With many school districts continuing online learning this fall due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus, some parents are forming “learning pods” or hiring private tutors to help their children navigate virtual instruction.
In an article The Capital Times wrote about this trend, UW–Madison’s Madeline Hafner spoke about how it could unintentionally worsen the achievement gap.
Hafner is the executive director of the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN), housed within the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Hafner began by recognizing how difficult the situation is for parents, many of whom are attempting to maintain their jobs and monitor their children’s schoolwork.
“I think one of the important things that everyone needs to understand is right now, parents are in just an untenable position, all the way around, every parent.” said Hafner.
However, even for those children who don’t have additional in-home teaching support, the article explains, those attending advantaged schools have more tools to succeed.
“If you were in a district that has a very large per pupil expenditure, you’ve got lower class sizes. You’ve got higher amounts of money to spend on tech. You’ve got more resources for supplemental instruction and for educational supports, before school, after school, and that all translates online very seamlessly,” Hafner said. “For some students, especially children living in poverty, I’ve seen statistics that show if we stay in the cycle we’re in right now with unsupported online learning, they can lose up to a year of gains in growth.”
For students without at-home support, Hafner continued, “it’s even more crucial that they learn among fellow students.” She emphasized that children “learn through their peers, a social-emotional piece that is crucial to understand.”
Because communities are often not racially integrated, Hafner explained that parents forming learning pods with their neighbors and hiring tutors for their children may exacerbate segregation.
“Where people live is generally dictated by housing markets, and demographically cities are segregated by race,” said Hafner. “Because of access to wealth, white families have more access to finances that will get them houses in ‘good’ neighborhoods. So we live in segregated neighborhoods, where you have, many times, segregated schools. And even when schools are racially integrated physically, they’re racially segregated academically. This pattern has emerged where families are podding with families who live close by. And so that creates very real racial segregation.”
Hafner said there is a long history in America of white families “leaving integrated public schools for private schools, sometimes even forming their own,” the article explains.
“So that history needs to be in everyone’s mind as they’re making these decisions,” she said.
Learn more about this important issue on the Madison.com website, here.