Kimberly Whitten and David Guerrero, two teachers from Los Angeles County, never could have imagined they would be teaching their students virtually, and on top of that, during a global pandemic. 

“Nobody wants to be in this position, but we’re going to do the best we can for our students,” said Ms. Whitten. 

 With COVID-19, quarantine, and stay-at-home orders came the beginning of a new era in education. Virtual classrooms, Zoom meetings, and working from home became the new norm and this new approach to education served as a blessing to some students who dread their 7 am alarms and commutes to school, but for others, and arguably the most at-risk students, this sudden switch to distance learning brought added stress and yet another way they can fall behind. These students had to worry about finding a stable internet connection, a quiet space in their homes to focus, and a computer with a camera.

 The public school system struggles to provide resources to their students during a normal school year, so with the additional pressure of trying to make online learning as effective as possible, how exactly schools and educators will work to alleviate and acknowledge the problem is the issue at hand.

 According to a study conducted by USAFacts.org, 4.4 million households do not have access to a computer and 3.7 million households do not have access to the internet. Because having both access to a computer and internet is a necessity in distance learning, many school districts have partnered with internet companies to help fix these problems. Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner stated that “There’s a gaping digital divide in this country which is keeping some students from being part of their school community,” in a press release from September. He also detailed LAUSD’s efforts to provide a computer or tablet and internet access to all students who may need it.

 While these efforts do make a difference to students, there are still bumps in the road. “Internet has been a big issue around the community, especially because I live in the community so I can tell you that even with people who are able to afford the ‘high-end’ internet, there are always internet issues aside from the fact that a lot of the parents, as well as some of the teachers, were not familiar with some of the apps or sites that we are currently using,” said David Guerrero, a transitional kindergarten teacher at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School in South Los Angeles.

 Kimberly Whitten, an English and creative writing teacher at West Covina High School, shared some of the difficulties she has faced while teaching virtually. “When there is more than one person on the wifi, that can have a big effect. Or sometimes they turn their microphones on to answer a question and it is so loud wherever they are and it’s really hard to hold those students accountable.”

The technological issues that slow internet connection might cause in virtual classrooms, was not the only source of frustration felt by teachers, students, and families during the transition to online learning. The lack of communication and transparency from school districts made the tension between parents and board members reach an all time high. 

On September 24, 2020, a class action complaint was filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District and superintendent Austin Beutner by nine parents of LAUSD students on behalf of all 500,000 students in LAUSD. The parents argued that the district “deprived Plaintiffs’ children and the class members of rights guaranteed to them by the California Education Code and the California Constitution,” said Seth Litt, executive director of Parent Revolution, one of the organizations that helped the parents file the lawsuit. 

“My organization has the core belief that it should be easy for every family to get their child a good education. The fact is, it isn’t. Many of the things well-resourced and privileged families can do to have minimal challenges to give their child a good education are not available to families that have lower incomes,” said Mr. Litt. “Some of these things include buying a house in a neighborhood that has great schools or being taken seriously when you raise concerns at your child’s school or at district level.”

One of the biggest factors that played a role in filing the lawsuit was the lack of communication from school board members in Los Angeles. The complaint states that the district “significantly reduced teacher work time, instructional time, training and professional development; eliminated student assessments; failed to ensure access to technology; and did nothing to attempt to re-engage the 40% of students that––according to the LAUSD’s own data––did not participate in online learning and live video conferencing at all during remote learning in the spring semester,” all without the approval of students and families. 

“Rather than acknowledge the problems, like the pandemic and the fact that the district is underfunded, and call for broad civic partnership to solve them, [the school board] tends to really hide information from the public and from families, they try to make it go away,” said Mr. Litt. “If you’re transparent about these challenges, whether it’s with an individual child or by talking to the family, you can really begin to solve these problems together.”

So what happens in the meantime? How can teachers help create environments for students to excel, even when there is a lack of support and transparency from school boards?

Many teachers are finding that as the semester continues, trying to adapt new ways to increase student engagement while still being understanding of the obstacles their students might be facing, is the best way to go. However, these obstacles are not unique to the world of online education. Students in lower-income school districts and neighborhoods have always faced these issues and it is imperative to acknowledge this. 

“This didn’t happen all at once and I don’t want someone to think ‘Oh, this is just because we’re teaching virtually and it will go away when we’re back in schools,’” said Margo Pensavalle, a professor of clinical education at the Rossier School of Education at USC, who is also an expert in curriculum design and online and progressive teaching. “I hope it accentuates the discrepancy so we are more likely to do something about it, and I know LAUSD is really looking at it and they really want to [help]. It’s not like everyone didn’t know, but now we really know and it’s clearer what we can do to provide resources.”

 Another issue that online learning has helped bring to the public’s attention is the magnitude of the role that physically attending school plays in the lives of the most vulnerable students. For many, the classroom is a safe space and being with their teachers and peers is their sole source of stability.

 “Oftentimes there is an assumption from people who are not spending a lot of time at a K-12 school site that the school is a place where kids go for learning, reading, and writing, and then they go home. But the school serves a lot of different purposes in the community,” said Dr. Corinne Hyde, a professor of clinical education at Rossier and an expert in elementary education and instructional technology. “If you’re someone who has a hard time getting enough for your child to eat, doesn’t have internet access at home, doesn’t have access to medical care or dental screenings, mental healthcare, a whole range of different things, oftentimes the schools fill those gaps. So when the school isn’t present, we start to see even more starkly those gaps.”

 Mr. Guerrero knows exactly how difficult it can be going to school in a district that lacks resources. He attended Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School and is still a resident of the community, so he tries his best to make acquiring the materials for his class as easy as possible. Mr. Guerrero and some of his colleagues purchased items for the students to ensure that they would have everything they needed to complete their assignments.

 “I know with my kids, as a parent you think ‘we have to go do this and we have to go get that,’ so I make sure my students’ parents don’t have to deal with that. We even make weekly packets for the students to make sure they have everything,” said Mr. Guerrero. “Being from the community, it helps you understand parents more and what the kids are going through.”

 Teachers can only do so much for their students if they do not receive support from their school administrations and districts. Both Ms. Whitten and Mr. Guerrero shared their thoughts about their respective school districts, and some ideas they had to create a smoother online semester. 

 “You can always do a little more, especially around here with LAUSD, I think we can have more workshops on how to utilize the systems we’re using this year,” said Mr. Guerrero.

 Ms. Whitten explained that West Covina Unified School District, which is located in Los Angeles County, does offer hotspots, a laptop, and a tablet to every student who needs them, but she added that “sometimes, people still have a lot of issues, because there are a bunch of people on the hotspot or on the internet, and I constantly have kids telling me that they got kicked off or they couldn’t sign on… and that really does impact their education. I do think our district is doing all they can, but it’s still a big issue.”

One source of anxiety that Mr. Guerrero tries to reduce in his virtual classroom are students not willing to turn on Zoom cameras for fear of being judged for their home environment. With this in mind, he always gives his students an introduction about himself at the beginning of the year. “I came from this neighborhood and I know how it was growing up here, so it’s important that they make that connection, like ‘He’s one of us, he’ll understand.’”

“If there is anything that’s come out of this, it is that teaching online in virtual classrooms has highlighted the discrepancy between kids from middle class and affluent environments and kids who are living in poverty,” said Margo Pensavalle, a professor of clinical education at USC’s Rossier School of Education.

The transition from in-person classes to a completely online semester has been far from seamless, and online learning has brought so many obstacles to the surface. As we continue on with potentially another semester of distance learning, empathy and acknowledgment from educators is imperative in stopping the cycles of struggle and educational inequality for low-income students.

“One of the main reasons I became a teacher was because I saw how our students weren’t being provided with what maybe students in Westwood or Beverly Hills have,” Guerrero said. “So that affects me. Once they become my students, they are like my kids. It affects all of us.”