Number of Clark County students contacted by teachers drops in week 2

The Clark County School District was unable to contact almost one-third of its 325,000 students during the second week of distance learning following the closure of schools throughout Nevada.

District officials provided the new numbers Thursday evening at a Board of Trustees meeting, reporting that teachers or teaching assistants contacted 230,361 of students during the second week of school after Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered the school closures on March 15. That was more than 27,000 fewer than the 257,486 contacts reported for the first week.

But district officials also clarified that the reported contact do not necessarily mean a student or family member was reached by phone, email or demonstrated progress on academic work. Instead, the figure only indicated that an attempt was made to reach the student or family members, officials told the trustees.

The district initially declined to provide data on the contacts, which are mandated by the state Department of Education, in response to a request from the Review-Journal. But after an article was published saying the district apparently was out of compliance with the mandate, district representatives reported that “257,486 pupils have been in contact with educators from Monday, March 23, 2020, through Sunday, March 29, 2020.”

Tracking method changed

The district’s method for tracking contacts was changed last week when it received what representatives described as clarification from the state requiring it to begin tracking two-way communication between teachers and students, their parents or guardians. Previously teachers had previously been instructed to log all contact attempts in a data portal known as Infinite Campus and add notes about which students could not be reached.

The district does not have the number of two-way contacts for the first two weeks of distance learning, but will give teachers the ability to indicate mutual communication going forward, district officials said. Teachers have also been encouraged to retroactively create and edit attendance entries for the weeks of Mar. 23-27 and March 30-April 3, and log documented exemptions for students who don’t have access to technology.

“Teachers and staff are using all available methods, including calls to parents, to establish two-way communications with students,” a Friday statement from CCSD said. “CCSD is asking parents and students to update their contact information on Infinite Campus or to contact the school directly if they have not heard from their children’s teachers.”

With at least 95,000 students out of contact with their teachers last week, state Board of Education member Felicia Ortiz said she worries most about kids experiencing turbulent situations at home.

“They may not be in a great situation and (they) have no way to let anyone know,” Ortiz said.

She added that while many teachers have gone above and beyond in reaching out to their students, they have not been provided consistent instructions about how to do so or what to communicate when they make contact. Language barriers can exacerbate these issues, she said.

Ortiz said the Department of Education shares some responsibility for the issue by establishing clear distance learning expectations.

‘You need to track it’

“If we didn’t set the precedent and make it clear for how school districts needed to track this information, that’s on us,” she said. “But you need to track it. With Infinite Campus, there’s no excuse for not tracking it.”

Department of Education representatives told the Review-Journal earlier this month that districts needed to know which students have not been reached by teachers, and mark students who could not be reached for a week absent.

The difficulty Clark County teachers have had contacting students has not been mirrored in the state’s second-largest school district.

Washoe County School District spokeswoman Victoria Campbell said teachers contacted over 96 percent of its 64,000 students last week and defined “contact” as communication that is answered or acknowledged by a student.

As part of an update to CCSD’s COVID-19 response plan Thursday, Superintendent Jesus Jara said the distance learning plan requested by the Department of Education was not a written document, but an assurance that the district would deliver an education by online and packet-based means during school closures.

The district said it printed 39,720 hard-copy learning materials for its distribution sites last week, in addition to 70,000 printed the previous three weeks.

But the district’s most significant investment has been in the expansion of its Chromebook program, including the purchase of 46,000 of the devices through a $13 million in federal grants approved by the board Thursday. The Public Education Foundation has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on the district’s behalf for additional devices.

Approximately 55,000 devices have been distributed to students who need them so far, with 155,000 still awaiting deployment.

Contact Aleksandra Appleton at 702-383-0218 or aappleton@reviewjournal.com. Follow @aleksappleton on Twitter.