Wimberley ISD keeps asynchronous learning – for now
It appears that Wimberley ISD is on track to end asynchronous learning from home, which doesn’t require students to follow along with each class live online as it is happening, but this practice did not come to an end at Monday night’s board meeting.
The WISD Board of Trustees agreed to table discussion of ending asynchronous learning while district administrators worked on solutions for the nearly 400 students who currently use the program. The expectation was that the board would meet again within the next week or two to make a final determination.
Synchronous learning from home, which requires students to follow along live online with each class, would still be available under the proposal from WISD administration. Asynchronous would only be allowed for kindergarten through 2nd grade in accordance with TEA guidelines. The issues stem from teaching in-person, synchronously and asynchronously. All three methods require differing versions of teaching and greatly enhance the amount of effort and skills needed from both students and teachers. Superintendent Dwain York and all four WISD principals were blunt. The current method of teaching all three styles at once is having serious repercussions on teachers and a significant portion of those students in asynchronous learning are failing at least one class.
“The most alarming thing is student progress,” Superintendent Dwain York said. “We feel like if we don’t stop this train, where is it going to be at the end of the semester?”
York would later state that multiple teachers were considering retiring due to the stress and difficulties of the additional workload. More than 200 teachers replied to a survey from the district amounting to more than 160 pages of testimony to the issues. York said the response was overwhelming.
“I’ve had some tell me if this is what it is going to look like the entire year, how am I going to hold my family together and deal with this chaos?” York said. “...After some of these faculty meetings, they came to me in tears. They are trying to maintain their family too. It is overwhelming.”
Yet the system is obviously working for some families. More than 35 parents spoke in favor of keeping asynchronous learning with stories about how the flexibility of students learning on their own time and schedule worked.
“I have a junior at WHS who has worked very hard to be successful as an asynchronous learner,” Doug Burk said in a letter read at the meeting. “She is developing time management skills and social skills, communicating with teachers and tutors and advocating for herself in ways she would have been too shy to do previously. She is not only succeeding, she is excelling. I understand that this style of learning isn’t for everyone, but I don’t understand why the kids who are successful need to be made to rethink all these strategies they have put into place when they aren’t having problems.”
There is also the fact that for some students, asynchronous learning is the only viable option for them to participate. Some discussed living with people who were immunocompromised keeping them from being able to comfortably go to in-person learning. Others emphasized the common internet problems in the Wimberley Valley that could make synchronous learning technologically impossible for some.
“The bottom line is we must take care of our staff so they can take care of our students, and we must make sure our students are given the best opportunities to meet the academic progress they need,” York said.
The trustees discussed multiple variations on how to end or extend asynchronous learning. Some felt families need more time to adjust to the upcoming changes, others wanted to try and find a way to keep the option open in case COVID-19 cases began to rise. Yet others still were worried even a two week delay of a decision by the board would be too long for teachers.
“My only hold back is that we ensure that there is some process in place for those families that this is not going to work for,” Board of Trustee Traci Maxwell said. “We have families where there is no internet where they are at, where there is not a hotspot… Our mission statement is we will serve all these families, and this doesn’t serve all those families… That is my hesitancy.”
The board asked administration to go back to families that need asynchronous learning to continue to be a part of WISD and see if solutions could be sought before holding another meeting to discuss the topic as soon as possible.