While students seemed to do a pretty good job of maintaining social distance at Lake Lehman Junior/Senior High School on the first day of school, the clear exception was dismissal time, when they started to congregate as usual in the hallways and while waiting to board a bus. Lake-Lehman has returned to completely in-school learning this fall.
Mark Guydish file photos | Times Leader
From in-school to completely remote learning, school year as seen it all already
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Lake-Lehman High School students sit distanced and masked in teacher Michael Novrocki’s class on the first day of school.
Mark Guydish file photos | Times Leader
Megan Bradshaw, 6, waits with Mickey Mouse face mask and school gear in her mom’s car for the doors at Wycallis Primary to open on the first day of classes for Dallas School District. While she was fine with masks, she had a preference: ‘I wish I was wearing face shield.’ Full disclosure, Megan’s dad is a district principal
Mark Guydish file photos | Times Leader
Students get a tour to learn where the restrooms are the first day of school at Wycallis Primary.
Mark Guydish file photos | Times Leader
Teacher Mike Vignole opted for a face shield at the start of class for Dallas School District.
Mark Guydish file photos | Times Leader
To understand how Luzerne County school districts opened this fall it helps to understand the options. In short:
In-person learning, in school.
Remote synchronous learning at home. Students stay home but sit in on the live classes being taught by district teachers online.
Remote asynchronous learning at home. Districts typically contract a third party that offers online recorded lessons. Usually the district has its own teachers overseeing the program to make sure it sticks broadly to the district curriculum, but they are not district-created lessons.
These three learning options were never either/or. Districts could offer — and in some cases different students from the same school are using — all three.
Asynchronous remote learning gives students and parents more flexibility in what hours lessons are learned. Through the course of the school year they should learn everything the other students know, but they may not be learning it in the same sequence as students in school or those doing live synchronous learning at home. This makes switching from remote learning to in-person learning during a semester problematic for asynchronous students.
Synchronous remote learning has the advantage of flexibility between in-person and at-home learning. Students at home are on the same part of a lesson as the students in school, throughout the semester. They can, in theory, seamlessly shift between learning in person and learning at home. This is what makes the “hybrid model” work.
In the hybrid model, the district splits the students who want to attend in person into two groups and assigns days one group is in school while the other learns at home. The most common local model has been to have Group A in school Mondays and Tuesdays and Group B in schools Thursdays and Fridays, with everyone learning at home Wednesday. But there are variations.
This year, districts surveyed parents to see which mode they would prefer: Asynchronous cyber learning, synchronous live learning or in-person learning. The choice parents made could impact the system the district finally opted to use once school actually opened. If the number of students who want to learn in school was low, it made it easier to have them all back five days a week and still keep social distance. Wilkes-Barre area, for example, only had 43% sign up for in school lessons, allowing for very small class sizes in most cases.
It’s important to appreciate that just because a district opened in a “hybrid mode,” “remote only mode”, or “in-person mode” does not mean all students are using that single mode. Odds are some students are learning in one mode while others learn in a different mode.
There’s also the matter of meeting the federally-mandated Individual Education Plans of special education students. Some of these students require more intensive, in-person lessons. Some districts that opened in remote-only mode still brought special education students into the classrooms.
Lastly, districts are constantly re-evaluating the situation, and may change their mode any time. Both Crestwood and Hanover Area opened in full-remote but are hoping to got to a hybrid system in October.
All that said, here’s how the county’s 11 districts opened.
• Crestwood: Full-remote, with the choice of synchronous live learning or asynchronous cyber academy learning.
• Dallas: Hybrid, with Group A attending Mondays and Tuesdays while Group B attends synchronous live lessons online. All learn at home Wednesdays. Group B comes into the schools Thursday and Friday while Group A attends synchronous life lessons. Some students are doing asynchronous online lessons.
• Greater Nanticoke Area: Hybrid with the same schedule as Dallas (Group A in school Monday and Tuesday, group B in Thursday and Friday) Some are learning asynchronously online
• Hanover Area: Full-remote, either synchronous or asynchronous.
• Hazleton Area: Full-remote, either synchronous or asynchronous
• Lake-Lehman: Full in-person for all who want to do so. The district started with 71% of students opting for in-school. The remainder split roughly evenly between synchronous and asynchronous learning. The district already had a declining enrollment, so much so that the administration had considered closing an elementary school but decided not to this year. That likely contributed to feeling they could accommodate all those who want to attend in person while maintaining social distance.
• Northwest Area: Hybrid, with the same plan as Dallas and Greater Nanticoke (Group A in school Monday and Tuesday, group B in Thursday and Friday) Some are learning asynchronously online.
• Pittston Area: Full-remote for the first quarter at least, synchronous live, though lessons are to be recorded and available online for students who can’t sit in on them live.
• Wilkes-Barre Area: Students had three choices, but were asked to stick to that choice at least until November: Option 1 students are in school five days a week. Option 2 students are doing synchronous learning live online. Option 3 students are doing asynchronous online learning. The district can switch option 1 students to option 2 on any given day, and has done so for two schools so far after reports of positive COVID-19 tests, but returned them to option 1 in a matter of days.
• Wyoming Area: Full-remote synchronous learning with district teachers. The district also has an asynchronous cyber school through a third party, but encourages all students, including those enrolled in the district cyber school, to consider using the synchronous lessons
• Wyoming Valley West: Full remote, synchronous and asynchronous, with tentative plans to switch to hybrid Oct. 13.