MILWAUKEE — Jennifer switched her children out of a charter school and into MPS for the fall semester because they offered a virtual learning option, however on day one, she says nobody showed up except her kids.
"The classroom had no content in it, so there weren't learning modules. There weren't announcements about when class was supposed to happen that day," Jennifer said.
Jennifer has a first and fourth grader. Tuesday morning her first grader's teacher showed up for the first time since classes started on September 2nd. However, as for her fourth-grader, her teacher still has yet to show up to class.
MPS has nearly 1,600 students enrolled in Virtual Learning this semester.
The district's website states that students in K4 through 5th grade get 60 minutes per day of face-to-face instruction with a teacher through the virtual model. The rest of the time students can work at their own pace, on their own schedule with access to an on-demand teacher 12 hours a day.
However, Jennifer doesn't believe this is effective.
"It doesn't make sense that the classrooms aren't staffed with teachers before class starts. It doesn't make sense that they didn't have you know even an administrative staff person to maybe go through a check and make sure those classes had content in them. It doesn't make sense that my login information for my children to get to their classroom was inside the classroom and that I had to log in to see their login name and password," said Jennifer.
MPS has acknowledged that this year's virtual learning program is entirely different than last years and that they are working through some challenges.
