Daunting challenge awaits educators
Expected obstacles from overcoming vast learning loss
As children, parents and school districts prepare for the start of the 2021-22 school year and a new normal, the first order of business will be to address learning loss, and just how much of it took place due to virtual, online learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last quarter of the 201920 school year and for much of last year, students were forced from their classrooms as officials tried to stop the flow of the coronavirus, and were forced to learn online in a virtual format. Some students flourished. But others suffered, due to a number of factors, including the virtual format, the isolation away from teachers and peers and a general lack of
supervision.
School systems were overwhelmed and often unequipped to respond when COVID-19 began rapidly spreading in the spring of 2020. The U.S. education system is based on in-class instruction and in-building counseling. Suddenly, everything was done online, and school districts scrambled to deliver online instruction and provide the technology to deliver it. By the fall of 2020, schools had better virtual platforms in place. But as the new school year is set to begin, and most schools will return to full-time, in-person learning, the question of how much learning was lost and how to recover are a top priority.
“We projected and anticipated learning loss in all areas, said Michael DeVault, the superintendent of the Macomb Intermediate School District (MISD). “That’s what we’re hearing on report cards and by the number of students needing summer school help.”
In a survey administered by McKinsey and Company, an American worldwide management consulting firm, published in March 2021, teachers around the world were questioned about the effectiveness of online instruction. Worldwide, teachers indicated students were an average of two months behind in November 2020, with low-income and at-risk students suffering higher setbacks in every market. In the United States, teachers indicated students were on average about 2.4 months behind.
About 25% of U.S. teachers said their students were more than four months behind. Learning loss appeared to be tied to the length of school closure. October assessment results found students to be 1.5 months behind in reading levels and 3 months behind in math skills. And, in general, learning loss was deemed to be greater for the youngest students.
The first step for school districts this fall will be administering assessment tests and then customizing lesson plans from there. Learning will need to be accelerated, but just as important will be the opportunity for students to connect in person with their teachers once again.
“We won’t know (the extent of learning loss) until we look at all the data,” said Alesia Flye, the assistant superintendent for instruction for the MISD and its chief academic officer. “There will also be a focus on the social and emotional piece when getting students back into the classroom and establishing relationships again with teachers. We know that the districts will do a good job with the initial assessment to help target instructions appropriately.”
To counteract any potential learning loss, participation in summer school in Macomb County school districts was up dramatically this summer. The Utica Community Schools, Macomb County’s largest school district with more than 26,000 students, had more than 4,000 students, K-12, attend literacy and math programs this summer. The average number is about 700 students. In addition, a separate math program, which has been offered for the past three summers, brought in a turnout of about 900 students. Both are examples of both students and parents being proactive in the face of any learning loss.
Mark Dziatczak, the UCS assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, said the district will have a collective mindset regarding how it will greet students coming out of the pandemic and the virtual learning environment
First, he said, is to support each student’s academic, social and emotional needs. The second is to establish a collective mindset to rebound from last year and accelerate student learning. And third is to meet students where they’re at when they enter school buildings this fall and enhance learning as quickly as possible.
“Our kids are at all different levels,” Dziatczak said. “Some will have needs, but at the same time, we have kids who have had tremendous success (in the virtual platform). We want to recognize everyone’s needs.”
“Every learner experienced this in a different way,” Dziatczak added. “We will be looking at each student individually to support them emotionally, socially, and academically. We’re working within a new environment that no one has ever approached before.”
Kim Charland UCS’s executive director of secondary curriculum and programming, said the school district will be taking a positive approach to moving forward from the pandemic and virtual learning.
“Our mindset is not learning loss, it’s a learning leap — expanding the learning of our students appropriately,” she said. “We will be positive and proactive. So when people approach us, it’s not learning loss. It’s about a learning leap.”
In a December 2020
McKinsey & Company report, the disparities in basic conditions for learning were reflected in the results of formative assessments taken in the fall of that year. The consulting firm analyzed assessment data from the Curriculum Associates and found students in their sample learned only 67 percent of the math and 87 percent of the reading that gradelevel peers would typically have learned by the fall. On average, according to the report, that meant students lost the equivalent of three months of learning in mathematics and one-anda-half months of learning in reading. The learning loss was especially acute in schools that predominantly serve students of color, where scores were 59 percent of the historical average in math and 77 percent in reading.
Mark Blaszkowski, the superintendent of Roseville Community Schools, Macomb County’s eighthlargest district, with about 4,600 students, said there is always learning loss over the summer, but the COVID-19 pandemic just compounded it. Blaszkowski said the students who learned on a virtual platform had twice as many failed classes as those who were learning face to face at the secondary level (middle school and high school).
Fortunately, like UCS, Roseville summer schools swelled with participation. Blaszkowski said the district had four times the amount of normal student participation in credit recovery this summer, with about 200 kids taking part in classes, compared to about 50 during a normal year. In addition, the district had fiveweek-long programs for elementary school students and camps for middle school students (sixth through eighth grade) for math and English and language arts. The superintendent credits both the students and their parents for recognizing the need for extra instruction.
“There are some kids that struggle being independent. And they took the initiative to catch up. Some ended up taking extra classes to make up for what they might have lost,” Blaszkowski said. “But until we have all of the kids back in school for assessment tests, we won’t know the full extent of learning loss.”
Blaszkowski reported all staff was retained from the last school year to help keep in-person class sizes in check this year. After-school tutoring will be provided to those students who need it. And programs will be made available for student’s home computers and mobile devices to give them activities they can do on their own time to help them to maintain the level and pace they will need to keep pace in the classroom.
He added district leadership emphasized trying to fill the gaps in learning along the way for all students. He said it’s important that teaching staff doesn’t take a step back and learns to address things as they go along.
“We really need to make up for a year of growth. And there’s a wider breadth of what students know and don’t know. We’re going to have to differentiate more than ever. There will be different groups at different levels,” he said. “What we try to do is assess them early. And there will be more targeted learning than in the past.”
As was the case all across the country, students left alone at home to learn virtually while both parents were away working often struggled the most. Having students in front of the teachers in the classrooms again will make things easier for everyone than trying to do things from afar.
“Some students really struggled with the isolation and not having someone hold them accountable,” Blaszkowski said. “It’s hard to do when they are on a screen and can sign off at any time. It’s not the same as a teacher in the classroom holding them accountable, or working together with peers and teachers in the classroom.”
Mary Campbell, the president of Michigan Education Association Local 1, which represents teachers in Chippewa Valley, L’Anse Creuse, Armada, Richmond, Fraser, Warren Woods, Center Line, Clintondale, Mount Clemens, South Lake, Lakeshore,
Romeo and New Haven, said both teachers and students experienced a different kind of learning in the second half of the 20192020 school year and for most of the 2020-21 school year. Some students flourished, but many struggled, and Campbell said there was definitely learning loss.
So what was the biggest culprit? The virtual setup? The isolation? The lack of physical connection with teachers, peers, or students simply not joining online?
“I think it was a combination of everything. Families struggled to help their children. Students who really needed that interaction for social and emotional help weren’t getting it as much. Teachers also struggled not having that interaction. Plus, it was a different platform for learning,” Campbell said. “But I really feel teachers made an effort to reach their students. And once we got back into classrooms, teachers poured it on. And everything they could give them, they gave them.”
One of Campbell’s biggest concerns is making sure students pass the state-required third-grade reading law.
In 2016, the Michigan Legislature passed a law that requires schools to identify learners who are struggling with reading and writing and to provide additional help. The law states that third graders may repeat third grade if they are more than one grade level behind.
“We are going to do everything we did in the past,” Campbell said. “I think all the teachers are aware that they will be facing a harder challenge. We’re all concerned about where they left us and where they need to be at the end of the year. The third-grade reading tests are kind of scary. The virtual has been detrimental to that.”
Campbell is also concerned about teacher evaluations since 30% of it is based upon student growth. So teachers may pay the price for student’s lack of development during the virtual learning era.
But student evaluations performed by teachers at the start of the upcoming school year will be of most vital importance, Campbell said. She added evaluations will have to be more personal with more one-onone time spent with individual students while still spending enough time with the rest of the class.
“It’s going to be a big balancing act,” she said.
And in addition to the academic needs, Campbell reiterated the need to also focus on students’ mental and emotional needs, which also took a hit while school buildings were closed and learning was done from home.
“These kids lost a lot last year not being in the classroom. Districts need to let their teachers build a community in their classrooms,” she said.
In July, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a $4.4 billion federal COVID relief bill to support schools across the state. The one-time appropriation will distribute funds from the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) to power schools’ efforts to get students back on track. The funds are meant to help meet a wide range of needs arising from the coronavirus pandemic, including reopening schools safely, sustaining their safe operation, and addressing students’ social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs resulting from the pandemic. Whitmer suggested the money could be used as a chance to hire more counselors or make classroom sizes smaller by hiring more teachers.
Earlier this month, officials in L’Anse Creuse — the county’s fourth largest district — unveiled a plan to hire as many as 10 social workers/counselors and nurses. The growth is unusual for the system, which has made several reductions in recent years due to declining enrollment.
This spring, the MISD implemented a tutoring program that partnered with local districts and saw great results from that work. Elementary school students in Fitzgerald Public Schools, Warren Woods Public Schools, and Clintondale Community Schools started in April, and it continued until the end of the school year in June. According to Flye, just about every student showed gains in academic growth and improved scores. Flye said the MISD is hoping to partner with other Macomb County school districts in a similar manner, utilizing some of those federal and state monies now that they can see there will be a return on their investment.
Flye also recommends using some of that money to retain or hire additional staff to reduce class sizes and help accelerate learning. She said school districts will soon have MSTEP (The Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress) test results, which they can use to see where they need to add some intensity.
“Things will become pretty obvious with the results of the local assessment testing and the MSTEP,” said.
“We will also need to reach out to the social and emotional needs of the students. That will be critical,” Flye added. “Consistency for students and teachers will be very important. We know being in school in person and the socialization that comes with it is something that students and teachers have missed.”
About 25% of U.S. teachers said their students were more than four months behind. Learning loss appeared to be tied to the length of school closure. October assessment results found students to be 1.5 months behind in reading levels and 3 months behind in math skills. And, in general, learning loss was deemed to be greater for the youngest students.