Student Trends During Online & Hybrid School

As California schools shifted to online learning last year and into this year with the spread of Covid-19, there has been an overall trend of students performing worse in virtual school than they were performing during in-person school. Many news sources have reported that students’ grades have been falling along with the motivation to do the school work.

According to Common Sense, many kids still feel that it is unsafe to return to school, meaning they have to do virtual classes, but they are falling behind. Students, specifically high school students, feel that this way of learning has a multitude of disadvantages such as less time with the teacher and having to adapt to a new way of schooling. Their grades are lacking as a result of online school, and many students do not trust their school to take all the precautions necessary to protect against Covid-19.

At Dana, students have been struggling as well. Academic Advisor Ms. Jakovich said that “[she does] not have specific numbers but this semester has been tough for a majority of students. [She has] seen an increase in D’s and F’s on the six and twelve week progress reports.” Lack of motivation, outside stress and challenging school work are just a few of the causes of students falling behind this year despite all that our teachers are doing to help us learn at this time.

An additional fear plaguing students is that their decreasing grades and GPA will negatively affect their chances of attending the college of their choice or getting scholarships. The stress and anxiety accompanied by this fear can further cause a student’s performance at school to decrease. If educational conditions remain the way they are into second semester, it seems unlikely that there will be an uptick in academic performance from students.