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When the Covid-19 pandemic forced most American schools to close last spring, students were immersed in new, unfamiliar learning methods. Special education students and children learning English lost the support their schools struggled to provide online. Many students did not have access to computers or the Internet and were completely cut off from their teachers.
The real consequences of these disruptions on student learning will not be known for months or years, but new reports from national education assessment organizations have started to offer a first glimpse of this impact.
The most recent is a report from the NWEA, formerly the Northwest Evaluation Association, which analyzed the results of tests given to nearly 4.4 million American students in Grades 3 through 8 this fall and found that the most had failed in math, scoring an average of 5-10 percentile behind students who took the same test last year.
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While the majority of students did better than expected in reading – with scores similar to typical non-pandemic years – black and Hispanic students and those attending high-poverty schools did not. These student groups have seen a slight decline, suggesting that the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing educational disparities, possibly placing even further behind children who were already behind their white and wealthier peers.
“It’s a reason to be concerned and it’s a reason to really focus our attention on helping catch up with the kids,” said Megan Kuhfeld, senior researcher at the NWEA and lead author of the study.
Kuhfeld and his colleagues analyzed scores from the NWEA’s MAP Growth assessments, which thousands of American schools give students several times a year to track their progress in math and reading. They found evidence that school closures linked to a pandemic deprived some vulnerable students of important skills that could hamper their progress unless their parents and teachers act quickly to help them catch up.
“They might fall further and further behind if they have gaps in their learning,” Kuhfeld said, noting that, for example, it’s difficult to learn how to multiply fractions if you don’t master adding and adding them. to subtract.
But more concerning than the results themselves is the fact that they only capture part of the picture. The study was limited by the fact that a high number of students – 1 in 4 – who typically take the NWEA’s widely used MAP assessment in the fall did not do so this year.
Students may not have been tested because they could not sign in to their online courses on test day. They could have been absent from school due to illness or quarantine. They could attend schools that have decided not to test at all this year, given the many new challenges schools are facing due to the pandemic. Or students missing from NWEA data might not be in school at all.
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Many districts across the country reported a significant drop in enrollments this fall, with a study estimating that 3 million of the country’s most vulnerable children – those who are homeless, in foster care, have a disability or are learning English – could be moved from school.
This means that while the NWEA researchers have found some good news – student scores in reading and math are higher than NWEA predictions in a previous report – it’s unclear how significant this is.
It’s possible that students learn remotely better than feared, or that parents may have supplemented their learning with additional lessons, Kuhfeld said. But another big factor is the students who did not take the test – and who would have been more likely to have lower scores.
“The students who worry us the most are probably the ones who are missing,” Kuhfeld said.
The NWEA results echo the results of another national testing organization, Renaissance Learning, Inc., which examined the scores of more than 3 million American students in grades one through eighth on another academic assessment widely used called Star and found that reading scores were slightly down and math scores. scores were significantly lower than a typical year. Renaissance, which also noted a drop in the number of students taking its assessments this fall, also found that black, Hispanic and Native American students, as well as students in rural areas and those attending schools that serve populations very poor, lost more ground than students with more advantages.
For many parents and teachers, this year’s scores were hard to see.
“I felt like I was failing as a parent,” said Angelica González, a Seattle mother of three, whose second, a third grader named Lolly, had always excelled in school until that his classes become virtual last spring.
Lolly, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, found herself sitting in front of a computer screen attending classes so stressful, González said, she cried every day. González eventually gave Lolly permission to skip those remote classes, choosing to teach her daughter herself instead. It was the best decision she could make for her daughter’s mental health, González said, but when the girl returned to school this fall, taking advantage of a program that allowed some students to come into the building the school for their online courses and getting help. school staff, Lolly’s MAP scores showed her reading skills had fallen back to where they were at the start of second grade last year. His math scores, slightly below the national average, hadn’t changed since last winter.
González is concerned about the long-term consequences of the disruption, especially as the Lolly Catholic School attends a scholarship recently responded to rising Covid-19 rates by ending the option to take classes inside the school. Lolly was better able to concentrate on her online lessons in a classroom with school staff available to help. Today, she is back home and having as much difficulty with distance learning as she was in the spring, González said.
“I know kids can catch up, but it will take tutoring, resources and money, and we’re not even doing it for kids who are struggling right now,” González said.
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She herself had been homeless as a child and moved from school to school. She eventually managed to finish high school although she became a teenage mom and continued her education in college. She recently graduated from law school and worked as a paralegal until she became a licensed lawyer. But the gaps in her education hindered her, she said.
“Even to this day things are a lot more difficult because I didn’t have that foundation,” González said.
She remembers that teachers treated her differently because she was behind her grade level and the worries that might befall Lolly.
In Dallas, teacher Kevin Culley has similar concerns for his students at Joseph J. Rhoads Elementary School.
He expected to see below-par scores when his third-year math students took the MAP assessment this year, but he didn’t expect to see many of them falling by a half. -level.
“These scores were a little scary,” he said.
He implemented interventions, revamping his lessons to include fun, dynamic demonstrations and competitive math games that teach third-grade concepts, as well as second-grade review, to both his classroom students and to those who watch it live from their homes. . But he’s worried about what might happen to his students if they don’t catch up before they take the high-stakes Texas state STAAR exam in the spring. The exam can determine if poorly performing students move on to the next class, and the scores are used to assess teachers and elementary schools.
“The test is something that hovers over their heads, and I’m really concerned about how it’s going to affect their confidence,” Culley said. “Once you’ve broken a child’s trust, it’s hard to get them to keep moving forward.”
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