In an effort to better understand the educational and personal needs of our community during the COVID-19 crisis, FLCRC conducted online polls in spring and early summer. Students, parents and community members shared their thoughts about virtual learning and the impact of COVID-19 on education and their personal lives.
Below are the questions and responses from each poll.
Are You Ready For Virtual Learning?
30 students responded to this poll between March 24 and April 6, 2020. The map below shows the location of respondents in relation to the Houston area (one respondent from Quitman County, Mississippi is not shown.)
Do you feel like you are prepared for online learning?
Yes - 40%
No - 53%
Somewhat - 6%
Do you have access to a computer in your home?
Yes - 87%
No - 13%
Do you have internet in your home
Yes - 97%
No - 3%
How concerned are you about the effects of the coronavirus outbreak?
Not At All Concerned - 6%
Not Too Concerned - 24%
Somewhat Concerned - 34%
Very Concerned - 36%
What are you most concerned about in reference to the schools being closed?
Academics - 46%
Extracurricular Activities - 20%
Household Finances - 7%
Spending time on social meeting sites, playing video games, etc. - 7%
Spending time with friends - 20%
Has your school or district contacted you with updates?
Yes - 90%
No - 10%
If yes, was the information clear?
Yes - 88%
No - 12%
Are you nervous or anxious about what will happen?
Yes - 73%
No - 27%
Which of the following best describes you?
Elementary Student - 13%
Middle School Student - 13%
High School Student - 67%
College Student - 7%
Are there any other challenges you are facing right now that you would like to share about?
- “Yes. I’m very worried about my lack of academics and learning.”
- “We have one computer but we are 2 students, and we have different classes.”
- “I'm a senior and most of my end of year senior activities are being affected. I don't even know if graduation will happen.”
- “Being stuck in the house, worrying about graduation and prom.”
- “Worrying about graduation and prom.”
- “WE NEED PROM AND GRADUATION. Period.”
- “I want to look for another job since my job has the workers out until April 30th with no pay.”
- “Paying for prom and graduation.”
- “Bored at home looking at my siblings all day.”
- “I’m concerned that our world leaders, especially our president, will take too long to work together and annihilate the virus.”
Do you have any additional comments or suggestions you would like to share with us?
- “I miss recess and lunch and school and my math competition.”
- “I don't really feel good about the home learning because it seems to be harder than regular school.”
- “Can we please finish off the school year doing online classes? I don't want to go to school as soon and possibly catch it in a crowd, or have to go to school in the summer because of this.”
- “I wonder how everyone is doing.”
Are You Ready For Virtual Learning?
41 parents and community members responded to this poll between March 23 and March 28, 2020. The maps below show the location of respondents nationally and in relation to the Houston area.
Do you feel like your child or students in general are prepared for online learning?
Yes - 29%
No - 29%
Somewhat - 41%
Do you/your child have access to a computer in your home?
Yes - 85%
No - 15%
Do you have internet in your home
Yes - 95%
No - 5%
How concerned are you about the effects of the coronavirus outbreak?
Not At All Concerned - 2%
Not Too Concerned - 12%
Somewhat Concerned - 34%
Very Concerned - 51%
What are you most concerned about in reference to the schools being closed?
Household Finances - 27%
Online Learning - 41%
Students' extracurricular activities - 7%
Students' time on social meeting sites, playing video games, etc. - 22%
Students' time with friends - 2%
Has your school or district contacted you with updates?
Yes - 80%
No - 20%
If yes, was the information clear?
Yes - 67%
No - 33%
Are you nervous or anxious about what will happen?
Yes - 61%
No - 39%
Which of the following best describes you?
Parent of Elementary, Middle or High School Student(s) - 56%
Parent of College Student(s) - 10%
Community Member - 34%
Are there any other challenges you are facing right now that you would like to share about?
- “Finding hand sanitizer.”
- “Juggling my at home work schedule with my husband's at home work schedule & son's college school schedule.”
- “Supporting my student through the online education process while doing my profession remotely.”
- “Balancing my own work and online learning with kids.”
- “The challenge of knowing how to get the resources to students and families who do not have technology equipment.”
- “Finances.”
- “Challenges working virtually.”
- “El no poder salir en familia de casa. (Not being able to get out of the house as a family.)”
- “My oldest is a senior. The anxiety at this point is through the roof. My youngest needs additional assistance in ELA and I'm worried this won't do it.”
- “Keeping my children active while in the home.”
Do you have any additional comments or suggestions you would like to share with us?
- “There is a major gap in service with identifying the needs of students, teachers, and parents.”
- “Ready to get back to school.”
- “There should be a strategy to mobile getting the resources to the families and it should include delivering the resources to the family.”
The Future of Online Learning
As of Wednesday, July 22nd, 15 students have responded to this poll (which opened on May 29th). The map below shows the location of respondents in relation to the Houston area (one respondent from Philadelphia, PA is not shown.)
Have you adapted to online learning?
Yes - 13
No - 0
Somewhat - 2
What is your learning preference?
Online learning - 7
Traditional learning - 2
A combination of online and traditional - 6
Are you nervous or anxious about returning to school?
Yes - 4
No - 8
Somewhat - 3
For the upcoming school year, which month do you prefer to start school?
July - 0
August - 3
September - 12
Please complete this sentence. Since COVID 19, I have missed…
- socializing with my friends
- I have missed my friends, family, and playing sports with my school
- sports
- leaving my house, and seeing my friends.
- my friends and going to the mall
- my friends and going to places
- my friends
- going outside or being in a large crowd and not feeling in danger.
- my friends and family.
- finishing my first Dungeons and Dragons campaign, my 8th grade dance, awards night
- a lot of learning and my school
- prom
- freedom
- making friends and awards night
Which of the following best describes you?
Elementary Student - 1
Middle School Student - 6
High School Student - 7
College Student – 1
Are there any other challenges you are facing right now that you would like to share?
- “Understanding why the issue of racism has not been resolved yet.”
- “Online school is hard because there isn’t a teacher there to help you.”
- “No school dance.”
Do you have any additional comments or suggestions?
- “We should have judge-free conversations about the issues that are going on in the world.”
The Future of Online Learning
As of Wednesday, July 22nd, 10 parents and community members have responded to this poll (which opened on May 29th). The map below shows the location of respondents in relation to the Houston area (one respondent from Atlanta, GA is not shown).
Have you adapted to students learning online?
Yes - 6
No - 1
Somewhat - 3
What is your preferred method of student learning?
Online learning - 1
Traditional Learning - 5
A combination of online and traditional - 4
Are you anxious or nervous about the students returning to school?
Yes - 3
No - 1
Somewhat - 6
For the upcoming school year, which month do you prefer the students to start school?
July - 1
August - 5
September - 4
Please complete this sentence: Since COVID 19, students have…
- been socially isolated
- become dependent on social media, which is taking away from their creativity.
- been confined.
- been lacking on school work.
- falling behind in their academics due to parents not being as advanced as the technology used to keep up with their child’s education.
- gotten lazy.
- adapted to an online environment.
- lost interest in extracurricular activities and less interested in academics.
- learned new life skills to navigate obstacles.
- been doing better working from home.
Which of the following best describes you?
Community Member - 5
Parent - 5
Are there any other challenges you are facing right now that you would like to share?
- “Hopefully this virus strength weakens and we go back to some normalcy.”
- “The website that is used needs to be more people-friendly. There are too many commands to go through to get to one area. This need to be simplified.”
- “We should have all virtual until everything is over.”
Do you have any additional comments or suggestions?
- “The kids are eating more frequently.”
- “My computer broke and my daughter is trying to complete the assignments on her phone which is very difficult.”