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Anyone who does not believe that a huge portion of last semester’s high school grades were base on cheating is naive beyond belief. I’m sure that doesn’t include any admissions people who must be keenly aware of this. The problem would be how to tell which grades were earned and which were cheated, an impossible task.
@twoinanddone ““Oh, I thought he was doing his schoolwork and he was just playing video games.” This was not one of her poor students, just a middle class unsupervised 4th grader.” yes I am also noticing that in my daughter’s class room setting and we live in suburban school district. Wondering out loud “what will happen in rural and inner city school districts?”
@twoinanddone – yes, huge equity issues around online school. Can’t assume everyone has a quiet place to study. Access to high quality internet and devices is not ubiquitous. Older kids might be babysitting younger kids while parents work. And so on…
Some districts went pass/fail this past Spring. I think more are going to try to do grades this Fall in order to motivate students to stay engaged, but there will be concerns about adverse outcomes for low-income families – are we partly ‘grading’ privilege? I mean, that’s always true, frankly, but COVID amplifies this.
Even for middle and upper-income families, quality of online classes will vary so much and some kids will end up on the losing side of that equation – teachers who check out or just aren’t good in the online class format. Also, teacher turnover that leads to some classes not being taught. I’m personally worried about the latter. Rumor is there are a lot of teachers retiring early or not coming back, and course selection will be diminished this year. This may mean my S won’t take some of the advanced courses he had planned, so his ‘rigor’ as a Senior may not be what it would have been in normal times.
Again, COVID changes so much about educational experiences, and AOs who had a handle and understood districts (and even schools) are facing an admissions cycle where so much is different. The ‘output’ data they got last Spring and will get this year will be novel and harder to interpret and put into context.
That’s why I think the Northwestern AO told @homerdog it’s easier for colleges to use student information up through Fall semester of Junior year b/c it falls within their ‘priors’ – they know more how to assess and weigh the transcript up to that point. Afterwards? Not so much.
PS – my high achieving S21 had prolly 50% reduction in schoolwork from mid-March to June as everybody scrambled. Everything was pass/fail so he skated through and, yes, played a lot of video games. He has no idea what to expect this year, but it can only go up! (I hope.)
My wife teaches in a Title 1 district and the situation on the ground with remote learning is worse than you think. This is the most regressive situation I have witnessed in my entire life but with planned half time return to classroom this fall it should be only half as bad as it was.
one of our plans might be to send our son to NJ where he can quarantine with my brother for 14 days. Just because I live in a state (GA) where we are on the do not come list does not mean that we are not being somewhat cautious ourselves as the cases are rising. My D has a job where she has be extra careful. We would gladly take a test before we leave for NY, understanding its a snapshot and SIP until we leave. Then when he arrives at the school they would do testing again.
@austinmshauri and yes my kids mental health does matter. I know lives have been lost. But we are all trying to do what is best . I am paying to send my kid to a school far away from home because of fit , that will have in person classes. Trying to figure out how to get him there safely and safely for everyone else. He is not one of those young people going to bars (he barely leaves the house), nor will he be that type of kid once at college, breaking all the rules. he is a Rule follower.
My D’s college uses GradGuard for Tuition Insurance, and I asked them whether a withdrawal for Covid would be covered. Here is what they said:
"Thank you for your inquiry regarding Tuition Insurance and Covid-19 coverage.
Our plans do not generally cover claims due to COVID-19. This is because our products do not generally cover losses caused directly or indirectly by known, foreseeable, or expected events, epidemics, cessation of operations by the school, or fear of attending school are generally not covered. However, until further notice, although not covered under most plans, we are currently accommodating claims for when an insured student completely withdraws from school for the covered term due to becoming ill with COVID-19.
This accommodation is strictly applicable to COVID-19. All other terms, conditions, and exclusions of the plan apply as always. We are offering this accommodation for a temporary period in response to the public health crisis that is currently occurring. This accommodation applies to plans currently in effect. Please refer to the coverage alert on our website at www.gradguard.com before purchasing another plan.
Beyond the current exclusions and temporary accommodations discussed above for COVID-19, our plans include coverage for a variety of common reasons (not related to COVID-19) for which may cause a student to withdraw from school. Additionally, policyholders and insured students have 24/7/365 access to Student Life Assistance, which can provide aid with, for example, locating medical facilities, making travel and transportation arrangements for a student or family member, or even vehicle return in case a student becomes ill or injured. Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply."
If tuition insurance is important to your family, you might want to ask the same question yourselves so you have it in writing.
It seems that this COVID 19 is creating a not so level playing field across middle school and high school education system. What a disaster is playing out right in front of our eyes.
A quick covid test doesn’t help to get rid of quarantines. It does precisely nothing to obviate quarantines; no test makes any difference to get rid of the need for a quarantine.
My son is returning home from Michigan, on a plane as I type this. Because airports and planes are dangerous, and my husband and I are at risk, he will quarantine for 14 days once he gets here. At first I thought, he could get a test, because we still have readily available tests in my area.
But then I realized, a test, even if the result came back instantly, would be useless. Let’s suppose he gets tested tomorrow. That would mean he wasn’t infectious today, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t incubating the virus. He could test negative tomorrow, stay in his room, and then develop the disease asymptomatically on Thursday or Friday from his exposure today. He could test negative on Saturday and turn positive on Sunday.
Test or no test, he still needs to quarantine for 14 days. It’s frustrating but it is what it is.
@“Cardinal Fang” Agree with you. That is why my college kids are taking gap year. But middle school daughter is a different story. I just do not want school to open, but at same time she is gonna fall back. Worst come to worst she may have to repeat the year. We may have to hire private tutors also for her.
@sdl0625 - there are places in NJ that offer 45 minute test results. For that matter, your family could simply plan to spend a few nights in NJ on your way up to NY, take a test and, assuming the all clear, be on your way.
However accurate such tests are, they don’t tell if someone who tests negative today will test positive tomorrow, so they do nothing to prevent the need for a quarantine.
My sister is in a city district. Her school used to be Title 1 but development has turned it into a popular area for young professionals and their children. They were able to get chrome books for all who needed them, but more than half have home computers. Many hands were involved in getting Hot Spots for those who didn’t have internet access, including Comcast and parent volunteers. Another friend teaches in a Title 1 district just north of the city and every single student was issued a chrome book the first day the schools closed. Some kids do want to do the work but most, having been told they would ALL be promoted to the next grade, really spaced out once schools closed on March 14.
But there is a big difference in the amount of help the parents CAN give or DO give. My sister has kids in her class whose parents don’t speak English. The kids do so they aren’t in an ESL program or school, but the kids get little help at home (in fact they are often the interpreters for their parents). And many who speak English do not read it very well.
It is really going to be another lost year for most of these kids. PBS does run lessons for each grade every morning but I doubt the kids who really need to be learning are watching. I’m trying to get one kid I work with to just watch for 20 minutes per day! but I know that’s not happening.
Gee with all this chatter about private tutors, maybe I should hang out my shingle.
Let me give an analogy here to make people understand why tests don’t help with quarantine.
Your daughter is planning a year at Antarctica, an isolated place with limited medical care. Once she gets there, she can’t leave for a year. She plans to get married first. Your new son-in-law won’t be going with her, so they want their wedding and honeymoon before they separate for a year.
She tells you she plans to have the wedding, have a two week honeymoon in which she uses no birth control, and then, because she wants to make sure she’s not pregnant before she leaves, take a pregnancy test two minutes before she gets on the plane. If she tests pregnant, she says, she won’t go.
Do you approve of this plan for your daughter and your potential grandchild? NO! Of course not. You know that she might be pregnant when she gets on that plane but not be testing positive yet. You know it’s dangerous: if she’s pregnant, she’ll be stuck in Antarctica for a year. She needs to wait a couple of weeks with no sex, to make sure she’s not expecting your grandchild. The test is not accurate enough soon enough.
Similarly, a college who welcomes your child does not know whether they’re infected. A test now doesn’t tell whether your child would test positive next week, just as a pregnancy test now doesn’t tell whether your daughter would test positive next week. There’s no way around a quarantine.
Not piling on at all. You are making a blanket statement that is not true for all schools. Just the one AO at NW. Many schools are still looking for performance. Sure they might evaluate things differently this year but I doubt it will “that” huge of a difference. If (only an example) your kids grades start to fall and another one’s doesn’t or actually improves during this time, with everything else equal, which one is your friend ,the AO at Northwestern likely to have interest in? Being able to perform during this time will be looked at. If a kid that was great in math all the sudden gets Cs…that might not just be blamed on the online experience . No school in high school or college is giving bonus points because of the situation. Both still expect kids that are capable to achieve their potential. What else do they have to go on? Essays will also most likely count more this year then in past years. I do know AO at various schools so don’t wish to play that game. I also have friends kids that have been on various schools webinars, or schools open houses and getting feedback at what they are telling them. This one family, she is a 4.0 unweighted with a 34 ACT. She’s applying to all the known schools and guess what…LOL…Bowdoin “was” on her list. I told them to watch how all the schools are handling the current chaos and see which approach appeals to them. There is a possibility that some of this will still be her next year. Again not a personal attack but you can’t just make blanket statements as fact also.
^^^This is the reason I don’t understand testing when you don’t have symptoms or don’t have a reason for needing to know TODAY that you don’t have active CV19 (like before a medical procedure).
My nephew and his GF got tested in one of the big city sponsored testing places. They had no symptoms and did not expect that they had been exposed, although they had driven back from her parents home (through low impact states). So now we know they didn’t have CV19 on that day in June. So? How does that help anyone or even help them? They still need to wear masks and wash their hands just like they did before the testing.
My mother had to have a test before beginning chemo. She knows she didn’t have it on July 6, but that doesn’t mean she won’t pick it up at the millions of hospital visits she has or just out in the community. Even if she had tested positive, her treatment would have been the same (she’d just be a cancer patient with covid, but she’d still need the chemo).
I understand testing those with symptoms, those with exposure, to try to contain additional contacts, but those who just want to know if they DON’T have covid? That’s a momentary clearance.
@Knowsstuff – “If a kid that was great in math all the sudden gets Cs…that might not just be blamed on the online experience . No school in high school or college is giving bonus points because of the situation. Both still expect kids that are capable to achieve their potential. What else do they have to go on?”
i think we can all agree there’s no answer for all colleges – but I would argue the opposite – colleges might be more likely to give ‘bonus’ points for kids who continue to do well during this very unusual and stressful time and, on the other hand, more likely to cut them slack if they don’t perform as well as they did pre-COVID. At least I hope so.
One admissions webinar I watched had two AOs from top schools saying specifically, “We’re not grading on how well you did during COVID. The goal is the make it through this very difficult time.”
It’s my prediction (and, tbh, hope) that colleges more than not will err on the side of assuming that a student’s performance the first 5 semesters of HS during normal times is more illustrative of their potential than this past Spring and upcoming Fall which have been/will be stressful, weird and disrupted in so many ways. Plus, as discussed earlier, there’s such an uneven playing field with states/districts handling school re-openings so differently everywhere.
Heck, lots of class of 21 can’t even get a test score – ramping up to take the ACT this summer, for example, only to have it cancelled and/or having to drive hours to find a test seat. SAT hasn’t even been offered since March. Talk about stressful…
OK now this makes sense. If she DID have covid, they wouldn’t have started the chemo
But in the case of my son, for example, he’s going to quarantine. If he tests negative, he needs to quarantine. If he tests positive, he needs to quarantine. So what’s the point of taking a test?
Of course, there are screening reasons for taking tests, and I don’t denigrate those. But a negative result is not a Get Out of Quarantine Free Card.