By Katelyn Nguyen & Jessica Nguyen
Although it is difficult to quantify the impact of the pandemic and online learning on students, a full semester of distance learning has provided some insight into how COVID-19 affects school performance.
According to district statistics, all six HBUHSD schools saw an increase in F grades from the fall semester of the 2019-2020 school year to the fall semester of the 2020-2021 school year. Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) had a 12% increase in F’s, while the number of F grades at Huntington Beach, Edison and Marina High Schools increased by 8%, 23% and 28%, respectively.
“An increase of F’s makes me feel sad because I believe many students would do so much better if they were able to interact in a classroom full of their peers and trained instructors,” FVHS math teacher Marianne Karp wrote in an email. “Of course there will be an increase in lower grades because this is not how school was intended to run. School was and has always been designed to be a live in-person setting.”
In order to get a more accurate representation of the change in students’ performance during the pandemic, Baron Banner requested A, B, C and D statistics from all of the schools. At the time of publication, only administrators from FVHS had provided this information.
The numbers from FVHS paint a picture not just of an increase in F grades under distance learning, but of A grades as well. Between the two most recent fall semesters, FVHS students received both 419 more F grades (a 16% increase) and 1,080 more A grades (a 10.4% increase), while the number of B’s and C’s received decreased by 30% and 26%, respectively.
“Some students genuinely enjoy online learning,” FVHS school psychologist Cynthia Olaya wrote. “For some, this has been wonderful and they are thriving.”
Baron Banner surveyed students and parents to get their opinions on these statistics. Students attributed the increase in F grades to feeling overwhelmed and unmotivated due to sitting in front of a screen for hours. Some students stated they had trouble concentrating in class.
“Online school has made it hard for me to focus, retain information, and manage good work habits,” FVHS freshman Madalyn Pham replied. “It has been long known that exposure to electronics for long periods of time is damaging to mental and physical health.”
Olaya expressed a similar sentiment.
“Students are genuinely struggling to learn during this pandemic—which is not a surprise,” Olaya wrote. “The pandemic caused stress, isolation, and worry. We’re mammals—we’re biologically predisposed to crave connections with others. Isolation and interaction via technology ALL THE TIME is not normal—the decline in mental health is huge.”
Like Olaya, the majority of students who responded were not surprised by the increase in A and F grades, with many suggesting that the polarization of grades might be due to differences in socioeconomic status and learning styles.
“For some students, the increased workload can be a detriment to them, especially when we factor in worsened mental health, socioeconomic circumstances, time-consuming activities such as taking care of family, et cetera…,” FVHS sophomore Priscilla Le wrote. “Those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are also suffering the repercussions of COVID-19, like the unemployment of a family member.”
This student acknowledged that some district measures taken to alleviate these stresses, including offering grab-and-go meals and providing students with chromebooks and Wi-Fi hotspots, have been helpful. Other students suggested that more action could be taken to help support students’ learning needs, including adjustments to student workload.
“I think that teachers should be more mindful when assigning work for students,” FVHS junior Kaylee Nguyen wrote. “Everyone’s at-home priorities are different, so personally, I don’t know what other responsibilities people have to take on now that they’re at home. Teachers should take the curriculum more slowly than usual and check in on their students weekly so students are able to catch up if they fall behind.”
Other student’s suggestions included more awareness of mental health resources schools have to offer, an adjustment to the grading system and lesser amounts of homework.
Meanwhile, parents who responded to our survey expressed frustration with the barriers to engagement that online learning presented for their children. Parent Genine Baldree, for example, suggested that online learning made student-teacher communication more difficult.
“Personally my kids have had teachers that make getting an A too easy and other teachers that don’t correct work on time, don’t update grades online, and fail to respond to emails, thus leaving my kids wondering how they’re doing in the class,” Baldree wrote. “[This gives] them a false sense that they’re doing okay in the class, only to find out too late that they’re bombing the class.”
Teachers’ responses to questions about their online teaching experience, however, reveal that the difficulties of distance learning are not confined to students’ side of the screen.
“[Distance learning has] tremendously affected [my teaching],” Karp wrote. “My greatest strength in reading faces of students that do not understand a concept has been stripped from me. The interactions with students going to the board and getting help from their classmates has been taken away as well. Losing that classroom culture of ‘this class feels like home’ has been rough for me.”
Distance learning has also been especially difficult for science teachers, many of whom have had their ability to teach through hands-on labs disrupted. Williams, for example, said that her virtual students have conducted “kitchen investigations” and bought their own supplies.
Keeping students engaged online has been another challenge for teachers, who’ve tried adapting by using various new platforms, activities, and teaching methods. Some teachers, like Karp, record videos for their lessons rather than giving them live, so that students have an opportunity to rewatch them when necessary and to spend class time asking questions.
“Other things I have done is that I have included some new categories this year for grading purposes,” Karp wrote. “I now have a ‘presentations’ category that runs through Flipgrid and a category of ‘reflections’ that runs through Pear Deck. And a ‘participation’ category that runs through Quizizz. Students get a week to have unlimited retakes of participation notes or activities.”
While students had a variety of suggestions for how teachers might help to support them, teachers also had some advice to share with students.
“My advice for any student is ASK your teachers for HELP! Do not sit in silence,” Karp wrote. “Speak up for yourself. Don’t let fear limit your interactions. Teachers want to help, that’s why most ARE teachers.”
Just as many students mentioned that they wanted teachers to be sensitive to their individual circumstances, teachers said that communication from their students about those circumstances was essential in helping them to support their students.
“Students need to be honest with themselves and with their teachers,” Karp wrote. “If you are now working because your parents are out of work, tell your teachers that. If you are watching siblings at home because both of your parents now MUST work, tell your teachers that.”
The other major suggestion teachers offered for students struggling with online education was to take advantage of the district’s hybrid option for in-person schooling.
“Get the students back into the classroom,” Williams wrote. “Encourage students to come into the classroom physically. I have barely any students that come to my class. I have 3-5 students in my accelerated bio classes and 1-4 in my AP. I’d love to see more of my students in person. I think this social interaction can benefit all of the students—especially those failing their classes.”
Olaya echoed the call for students to consider attending their classes in-person, and added that the mental health resources many students have been seeking are available to them through FVHS and HBUHSD platforms.
“To students who are struggling, check-in about coming to school. Even if it’s in hybrid,” Olaya wrote. “Students who come to school do better—district-wide, the schools with more students attending in person had fewer F grades. Get help—we have resources at school and in the community to help you get support whether your family needs groceries, you need mental health counseling, or other support. There is no need to suffer in silence. Speak up and get help.”
