Catholic schools have distinct advantages in offering distance learning to students

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On April 14, Utah Governor Gary Herbert extended his order for public school closure until the end of the 2019-2020 school year. In keeping with the state order and for the health and safety of the community, Bishop Oscar A. Solis has announced that Utah Catholic School facilities also will remain closed through the end of the school year. Remote instruction at all Catholic schools will continue through May 29.

Linda Petersen

Intermountain Catholic

SALT LAKE CITY — Amid reports that many public school students are not even logging in to distance learning and failing to turning in assignments during the pandemic shutdown, Utah Catholic schools and students are having a radically different experience, with most students engaging remotely. 

Key to that success is protocols already in place at the schools to ensure every student is kept track of, the administration of the three local Catholic high schools said.

Each high school, from the 180-pupil St. Joseph to the 732-student Juan Diego, monitors students regularly to ensure their success. When a problem arises, teachers, counselors and principals quickly mobilize to address the issue and to get the student back on track.

“Overall, the systems that Juan Diego has in place to support their students’ success has been a relatively seamless transition from in class to online learning,” said April van der Sluys, Juan Diego CHS advancement coordinator. 

At Judge Memorial CHS, during distance learning, two missing assignments in a row trigger a follow-up conversation for the student, first with the teacher, then a counselor, then, if needed, the administration, Principal Patrick Lambert said.

The other two schools have similar systems.

“It has been incredibly effective during the pandemic,” Lambert said. “If we have someone that now has six Fs versus one F in the past, we know something is going on. So they’re reaching out directly to the parents to figure out, ‘OK, what can we do to help?’ Some counselors are actually going to students’ houses if they can’t get a response from the parents.”

Lambert,  van der Sluys and St. Joseph CHS Principal Clay Jones said a few students initially had problems accessing distance learning, but were connected with programs that provide free internet, were issued a ChromeBook and hot spots by the schools, or had school personnel help them address technical issues.

One issue for which allowances have had to be made is when households have multiple students needing to use the same computer. That led to adjustments to teachers’ policies regarding late work.

Other challenges included finding the correct amount of material to assign to students, Lambert said. Teachers have found that the amount of lesson material they’ve been preparing for 45-minute periods has actually been a little too much, he said.

“In class when you’re delivering it, you’ve got discussions, distractions,” he said. “By providing what we thought was the normal amount, we were actually almost requiring more material from the kids than what they would have expected in class, so we’ve changed our sights on what’s a reasonable amount a student can get through in a day.”

Staggering class times has also helped students avoid burnout.

A very small percentage of students still are struggling at this time, Jones said, but they were already experiencing challenges before the shutdown.

“They were struggling enough being there physically and trying to get things done, and now that they’re not actually having to come to the building, it’s made it even harder, more difficult,” he said.

A few others have had issues with the distance learning format, the administrators said. Solutions to address this problem have ranged from more advanced students serving as mentors to their struggling peers (Juan Diego already had a formal mentoring program in place) to teachers and counselors making one-on-one visits to those students.

All interviewed for this story agreed that a key component in the success of the distance learning program is implementing some kind of interpersonal interaction between teachers and students through Zoom, blogs or other technology. Judge Memorial teachers are encouraged to have at least one Zoom session a week in every subject. At St. Joseph, teachers aim for at least two such sessions weekly.

“What we’re finding is the students love having at least one live classroom for each of their subjects because it really promotes the social connections in all this; they can see their classmates, they can have discussions about the topic,” Lambert said. “It has really highlighted how important the social aspect is of school; we’re learning that we can deliver through distance learning, but in order for it to work you should have a live component.”

In addition to  this virtual interaction, Juan Diego has continued to connect with students with its daily “Good Morning JD” videos featuring Dr.  Galey Colosimo, principal, and various faculty and staff.

All three administrators said that, while the shutdown initially was scheduled for two weeks, all of the schools committed to continue teaching their curriculum rather than put learning in a holding pattern while waiting for the crisis to pass. This commitment has served them well in the intervening weeks as the deadline to reopen the school buildings was pushed first to May 1 and now to the end of the school year.

“We went into it right away with the idea that it wasn’t a stopgap measure,” Jones said. “Instead, right away we were continuing on with the curriculum. I’m really pleased that that is the direction we went, to continue to drive forward in the different subjects instead of ‘Well, let’s just make it a review session for two weeks,’ which I fully understand has occurred in schools around the country or around the state. I just think that speaks to the quality of education that the Catholic schools are offering to the students in Utah.”

“All in all, JD has successfully risen to the occasion and met the challenges of this transition head on while keeping the goal the same ... to make sure our Juan Diego students are seen, heard and encouraged each and every day at JD ... even online,” van der Sluys added.

While school protocols eased the way and the teachers stepped up to make distance learning successful, Jones said a large part of the credit should go to the students themselves.

“I’ve been pretty impressed with the way our students have stepped up, overall,” he said. “They deserve a lot of credit for the way that they have handled the situation because we all know that they’re struggling not being there physically; especially our seniors, who are missing out on a lot of their end-of-year celebrations, which are really important to them. I think they’ve handled it extremely well.”