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It's going to take more than one semester to fix the 'COVID slide'
A principal and an ed tech researcher outline steps for assessing
students' learning loss and making curriculum adjustments this fall.
Claudio Estrada and Mariana Aguilar
June 18, 2020
Claudio Estrada is principal of PUC Community Charter Middle School in
Lakeview Terrace, California, and Mariana Aguilar leads the research
team at GoGuardian, an education technology company.
The spring 2020 semester is coming to a close. It’s time to step back
and examine where we’re at, so we can effectively determine just how
much we’ll have to make up in the fall semester and beyond.
First, an acknowledgement. Everyone — from students, to parents, to
teachers and administrators — has been doing their best to make this
semester as academically rigorous as possible under unbelievably
difficult circumstances.
Administrators have moved heaven and earth to close the digital divide
by taking swift action to increase the availability of devices and
hotspots. Teachers have adopted new instructional tools and adapted
their curriculum for online learning all while upskilling to meet the
demands of new technology along the way.
Parents have juggled protecting their children from the virus,
supported them in this new digital learning environment, all while
balancing their career demands (if they’re still employed). And kids
have been resilient at times, overwhelmed at times and downright heroic
most of the time.
Now it’s time to take account of where we stand academically in
comparison to last year, and how much we’ve lost in comparison to the
typical summer. The data is not promising.
Over a normal summer break, research has shown that students can
typically lose anywhere from two weeks to two months of academic
growth, in what’s been dubbed the “summer slide.”
But a recent report by the Northwest Evaluation Association suggests
student learning loss from closures due to the pandemic will exacerbate
this issue. For reading, students will likely retain only about 70% of
their progress compared to a normal year. Their math retention will be
even worse. Depending on the grade level, students could lose from a
half-year to a full year of academic growth in mathematics. This issue
is further exacerbated for socioeconomically disadvantaged students and
school communities where access to reliable internet and devices for
remote learning is less certain.
Take steps now
This massive backlog in academic achievement across the country cannot
be ignored. We also cannot just chalk up a semester as “lost,” because
each semester builds on the semesters that proceed it. We must take
steps now to keep this pandemic from impacting our children
academically for years to come.
This problem likely seems nearly insurmountable for teachers and
administrators. But while each school district has to find their own
solution that works best, there are a few key criteria that can help
mitigate the “COVID slide:”
Don’t wait. Whether you are a district administrator, school leader or
teacher, start your planning process earlier than you typically would.
Do as much as you can before this year ends to prepare for the fall
semester.
Assess. If you can, administer an assessment that you can compare to a
typical end-of-year assessment for your class, school or school
district. While statewide standardized tests may not occur,
implementing any type of assessment that you can compare to last year
can at least begin to serve as a benchmark. These comparisons can
enable you to effectively gauge how much additional time a selected
cohort of students may need to catch up to the typical growth made in a
school year.
If comparison points are not possible, administering a digital
assessment at the end of the year can at least provide a snapshot of a
student’s current state of mastery. These insights can help teachers
plan their scope and sequence to address the gaps for the incoming
class in Fall 2020.
If you’re a parent, you can find diagnostic tests online that can
identify exactly which standards your child has mastered and which they
have not. These insights can be immensely valuable to understanding
exactly where your child needs help.
Adjust. Based on the data, adjust curricular plans accordingly. No
curriculum or scope and sequence for Fall 2020 should be the same as
Fall 2019. Everyone will need to make adjustments. The question is not
if but what standards will need to be backfilled if we are to reclaim
the time loss and ensure our students acquire the critical skills
necessary for long-term success. Realistically, we should also expect
to be making adjustments to the end of the 2020-21 school year because
these losses will likely take more than one semester to fix.
This isn’t a simple problem, and even with an organized curriculum
planning process, this will be a difficult road ahead. But the good
news is that both students and teachers have shown incredible
resilience and creativity thus far in addressing this pandemic. And we
can expect that they’ll continue to rise to the challenge in the months
to come.
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