FCPS apologizes for distance learning failure

Superintendent Scott Brabrand says distance learning will work properly this week. [FCPS]

When distance learning starts up again Monday, April 20, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand assured the community and school board that the problems have been fixed.

Distance learning initially started last Tuesday, but FCPS briefly suspended the program, then canceled it for the rest of the week as the school district’s IT team worked with Blackboard to resolve glitches that led to difficulties logging in and security lapses. The lack of security led to instances of people using hateful or inappropriate language, including the “n word,” and behavior, such as people bullying and exposing their genitals.

“I take full responsibility for the challenges we experienced this week,” Brabrand said during a virtual school board meeting April 16. “We have fallen short in implementing this plan.”

“I want to personally apologize to our students, our parents, to our teachers, and staff,” he said. “All of you deserved and expected something better.” School buildings are closed for the rest of the year, due to the coronavirus outbreak, so distance learning is the only way to complete the school term.

Tim Tomlinson, chief product officer with Blackboard Inc., which is based in Fairfax County, also apologized.

“I share your frustration,” school board member Ricardy Anderson (Mason) wrote in an email to the community last week. “The failure of a strong start for distance learning this week is unacceptable. There is no way around this – we failed our students; we failed our community.”

“I vow to continue to do everything I can to ensure that distance learning is implemented successfully and that our students are receiving appropriate instruction,” Anderson wrote. Her own children had an excellent experience with distance learning at Mason Crest Elementary School, and Brabrand said distance learned worked well for most FCPS students, especially at the elementary level.

“We’re at the point right now where trust is significantly eroded, because we had four weeks to to get this plan together,” Anderson said at the board meeting.

FCPS uses Blackboard Learn (also known as FCPS 24/7) as a learning management tool and curriculum repository and Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, a web conferencing tool that allows a whole class to interact online at the same time.

Blackboard Learn had server failures last week due to insufficient capacity as too many people tried to log in at the same time. That led to system failures, with the result that some students, teachers, and parents were unable to log in, said FCPS Chief Operating Officer Marty Smith.

Also, because of inadequate teacher training, FCPS central office staff failed to ensure teachers created class sessions with proper security settings, Smith said. As a result, some students were able to sign in as guests. Some even broadcast sign-in information on Twitter.

As Smith describes it, “some students did not respect our digital citizenship practices.” IT staff identified those students by their IP addresses, and they will be referred for “additional discipline as necessary.”

According to Luftglass, the problems with Blackboard Learn are being fixed with software patches, system updates, and testing. She acknowledged that the software hadn’t been upgraded in years and said Blackboard didn’t let staff know that the system needed to be updated.

New procedures are being implemented requiring students to log in to FCPS 24/7 to access Blackboard Collaborate sessions. Guest access will no longer be allowed. Only students enrolled in a particular class will be able to access that online session.

Luftglass said FCPS gave teachers a guidance document advising them not to allow guest logins, but said staff should have done a better job training teachers on the recommended procedures.

FCPS has a $2.6 million contract with Blackboard for 2020 including an extra $150,000 a month during the shutdown. FCPS is planning to replace Blackboard Learn with the Schoology platform in 2021.

“We failed to properly train staff and failed to monitor implementation. That’s the bottom line,” said Sloan Presidio, assistant superintendent of instructional services. “This is a leadership failure.”

“We need to provide some assurances to our community that we will not be here next week having this conversation again,” Anderson told FCPS administration leaders. “That won’t be acceptable at any level.”