TEA RELEASES GUIDELINES ON REMOTE LEARNING, ATTENDANCE-TAKING

  

School districts in Texas will have more ways of counting attendance and receiving attendance-based funding this fall, according to new guidelines released Tuesday by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

The TEA offered new details on two forms of remote learning: synchronous and asynchronous instruction.

Synchronous instruction is defined as live, virtual instruction between students and teachers while not on campus.  Attendance is recorded daily by teachers via a documented official attendance time; students not logged in at that time would be marked absent.  The TEA said this method is very similar to “on-campus” instruction, with real-time interaction between students and teachers, teacher supported work time on video conference calls, and scheduled and timed online tests.

Asynchronous instruction does not require the instructor and student to be engaged at the same time, instead using methods like self-paced online courses with intermittent teacher instruction, pre-assigned work and pre-recorded instruction videos with guided support.  Attendance-taking with this method will be similar to what students experienced this spring, with attendance being measured by student engagement and completion of assignments.

The TEA will implement a grace period for the first two six-week attendance periods to allow school districts to adjust to the new virtual methods of attendance reporting.

More information on the new forms of virtual learning can be seen here.