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With just 18 days left before summer break, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools began full-time, in-person learning for all students. Author: Billie Jean Shaw Updated: 10:59 AM EDT May 10, 2021
CHARLOTTE, N.C. For the first time in more than a year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools welcomed students back for full-time, in-person learning on Monday, May 10.
The new schedule comes four months after CMS students weren t allowed on campus at all in January following the winter break. By mid-February, CMS launched hybrid learning for elementary students before welcoming some middle and high schoolers back by late March.
In April, CMS moved to four days of in-person learning for most students before transitioning to full, in-person classes with just 18 days left in the year. Mask requirements, social distancing and daily health screenings will remain in place through at least the end of the current year.
Second-graders at Oakdale Elementary School in Charlotte do a phonics lesson.
As the pandemic deepens the academic challenges that face many students of color, a consensus is building that more effective reading instruction is a key to long-term recovery. Mecklenburg County officials have threatened to withhold $56 million from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools because of lingering racial gaps in all subjects.
For Munro Richardson, executive director of Read Charlotte, six years of analyzing data boils down to one recurring theme: From 2014 to 2019, state reading exams have consistently showed at least 72% of white third-graders in CMS are on track for academic success. Their Black and Hispanic counterparts have never gotten above 37%.
Students at Huntersville Elementary work on EL reading lessons in March 2020.
When Clayton Wilcox became superintendent in 2017, he noted that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools had 17 different reading initiatives going at the same time. That was way too many, he said.
At a recent board meeting, Windsor Park Elementary Principal Shanna Rae said the lack of a standardized approach left teachers to piecemeal resources together that they find off of the internet, or from Teachers Pay Teachers, or from other various resources. Teachers do what teachers do best: They fill in the gap where they see a need, she said. But she said it meant children weren’t getting consistent lessons using proven strategies.