Virtual learning is virtually impossible. Miami-Dade schools need a Plan B — quickly | Editorial

Chalk it up to another only-in-Miami moment. The Miami-Dade Public School District, the fourth largest in the nation, is under a barrage of cyber attacks from forces within and outside the United States, federal law-enforcement sources have told the district.

If the hackers’ odious mission is to disrupt, the culprits have succeeded, making it a difficult situation — distance learning in the age of COVID-19 — even harder for the district’s 2750,000 students and 20,000 teachers.

If — and when, we hope — they are caught, they should face more than a trip to the principal’s office.

For the third day in a row, they managed to prevent students and teachers from logging into a controversial virtual school system the district is using, My School Online, from a company called K12. There were at least 12 cyber attacks on the system on Wednesday.

The question is what’s going to happen on Day 4? And what is the district going to do to get learning back on track? As students struggle to engage in a new type of learning, how disheartening to be bumped off. By Day 4, we wouldn’t blame some from saying enough of this and totally disconnecting.

But cyber attacks are not the sole problem. It appears K12 is having its own issues. Other districts across the country are having problems with the platform.

In Miami-Dade, the 6-12 teaching program has been subpar.

And Carvalho told the Editorial Board the hack attempts have clouded the district’s ability to gauge the company’s entire work.

“One of the disappointing consequences of the continuous cyber attacks is that they hampered our ability to detect, diagnose and resolve platform-related issues because students and teachers need to connect for us to understand what the challenges are,” Carvalho told the Board.

Sounds like a Catch 22. It was revealed at Wednesday’s virtual School Board meeting that the district and K12 are not operating under a signed contract.

Whether this will become a $15 million boondoggle for the district is unclear, but the relationship, possibly, is escapable, if need be.

Regardless, a resolution that brings back learning must be found — and fast.

Carvalho told the Board he has a timeline of action for the next few days, which he was preparing to present to the School Board on Wednesday night.

First, the district will attempt to bypass the glitches and demand that Comcast intensify the protection of connectivity from the attacks.

Second, the district will provide teachers new protocols that reestablish protected Zoom sessions through Microsoft Teams connections for direct and continuous instruction this week.

Third, if K12 does not address pending issues by Friday, Sept. 11, while teachers and students interact through Microsoft Teams/Zoom, the district could cease its “unsigned” contract with K12.

That means the district would go back the distance-learning platform it used during the spring.

Unfortunately, that system also had its shortcoming, but at least it’s the devil they know.

This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 6:00 AM.