just about three of districts, So it's a it's
Speaker 1: a big increase in the number of districts who are
Speaker 1: offering these lessons, but the districts are saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: it's still something like, you know, four or five six
Speaker 1: percent of kids at those districts that are offering the
Speaker 1: lessons that are taking them up on on you know, uh,
Speaker 1: taking classes at home rather than going to school. And thankfully,
Speaker 1: in all this, I mean, it's not too hard to implement,
Speaker 1: right at least now that more kids are back for
Speaker 1: in person instruction, there's limited infrastructure needs, it's not very
Speaker 1: expensive to operate, so some of these schools districts can
Speaker 1: offer this. And you know, one of the criticisms criticisms
Speaker 1: that was happening during the pandemic is kind of the
Speaker 1: academic setback or the emotional learning setbacks that were happening
Speaker 1: because kids weren't interacting with teachers and other students. And
Speaker 1: at least for now, for some of these remote schools
Speaker 1: or schools offering these remote programs, this is a bigger
Speaker 1: part of what they want to institute. They want to
Speaker 1: make sure that they have the same goals for instruction
Speaker 1: the same goals for socio emotional development for these remote learners. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's UM. It's a way for them to you know,
Speaker 1: connect with with students that they feel like our best
Speaker 1: served UM with uh you know, not going to school
Speaker 1: in person. UM. And these maybe students who have UM,
Speaker 1: you know, health concerns about being exposed to the coronavirus
Speaker 1: or other UM, you know, illnesses that they could get
Speaker 1: exposed to being out and about in public UM. Or
Speaker 1: they could have a family member who could get sick
Speaker 1: if UM if they came back and and spread something.
Speaker 1: Or perhaps their family is moving around and and this
Speaker 1: is the best way for them to sort of stay
Speaker 1: engaged in a school or UM. Perhaps UH the student
Speaker 1: is taken on some responsibilities around the house or even
Speaker 1: gotten a job UM, and so the remote lessons offer
Speaker 1: the flexibility for them to attend to whatever those other
Speaker 1: responsibilities might be. UM. So those are some of the
Speaker 1: different types of scenarios that we see students UM who
Speaker 1: prefer these programs. UM. There are also kids who UM
Speaker 1: you know have uh psychological men you know, social emotional challenges, UM,
Speaker 1: who who may be stressed out, may they may have
Speaker 1: anxiety or or different um situations where they just feel
Speaker 1: more comfortable at home taking classes rather than going in. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see how this continues, I mean for now though,
Speaker 1: we'll see this being kind of a permanent fixture. Well,
Speaker 1: what the future holds for remote learning, but at least
Speaker 1: for now, we'll still see it around. Ben Chapman, Educational
Speaker 1: Report at the Wall Street Journal. Thank you very much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Thanks so much, have a great day,
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America.
Speaker 1: Don't forget for today's big news stories. You can check
Speaker 1: me out on the Daily Dive podcast every money through Friday.
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