Pandemic has had a mixed effect on learning

Student assessment tests in the year of COVID-19show some cause for optimism, school officials say.

FRANCONIA >> Assessment test results of student learning in the year since the COVID-19 pandemic began show cause for optimism, along with areas of concern, Souderton Area School Board’s Education-Personnel Committee was told at its March 10 meeting.

“Really at this point, in March of 2021, we’re only starting to scratch the surface of what are the shortterm and the long-term impacts of the pandemic on our students, not only on academics, but also on non-academics,” Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment Katie KennedyReilly said, “so this is something that’s constantly being re-evaluated not only locally, but nationally and globally.”

While data from academic assessment testing was being presented at that meeting, the district’s focus is on the growth of the whole child, she said.

Assessment testing was not done in the spring of 2020 after schools were closed for the pandemic, but the district has testing results from earlier in that school year and in the current school year, she said.

Areas of concern included the results of a test taken by kindergarten, first and second grade students to identify students in need of additional reading instruction beyond that provided to typically developing readers.

Testing this past fall of this year’s first graders showed that 41 percent of the students tested below the first grade benchmark, compared to 27 percent having tested below the kindergarten benchmark when those students took the test as kindergarten students in the fall of 2019.

When this year’s second graders were tested in the fall, 38 percent tested below the benchmark, compared to 26 percent having tested below the benchmark as first graders in the fall of 2019.

The optimism included the results of reading and math assessments for second through eighth grades taken this school year, most of which showed the Souderton students scored higher than the national norms, as has also happened in previous years.

Asked how long it is expected it will take to mitigate the gap in students’ learning because of the pandemic, Kennedy-Reilly said it is too soon to tell.

“It’s going to be just a concerted effort as we look at each individual student, look at the grade level and continue to make changes and adjustments to meet the needs,” she said.

Although there has been learning loss during the pandemic, as there is at other times when there are gaps in education, such as when students are out of school in the summer, the students should not be considered behind on their education, she said, labeling her presentation, and the students, “Not Behind — Resilient.”

Kennedy-Reilly also quoted author and educational consultant Kylene Beers:

“Students have learned critical skills. They have learned empathy; they have — whether they realize it or not — become global citizens. They have learned what it means to stay inside; to substitute ‘I want to’ with ‘I should.’ And too many have learned what happens when parents lose jobs; too many have learned, at far too young an age, what grief is. They have learned that fear in the pit of your stomach when you hear someone you love has contracted COVID. They have learned how to cope with difficulties we never dreamed of preparing them to learn.”

“They’re a generation of children who are resilient,” Kennedy-Reilly said. The district will continue to examine the students progress and to support the whole child, she said.