Walch recently conducted a survey to determine how teachers have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s no question, of course, that the pandemic has had a significant impact on education. The effects are keenly felt at every level of the education system. Our district clients have expressed to us their frustrations and concerns. What our survey sought to determine is in what specific ways and to what degree teachers and classrooms have been affected, and how well the digital tools at teachers’ disposal are supporting them during this time.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The survey respondents were predominantly math teachers in U.S. public secondary schools (65%) and middle schools (22%). The most-represented subjects were Algebra 2/Math 3 (30%), Algebra 1/Math 1 (15%), and middle school math (15%). The vast majority (87%) of respondents indicated that they had been teaching for more than 10 years, while a minority (13%) indicated 4–10 years of teaching experience. (No respondents indicated less than four years of teaching experience.)
When asked how many courses or sections they currently teach, most respondents indicated three (30%), four (26%), five (17%), or more (17%). Most respondents indicated that they taught 10–25 students (65%) per course section, with another 26% indicating 26–50 students per course section.
KEY FINDINGS
Most respondents indicated that they have shifted at least partially to remote/online teaching since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Only a small proportion (~13% cumulatively) indicated that they are teaching mostly or entirely in person.
Overall, the survey discovered that the teachers who responded find it more difficult now than in pre-COVID times to address students’ divergent needs with the resources provided by their schools and districts.
In addition, the survey found that teachers are spending more time curating educational content than before to supplement the resources their school or district has provided them. Most respondents said they spend an extra 1–5 hours a week doing so.
Overall, respondents agreed that their students’ academic performance has suffered in the face of COVID-19-related education challenges. Most characterized the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their students as “somewhat” or “strongly” negative, and indicated a noticeable change in academic performance over past years.
WALCH SOLUTIONS
It’s clear that it’s more difficult for teachers today to address students’ divergent needs. The rise of remote education has created a lack of face-to-face time with students and their unique learning requirements. In turn, this creates a more homogenized approach to teaching classes as a whole rather than as a sum of individuals. Many online learning solutions present a “one size fits all” solution. Unfortunately, this often does little to address particular gaps and divergent student needs.
It’s also clear that teachers today are spending a lot more time searching for quality supplemental resources than before the pandemic. There are varying reasons for this: in some cases, the resources that teachers are provided aren’t tuned to the particular needs of their students; in other cases, the resources aren’t adequate to fulfill the needs of today’s tech-reliant classrooms; and, at times, the resources at hand are simply of poor quality. This trend has only been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walch’s Curriculum Engine addresses these issues. The Curriculum Engine is an innovative platform for teaching high school math during the COVID-19 pandemic. This “one stop shop” combines ready-to-use and customizable print and digital resources, curriculums aligned to state standards, and an online teaching platform with a simple student interface to support distance learning.
The Curriculum Engine is easy to use. There’s minimal setup required: teachers can use the pre-populated courses “out of the box” to start teaching math to high school students online today, or customize lessons and create courses with just a few clicks. What’s more, the Curriculum Engine supports Google Classroom, Schoology, and Canvas, three of the most widely-used LMS’s today.
The Curriculum Engine offers thousands of premade asynchronous, remote assessments and worksheets to gauge student progress. Teachers can also create their own to fit their needs and easily develop targeted courses to focus on the “needs of the moment.”
Even in the best of cases, students need practice to succeed. With more than 10,000 instructional objects, an easy-to-use interface, and the ability to customize lessons according to the needs of students, Walch’s Curriculum Engine might be the solution for the online teaching challenges many educators are facing today.
About Walch and the Curriculum Engine
Curriculum Engine, Walch Mathematics’ turnkey platform for in-classroom and remote math education, empowers educators to focus on what they do best: teach. It combines over 10,000 ready-to-use instructional objects, math curriculums aligned to state standards, and an online teaching platform with a simple student interface to support distance learning. It provides everything educators need to develop and deliver math courses online, all in one package and with minimal setup.
For more information about Curriculum Engine, visit this page or request a live demo here.
