2021 Legislator Discussion Series

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Noon – 1:00 P.M.

Covid Related learning loss: What can we do?

Takeaways

1)  There are proven resources available to help with Covid Related Learning Loss.  (See link to Stand for Children's Guide to Learning Loss to the left.) 

2)  Not all impacts of the pandemic have been bad.  Many advances in technology, teacher/student learning platforms, broader access to internet and growing awareness of gaps in rural areas for effective student connection, and much more emphasis on direct teacher/parent communications are just a few examples of advances in our education process that are here to stay!

3)  We do pretty much know where the kids are that aren’t showing up.  Numerous research studies show that in many cases, depending on the age of the student, economic hardship has forced them to get a job, oftentimes many jobs.  Many students stop going to school because one or all of the parents or caregivers have gotten Covid and they are quarantined.  Still others have had no choice because of a lack of resources to virtually connect with their school on line and either have become home schooled or simply remain home because their parents do not have a choice but to once again become primary caregivers.

4)  Communication needs with parents have never been more important.  We CANNOT over communicate.  But the parent engagement is much higher in many cases because of this and that has always been an important factor in long term student success and we don’t want to lose that.

5)  Most students in surveys on the “problems” with on line learning do NOT emphasize that they don’t understand or are incapable of learning on line, it is that without the hands on approach for the core classes, their ability to focus is made so much more difficult.  Elective classes experience less of a decline than core classes.

6)  The development of social skills or the soft skills is so important to students, especially younger students, that this will also be somewhat of an unknown factor but the hope is that once we are able to re-engage physically, we may wish to consider extended school years, summer school, before and after school opportunities and tutors to address the impacts.

7)  Obviously, educators are NOT surprised by Covid Related Learning Loss among their students and seem to almost universally feel that standardized testing will only achieve a critical waste of class time for telling us all something we already know.  Educators need MORE time with their students, less time with standardized testing during this “recovery” period.

8)  Covid Related Learning Loss will NOT be dealt with in the short term.  It will require long term patience, strategy, and policy awareness that also engages a community wide leveraging of resources, such as putting public education at the meetings of The Mayors Roundtable to include more community perspectives and opportunities.

Click here for a PDF of the Takeaways.  

Click here for the January 21, 2021 Discussion Agenda. 

Click here for a PDF of the Legislator Discussion Series Topics and Dates. 

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