Parents expressed strong support for teachers and principals since schools have closed, while educators are growing concerned that they are not reaching all students with online learning, according to a pair of polls released Thursday.
Nearly 90% of parents support how their children’s teachers and principals have performed during school closures, according to one of the polls released by the National Education Associated.
“We’ve never seen a poll like this,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen GarcÁa said in a videoconference on Thursday. “We’ve never felt the support from parents as strongly as we feel it now.”
Parents express higher support for educators than they did for their local government or state’s governor.
More from DA: Schools need billions more to open safely, union and PTA leaders say
However, some 80% parents said they were concerned about keeping their children’s education on track while school are closed. And a second NEA poll shows teachers feeling frustrated with their ability to provide adequate instruction online.
These concerns were higher among teachers in schools with greater numbers of students on free- and reduced-price lunch. Those teachers have also reported lower attendance.
About 80% of the teachers surveyed said they were concerned about providing the same level of education to all students; the complexity of teaching students with disabilities digitally; and students not participating or showing up for distance learning.
An estimated 8 to 12 million students don’t have adequate technology or internet access, Garcia said.
“The higher the poverty, the harder it is to trust that folks are going to have the technology in their homes,” she said. “It’s still communities of color that have been hardest hit by this pandemic, both in terms of actual infections and death rates and in terms of economic ramifications.”
DA’s coronavirus page offers complete coverage of the impacts on K-12.
