Whether their work was online or on paper, students at Montgomery County Public Schools were still expected to learn Monday even though the doors to their classrooms were closed.
The system’s “asynchronous learning day” received mixed reviews as some parents decried the “pretend school day” while others valued the opportunity to further connect with their children’s education.
The county, at least, noted the successes: The “system worked successfully to ensure students have access to Chromebooks, MiFis when needed and printed materials when needed,” said MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram. (A MiFi is a small portable router that creates an internet hotspot.) Cram added that expectations were for students to complete their assigned work within 10 days to receive credit and be counted in attendance for the day and that schools and teachers were responsible for managing the preparation of students and families for the day as well as the learning materials students received.
In February, MCPS announced that Monday would be a make-up learning day for students at home after the district used its two inclement weather days plus an additional snow day. Monday was originally a planned professional development day for teachers with no school for students. According to the 2023-2024 school year calendar, Monday was also identified as a potential make-up instructional day if the school year was “disrupted by emergencies” and schools were closed for three or more days. In addition, Monday was chosen as the asynchronous learning day after the teacher’s union, the Montgomery County Education Association, advocated for April 22 to be the makeup day.
For some parents, Monday’s asynchronous learning day meant that they had to either work from home, change their work schedule, take off from work, or find child care. The day also led to frustration for some parents and challenges for students that reminded them of virtual school during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aaron Droller, a Silver Spring resident with second and fourth-grade students, was critical of the asynchronous learning day and said that it should not be considered a full school day.
“It’s really a pretend school day,” Droller said. “I think it sends the wrong message that school is optional, and this practice should stop, especially considering the terrible truancy issues that the school system is facing.”
Droller also noted that implementing an asynchronous learning day seemed like a “remnant of [COVID-19] era school closure policies.”
Droller said that on Monday his family had to plan for child care and rearrange their work schedules to make sure the kids were not home alone. For Monday’s learning, both kids brought home assignment packets that took about 90 minutes to two hours to complete and once they were done, they went outside to play, Droller said.
“It basically felt like an extension of the weekend, and I think that’s how they felt about it,” Droller said.
Brittany Buo, a North Potomac resident with twin first graders at DuFief Elementary School, had a different perspective on the day, which she said allowed her to work on assignments with her children and get a view into the classroom that she did not have before.
Buo said that her children were also sent home with assignment packets with activities for various subjects, such as math, science, reading, music and physical education. She said that over the weekend she worked with her children to complete the majority of the assignments and on Monday they finished with music and PE activities.
“I have twins that are on the spectrum of autism, so they appreciate a good schedule. They like that: ‘OK I have a little homework. We do a little bit every day and on Monday, it’s not quite a day off but we can make our own schedule today,’ ” she said. “… It’s not so strenuous like a school day but it’s almost like when you give kids an opportunity to run the place.”
Buo also said that on Monday her children were able to catch up on work they had missed in school and rework assignments that came back with corrections.
“It was a really good day for us to catch up and get back realigned before we finish out the rest of the school year,” she said.
Laura Delaney, an English Language Development teacher at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, also said that having the day off to focus on professional development was a plus for her. She said she is taking three professional development classes so she was able to catch up on homework, grading and helping her two children with asynchronous work.
“For me, anytime that we can have a huge chunk of time to do professional development and lesson planning and grading is very much welcome,” she said.
Delaney said that it was hard to say how effective the asynchronous learning day was and that success was dependent on grade level. She shared that one of the teachers she co-teachers with sent his students home with a new assignment to work on Monday and about 30 to 40 students out of 120 submitted the assignment.
While Delaney understood the frustrations of parents and students, she said that adding a learning day “was a good compromise, rather than extending the school year. Who knows how many students would show up at the high school level,” she said.
Delaney noted that in the future the school system should come up with a plan for learning especially if there are situations like the February 2010 snowmaggedon, which closed school for weeks.
Germantown resident Treena Selak, who has two students at Roberto Clemente Middle School and two students at Seneca Valley High School, said that there was some frustration from her and her children around the asynchronous learning day.
“All my kids said it was reminiscent of Zoom school, which none of my children liked and enjoyed,” Selak said, noting that her children all had online assignments to complete for the asynchronous learning day.
One of the main frustrations that her children ran into was getting questions about the assignments answered by their teachers, she said. Without teachers readily available to give answers, it took longer for her students to complete assignments.
Selak also said that she felt frustrated that “there were a lot of inconsistencies with the expectations” for students. She said that it was challenging to support her kids, two of whom have individualized education plans (IEP) and “struggle with executive function issues.”
“Some [assignments] were due at noon yesterday,” she said. “Some were due at 3 p.m. Some were due at midnight. Some weren’t due until later on this week or even next week. Some of my kids didn’t even have an assignment for a class except to complete something that they have been [working on] last week or Friday.”
Selak said that she was also concerned about equity challenges that come from asynchronous learning for children whose parents are unable to take off work, work from home or afford child care, or students who live in homes without access to high-speed internet.
“I just think we have to look at [the practice of asynchronous learning days] very critically and think about what the expectations are,” she said. “We have to look at the equity and really think about how it’s set up and what’s the most effective for all students.”
Selak did praise the communication from her children’s schools regarding preparations for the asynchronous learning day and said that both the middle school and high school her children attend “did a fantastic job.” She said that she received frequent reminders from the principals about the day as well as updates and communications from teachers leading up to the day.
Because her children have experience with virtual learning from the pandemic, Selak said that she and her kids felt more prepared for Monday.
“Asynchronous learning, sitting and doing it on a computer is not fun so my kids just wanted to get it done,” Selak said. “Do I think there was actual learning happening from their assignments? I’m not sure because they were just motivated to just be done with it.”