Investing in New Infrastructure to Build Successful K-12 Education Programs

AUSTIN, Texas - Dec. 23, 2020 - PRLog -- Congratulations to you if you're reading this article, as it means you made it through to the beginning of the last month of 2020, one of the most difficult years in living memory.

Throughout 2020, K-12 school programs found themselves thrust into the crosshairs of high-profile controversies as public health scientists and, government officials, and educational administrators grappled with the challenge of how to cope with unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

Parents, teachers, and students alike have had to cope with sudden school closures, improvised classroom instruction conducted online via Zoom, a delayed return to in-class instruction under strict social distancing guidelines, as well as, in many cases, schools reverting to online instruction when coronavirus infection levels began to rise too quickly.

Four Preliminary "Lessons Learned" From Covid-19 School Closures

The sudden closure of K-12 schools during the spring of 2020 shined a harsh spotlight on five structural shortcomings in the American education system:

1. Unequal Access To Study Areas, Computers, And Broadband Internet In American Homes

The sudden switch to online instruction for K-12 students revealed widespread resource disparities in the homes of America's young students. For example, rural students living beyond the reach of broadband Internet networks either couldn't participate in online instruction or had to drive to wireless emergency "hotspots" set up by local school districts or library systems to get a working Internet connection. Online instruction also revealed students in poor households either had no fixed address or lacked a suitable place to work (e.g. a desk) and a computer at home. (School psychologists also noted that students participating in online classes observed huge disparities in living conditions among their peers, leading some students to feel shamed by their limited circumstances.) Finally, many of the nation's estimated 7 million disabled students (14% of the student population) faced additional barriers when receiving online instruction.

2. The Phenomenon Of Disappearing Students

K-12 school systems across the country found student attendance unexpectedly dropped off in 2020, with many districts reporting a 4% or more decrease in the primary and secondary student population. Did the students simply drop out when schools moved to online classrooms? Further complicating the issue of disappearing students is the students who nominally attended online classrooms but failed to show any effort in completing class assignments.

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