Remote Learning in Elementary School & The Power of Parent Surveys

This is a bit of a different post for me.

Below I share a copy of a letter I wrote to parents after analysing the results of a parent survey on remote learning days in Elementary.

I am sharing the data I collected and my report for two reasons. First, so other leaders who might be scared or not know how to conduct this type of research can are encouraged to try. Parent surveys are valuable. Our parents provided so much good advise and so many valuable strategies.

Secondly, I want to share my data and report with Elementary School leaders in particular because I am sure there are many who have considered implementing remote learning at the elementary level but perhaps haven't thinking that students are not independent enough, or because they feel parents might feel overwhelmed. Well you are right, they aren't independent, and they did feel overwhelmed. But our remote learning day wasn't a failure. On the contrary, it, along with the resulting parent feedback, I feel opened the door to evolving our model so that it will be very effective next time we have to run remote learning.

Do keep reading if either one of those reasons interest you.

But first... What is a Bandh? Why remote learning?

Each year, schools close several times a year in India (well at least in Bangalore) not because of snow days, but due to something called a Bandh. A Bandh is essentially a strike. When a group decides to strike, for one reason or another, it often leads to violence on the roads and threatens the safety of our students. Hence school buses can not run, and school has to close.

To counter lost class time, our school has committed to holding remote learning days. With technology like Bloomz, ManageBac and iTines U we have the means to effectively communicate with parents and students. But, effective remote learning days, especially last minute ones, are not that easy to pull off in Elementary School where students can be a lot more dependent on adult supervision.

We recently experienced a Bandh at CIS and got some criticism over our format from some parents. While some complained others praised the initiative. This inspired me to do some action research to get a better idea if the day was a success or not.

I created a very short survey for Elementary School parents and teachers and invited feedback and comments.

Within 36 hours I had a whopping 99 responses (30%). Amazing participation really. It turned into a very good exercise in qualitative research. I spent a few hours coding and sorting parent comments.

From that work two major themes materialised,

1) Amount of work,

2)Type of work .

These themes and the associated parent comments will help our teachers more effectively plan our next remote learning day in Elementary.

Click here for my summary of data from the survey results

The following is my letter to parents - Sept 13, 2018

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Dear Parents,

Firstly, having almost 100 responses to this survey is so overwhelmingly positive! Thank you for taking the time to respond. I want to assure you that this input will be used to help guide our practice moving forward.

Over the past couple days, I have spent a significant amount time reviewing data as it has come in from this survey. After analysing the results and reading through all of the comments, I would like to share with you some of my takeaways. I also encourage you to review the data for yourself (attached). Feel free to share your comments and thoughts below, or come and visit me anytime.

Note that I am copying and pasting my summary in Bloomz directly because many parents have Bloomz set to their mother-tongue language meaning my message will be automatically translated for them. Be warned this is a lengthy Bloomz post, but I think it is worth the read.

---- Summary of Results ----

Most parents (68%) who responded to the survey stated that their children completed the activities. While this is a wonderfully high statistic, the comments indicate that many parents struggled with their children as they tried to ensure the work was completed. None of us want these struggles to occur during remote learning days, especially if they are avoidable.

So, where are the areas of opportunity? How can we improve remote learning days?

In brief, the main struggles were a) too much work was assigned, and

​ b) certain types of work were more difficult for parents to support than others.

Too Much Work

43% of parents felt teachers assigned "too much work", which I am certain translated into children feeling overwhelmed and parents becoming frustrated as they tried to support both their child and the teacher at the same time. While educational best practice encourages parent involvement, the attitude, tone, and role parents take during involvement is important. As one parent eluded to research discourages parents from taking on the role of “homework police”. Speaking negatively about the school or pressuring their child at home are counter productive and promote a mindset that devalues education, which in the eyes of the child can have a negative impact on their overall academic motivation and long term achievement. It was good to see that parents identified their experience this past Monday with a variety of roles. However, 52% of parents identified one of their roles on Monday as “supervisor” which is where the highest risk of negative interactions lies. As I said, comments clearly indicated that some parents did indeed have negative experiences so this has to be addressed. In terms of future strategies, many parents let us know that we could likely avoid this by assigning fewer tasks on emergency remote learning days in Elementary. Some parents specified 2-3 tasks would be sufficient, as it was “hard to keep the enthusiasm up after a long day with lots of tasks”.

Type of Work

Another issue was that only 16% of parents stated their child could work independently. This was ultimately one of our main problems. One parent pointed out that “children are not as efficient at home as they are at school due to the typical distractions at home”. Other parents stated "parents may not have the time it takes to guide and motivate new learnings”. In some cases this was because both parents are working. To avoid this, several valuable suggestions were made by parents and teachers (Note: I conducted another survey for teachers, results are included in the attached file). Suggestions include:

■ Make assigned work similar to tasks students have done before and are comfortable with, such as IXL and Raz Kids flight checks, writing. ■ Assign tasks that are more conducive for independent work such as independent exploration, research oriented work, creative writing, reinforcing concepts previously covered, flipped classroom type assignments. ■ Support parents by including the learning objectives for the activity. What is the larger goal of the activity? “The student will be able to identify different signs and their importance in their home environment”. This will help parents see the goal behind the activity and have more meaningful conversations.

Additionally, having parents take on something new, like teaching a new concept or installing a new App, created unnecessary stress and problems for several parents. Many parents suggested sticking to the Apps and concepts that students already know on Bandh Days. I believe this is a good strategy to enable more independent work and avoid unnecessary and negative stress or pressure during remote learning time.

Parents with multiple children shared that it was hard to manage multiple expectations from multiple teachers in Bloomz. Often those expectations were published at different times in Bloomz and it became confusing for some parents. As 42% of parents stated that one of their roles on Monday was to communicate instructions and expectations with children it appears like an important area that we as a school can improve upon. While bandh days are often communicated (certainly confirmed) at the last minute, there were several suggestions that could make it easier for parents to communicate the expectations with their child. ■ It would be easier for parents if homeroom teachers collated any specialist teacher requests and published one single plan for their students. ■ Several parents indicated that the use video by teachers, in addition to written instructions, was a motivator for students. Teachers addressed the child directly, and provided an overview of the expectations or activity to “kick off the day”. ■ Make instructions simple and concise. ■ Several parents said that because of work, it was hard to share the teacher’s expectations with their child that morning. So if possible when there is a threat of a Bandh Day, we should try to share a plan with parents the day before whether the Bandh happens or not, so you can help your children get setup and ready to go.

Looking specifically at the answers to the question about “parent roles” it was great to see many parents identified the multiple roles, or hats, they took on that day. This is true with remote learning days and daily homework in general. One suggestion I would make would be to always challenge yourself as a parent to stay away from the role of “supervisor”. Intentionally try to take on other roles when you are helping your child including facilitator, strategy provider, motivational coach, role model, collaborator. Sometimes it can be hard, but the effort is worth it.

One of the things I want to do over the course of the next couple months is revisit with the community our list of “Behaviors that Support Learning”. These behaviours or traits of a learner can be found on the first page of the report card and include: 1-responsibility, 2-independent Work, 3- initiative, 4- organization, 5- collaboration, 6-self-regulation. As a community do we believe that these are the most important behaviours or traits to develop? What do we consider priorities? Is the work we assign as a school supporting the development of these traits? Do we as teachers and parents through our interactions and expectations encourage the development of these behaviours? Prioritising this list of traits allows teachers to focus on ensuring that the types of activities they assign for homework in general, and on remote learning days in particular, helps to promote growth in these areas. These traits also give parents guidance on the type of parent role that would be most beneficial to their child in different situations.

Once again thank you for your feedback this week and I hope we continue the open and positive dialogue along life's road of constant reflection and improvement. My door is always open if you would like to talk about anything. A reminder that attached is a PDF with the original data.

Sincerely, Martin