Hybrid learning models used by some Augusta area school systems draw concerns

Aiken County schools won’t reopen until Monday , but there are already mixed reviews about the district’s hybrid learning model from some parents.

“I’m OK with two days of face-to-face instruction and three days at home providing it doesn’t cause more stress on kids,” said Vanessa Cloutier, who has children attending North Augusta High School and Mossy Creek Elementary School.

Linda Perry, who has a child in middle school, isn’t sold on the approach.

“Trying to figure out the virtual for a middle schooler,” she said. “It is a mess. Clearly, this program is not ready. It's like wading through a field of rubber bands while wearing glue covered shoes.”

A hybrid learning model is where a student goes to in-person school for part of the week and does virtual learning for the rest of the week.

The Richmond County School System considered such an approach for its reopening but decided to offer families the choice of either full-time in-person learning or full-time virtual learning. Superintendent Kenneth Bradshaw said in July that this decision was made on behalf of working parents who cannot get child care for when their children have to do the virtual component of hybrid learning.

Parental involvement has been a major point of concern in these discussions. Columbia County Associate Superintendent Jeff Carney said that while the system does require parents who choose the hybrid model to make a commitment to helping with virtual learning, officials do sympathize with the parents having to make that decision. Columbia County school started Aug. 3.

“Parents aren’t trained to be teachers, and that’s frustrating for parents,” he said. “ I think teachers were a lot more valued after parents saw what it was like to teach kids over an extended period of time ... I think that’s one reason so many of our parents were ready to let their kids come back to school.”

While that newfound appreciation of the in-person component within hybrid learning is good, something not so good is that the system has created tough social situations, Carney said.

“One of my employees ... they said they talked to a senior at lunch time and the senior’s comment was they actually interact with their friends more at home than they do at the school now, because they have them distanced at lunch, they have to stay distanced in the classroom and in the halls,” he said.

Stacie Pettit, the middle grades program coordinator for Augusta University, said one positive of a hybrid model is that it better allows students to work at their own pace, thereby helping struggling learners who need to watch online lessons multiple times in order to grasp the content. To Carney’s point, as a Columbia County mother, she is just happy her son is getting social time outside of the house.

“He is a much happier child having even his two days a week going to school,” she said. “You can just tell he’s back to his normal self where that light just kind of ... gone away during the months of learn-from-home last spring when he didn’t have any interactions at school.”

Cloutier has a similar sentiment in regards to the social aspect of having that time back in school.

“My children miss their teachers, and definitely their friends,” she said. “Yes, I know we are in the middle of a pandemic; however, I am definitely not worried about sending them back to school.”

AU assistant professor Ashley Gess said the focus should not be on which type of model to choose but instead making it effective and purposeful. If done correctly, she said, it should not matter which model is chosen.

“It should be present, active, responsive, engaging learning,” Gess said. “If it is all those things, I think a hybrid model could be great. But if it’s not all those things, hybrid or online could be very bad ... because what you end up with is a disconnected student.”

Aiken County Back-2-School task force leader Phyllis Gamble said they have already begun addressing parents questions and concerns, and the task force intends to constantly take information from the teachers and adjust accordingly. However, it’s still tough to say what problems there may be until the plan goes into effect.