COVID-19 and Back to School

by Jeannine

Test Day Hero has been getting a lot of questions and requests for advice regarding heading back to school in the era of COVID. Here’s an FAQ addressing the questions we’ve gotten and a few we’re anticipating. If you have any questions we didn’t address here, please let us know at info@testdayhero.com!

WHAT ARE NYC SCHOOLS DOING?

For public schools, according to the DOE: “All schools are currently preparing for a blended learning model. Blended learning means that students learn part of the time in-person in school buildings, and continue their learning remotely, from home, on the remaining weekdays. Any family can also choose all-remote learning this fall, for any reason.” Remote lessons for all students begin 9/16; in-person classes begin 9/21. UPDATE: Most in-person classes will now begin 10/1; check with your school if you’re unsure.

Private and charter schools are decided internally; contact your school to find out the expected protocol.

HOW DO I SIGN UP FOR REMOTE LEARNING?

The deadline to sign up for all-remote learning was August 7th, but the form to request remote learning is still accessible here.

CAN I CHANGE MY MIND?

Yes. According to the DOE, you will periodically have the ability to change from blended to remote learning or vice-versa, beginning in November.

I’M CONCERNED ABOUT TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME

That’s understandable, but please don’t let it stress you too much. While it feels uncomfortable to allow your child to sit at a screen for so many hours a day, there is no evidence that it has adverse effects on their development. The best thing you can do is follow the advice often set out for adults who work at computers all day: take hourly breaks to stretch your legs and rest your eyes, and change sitting positions regularly. Also, make sure your child is fed and watered, and maintain a structured schedule to compensate for the loss of school structure.

I’M CONCERNED ABOUT SOCIALIZING

Unfortunately, this will be a concern for students whether or not they attend in-person school, as there won’t be much socializing allowed. To make up for it, you can team up with other careful families to form a “pod,” explained in more detail below.

You can also allow your child to socialize online with their friends. Yes, this probably means video games. Fortunately, video games get a bad rap, and are actually shown to improve problem-solving, strategy, social, and collaborative skills. As long as they’re taking regular breaks and their eating and sleeping schedule are maintained, you’re doing fine.

WILL MY KIDS FALL BEHIND?

Sort of. This is no more true for students who are learning remotely vs. in-person. Because of the complicated nature of accommodating different approaches, and the likelihood of disruptions, curricula will be hard to maintain.

That said, everyone is in the same boat, and there’s no falling behind if everyone is experiencing similar obstacles.

More substantively, while we standardize our curricula across the state and even the country, much of that schedule is arbitrary. Whatever your student is “supposed” to learn in any particular year is decided for the sake of standardization, not because any student who doesn’t learn the Pythagorean Theorem in 7th grade will fail the 8th grade. Do you remember everything you learned in high school chemistry? World history? School is ultimately about learning how to learn, not learning specific material.

If the Regents exams are to happen this year, there is standardized knowledge necessary for those tests. If you want to make sure your child is on track, you can take a look at past years’ tests at nysedregents.org. Other standardized tests, like the SHSAT, SAT, and ACT, are aptitude tests and therefore less reliant on material knowledge.

If you’re worried your student won’t be challenged, won’t have enough access to help, or needs guidance and structure, that’s where we come in. Check out “HOW CAN TEST DAY HERO HELP?” below.

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT HIGH SCHOOL ADMISSIONS?

There’s no way to know for sure. This is confusing every year, and even more so now. As of this writing, it looks like the SHSAT is still on track to happen on November 7th. Otherwise, it is likely that schools will be looking less at attendance and more at other criteria, which differ from school to school.

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT COLLEGE ADMISSIONS?

Colleges across the country are going test-optional, and many of those that aren’t have an appeal or opt-out system available. That doesn’t necessarily mean that your student should not take a college admissions exam. What is does mean is that schools will be looking much more at essays, interviews, and school-specific application supplements. They will likely be more forgiving in regard to things like attendance and extracurriculars, given the circumstances, although there are still extracurricular activities available remotely.

WHAT ARE PODS?

You may be hearing this term pop up a lot. There’s no strict definition, but a pod is basically a group of parents who decided to work together to give their similarly-aged children a social outlet. These pods can be strictly extracurricular, academic, or a mix. An academic pod can range from having someone supervise remote learning, to bringing in a tutor to help out a couple times a week, to bringing in a teacher to homeschool. If you are looking for any of these, please let us know.

HOW CAN TEST DAY HERO HELP?

As always, our approach is tailored to the needs of our students. To get personalized advice, guidance, reassurance, or whatever else we can help with, feel free to reach out on our Contact Us page or email info@testdayhero.com.

AVOID FALLING BEHIND
- Our tutors are experienced and familiar with the usual curricula in place for each grade and can help make sure your student is on track to learn what they would have if we lived in a parallel universe without a pandemic.
STAY ON TOP OF REMOTE LEARNING
- We can help create a system that keeps you and your child organized and on top of their schoolwork to keep them from getting overwhelmed and disengaged.
PREP FOR TESTS AND ADMISSIONS
- One thing that hasn’t changed much, yet! We’ve got test prep and applications in the bag.
MAKE THE SCHOOL YEAR LESS LAME
- This year’s schooling will likely be more bare-bones and perfunctory than usual, just due to the nature of remote learning. We can help add some enrichment with outside learning, projects, book clubs, or whatever else would spark curiosity for your child.
SOCIALIZING/PODS
- Depending on your needs and the age of the children in your pod, we can:
  - Supervise school-time pods remotely
  - Supervise school-time pods in person, with strict safety protocols decided upon between you and your tutor
  - Teach small groups, either remotely or in person, to supplement remote learning
  - Homeschool
  - Supervise extracurricular social groups and offer homework help
- Participants in pods can be either remote or in-person. For safety reasons, we recommend remaining remote as much as possible, but we understand that some students may need in-person support and socialization.
- Because the application of pods varies so widely, our rates will vary as well. Let us know what you’re looking for and we can find a rate that works. The guideline we are working with is our standard tutoring rate of $150/hr. per student, with that discounted based on number of students and number of hours as well as the nature of the pod.

I HAVE A QUESTION THAT YOU DIDN’T ANSWER