The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Education experts say work needed to prevent ‘COVID-19 slide’
Triage is the best way Anne Dichele, dean of Quinnipiac University’s School of Education, can describe the learning that has gone on across the state.
“Although teachers have attempted to support all student learning, I do think we have to be realistic,” Dichele said on the day the plug was officially pulled on the in-classroom 2019-20 school year across the state.
For some kids — stuck learning at home from a computer screen or worksheets since mid March — significant backtracking is predicted.
Other experts won’t go that far.
On Tuesday, Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona said there are really good examples of distance learning going on in every district.
“We know there are some students that don’t have access to WiFi,” Cardona said. “We know that there are students who don’t have
access to a device. We are not slowing down at all in our efforts to try and provide equity and access throughout Connecticut.”
Jeff Leake, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said there is an acknowledgment that learning at home is not the same as learning at school.
“There will be a lag, no doubt about it,” he said. He expects the impact of this spring will carry over well into the next school year.
But the union president ventured to say learning has occurred for many — maybe even most — students this spring.
In Bridgeport, where the availability of home technology continues to be a challenge, the district is sending out its fourth wave of physical packets to students as part of its distancelearning effort.
“We all know that there is no substitute for kids attending
school consistently,” said Bridgeport Acting Schools Superintendent Michael Testani. “The inequities across the state have become more obvious during this crisis.”
In Stratford, Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson told parents in a letter on Tuesday that staff is working to make the distance-learning experience the best it can for each child.
How much new information will be absorbed and retained cannot be easily answered.
Most academic testing has been put on hold.
Dichele isn’t sure how much assessment would help.
“Standardized testing isn’t going to give you the kind of information teachers want anyway,” Dichele said.
What will be important is what knowledge this year’s third-graders bring with them into fourth grade in the fall.
Or how much Algebra 1 material will have to be repeated for students who sign up next fall for Algebra II, she said.
Amy Dowell, state director of Democrats for Education Reform, said the state would be wise to apply federal pandemic aid toward helping students recover lost learning.
The Northwest Evaluation Association, a research nonprofit based in Oregon, estimates that what it calls the “COVID-19 Slide” will result in students returning to school in the fall with only 70 percent of typical annual learning gains in reading and 50 percent in math.
“The state should therefore direct districts to use new funding on extra learning time for makeup instruction through summer learning, weekend academics, extended school days or extended school year schedules,” Dowell said in a 2020 CT Education Recovery Plan issued by her organization last month.
Money saved by not having to administer a 2020 Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium test this spring, Dowell said, should be applied to a state-directed diagnostic tool to help gauge where students are in the fall.
Anthony Ditrio, chairman of the Connecticut Association of School Administrators, said distance learning has been difficult, particularly in large city school systems, but he maintains that recovery is possible as long as this spring does not become the new normal.
The focus in the fall, he added, should be on ensuring a safe and successful reopening.
“How do we protect the students and the staff ?” Ditrio said. “Do we have shortened days for students so that we can do two shifts? What supplies are needed to run our schools safely and are they available? These are just a few of the questions that we need to answer.”
To help students catch up, Dichele said some districts might consider a looping system — at least at the elementary school level — where students stay with the same teacher for a second year. The advantage would be that students would know the teachers and teachers would know where they left off in March, the Quinnipiac dean said.
Leake said the catch up will take time.
The CEA has drawn up a long list of what must happen when schools reopen, starting with comprehensive coronavirus testing and reworking school start times, class sizes, schedules and cleaning protocols.
“This crisis is not over,” Leake said, “and experts say a resurgence of the virus could occur this fall. We must use the next few months to ensure that safety procedures and protocols are in place before students, teachers and staff re-enter the classrooms.”
Dichele said not going back until the fall gives districts time to rethink priorities and to reset.
“It is not going to be business as usual,” she said.