Online School Is Failing Hamilton Students
Screenshot of APEX logo
As families gathered around the television on December 31st, 2019, counting down the seconds until 2020, they likely had many expectations regarding the new year. However, with this year’s unprecedented events, many things, such as education at Hamilton, have changed. This year, students were given the opportunity to decide which type of school they wanted to participate in— online or in person. The students who chose online school had the possibility of being placed in different classes through a company called APEX learning. Many students are in a hybrid of these APEX classes and online classes taught by Hamilton High School teachers. This online environment, especially APEX, is failing the education of Hamilton students.
APEX online school works in a predominantly asynchronous fashion, with little to no class “meetings” or calls. The curriculum consists of a few ways to learn each section of material. It usually begins with a “study.” This typically consists of slides of information or videos to educate the student on the material. The “study” is usually followed by a quiz, a “practice,” a “journal,” a project, and/or an “explore.” At the end of each unit, there is usually a unit test. All of these assignments have the same goal— to test the student on the information that he or she just learned. The students have a message center where they can email teachers and can speak with tutors if they are feeling confused. Yet, teachers can often take days to get back to the students, and tutors usually offer little relevant help.
The format of APEX makes it impossible to hold students accountable for their work. With nonexistent deadlines and unlimited amounts of resources at their disposal, what is there to motivate these students? Who is there to help a student understand something that they might be confused about? Procrastination is almost inevitable and stress weighs on the chest of many students enrolled in this option.
In a survey that was completed by multiple online Hamilton students, many claim that online school this year is far from what they expected. When asked if online school is what she expected, sophomore Manya Mehra states, “Definitely not. I thought it would be similar to last semester but of course more live classes, but I was not expecting APEX. Not only is the workload heavy for APEX, I feel like I am just spending countless hours not learning anything.”
The issue does not lie with online school in general, but the format of APEX. The general consensus of the Hamilton students who were surveyed is that online school with Hamilton teachers is both less stressful and more educational than APEX online school. When asked if online school with Hamilton teachers or APEX is more stressful, sophomore Alyssa Wick says, “I find APEX way more stressful, because we mostly have to teach ourselves the material, and the quizzes and projects are a lot.” When asked if APEX or Hamilton online is more educational, Wick adds, “I find school through Hamilton more educational, more because we have time during the week when the teachers actually talk to us.”
Not only is the material difficult to grasp with the current format, but much of the current curriculum is extremely outdated. Language in a video for the “AP U.S. Government and Politics” course seems to indicate that the videos students are provided with were created during the Clinton presidency. The following quote comes directly from a video on one of the “studies” from the mentioned class. “President Bill Clinton's appointments to the Supreme Court and to the lower federal courts have tended to be more liberal than those of Bush or Reagan, and it is reasonable to assume that this will continue to be the case during the remainder of his presidency.” The use of present tense language in this quote implies that Clinton was still president when the videos were created. For reference, the Clinton presidency officially ended in January of 2001. With the constantly changing political climate of the modern world, how are outdated videos such as these supposed to prepare students to make educated decisions when they exit high school, college, and so on? Furthermore, how are students expected to adequately learn information in a government course when so much legislation has been passed in the past 19 years that isn’t reflected in the majority of material covered?
Stress levels are higher than ever in online students this year. One question on a survey given to eleven Hamilton students asked them to rank their stress levels on a scale of one to five. Five of those students ranked their stress as a four, and the remaining six students ranked their stress as a five. When asked what specifically was causing their stress, the resounding answer was APEX online school. Mehra, who was quoted earlier in this article, responds to the question, “What specifically is causing the stress level you chose?” by stating, “The thing that is specifically causing the stress level I chose is APEX. My Hamilton classes seem to be going well, but the amount of homework I have for APEX is super stressful. Also when the teachers on APEX grade your assignments, they rarely explain where you receive points, which is super frustrating and stressful.” Others answered this question with short, simple responses such as “APEX,” “APEX learning,” and “All the work APEX has.”
This criticism can cause one to think, “If what the school is doing isn’t working, what is the other option? What can they do?” When asked this question, many students agreed on one common fix— to stop using APEX. Jasleen Kaur, a sophomore doing online school this year, responded to the question, “Do you feel Hamilton High School can do anything to improve the online experience?” by writing, “I believe Hamilton could give us actual Hamilton teachers for all subjects instead of APEX and lighten the workload.” Mehra expressed her ideas to solve these educational issues in her response, “I am really happy with the way my Hamilton classes are going for online school this year, but my APEX classes are a nightmare. They are so draining and do not teach you anything. I feel like I am just completing the assignments to earn points, not actually learn. Although I would prefer to do online school next semester because of COVID, I also don’t want to because of APEX. I wish that next semester, Hamilton High School could maybe offer all classes through Hamilton teachers. This would help so many students that I have talked to as well.” Other students asked for consideration and sympathy during these odd times, with one response pleading, “Just remember to work with the students, because a lot of them are struggling.”
The general consensus is simple; online school is not working. APEX’s curriculum is outdated, hard to understand, and leaves students with little to no motivation and resources. In order for students to be prepared for their future lives, something must change in the online curriculum of students. Students choosing to do online school should not inherently have more stress in their lives, but the immense workload and lack of resources makes this seem like the case at Hamilton. If Hamilton really cares for the stress levels and education of their students, they would make key changes in the way students are being taught at Hamilton, because what they are currently doing is failing both students’ mental health and education.
