The Anchorage School District has reinstated the use of traditional weather closure days, halting the practice of remote learning on such days. Missed days will be made up by adding more school days at the end of the school year.
This marks a departure from policies adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic. The policy was extended into weather-related school closures over the past three years.
The district’s decision comes amid concerns by many over the loss of valuable instructional time and criticism of the effectiveness of randomly approved remote learning days, which is different than home schooling.
Earlier this month, Department of Education Commissioner Deena Bishop called on schools to stop the practice of weather-related remote learning.
“Bad weather happens, but in prior years we would make up those days. We would say, ‘If we’re out for a day, we’re going to have a day of learning.’ Our practices have slid a little bit, and we’ve become more comfortable with, ‘Let’s call today an e-learning day,’ ” Bishop told the Alaska Board of Education and Early Development, while talking about the skyrocketing levels of absenteeism in Alaska schools.
“One day at a time off … there really is a lack of learning going on. The time on task isn’t there, and it really sets our students and our parents up not to be successful sometimes,” Bishop said.
The MatSu School District responded to Bishop’s comments and immediately changed its policy. Anchorage took a bit more time but reached the same decision.
Under the new Anchorage policy, the next two instances of inclement weather that prevent normal school operations will result in closures with no expectation of remote learning because two days are already built into the academic calendar year.
In the event of more than two weather-related closures, the district will implement make-up days to recover the lost instructional time, days that will be added to the calendar by “repurposing” existing non-student days or extending the school year, the Anchorage School District announced.
To better prepare for future disruptions, the district announced plans to incorporate designated make-up days into upcoming school year calendars. The proactive approach aims to enable families to plan ahead.
Schools will continue to close when road conditions are deemed hazardous. The district emphasized that the updated approach balances safety considerations with efforts to maintain continuity in learning.
Rep. Jamie Allard, who co-chairs the Alaska House Education Committee, welcomed the news and thanked Commissioner Bishop for applying pressure to districts, which have begun to abuse the practice of “remote learning days.”
“I want to thank Commissioner Deena Bishop for working with me to make a change! We didn’t quit fighting until a change was made!” Allard said.
Alaska statutes says students must have 180 days of instruction each school year.
In the valley the schools closed for covid, then the bus drivers had a strike, then not enough drivers so rolling lack of bus service and that got combined with “remote learning” for fear of dangerous roads.
During most of that, we parents still needed to work and all of us pay for the same school funding.
The poor kids got to see adult leaders showing an increasing lack of responsibility to show up for “work” and yet they are graded on their “employability.”
I am glad they have done away with “remote learning” for now.
The NEA union teachers will be bummed about this. To most of them, an e-learning day was a paid day off.
Good for getting rid of this scam.
Remote learning was a scam, and a crutch that was abused. I am curious to see how often school gets cancelled when 3 inches of snow falls from now on.
Good!
This is a terribly misleading headline. The districts were not abusing e-learning days but rather trying to maintain some routine when schools were closed.
Routine? When my fourth grader is instructed to draw a picture and read for 30 minutes? That’s learning ? I’m sorry but I grew up here in Alaska and maybe twice did I ever have to stay home because of weather.
LOL…. And you probably had to walk 10 miles uphill both ways! I would guess there weren’t as many lawsuits compared to today OR concerns over safety. I’m really weary of hearing how Alaskans handle the weather. I see many more cars in ditches and accidents and folks getting run off the roads… than I ever did on the Washington beltway!
He closed school more often than any superintendent in the history of the school district. And having kids do a computer lesson, a worksheet, and read for 30 minutes (exactly what my kids had to do) is not a replacement for a school day. Obviously what’s misleading is saying a “remote learning” day is equivalent to a day in school… unless you think that is all that goes on in school, which there is an argument to be made there which is a great discussion to have if want to have that one.
Permanent solution in one word: vouchers.
You are correct
For profit schools will somehow be cheaper for the taxpayers? In every instance that this voucher practice is used, public education gets significantly worse and those already in/can afford private school get a break.
This is great news for the students. We all recognized that e-learning was not effective. Thank You Commissioner Bishop and Rep. Allard!
This superintendent is horrible. He is of the same ilk as Justin Trudeau. The first school year he was in he closed school a bunch and then slyly allowed his tribe to blame the conservative mayor for making him do it because of the lack of snowplowing. His ilk leaned on that excuse even more when he had the complication of extending the school year and canceling parent-teacher days because he closed school too much. Parents were upset and it became the center piece for Suzanne LaFrance’s campaign for mayor to blame the whole thing on Bronson. Then she won and became the mayor and he closed school just as much. In order to avoid having complaints about make up days he decided to use “remote learning days” and closed school even when conditions weren’t bad. ADN wrote an article about “residual issues” for road maintenance in order to excuse the superintendent and the mayor and put blame again on Bronson.
One parent had to fail to go to work or “work from home” because of the schools decisions. And “remote learning” and working from home don’t go well together. And it had a huge ripple effect on the entire city and brought productivity down and complications into every industry.
It is so unAlaskan to close school because of icy roads or 8 inches of snow. I hated the policy so much. If you can’t deal with the adversity of weather conditions, then this isn’t the state for you. Leave it to us that can prove to everyone that people can manage. And if you have a big snow drift blocking your driveway making you late, call the office. It isn’t that hard.
So are you saying that when school is merely canceled you let your children home alone, unsupervised. Just wondering….
My wife an I noticed this after covid. I get a snow day after 24″ of snow in a day but when they started snow days when there was 2-3″ it was ridiculous. This is Alaska, it gets cold and dark and it snows.
Comments are closed.