STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Millions of students across the country moved to remote learning in mid-March when school buildings were closed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and new research suggests these students will have fallen behind in their learning by the time they start the new school year in September, according to a recent report.
The New York Times has reported that most students will have fallen behind in learning by the time they start school for the 2020-2021 academic year -- compared to learning gains when students were in the classroom. Some students may have even lost a full year’s worth of learning, the outlet reported.
Racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps are also likely to widen due to the impacts of the pandemic, according to the New York Time report.
Student learning may continue to fall behind if schools continue to conduct full or partial remote learning in the fall, or if districts experience significant education budget cuts, the Times reported. Researchers said high school dropout rates could increase and young students could miss out on learning fundamental skills.
According to The New York Times, researchers are estimating the scope of the learning loss using past disruptions -- like natural disasters -- to make predictions of the pandemic’s impact. Other studies are looking at schools that used online learning programs before the coronavirus to see how students performed using the same tools at home.
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A working paper from the non-profit NWEA and scholars at Brown University and the University of Virginia found that students are likely to return in fall 2020 with up to 68% of the progress they would have made in a normal school year in reading and up to half of the progress in math, the Times reported. Educators will need to consider ways to support students who are academically behind and differentiate instruction when preparing for the fall, the study said.
Another analysis by researchers at Brown and Harvard looked at how an online math program called Zearn was used before and after school buildings closed in March, according to the New York Times. Through the end of April, the study found that student progress in math decreased nearly half in classrooms located in low-income ZIP codes, decreased by a third in classrooms in middle-income ZIP codes and didn’t decrease at all in classrooms in high-income ZIP codes.
The New York Times reported an analysis from consulting group, McKinsey & Company showed that the average student could fall seven months behind in academics due to the coronavirus impact. Black and Hispanic students can experience even greater learning loss -- equivalent to 10 months of learning loss for black children and nine months for Latino children, the study highlighted in the Times showed.
Noliwe Rooks, a professor of literature at Cornell University, previously told the Advance/SILive.com that school districts easily transitioning to online learning typically have students with the same skills and socioeconomic backgrounds. Students who know the basics, have an innate curiosity, and often test at the upper levels of standardized testing will do well in online learning, she said. But for those who are grade levels behind and who don’t know the fundamentals, online learning “is often a complete disaster."
And the disparities don’t appear to be caused by a lack of effort by families, according to the Times. The poorest parents spent about the same amount of time helping their kids during online learning (about 13 hours per week), as those making more than $200,000 per year, the May Census Bureau survey found.
Budget cuts may also affect important programs and the hiring of school staff. The New York City Department of Education is getting hit with $264 million in budget cuts due to the coronavirus outbreak. Cuts will be coming to the Fair Student Funding formula that makes up the majority of school budgets. The city is also delaying the expansion of 3-K for All programs, and making cuts to the city’s Equity and Excellence Programs.
Rooks told the Advance/SILive.com that schools should begin the process of preparing students for when in-person classroom instruction begins again, and how to catch those students back up.
“Otherwise, this is going to be kind of an educational plague,” she said. “It’s going to widen some distances. It’s going to increase issues if you don’t prepare now what is more than likely coming.”
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