How media outlets and education teams covered the first full week of remote learning in Chicago
By Elizabeth Duffrin
Since Illinois shut schools in mid-March, Chicago education reporters have repeatedly focused on the digital divide experienced by kids without home computers or internet access.
That drumbeat continued last week, as the first week of state-mandated remote learning got off to an uneven start.
In wide-ranging stories across multiple formats, reporters spotlighted both the district’s troubled roll-out and the resourcefulness of school staff.
Reporters noted on Monday that schools were only beginning to distribute a promised 100,000 loaned tablets and computers and that thousands remained backordered.
They also highlighted digital inequities and teacher creativity in reaching students and chronicled the clash between the city and the teachers union over grading students.
The first-week coverage has been praised by stakeholders including the Chicago Teachers Union. However, a review of the effort also reveals that it didn’t shed much light on the particular experiences of English learners, who make up a substantial part of Chicago’s students, or provide much opportunity for students to tell their own stories.
The first-week coverage has been praised by stakeholders including the Chicago Teachers Union. However, a review of the effort also reveals that it didn’t shed much light on the particular experiences of English learners…or provide much opportunity for students to tell their own stories.
Chicago launched its remote learning program roughly a month after having shut down the school system, a week or two later than other big cities like Los Angeles and New York City but before some places like Philadelphia, where remote learning doesn’t formally begin until Monday.
Chicago’s relatively robust education journalism ecosystem includes a four-person team at Chicago public radio, a four-person bureau of the Chalkbeat education news network, and K-12 education reporters at both local dailies. WTTW Chicago public radio host Brandis Friedman also regularly addresses education issues in her work. ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune also regularly partner together to produce education coverage.
On-the-ground snapshots of remote learning were a highlight of the week’s reporting.
In a news story, WTTW Chicago public television featured a CPS teacher and parent of four juggling online learning for her class and her kids.
WBEZ Chicago public radio profiled teachers attending to children’s emotional needs during online learning and student mentoring programs reaching out to kids at home.
The Chicago Sun-Times spotlighted educators finding creative ways to engage students remotely, such as by starting an online session with an at-home scavenger hunt.
The Chicago bureau of Chalkbeat evaluated the first week of remote learning with quick stories from parents, a teacher, a principal, a school social worker, a teacher, and a special education classroom assistant.
A number of stories gave us a deeper understanding of the issues, exploring student engagement, quantifying the extent of the digital divide, and providing historical context for the city’s uneven rollout.
A number of stories gave us a deeper understanding of the issues, exploring student engagement, quantifying the extent of the digital divide, and providing historical context for the city’s uneven rollout.
Sarah Karp of WBEZ identified an underlying reason for the laptop shortage—years without a district-wide technology plan. Only recently had the district begun to roll-out a four-year plan to buy a device for every student. Historically, principals decided how much to invest. As a result, some schools entered remote learning relying mainly on parents to pick up assignments in paper packets. Others schools, meanwhile, were mostly online. One principal interviewed had a device for each student ready to go, and tech-savvy teachers ready to guide them.
Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief Cassie Walker Burke went beyond reporting on the laptop and internet shortage. She featured two schools tackling another widespread challenge in Chicago—motivating kids (even those with devices and broadband) to log onto Google Classroom. Strategies included wake-up robocalls, online competitions, virtual fieldtrips, and even asking students on a class video call to phone missing friends.
Chicago Tribune reporters Hannah Leone and Karen Ann Cullotta took a deeper look the controversy over grading students during the shutdown. They gathered diverse perspectives on whether student motivation would suffer without an incentive and how schoolwork might be fairly assessed.
Throughout the week, reporters noted that “some” families lacked internet access. But WTTW reporter Brandis Friedman actually consulted Census Bureau data and gave us the numbers. A quarter of Chicago homes with minors don’t have broadband internet, she found. And that proportion is even lower in predominantly black neighborhoods, she reported, naming two communities where a third to a half of homes lack broadband.
ProPublica Illinois and Chicago Tribune reporters Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards published an investigation that found that while state officials had long urged districts to create e-learning plans for snow days and other emergencies, only a quarter of districts had done so prior to the shutdown. Districts with e-learning plans made a smoother transition to remote learning, the investigation found, and Chicago Public Schools was not among them.
Above: In this piece, Chalkbeat took a look back at the highs and lows of the first week.
However, the week’s most memorable story, by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Nader Issa, was a moving portrait of an 11-year-old homeless girl and her mother in the time of coronavirus. It intimately described the hardships that overshadow learning and how they are magnified by the present crisis. The girl describes her fears of falling behind and frustration trying to access her school’s early remote learning lessons on her phone while awaiting a laptop or tablet.
Published the day before remote learning officially launched, it was the best and among the few student perspectives on remote learning that reporters gathered in the first week. In many other instances, student struggles with isolation or attendance were filtered through the eyes of school staff and parents.
The week’s most memorable story was a moving portrait of an 11-year-old homeless girl and her mother in the time of coronavirus… the best and among the few student perspectives on remote learning that reporters gathered in the first week.
Asked about the first week’s coverage, Kate Grossman, education editor for WBEZ, said in a phone interview she thought that it was still early to get a clear take on remote learning from kids. With the first week focused mostly on getting kids oriented and comfortable, “it’s going to take a little while for kids to fully articulate how remote learning is going.”
She explained that WBEZ’s two stories “were less focused on academics and more focused on the social emotional aspect of schooling.” That was something that was clearly on the minds of a lot of kids and teachers, she said.
“I think we successfully captured that emphasis in the first week of remote learning.”
Coming up for WBEZ: a look at remote learning for English language learners, said Grossman
Chris Geovanis, the Chicago Teachers Union communications director, praised the city’s education journalists for a week of “powerful anecdotal stories” on remote learning. But she didn’t think the depth of the digital divide and the inadequacy of the city’s response had fully been captured.
She noted the dearth of reporting so far on how poor working parents and their children experienced remote learning. Indeed, parents interviewed in the first week were nearly all professionals.
WBEZ’s first-week stories “were less focused on academics and more focused on the social emotional aspect of schooling.” That was something that was clearly on the minds of a lot of kids and teachers, said WBEZ’s Grossman. “I think we successfully captured that emphasis in the first week of remote learning.”
As the second week of remote learning in Chicago began, Chalkbeat began to fill that hole, publishing what will likely be a highlight in the second week’s coverage of remote learning — the narrated “pandemic diary” of a high school girl from a Mexican immigrant family.
As Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced last week that remote learning would continue through school year, Chalkbeat’s Burke was ready with more story ideas. For one, “How do students learn complicated topics remotely?” she wants to know. “That’s something we really plan on drilling down on.” She also sees the next wave of reporting on remote learning focusing on data “that gives us a picture of what is happening across the district or the state.”
That data is currently in short supply, she noted. Schools aren’t consistently tracking attendance, online participation, or student learning. With Illinois and CPS standardized spring testing cancelled, “Are they going to measure learning gains and losses in this time?” she wonders. “What sorts of numbers will they be following? Will there be assessment? Where is it happening or why is it not happening? Those types of questions are really big, and the coverage needs to catch up.”
Related coverage:
Four hours a day; how teacher contracts are shaping remote learning
Extended downtime for big-district students
What reopening schools is going to look like
Other stories about Chicago education media:
Breaking free from the hamster wheel of daily news coverage at WBEZ
Untold stories behind the Chicago teachers strike
When good news goes missing
