My friend graduated in a class of 6. Yes, you read that right and no, I didn’t miss any digits. There were six people in her high school’s graduating class. How do you even staff a school of six students? I’m not sure, but I know every girl in her high school was expected to join the basketball team…so that it could continue to exist.
This school is obviously an extreme example-but what about the schools across the country that have graduating classes of 20 or 50? Even with 100 students, we have to wonder what kind of educational opportunities those kids might be missing out on because of their school’s size. If only a handful of students are interested in taking a certain subject, most schools cannot justify allocating their limited resources to holding those classes.
For example, to teach AP courses, many states require that a teacher attend an intensive training course or “AP Institute” over the course of a few days. This isn’t always logistically or financially feasible-especially if only a few students intend to take the course. If that’s the case, schools likely won’t offer these courses and students will miss out on the opportunity for college credit. By employing synchronous, virtual education delivered by credentialed AP teachers, schools could offer these course options easily and inexpensively to a group of any size. By utilizing virtual educators for single blocks of time, districts could save on salary and benefits, while still providing students with excellent (and individualized) educational opportunities.
Teachers are often forced to wear many hats-and this is especially true in very small schools. I knew a teacher who taught in a small rural school in Texas where he served as the only social studies teacher in grades 6-8, coached the soccer team and served as the head of technology. That’s a lot to handle for one person.
Teachers leaving the profession in droves and reporting burnout as one of the number one reasons. Administrators are struggling to find ways to reduce teachers’ workloads…and largely coming up empty. By employing the use of virtual teachers for specialized classes or certain blocks of time, districts could have the freedom to give teachers much needed additional planning time.
The teacher shortage is getting worse. Hashtags like #transitioningteachers and #teacherburnout can be found trending on nearly every social media site. School leadership cannot keep doing what it's always done and expect the problem to go away. Administrators must start examining new solutions to the systemic problems facing their schools, and synchronous virtual learning is an important option to consider.
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