Schools Chancellor discusses shift to online learning for 1.1 million students
/
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is overseeing the unprecedented shift to online learning for 1.1 million New York City public school students. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By David Brand
New York City public schools began the unprecedented shift to remote learning Monday, moving roughly 1.1 million students from the classroom and onto computers, iPads and smartphones to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
It’s a total educational overhaul that will demand “patience and flexibility,” said Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, the official tasked with directing the initiative.
“This is a new day and it’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before,” Carranza said during an interview with the Eagle and WBAI’s “City Watch” Sunday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on March 16 that schools will close until at least April 20. He signalled Sunday that schools will likely remain dormant until the next school year.
The response to the pandemic means education will no longer take place during a set seven- to eight-hour day with lunch periods, rotating classes and an end-of-day bell, Carranza said. Instead, students will log into their school account and find assignments and tasks to complete, videos to watch and materials to read.
“This isn’t the time for the regimented schedule because we’re not in the regular school business,” Carranza said. “This is a time to rethink how we teach and the way children learn.”
Challenges abound, however. And many — like ensuring low-income families have the devices they need to get online, or that students receive the individual support they are legally entitled to — have yet to be fully addressed.
“I’m not going to make it a panacea. It’s going to be much more difficult,” Carranza said.
They city has yet to distribute web-enabled devices, like iPads, to thousands of students from low-income families, including students living in homeless shelters, Chalkbeat reported Friday. Carranza said the remote-learning initiative will eventually “eliminate the digital divide,” where family income determines access to the internet.
There are also questions about how schools will implement students’ Individual Education Plans, or IEPs, that allow for a range of resources, from occupational therapy and physical assistance, to personal aides, to weekly sessions with a social worker or psychologist.
Students for whom school is an anchor, a singular source of stability amid homelessness or family upheaval, will also suffer in the new online learning format. Carranza said it will be “much more difficult” for school staff to identify serious problems at home, that students often evince in the classroom, the cafeteria or in the school social worker’s office.
Nevertheless, he said, he has “tremendous faith in our teachers, school staff, psychologists, social workers, guidance and counselors and they’re going to be attuned.”
“Part of the guidance we’ve issued to everyone is there are signs to look for when interacting with students,” he added. “What we don’t want to do is conflate a student taking care of siblings or others not logging in as often as other students, we don't want to conflate that with being denied the opportunity to engage because of neglect.”
Carranza said the extreme challenge ultimately has a silver lining.
“‘Never waste a crisis,’” Carranza said, paraphrasing Winston Churchill. “Because this is going to give us an opportunity to move into the 21st Century in terms of learning and teaching.”
