students, increase course opportunities

spring semester and eight APEX licenses were either requested or are currently in use. However, in the fall semester of this school year, four Edgenuity licenses and no APEX licenses were used. APEX and Edgenuity are both online learning platforms with similar curricula but they are paid for differently. While LAUSD pays for the classes that students request on Edgenuity, DPMHS has to allocate a portion of their budget to pay for APEX licenses, which are $520 per student. APEX is sometimes used instead of Edgenuity because LAUSD rejects some class requests.

“I feel like (it’s) a little bit more hands on with (requesting classes). (For) the APEX process, it’s super expensive for our school,” Torres said.

Students have said they’re having difficulties using Edgenuity due to the overload of videos and the large amount of content compacted into four-month periods. Many students taking online classes have also complained about receiving classes several days to weeks late, which cuts the time they have to complete the course. Torres said that once she requests licenses for online classes, she has to wait for LAUSD to then approve the course.

“Students getting their classes late is a big issue,” said senior Yvette Mandujano, who is taking AP Calculus on APEX. “There’s been some things that could have been avoided.”

Other students find Edgenuity to be a very useful platform, allowing them to take classes they need on their own time and with their own pacing. Senior Sal Amador, who is using Edgenuity for credit recovery, prefers the digital platform because of the distractions that may come with live learning.

Long-term DPMHS math substitute George Padgett says that while online learning is a useful platform for students who aren’t able to have a live class, the use of it over quarantine has seemed to worsen students’ learning gap. Padgett, who teaches geometry and precalculus, previously used Edgenuity but is now teaching out of a textbook. Other DPMHS teachers who use Edgenuity were contacted for interviews but they declined to comment.

“I’m finding students need a lot of review, prep and remediation on skills they missed out on or didn’t learn very well,” Padgett said. “I’m taking extra time to catch them up.”

Substitute Math Teacher

“(Edgenuity) gives people an opportunity to make up a grade, like mine,” Amador said. “Nothing changed. I’m just doing it on my own time and from the comfort of my home.”

Many DPMHS students said that they are disappointed by the lack of live teachers for certain classes and that although online learning platforms are a useful alternative, live instruction is still preferred. Many also said that a student’s learning experience is what they make of it.

“You can sit in a class all year and not learn anything or you can sit in a class for a week and learn a lot of things,” Amador said. “Learning really depends on you.”