Three ways to boost the Three R's online

Several years ago, New York’s highest court ruled that every student has a right to a “sound, basic education.” In the years since, the state has struggled to define exactly what that means, but in the age of COVID-19-induced remote learning, no child can receive even a basic education without adequate access to technology.

Doing so requires three things — a teacher who can fluently deliver instruction online, a device on which the student can access the lessons and do his or her work, and the internet connectivity needed to keep that teacher and student connected. There is work to do in all three areas.

In many parts of our state, there is virtually no internet infrastructure to serve students’ homes. Some districts are moving school buses with Wi-Fi “hot-spots” through neighborhoods for an hour at a time to give students a glimpse of the internet. We can simultaneously admire this creativity and mourn its inadequacy to deliver meaningful, interactive educational experiences for students and their teachers.

It took some seven weeks and a call to Apple chief executive Tim Cook for New York City to provide 300,000 iPads to its 1.1 million students after schools closed. We can applaud this herculean achievement, but there are many school districts in the state without the resources or celebrity contacts to provide the devices their students need to partake in online learning should it continue into the fall.

Every educator wants students to succeed, and the early take-away from my conversations with students, parents, and teachers is that the learning online falls short of that in the classroom. We have yet to exhaust the potential of online and technology-enabled instruction, and so we must do more ongoing training for teachers, parents and students. But it also seems far-fetched to believe it will somehow rival the physical classroom as soon as this fall. Remaining in the online environment will exact a learning penalty, and nowhere will it be greater than in communities where students lack both a device and internet connection.

So what should we do? Three things.

First, access to the internet must be a basic utility, just like electricity or water, available in every neighborhood in the state, and will require “moonshot” leadership from the state. In some communities this will mean stringing wires on poles, in other communities, it will mean making low- or no-cost service available to students. But we cannot let infrastructure remain a barrier.

Second, whatever the state’s fiscal difficulties, it must fund devices for students who lack them. It makes no sense to fund a school that has no means of connecting with its students.

And third, the state must provide teachers, parents and students with training in the use of these tools. The limitations inherent in online learning only serve to underscore the need to maximize its potential, if only to mitigate those shortcomings. Moreover, the state must use all of the evidence gathered from this three-month experiment in online learning to develop a research-based, developmentally appropriate understanding of what works for children. To date, most online learning has served older learners — high school- and college-aged students. It is ridiculous to think that models which appear effective with students with greater independence, knowledge, and frankly typing skills, will somehow be appropriate for a kindergartner. Similar research must be done with special populations — students with disabilities, and English language learners.

There is little time to waste — a 9-year-old is in fourth grade only once. If we are to avoid further potential regression, particularly in our most disadvantaged populations, the planning, building and investing for September must begin now. This is the time for the new, bold American “moonshot.” Let’s have New York lead the way. 

Roger Tilles represents Long Island on the state’s Board of Regents.