February 28, 2021

Dear NPS Leadership and School Committee Members:

We are a diverse group of families with students enrolled in the NPS elementary Distance Learning Academy model (DLA). As you work to increase in-person learning for hybrid students for Spring 2021, we ask that you also consider the unique needs of your DLA students and ways to ensure equitable learning experiences between the two models.

Serious equity concerns have plagued the DLA model from the beginning. NPS has endeavored to significantly improve the hybrid learning model without taking similar steps to implement improvements to DLA. Limited efforts have been made to proactively and meaningfully reach out to DLA families to find out about their experiences, concerns, and needs, and many feel unheard. Now, under pressure from DESE and voices advocating for an immediate return to full in-person learning, the district risks creating further inequities in resourcing and staffing, quality and depth of instructional opportunities, flexibility of model choice, and service to social-emotional needs of DLA students. 

Given that DLA is Newton’s largest elementary school by far and is Newton’s first and only “majority-minority” school, the district’s management of DLA tests whether NPS is willing and able to recognize and serve the needs of students from marginalized groups and ensure that they are provided equitable learning experiences.

To be consistent with NPS Goals of providing an inclusive and equitable educational experience for all NPS students, we ask the following:

1. Maintain Current Class Composition and Staffing Ratios for DLA

a. Do not transfer teachers or staff from DLA to support changes to the in-person model.  This would further exacerbate inequities. The academic progress and mental health of our children should not be placed at risk due to hybrid staffing needs.

b. Do not decrease existing DLA staff-student ratios.  DLA classes are already larger, having a greater number of classes with 23 or more students, compared to hybrid. DLA classes also have fewer general ed teacher aides in their classrooms. Teaching assistants and aides are vital and must remain available to provide small group experiences, which are acutely important in a fully remote environment.

c. Keep existing DLA classes together.  DLA students and staff have worked hard to build relationships over the past six months. For many, their class is the only source of social interaction outside the home. Consistency in relationships is critically important for our students, particularly so far along in the school year.

2. Provide Comparable Improvements in DLA Educational Experience

a. Systematically work to offer synchronous teacher-student instruction time and one-on-one check-in time for each DLA student, to a level that is appropriate by grade, to be equitable with the learning opportunities in the hybrid model. Affording DLA teachers “flexibility” to do this is not sufficient, and the fact that some DLA teachers have managed to increase synchronous instruction time in their schedules does not mean that all DLA students are receiving more instruction time. 

b. As there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, we believe there needs to be either a dedicated working group formed, or visible representation of DLA should be added to the District Planning Team. Although NPS is considering collapsing hybrid cohorts to increase in-person learning time, collapsing remote cohorts is unlikely to provide a comparable learning experience in DLA. 

3. Honor Existing NPS Policy and DESE Guidance on Switching Between Models

a. Clearly communicate the right of students to transfer between models and the process for doing so. Some DLA families may wish to transfer to hybrid before the end of the school year, as allowed under DESE guidelines. Similarly, hybrid families may wish to transfer to DLA rather than return to full-time in-person learning when the safety measures and health risks are not clear.

b. Immediately survey families to determine the number of students wishing to transfer between models, and honor requests in a timely manner. Some families have already been denied recent change requests (within the last week), while others have been approved. NPS must rectify this inconsistency.

4. Assess and Support Social-Emotional Needs

As DLA students become aware of hybrid students returning full-time, they may feel an even greater sense of marginalization and separation from the larger student body. 

a. Send communications to the entire student body that are sensitive to this issue and provide clarity on decision-making.

b. Survey families specifically about the current social and emotional needs of DLA students, as well as what DLA families’ primary concerns are related to having their students return to in-person learning. The only elementary-wide survey from November did not expressly target student social and emotional well-being or family concerns, and DLA leadership only recently (in February) started to proactively reach out via phone calls to a small subset of racially diverse families to ask follow-up questions. This is not enough.

c. Determine and implement ways to facilitate connection between DLA students and their home schools. Many DLA students feel disconnected from their home schools (as confirmed in the November survey), and despite great efforts by PTOs to create opportunities for connection, we need more. Families need to feel that this is a priority of district leaders, and we should see concrete efforts and plans to reinforce these links in advance of all students eventually reuniting in buildings. 

Unfortunately, many DLA families are concerned that the district has largely abandoned DLA, especially now that the district’s focus seems squarely on rolling out full-time in-person learning for the hybrid model. The lack of transparent communication this year has created distrust, and many DLA families have given up hope on receiving a meaningful response from the NPS administration. We believe transparent, upfront, and regular communication from and with you would go a long way to help rebuild trust and goodwill.

While we appreciate that the DLA principal has been more than willing to engage with the DLA community, many of our concerns are ones that must be addressed at the district level. The work of district-level decision-makers must consider the entire elementary student body, rather than focusing only on the 75% of students engaging in in-person learning. At the end of the day, the district’s responsibility is to provide an equitable educational experience for all its students. 

Thank you for your work to provide a safe and equitable educational environment for all of our children and we appreciate your consideration of these concerns.

Newton Public Schools DLA Families