Data shows lag for virtual pupils
NLR district’s assessment raises concern on learning loss
Students in North Little Rock who learned virtually last semester were far more likely to fail classes than their peers who attended classes on campus, according to the school district’s data.
Virtual students at most grade levels also had higher rates of absenteeism, and administrators noticed a concerning trend across the district on standardized test performance.
The data collected over the past year has school officials concerned about a widening learning gap; now, discussions are being held on how to mitigate the damage done by the pandemic.
Superintendent Gregory Pilewski said in an interview Wednesday that the data showed an alarming trend about the state of the school district and the country during the pandemic.
“There isn’t a superintendent across the country that isn’t concerned about what is going on,” he said. “We are facing the learning loss from last year to this year. We aren’t servicing our children like we should be, and put a pandemic on top of that then we are just widening the achievement gap.”
Education leaders across the state were concerned last spring when the coronavirus pandemic forced kindergarten through 12th-grade education online. The North Little Rock
district’s data provides one of the first detailed glimpses into how some students fare outside a traditional classroom.
School officials tracked data that showed at least 1,848 failing grades for students from fourth grade to high school.
The data becomes even more alarming when sorted by student type.
In North Little Rock, virtual students comprised about 31.5% of fourth through 12th graders, or about 2,400, but they accounted for 1,249 of failing grades, or about 67%, according to the statistics.
That’s compared with the 599 failing grades out of about 5,200 in-person students, according to the district.
Pilewski said the performance differences between on-site and virtual students caught their attention.
“All of this has sparked a deeper conversation on why we are getting the results that we are,” he said. “We are very concerned about our current state.”
FIRST-QUARTER SNAPSHOT
Lori Smith, executive director of elementary curriculum, assessment and accountability, and Sharesa White, executive director of secondary curriculum, assessment, and accountability, provided the School Board with a snapshot of the district’s first quarter.
The data included information from the Northwest Evaluation Association assessments, the average Rasch Unit scores, the ACT Aspire Proficiency Projection Report, failing grades and attendance numbers.
Smith told the School Board that the fall data results showed elementary students in the district were below the national average in the Northwest Evaluation assessment test.
The Northwest Evaluation Association is an education nonprofit organization that is responsible for the Measures of Academic Progress assessment.
Smith said the assessment tracks students’ individual growth over time and can be used to determine what they know and are ready to learn next.
Districts have chosen on their own and aren’t directed by the state to give interim assessments during the school year to track student achievement and readiness for the Aspire tests. The group’s assessment — given three times a year — has become a popular choice. The Measures of Academic Progress assessment results are reported to districts in different ways: scale scores, Rasch Unit scores and percentiles. There are ways to use the information to determine whether students fell short, met or exceeded projected achievement levels.
PARENTAL HELP
Virtual students were outperforming on-site students on the average Rasch Unit score, but Smith said there might be a caveat for this statistic, noting that some virtual students were likely receiving help from their parents on the assessments. The district eventually began asking students to take the tests on campus.
“As you can see the virtual students had more failing marks, and that led us to the hypothesis that the data for the [Northwest Evaluation] test was skewed,” Smith said. “It’s definitely something we need to investigate.”
The ACT Aspire proficiency projection report showed that 45.1% of students from grades three through 10 are in need of support.
“It’s problematic that we aren’t making enough growth, but we also have to take in account that we aren’t testing all of our students,” White said. “We are raising our expectations to have at least 95% of our students test in the future.”
In fourth and fifth grades, 31% of on-site students missed 10 days or more compared with 29% of virtual students missing 10 days or more.
Around 10% of on-site sixth graders were considered chronically absent compared with 32% of virtual students. About 15% of on-site seventhand eighth-grade students were chronically absent compared with 30% of virtual students.
At the high school, 19% of on-site students were chronically absent compared with 26% of virtual students. The Center of Excellence had similar numbers with 16% of on-site students chronically absent compared with 20% of virtual students.
“It’s harder to tell when a virtual student is present or absent or not,” Smith said. “Potentially, the virtual absences might be a little bit higher than reported.”
The virtual learning concept is an unknown variable that can be hard to track just by looking at numbers.
“What does the support look like at home for the child?,” Pilewski said. “Elementary teachers were talking about virtual students whose parents are at home but not in the room monitoring them. Mom and Dad are trying to work at home and give them the support they need at the same time. This has been a big challenge for parents.”
The pandemic also has had a large impact on learning loss for a school district that couldn’t afford to lose any more ground, Pilewski said.
“When you look at some of our schools, for example Seventh Street Elementary School that has had traditionally low scores for 15 years now, they started out low and now the gap has just widened,” he said. “When you have some schools where 90% of the kids are not remotely projected to be reaching efficiency, then that is alarming and concerning.”
Pilewski said the data has proved that when a school district has achievement gaps there is no substitute for face-to-face teaching, but he doesn’t view virtual teaching as a failure.
“Every child learns differently,” Pilewski said. “For some kids, 100% virtual is working for them and they are learning and progressing. Hybrid might work for some students as well, and then there are other students who have to be with their teacher. Different models work for different kids, and I think that is what we have learned from this year.”
DATA POINT
Pilewski said he believes the upcoming ACT Aspire test won’t affect the school’s standing with the state Department of Education because of the pandemic, but he wants to use it as a data point.
“We just gave the second benchmark test in January, and we will compare them to last year’s to see if we are seeing any growth,” he said. “We can use the ACT Aspire as our third data point.”
The data paints a grim picture, but Pilewski said the school district is already drawing up mitigation plans to slow the trend.
“We will have a summer program this year, and that should help students catch up since we weren’t able to have one last year due to the pandemic,” he said. “We got to catch our students up as fast as we can. Also we are creating a strategic plan that will focus on areas of the district using metrics and system plans as the data dictates.”
Pilewski said he wants parents to know the school district is focusing on closing the gaps, specifically the ones between student groups to mitigate learning gaps.
“This has been a trying and challenging year for everybody, and everyone has done the best they can to balance home life and learning,” he said. “Now it’s up to the school system to do everything in their power to make sure their children are learning and getting the resources they need.”