Peabody Public Schools Explores Future Of Remote Learning

PEABODY, MA — As Peabody Public Schools joins most of the rest of the state in bringing back most students to full-time, in-classroom learning over the next few weeks, the district is also developing ways to best serve those families who choose to keep their students in remote-only learning through at least the end of the school year amid the coronavirus health crisis.

Peabody Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala said families of 320 of the 487 elementary school-age students who have been in fully-remote learning since September intend to keep them out of the classroom through the end of the school year.

Informational forums will be held virtually on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m. where school officials will be able to discuss the "personalized virtual learning experience" available to the students. Families of those in remote learning will receive links to the forums.

"Our remote learning program this year has been taught by Peabody teachers, synchronously, with Peabody students," said Vadala. "That's a huge part of the reason why I think our students found success through our program."

Synchronous learning is learning that takes place during school hours and mirrors the class of day of in-person students. Asynchronous learning involves specialized programs that can independent of the traditional school day and not follow the curriculum schedule the same way as students in the buildings.

"Students may opt for a more permanent remote learning option for a variety of reasons, including medical reasons, social-emotional needs, concerns about the ongoing pandemic or because they simply prefer it," Vadala said.

"Regardless of their reason, we know that we have the tools to create an engaging, personalized remote learning opportunity for these students for years to come and we're excited to begin planning for what that will look like."

Elementary students in Peabody are expected back in the classroom five days a week on March 29, with the remaining students back on April 7, under a plan the school committee approved last week.

Students and families who would like to stay in fully remote learning will have the option to do so through the end of the 2020-21 school year, and perhaps longer.

Under consideration are a full remote academy through the district and an extension of the synchronous model in which remote students take classes virtually alongside their classmates in the classroom.

Assistant Superintendent Chris Lord will oversee the extension of remote learning.

"Our remote teachers did a phenomenal job engaging students this school year, and we saw that our students can and did succeed in a remote-learning environment," Lord said. "This is an opportunity for our district to create a personalized virtual learning program that can meet students where they are, and I'm looking forward to working with our teachers and staff, students and families to make this happen."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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