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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Students across the Birmingham-area began eLearning from home, after schools had been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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SOURCE: Aimee Rainey, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning
While there will be an option for some students to learn virtually in the upcoming school year, it will look very different from the options offered during the 2020-21 school year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aimee Rainey, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Vestavia Hills City Schools, said the remote option will only be available for students in grades 6-12, while all elementary students will return to in-person learning.
Students who chose to attend school remotely this year will use ACCESS and Edgenuity, both of which provide online curriculum for the school district, Rainey said.
Those programs will supply the teachers and content while the school system will provide the facilitators who will help ensure students are making good progress, Rainey said.
This move allows teachers in the school district to focus their attention solely on in-person learning, Rainey said.
“I hope that it is a tremendous relief to be able to give their attention back to the traditional classroom setting,” Rainey said.
Rainey said teachers, in the 2020-21 school year, went “above and beyond” in exceeding the district’s expectations of them, balancing both in-person and remote learning.
Students don’t seem to have suffered because of remote learning, with no major differences in test scores, Rainey said.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been any challenges with remote learning, but the district has worked through all the challenges it faced, she said.
Being able to have school at all is a blessing, Rainey said. “We’ve been very thankful.”
The district is working to line up facilitators for the remote option, Rainey said.
Academic Success
► More than $41 million in scholarships awarded
► 11 National Merit finalists
► 3 of Alabama’s 4 National MATHCOUNTS finalists
Families who have committed to the remote option have been asked to make a one-year commitment because the district is using teachers from the online curriculum providers, Rainey said. Students must maintain a 60 or above after each nine weeks and had to have a passing grade in the content area in the 2020-21 school year, and they must also sign a contract outlining their expectations.
The role of facilitators will be to work with families and students and make sure progress is being made. They will communicate with the district if that is not happening and will work to find a solution, Rainey said.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we are setting all of our students up for success,” Rainey said. “We know there are a number of children who are flourishing in the remote option.”
SOURCE: Aimee Rainey, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning
Rainey also touched on the district’s academic success in the 2020-21 school year, which she said was noteworthy given all the challenges of navigating the year during the pandemic.
The system had 11 National Merit finalists, was home to three of Alabama’s four finalists for the national MATHCOUNTS competition, and its students were awarded more than $41 million in scholarships, a school record.
“Our teachers, our students, our families … did a tremendous job,” Rainey said.
