Most Educators Were Not Prepared for Online instruction When the Pandemic Arrived

In my blog entry of 4/19/18,  "A Possible Solution for Making-up Missed School Days" I made a plea for providing all students with a laptop for use at school and at home. One use of this arrangement would be the provision of online instruction when normal school is canceled by inclement weather or other interruptions. Who knew back then that a pandemic would arise and most public schools in the U.S would be forced to close? Unfortunately, few districts sought to implement this plan. Now, many are hurriedly seeking to provide all students with a laptop and a home internet connection; all while trying to train teachers in the implementation of the program. Many educators were ill-prepared for online instruction. The blame for this quandary rests with the school administrators who failed to recognize the vital need to utilize computers for training staff and ultimately to provide students with a vital tool for research and learning.

Report Cards Should be Replaced with Moving Averages.

Traditionally, report cards have been issued two to four times per year in K-12 schools. Would it not be better if students (and parents) could be made aware of their average at any time? The solution can be provided using a statistical procedure called the moving average. Transition to this marking procedure can be facilitated via the use of computer technology. The result would be a student being made aware of his progress at any time or place. The grade received on a recent test or a project would automatically adjust his average for the course as soon as it is entered into the system. Another benefit is that teachers would no longer have to calculate final grades as the computer would accomplish this task automatically and immediately. Teachers could still make grade adjustments by entering a subjective value, like a mark for effort or good behavior. Parents may be kept informed of their child's progress if their email address is entered into the system.

Certain preconditions are required to make the system work: (1) provide each teacher with a computer that contains the system. (2) each teacher must determine the number of measures used to assess student progress (quizzes, exams, reports, projects, etc.), (3) each teacher must determine the weight assigned to each measure; for example, the final exam may count for a weight of 25% of the final grade, a term paper would count 10%, etc.. The total of the weights must equal 100%. The only responsibility teachers would have is to enter marks for each measure into their computer. This would be much less effort than having to determine averages using a calculator. Grade books may be eliminated as all measures are stored in a computer. Backup may be provided by automatic posting to a remote computer. (4) ideally, each student should be provided with a laptop that contains the system.

The formulas required would be created in a one-time effort by a statistician. Teachers would be trained in its use and provided with support as needed. The formula should be made available to teachers as well as students. For example, a student may have a grade of 88% in an English class before taking the final exam. He or she could enter possible marks into their computer in order to determine what would be needed to make their final grade reach a 90.