Parents expressed strong support for teachers and principals since schools have closed, while educators are growing concerned that they are not reaching all students with online learning, according to a pair of polls released Thursday.
Nearly 90% of parents support how their children’s teachers and principals have performed during school closures, according to released by the National Education Associated.
“We’ve never seen a poll like this,” President Lily Eskelsen Garc足a said in a videoconference on Thursday. “We’ve never felt the support from parents as strongly as we feel it now.”
Parents express higher support for educators than they did for their local government or state’s governor.
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However, some 80% parents said they were concerned about keeping their children’s education on track while school are closed. And a shows teachers feeling frustrated with their ability to provide adequate instruction online.
These concerns were higher among teachers in schools with greater numbers of students on free- and reduced-price lunch. Those teachers have also reported lower attendance.
About 80% of the teachers surveyed said they were concerned about providing the same level of education to all students; the complexity of teaching students with disabilities digitally; and students not participating or showing up for distance learning.
An estimated 8 to 12 million students don’t have adequate technology or internet access, Garcia said.
“The higher the poverty, the harder it is to trust that folks are going to have the technology in their homes,” she said.“It’s still communities of color that have been hardest hit by this pandemic, both in terms of actual infections and death rates and in terms of economic ramifications.”
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