This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/remote-learning-pushes-americas-most-vulnerable-students-further-behind-11594826905

‘Are They Setting My Children Up for Failure?’ Remote Learning Widens Education Gap.

Students in Mississippi’s Jackson Public Schools district, who are predominantly Black and low income, already lagged their peers academically. Shutdowns set them back even more.

Jamya Eubanks, 8 years old, with a math workbook that her mother bought to help with her schoolwork.

By Tawnell D. Hobbs

| Photographs by Andrea Morales for The Wall Street Journal

July 15, 2020 11:28 am ET

JACKSON, Miss.—After schools shut down in March, LaKenya Bunton would get home around 7 a.m. from an overnight quality-control job at a factory, doze for a few hours, then become teacher to her 16-year-old son, Amarrius.

Her son, a rising sophomore, had received no remote-learning materials from his school and didn’t hear from most of his teachers. Ms. Bunton’s method included collecting Amarrius’s cellphone and handing him the day’s work: a packet of practice college-prep questions she printed from the internet.