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In a perspective of general participation of Italian schools in distance education (not too far and not entirely wrong if the data confirmed the danger of the increase in the epidemiological curve) it would be necessary to propose a new data frame to monitor both attendance as the school is virtual or that it must continue teaching in a mixed way. This page wants to be and is in fact a work in progress and wants to offer an evolving version of this framework.
Absences from school
The absence (absence of 10% or more of the students from the school) during the first months of the 2019-20 school year, a factor that grows, in percentage, during the months of closure of Italian schools during closure, must become It is one factor to control whether the school must continue in presence (or in mixed mode) and whether the teaching activity must be completely resumed at a distance. Both territorial areas and schools should combine both data collected before school closure and data obtained during distance education to assess who needs support, from both perspectives.
The four key metrics to monitor
For the 2020-21 school year, it is recommended to add four more key metrics, Contact, Connectivity, Relationships, and Engagement; These metrics paint a holistic picture of where students stand to benefit from distance and blended learning opportunities.
Why monitor? What to monitor?
The next section provides a more detailed rationale for the recommended metrics to monitor during the 2020-21 school year (across the many possible perspectives).
Five key areas to monitor
Here are the four areas to monitor.
Contact
The pandemic made it clear that many schools lacked up-to-date contact information for their students and their families. In some cases, families have moved suddenly due to job loss or health problems. In others, the contacts were out of date. In any case, however, it was almost impossible to obtain the contact details of the parents of both students.
As part of preparing for the 2020-21 school year, it would be necessary (better, in the case of upper secondary schools, useful), useful and essential to keep contact information up to date in case schools are closed due to new outbreaks of Covid-19 or to provide basic support to students and families.
To help schools and territories identify students and families, it would be necessary to develop a list of ideas and strategies to identify those who have not been in contact with their schools during the pandemic. These strategies should include contact through text messages, phone, email, social media, and posts, as well as contact with friends and neighbors. Once contact is made, educators should focus on addressing barriers to attendance rather than absenteeism per se. An indispensable change of course.
Connectivity
Students and their families need access to the Internet, appropriate equipment, and training in the use of online learning platforms to participate in distance education. It is estimated that many Italian students do not have access to the Internet at home and hundreds of thousands do not have access to a computer. Trends are worse in rural communities and for students living in low-income communities. The territorial areas (through schools) must determine which students have access and equipment and determine in collaboration with the local government (municipalities and provinces) and state together with the economic partners of the community, who wish to invest in literacy and culture (with deductions) . total costs, if any, incurred) how to access resources to fill gaps Territorial areas and schools must also assess whether school personnel have access to the necessary technology and equipment, as well as the skills to use them.
Relations
Research and experience show that strong, mutual relationships with caring adults and educators are key to keeping students and families engaged in school and learning. Schools and territorial areas should invite students and families to receive feedback on the relationship they have with their schools, including if they are invited to participate in the decision-making process, if there is at least one adult they can turn to at seek support and if they have access to opportunities that support enrichment and other social interactions.
Parental support
With the support of parents (or guardians), teachers could make a big difference by adapting traditional relationship building strategies in the classroom to online environments. Traditions that can consist of taking care carefully, promoting positive messages, promoting socio-emotional incentives, favoring controls, both at the class and individual level. Teachers could also foster connections between students in virtual classrooms, using group assignments and online chat to keep students engaged with each other. Teachers are particularly well positioned to monitor whether students have responded to daily opportunities for interaction. Ideally, staff connect with students at least five times a week, if not daily; lack of response could be seen as a sign that a family may be struggling and that support is needed.
Measuring families
Schools can also monitor the extent to which families are responding to awareness and support, including, for example, responding to wellness checks, participating in school during office hours (online), or participating in events. community.
Participation
Schools and local areas should monitor whether students:
- participate in online lessons;
- access other remote learning tools.
Ideally, participation is more than just measuring electronic access. It should measure, on a human level, whether a student interacts with the entire class, including interactive sessions. This recognizes that even if a school has been able to reach out to a family, ensure connectivity, and support engagement and relationship building, it is important to monitor whether a student is participating, such as:
- post in chats;
- collect teaching materials;
- submit completed assignments.
If this does not happen, awareness is needed to determine why.
Additionally, schools and territories must, within the first four weeks of school, identify which students have not reported for the 2020-2021 school year. A previous analysis of chronic absences data has shown that a low level of student participation in the first weeks of school is a strong predictor of later absenteeism. Use this information to organize an outreach effort to find students and families and understand why they are not attending.
Chronic absence
As long as schools and local areas continue to monitor attendance and participation, they can continue to determine, with strategic advancement, whether students are chronically absent. Ideally, schools should monitor when students miss 10% or more of learning opportunities and how they:
- in person;
- synchronous virtual;
- asynchronous.
We still do not know what the collective impact of lost education time last spring will be for all students and for their school learning and training, along with even less participation in summer enrichment (nonexistent or almost nonexistent in our beloved Italy, too busy on the beaches and mountains).
We know that presenting in schools and classes (even online) is important and that when students show up to learn, they are more likely to be able to:
- stay on the road;
- stay involved;
- achieve important educational goals.
It is more essential to measure attendance and observe which students have difficulty attending (even virtual) school to learn.
Our responsibility to use data for early warning and to ensure that we help schools, students, and families address barriers to learning is critical to ensuring long-term recovery from now on.
07.11.2020 – annex – monitoring and new scenarios
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