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Educators say changes needed to address grades, mental health issues among students

The Press Democrat - 11/8/2020

Nov. 7--Meeting for the second time in two weeks to discuss an alarming spike in failing grades at Sonoma County high schools, local education officials stressed the need for urgent action to address soaring student anxiety after years of cumulative trauma.

In early grade reports from the 10 secondary districts across Sonoma County, education officials reported nearly 4 in 10 high school students have one or more failing grades and more than 70% reported in a national survey that anxiety about their future is the top impediment to their success in distance learning.

Educators have sounded the alarm that students are suffering from what is being described as years of ongoing and cumulative trauma from wildfires, evacuations, school cancellation because of poor air quality and power shutoffs, and now a global pandemic.

The academic slide is particularly acute among the county's most vulnerable students.

The greatest uptick in Fs across the county was among English-language learners, where 67% of students are failing at least one class, up from 49% at this time last year. Other groups of students also experienced significant increases: the number of foster youth with at least one failing grade went from 49% last year to 63% this year; students with disabilities with a failing grade spiked from 39% to 52%; socioeconomically disadvantaged students with a failing grade went from 35% to 46%; white students with a failing grade went from 21% to 31%; and Latino students with a failing grade went from 36% to 46%.

Students have not been able to be in-person with peers and teachers on campuses since mid-March when the coronavirus hit Sonoma County. As a handful of schools -- all private -- seek and are granted waivers to return kindergarten through sixth graders to campuses in a highly modified environment, middle and high schools have been prevented from reopening.

But officials on Thursday pushed back on the idea that simply returning students to campus would solve the emerging issues, and reiterated that, to date, the decision is out of their hands. So long as Sonoma County remains in the state's most restrictive tier indicating widespread transmission of the virus, returning secondary students to campus is prohibited.

Even if Sonoma County moves to the next, or red, tier keeping cohorts of middle and high school students small enough to meet county health and safety guidelines, a mix of at-home and on-campus schedules may prove problematic.

The problem is long term and should be addressed with both urgency and an eye toward sustainable, far-reaching solutions, they said.

"Our job is not to debate the justification to be in school or be in distance learning, but to come up with the best way to have our kids learn," Windsor Unified Superintendent Jeremy Decker said after the meeting. "For us, our focus can't be on that. It's not to change national politics, it's how to help our kids learn given the hand that we are dealt."

About 175 people attended the online summit, including Sonoma County Office of Education staff and other speakers.

Educators wrestled with proposals including adjusting grading policy to allow students to show growth, schedule changes, adjustments to live teaching times and ways to foster connection with students dealing with isolation and at-home stressors in distance learning.

Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Diann Kitamura said discussions have begun about changes to that district's current schedule which has no live instruction on Wednesdays. Officials have begun debating the merits of a type of homeroom class on Wednesdays to give students and teachers smaller groups to check in with.

"We think that a part of the issue around the grades is the inability to build community right now in a distance learning format," she said. "In the next two weeks we are going to meet with principals and then teacher/principal teams to begin the discussion of what is it we can implement for the end of the semester."

Discussions Thursday were a balance between immediate need and long-term change and implementation, Decker said.

"It's balance," he said. "Let's figure out what we can do with our teams to get some wins for our students."

Santa Rosa Teachers Association president Will Lyon said any plans to remake grading standards or how students are assessed must go through teachers.

"There is no ability from the top down to just say, 'No more Fs' or whatever," he said. "It has to come from the teacher. I think teachers are here for it it, I think teachers are open ... I would say that teachers have been more generous and more flexible than they have ever been."

Attendees repeatedly pointed out the focus of the summit was not only student wellness, but teacher wellness as well. And teachers are the key to addressing the multifaceted issue, said Windsor High School Principal Lamar Collins.

"Anything we do without teacher buy-in probably won't succeed," he said.

And with five academic weeks until the end of the semester, Lyon said there is a sense of urgency among his colleagues.

"Time is short. It's November," he said. "We are about three quarters through the first semester, whatever changes we can make, we should make them as quickly as we can."

Attendees called the two-part summit and unprecedented show of solidarity among Sonoma County's secondary districts.

"I'm very optimistic that we can see some meaningful change," Healdsburg Unified School District Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel said.

While the two summits in the past week focused on high school students, SCOE officials are looking into holding another summit after winter break to address the needs of elementary students.

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.

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