By Anjuli Niyogi, Editor-in-Chief

After assessing the Mills High School grades from the first grading period of the year, it has brought to light that specific classes, students, and teachers have been struggling to make distance learning a successful education experience.  

Specific freshmen English and freshmen English support classes saw drastically high D/F rates, reaching as high as 31.25% in one English teacher’s regular freshmen classes. Junior and senior college preparatory English classes also reported failing rates between 17-19% in this same Mark 1 grading period.  

Concerning freshmen students selectively, the entire freshman biology department recorded high failure rates of up to 26% in one teacher’s classes, with an average of 19.6% students with Ds/Fs across the entire freshman biology classes. 

Freshmen coming into the district in recent years have been known to not come as prepared and self-motivated to succeed in their high school level classes. With distance learning, the difficulty already placed on teachers to bring freshmen up to speed with the tools and skills they need to succeed in these classes is made even more challenging with distance learning’s significantly less synchronous time, lower student engagement, and the general struggles of learning online. 

Subsequently, this freshman data has brought to light the need to implement better programs in distance learning itself, with similar goals to what SAIL classes put forth for incoming students. 

Other patterns spotted in Mills’ Mark 1 grades included a widening gap trend (happening across the district) of more As and more Fs, and lower moderate letter grades. While F rates averaged around 2% in the 2019-2020 school year, this number shot up to just under 6%. Similarly, the previous 59% of As increased to over 63%, while the percentage of Bs decreased by an overwhelming 6%.

Not only has the evaluation of Mark 1 grades highlighted which classes had been experiencing high rates, but it has made clear that the root of these differences may be from evident disparities amongst racial groups, economic status, and other disadvantaged students. For instance, Language Development classes and Guided Studies classes experienced record high D/F rates of up to 36.36%. Students with IEPs have also faced significant challenges with learning online. Molly Kovacs, a freshmen Algebra 1 and support teacher, described “one of the classes that probably 10 students are failing out of the 26 is a class where 10 of the students have IEPs and it’s a really disgusting parallel between the students that are succeeding versus the students that have IEPs.” 

With regards to world language classes, the majority of Spanish 1, 2, and 3, classes at Mills had failing rates of over 15%. District-wide, world language teachers are finding it especially difficult to foster fundamental student practice and repetition necessary for attaining a new language as well as trouble fairly assessing their students with the ease of using google translate. 

On a normal week, teachers are generally not seeing their students seeking help during non-mandatory flex time. Moreover, class time that was previously carved out for classwork is sometimes now being utilized as homework time. These general tendencies may be proving to have larger impacts on student achievement. 

Mills’ Tier 1 Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) group has been grappling with solutions to these trends and discussing what changes may prove the most effective in these new learning environments. A variety of ideas were brought up in a recent Tier 1 meeting on October 29th, including advising teachers to make more project-based summative assessments, eliminate “zero” scores on formative assignments that tend to overwhelm disengaged students, and adjusting school-wide instructional norms. One solution approached in their recent meeting was having teachers offer more flexibility on deadlines so students can prioritize their work based on their own context and life situations. 

Ms. Kovacs noted that “some students came in ready to learn and they’ve continued to be ready to learn and have been doing well. Some students came in at the beginning, didn’t think they could do it, did not do very well and slowly started to take advantage of our Tier 1 resources.” She described that one of her students who was failing Algebra 1 came into her Friday flex period and was able to make up three of their assessments, bringing their failing grade up to a passing letter grade. Ms. Kovacs has been able to successfully turn around four of her previously failing students’ grades by meeting with them one-one-one and making sure they get help during flex and after class. 

While this pattern of high failing rates (D/F) is apparent at Mills specifically, Brian Simmons discussed a similar pattern as a district-wide occurrence at one of the latest SMUHSD board meetings on Thursday, November 12th. 

Simmons reported back data based on Mark 2 grades that were finalized on October 30, 2020. He primarily distinguished data separating all SMUHSD students into two groups: those considered disengaged, meaning they had missed 3 or more class periods in a week, and those considered engaged students, missing up to 2 class periods every week. Disengaged students represented over 1000 of the district’s students or about 12% of the population. The largest disparities were seen in groups like the district’s Latino student population, with a 24.08% rate of disengagement, as well as English Learners with a 40.09% rate. Pacific Islanders also came in with a 37.64% disengagement rate. Other racial groups like the district’s Asian, White, and Filipino populations had comparatively low disengagement rates all under 5%.

Peter Hanley mentioned at the meeting that these disproportionately affected groups are ones that “we haven’t been doing well with these students for a long time, it’s not just the pandemic, we haven’t been doing well with these students for years,” highlighting the prevalence of the academic achievement gap that has been exacerbated by distance learning. 

Brian Simmons also reported that amongst students who were disengaged, failing rates amongst departments ranged from 42% to 75%, with American Economics experiencing the highest numbers. 

Ms. Kovacs mentioned that part of what has been difficult for teachers has been simply not knowing why their students are disengaged.

“Is it a tech issue, is it a family issue, is it a learning issue, or is it some terrible combination of all three?” 

– MOlly Kovaks, Algebra 1 Teacher

Amongst the population of engaged students, departments like biological sciences and contemporary/modern world history were reporting back passing rates under 90%, hovering around 10-11% of failing students. 

Looking at these disengagement rates calls into question the likelihood of the SMUHSD maintaining its usual high 98% graduation rate. Now, however, with 12% of the total student population being disengaged and not attending their Zoom classes, in all likelihood, the district’s normally relatively high graduation rate may plummet in the spring semester unless active efforts are made to bring about more student engagement. Marc Friendman identified this and noted “regrettably it’s the same groups and our goal is to close the gap, but I think we’re making the gap a lot wider” with distance learning.

Ms. Kovacs detailed that “somes students came in ready to learn and the system kind of bogged them down. So, they may have started off strong but then it just became too overwhelming and they’ve given up.”

Simmons identified that getting students to simply be engaged and coming to class will drastically improve their overall education and class success rates. Teachers are currently being aided to “grade with compassion” with the district giving faculty and teachers explicit instructions on how to do so. Simmons mentioned that “we’re also continuing to think about some restart options for students, so, how they can restart classes and finish a full 10 credits by the end of the school year, and a winter intersession is being explored as well.”

Efforts that have already been made by the district to lower its high disengagement rates like investing in the Internet Essentials Program, gaining student engagement indirectly through wellness counseling involvement, and physical home visits with disengaged students. 

Despite these measures, Ms. Kovacs described one of her students that she has never seen in her zoom classes; “I have at least one student who I’ve been in frequent contact with administration [about] and trying to call home and I’ve just never seen them.” 

These grades and disengagement rates call into question how home situations are playing into students’ ability to lead a successful education this school year. Many factors that may be impacting this data like socio-economic disadvantages, poor wifi connections, needing to assist family financially, taking care of siblings or family members, etc. are out of students’ control during the pandemic and a reminder to be compassionate in these unprecedented times.