“At Chavez Elementary on Chicago’s South Side, third-grade teacher Ashley McCall and her colleagues fill out a spreadsheet after each live video class: which students logged on, which showed up late and what might have kept students from attending. Then come the phone calls and text messages to families. Chicago is taking a harder line on tracking student attendance this fall and stepping up efforts to boost student participation in live virtual classes. Students must attend those classes to count — and they must log on to each one to be marked as present for the full day. Like districts across the country, Chicago Public Schools has grappled with how to reimagine its attendance policy for the virtual age — a new conundrum for schools trying to strike a delicate balance between restoring a sense of structure and accountability amid the coronavirus pandemic and giving families grace to account for ongoing challenges.” Read article
Nov 02