Why did thousands more CMS students choose remote? It’s not just COVID concerns.

As COVID-19 cases rose in Mecklenburg County, roughly 7,000 more Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students opted for full-remote academy for the second semester. But parents and district officials say that the shift in enrollment is more complex than solely health concerns, as students and families attempt to figure out their best educational options amid a pandemic.

The number of students enrolled in the district’s full-remote academy rose from 50,179 to 57,552 between the start of first semester in fall 2020 and the January start to the second semester. Those students make up about 40% of CMS’s total enrollment.

The district’s current plan for limited in-person instruction calls for bringing all grade levels back into classrooms in rotations that would start Jan. 19. But those students enrolled in the remote-only option will learn virtually the rest of the year.

A Charlotte Observer analysis of CMS data shows the number of students opting for remote learning varies widely from school to school, ranging from less than 10% at some to others where nearly two-thirds of the student body opted out of in-person learning.

Thousands of high school students switched to full-remote academy for the second semester, the data show. In-person enrollment increased slightly at some schools, predominantly in the elementary grades that had about two months of in-person learning in the fall.

Enrollment also varies across demographic groups. Black students make up about 37% of the district’s total enrollment, but account for 45% of the remote academy. Asian students are also over-represented in remote academy, at 11%, compared to the district total of 7%.

In contrast, white students are 26% of the district, but only 15% of the full remote academy. Hispanic students are also slightly underrepresented, at 25% of the remote enrollment, compared to 27% of the district.

Tara Lynn Sullivan, the superintendent of the Central 2 learning community, said there were a number of reasons for the school and demographic disparities. She said the disparate health outcomes of the pandemic were a likely driver of the differences across racial groups.

“When it comes to the difference in Black families that have chosen full remote versus white families, that’s when we come into other statistics from the health data that may be a cause,” she said. “It’s been incumbent upon us to be able to say, ‘How do we make those remote learning experiences as rich as possible, when there is a divide.’”

The number of coronavirus cases and people hospitalized in Mecklenburg County has significantly increased in the last two months. The latest data from state and county health departments shows more than 900 new cases of COVID-19 detected daily in Mecklenburg, on average over the last week, and a weekly positivity rate average of 16% — the worst it’s been since the start of the pandemic. CMS reopening plans are guided by the severity of community spread of the virus, measured by those two metrics, as well as the district’s confidence that there are enough teachers and staff to safely run classrooms.

More high schoolers choose remote

Sullivan said that while some parents were opting into remote for second semester due to health concerns, others cited a desire for consistency, especially in the upper grades.

At South Mecklenburg High School, for example, about 200 more students opted for remote learning second semester. Glenn Starnes, the principal, said that in addition to consistency, high school students were more able to take advantage of the independence that comes with remote learning.

“You can still play sports, you can still be in National Honors Society, you can still do everything you’d do if you opted for in-person,” Starnes said. “I think once more people knew that was true, that had a great impact.”

Starnes said about 10 or 15 students asked to switch from remote learning to in-person after struggling with the remote environment or because they wanted the socioemotional components of learning with their peers once high schools resume. Once students return to campus, they will have to adhere to new rules and procedures for social distancing due to COVID-19.

At South Mecklenburg, those changes include a longer transition time between classes, only using the restroom during classes and not during transition, and eating lunch spread out across the entire campus, as opposed to all gathering in the cafeteria.

The largest change in enrollment preference came at Hough High School, where roughly 700 students switched out of in-person, raising the school’s full remote academy enrollment from 16% in the fall to 45% this semester.

The deadline to fill out a survey about whether students would switch into the remote academy at CMS was Nov. 30. The district said families may still switch to remote learning or to opt into in-person learning if they’ve had a personal change in circumstance. Requests will be fielded on a case-by-case basis by principals.

As CMS approaches the scheduled Jan. 19th return date, the district’s elementary schools have had the most experience with balancing in-person instruction and remote learning. For roughly two months, elementary schools in the district brought back more than 40,000 students for a split week of in-person learning.

In December, the board voted to shift the entire district to remote learning until two weeks after the holiday break, citing concerns about a possible spike in cases around Christmas as people traveled.

Catherine Phelan, the principal at Sharon Elementary, said staff have learned to plan for every possible obstacle and to adjust quickly. She said that while a higher number of parents started the school year wanting to be remote, more opted in as they were able to see how in-person learning would work.

“We follow all the guidelines, socially distancing and keeping kids in their homeroom groups,” she said. “But there are still class discussions, they get to play with their group, and socialize spaced apart. Kids are still doing the fun stuff, just distanced apart. I have to hand it to the children, they came in so ready to learn and so excited to be in school.”

While some schools had consistent remote enrollment percentages between first and second semester, principals said that was often a result of as many families opting out of in-person as those who opted into the rotation.

For parents like Anna Hitchins, this school year has been full of changes. Her twin kindergartners struggled with the remote environment when the school year began, but made progress after joining a learning pod and working with a tutor. Hitchins switched the girls over to the full remote option in November because she wanted to maintain that progress.

Next week, they’re scheduled to go back to CMS for two days of in-person learning. Hitchins said she felt comfortable putting the girls back in the rotation because of the progress they had made in the fall.

“I want them to go to school, and I’m hopeful the experience will be OK, and other parents have said that their kids are really happy,” she said.

At Ridge Road Middle School, where roughly 51% of students are remote, principal Courtlyn Reeves said some families who could stay at home with their student opted to stay remote as COVID-19 cases increased.

At the same time, he said that other parents felt that the school system was doing everything possible to create a safe school environment, and wanted their child to experience the social aspect of school, even if the pandemic limited those opportunities compared to a normal school year.

“I know it’s hard, missing out on middle school experience, and it’s weighing on our kids,” Reeves said. “But I’m proud of them. They’re really resilient and I’m looking forward to seeing them.”

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 10:03 AM.