Disparities between Black and white students seen in CPS remote learning participation: ‘We are all disheartened to see the gap’

Participation in remote learning after the coronavirus pandemic closed Chicago Public Schools varied significantly for students with different learning needs or racial backgrounds, despite efforts to connect children citywide with computers and internet, according to data released Wednesday.

“I think we are all disheartened to see the gap between African American student participation and their white peers,” CPS CEO Janice Jackson said at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting. “I think that begs for greater examination across the board, from the district level all the way down to the classroom level.”

For the entirety of the remote learning period this spring, CPS was unable to make contact with 559 students, mostly elementary age. The district is missing data for an additional 405 students.

Overall, slightly more than half of students in grades one through 12 logged into a Google platform on any given day, according to CPS data.

That measure represents “an approximation of attendance,” said CPS administrator Shannon Heston, who presented the data to the board. “It gets us started on talking about, what does attendance look like for next year?”

On average, during any one of the last six weeks of the school year, contact was reported with 85% of students — meaning 15% were not contacted that week, no change from early data released in May.

The new engagement data was released as CPS seeks public input on its draft plan to institute a hybrid of remote and in-person learning this fall. The Chicago Teachers Union and some parent advocacy groups are pushing for remote learning only.

Contact with students held fairly steady from mid-May to early June but dipped significantly after graduations started the week of June 7, down to 70% the last week of the school year — less than 52% among high schoolers. The school year formally ended June 18, the last of five days added to the calendar as makeup days for the October teachers strike.

A similar pattern occurred with Google activity, which peaked the week of May 1, the week before a report card day, when 62% of elementary students and 60% of high school students checked in at least three days.

And though the trends held true among students of all races, the equity gaps did not entirely close. During that most engaged week, 53% of African American students logged into Google at least three days, compared with 61% of Latino students, 69% of multiracial students, 70% of students of other races, and 75% of both white and Asian students.

“Even under normal circumstances, there are disparities that do exist,” Jackson said, adding that was true for many school districts nationwide. With variations in access to devices, the ability to hire tutors and parents’ education levels, equity is not something a school district will likely achieve in the middle of a pandemic, she said, but CPS is trying.

“Our approach has been to remove the barriers,” Jackson said, “try to institute as much normalcy as possible into other programs.”

The challenges were greatest, however, for students in the district’s priority groups. During the peak engagement week, the three-day digital participation rate for students with special education plans was 50%, and the rate was 41% for students in temporary living situations and 57% for those considered English learners.

More long-term, however, the numbers were less promising. Districtwide, only 13% of students logged in at least three times per week for 10 or more weeks of the remote learning period. Once per week, that went up to 36% overall. The figure was 17% for students in temporary living situations, 38% for English learners and 28% for students with special education plans.

Students in grades four through eight were the most engaged, all logging three-day participation rates between 66% and 68% for five or more weeks, and 44% to 50% for eight or more weeks. But over time that shifted, with eighth graders falling below 3% for 10 or more weeks while fourth graders led the district at 24%.

By the end of the school year, digital access had improved, though the district changed how it classifies digital learners to include students who received computers from CPS in addition to those who logged activity on Google platforms. About 3% of students are still considered nondigital.

Students who did not participate digitally but completed paper work packets were not eligible for letter grades but were graded on a pass-incomplete system.

Nearly 1 out of every 5 high school grades was a “pass,” with close to 75% of grades ranging from A through D and about 5% incomplete, according to CPS data. That compares with 93.5% of passing letter grades and 6.5% failing grades during the prior year.

At the elementary level, 10% of students got incompletes, while 89.4% got passing letter grades — down from 98.4% during the 2018-19 school year. Elementary final grades are cumulative, and students who completed packets for a “pass” during the fourth quarter could earn final grades based on an average of their marks during the first three quarters of the school year.

High school students without digital access were the most likely to need credit recovery such as summer school, with 30.8% “incomplete” grades. But at around 38% among both high school and elementary schools, the percentage of students who earned As was higher than last year.

A racial breakdown of high school grades in reading and math showed similar disparities in engagement data. White and Asian students earned the most As, while African American and Latino students got the most “pass” and “incomplete” grades. Asian students, for example, scored As in math nearly 61% of the time, while that figure for African American students was about 24%. Among elementary students, the overall breakdown was similar.

Yet the data proved no added inequities as a result of the district’s controversial grading policy for remote learning, Jackson said.

“The grading data does dispel the myth that our grading policy disproportionately impacted students of color or in particular African American students,” she said.

Though glad to see disparity wasn’t greater, Board of Education member Lucino Sotelo said Wednesday that he wondered if “the quality of the education was commensurate with those grades.”

While teachers were more plugged in than students, not all used Google platforms consistently. About 87% of elementary and 93% of high school teachers were active on the platforms at least three days per week for five or more weeks, but those figures dropped to 57% and 47% looking at 10 or more weeks.

While Google is the official CPS platform, some teachers used Zoom or other tools to connect with students.

hleone@chicagotribune.com

———

©2020 the Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.