Concerns about COVID-19 may be receding for many, but the impact of the pandemic continues to ripple through our lives. In particular, children across the U.S. continue to struggle after losing a year or more of classroom time.
A new study published this month by NWEA research found that achievement gains during 2022–23 fell short of pre-pandemic trends at nearly every age level.
“Significant achievement gaps persist at the end of 2022–23, and the average student will need the equivalent of 4.1 additional months of schooling to catch up in reading and 4.5 months in math,” said the study. Marginalized students remain the furthest from recovery, it added.
This week, KCBS Radio’s Bay Current podcast explored how we might help children catch up, and how this moment could be an opportunity to make things even better than they were before. Meg Honey, an ethnic studies and history teacher at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, as well as an adjunct faculty member at Saint Mary’s College and University of the Pacific, joined the show.
“I think that there’s a lot of lessons here,” she said. “I think as we are looking at the data that was released here in this week, one thing that we really need to put focus on is that learning, particularly after such a tremendous disruption, can’t simply be sped up like an online video. We cannot, as a society, cram our way out of a year or more of significant learning disruption. I think the road back is going to take a lot more time, maybe more time than all of us expected or wanted.”
In addition to lost class time during the pandemic lock down phase, absenteeism remains high, Honey said. This is taking an extra toll on learning, as well as an increased dependence on devices such as smartphones.
“We are all very much aware of our young people’s screen and phone dependency and how that is providing tremendous interruption to your basic learning of reading or engaging and being resilient in terms of academic challenge,” she explained.
However, she said there are ways to help bring students up to speed. These include summer school, targeted tutoring, collaborations with community colleges and test preparation. NWEA noted in its study report that the amount of extra help students need can’t be fit into a single school year. Instead, it could be spread out in a multi-year approach.
Honey said that school districts also need to understand how students’ income level and family support impacts their education. With this understanding, education is poised to improve.
“I think that this moment is really providing us an opportunity to critically evaluate processes and practices, curriculum and the many parts of public education and perhaps radically imagine what might be possible,” she said. Listen to her full Bay Current conversation here.
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