ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire)—With schools closed, your kids are being taught math, science, and English from your living room. We have some effective ways parents can help their child succeed academically while they are at home during this crisis.
How does going from the classroom to the living room affect your child’s learning? Scientists at the University of California, Irvine looked at standardized test scores of kindergarten through 12th grade students using data from the Ohio education system. Researchers found the students enrolled in online schools did significantly worse than kids who went to a physical classroom for school. The study suggests that some students can fall behind during the COVID-19 pandemic when students are expected to do their learning online.
So, what can parents do? Implement strategies to pace your child’s learning, communicate with teachers and other parents for ideas on how to support your child’s learning, and encourage your child to connect with other students virtually for study groups. Fourteen percent of families with school-aged children lack high-speed internet. So, if internet access is a problem, parents can access teachers through phone calls, request hard copies of materials to supplement video sessions, and even ask internet providers about low-cost or no-cost internet access.
The Ohio study done before COVID-19 also found black and Latino students were less likely to enroll for e-learning classes compared to their white peers. Students with special needs were also less likely to enroll.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Milvionne Chery, Writer; Roque Correa, Editor.
Produced by Child Trends News Service in partnership with Ivanhoe Broadcast News and funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
(Sources: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.3102/0013189X17692999, https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55608/14-tips-for-helping-students-with-limited-internet-have-distance-learning)