Remember when the or slide among kids was a major concern foreducators? Teachers would see a decrease ofat least one month’s worth of school-yearlearning after a three-month summer break.Now imagine that decline after a dramatic shift to onlinelearning and over . arenow available to safely bring students back to school, but howdo you make up for this much of a disruption in education?
When the National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP) released in the summer of 2022, thedata confirmed what many educators had feared: Mathand reading scores of 9-year-olds had dropped to levelsthat hadn’t been seen in two decades. While the decline inperformance was noted across the board, the drop has beengreater for Black and Brown students, especially those wholacked access to virtual learning or were enrolled in districtsthat delayed a return to in-person learning.
“This once-in-a-generation virus upended our countryin so many ways—and our students cannot be the ones whosacrifice most now or in the long run,” said U.S. Secretary ofEducation Miguel Cardona about the NAEPresults. “We must treat the task of catching our children up inreading and math with the urgency this moment demands.”
As educators and district leaders wrestle with a hostof other challenges, how can they create a plan to getstudents, especially the most vulnerable, back on track?What research-backed solutions might be most effective inaddressing a problem that could have lasting consequencesfor the schoolchildren affected and our society at large?
More than math and reading
In March 2020, nearly every school in the nation closed andattempted to transition from in-person to online learning.It was a herculean challenge, but surprisingly most schoolsmanaged to pull it off relatively well. That’s the good news.
However, many schools stayed closed for more than a year.The bad news that educators are contending with now is thatthe prolonged isolation has had devastating consequences,both on the mental health of many children and on theiracademic progress.
The length of time schools were closed was determinedby various factors, among them geographic location (ruralschools opened more quickly than urban schools); whether ornot the school was public, private or a charter school (publicschools generally stayed closed longer); the school board’spolitical leanings; and student demographics. Parents andcaregivers found themselves in the precarious situation ofresponding to the challenges brought on by the pandemicin addition to simultaneously supporting their childrenacademically. The interruption also saw a loss that extendedpast the academics.
“We learned pretty quickly that remote learning duringthe pandemic was not as effective as in-person learning,”said Morgan Polikoff, a ̳ associate professor ofeducation. “Student achievement fell off in that first year.
Then a lot of schools were still intermittently open, openand closed, or some were really closed through the durationof the 2021 school year.” Polikoff co-authored a report fromthe Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) inAugust 2022 which found that learning delays correlatedwith the amount of time students were out of the classroomor were in a virtual learning environment.
The recently released from October 2022showed that reading and math achievement declined significantly. Reading scores were steadier and only slippedroughly three points for both grade levels compared to 2019.
However, reading scores have slowly been taking a downward dip. On average, math scores for 4th graders decreasedfive points to the lowest level since 2005, and the averagemath scores for 8th graders decreased by eight points to thelowest level since 2003. The drop in scores : Math scoresdeclined five points for White students, 13 points for Blackstudents and eight points for Hispanic students.
“We learned pretty quickly thatremote learning during thepandemic was not as effectiveas in-person learning.”—̳ Associate Professor Morgan Polikoff
Polikoff saw that low-income students, Black and Brownstudents, and White students who were out of school formore time seem to have borne the brunt of the learningloss. Polikoff pointed out Curriculum Associates’ researchfrom 2020. After over two years since those first schoolclosures, the declines are still there. He added: “I thinkthere’s some evidence that we’re starting to close some ofthose gaps, but we’re certainly still pretty far away, especiallyin mathematics.”
Patricia Brent-Sanco EdD ’16 is director of equity, accessand instructional services at Lynwood Unified SchoolDistrict, located south of Los Angeles. Her district andthe community it serves were severely impacted by the pandemic. With 72,000 residents and a demographic of 94%Latino and 4.5% African American, died of COVID-19.
“We are a four-mile city made up of essential workers.Our parents had to go to work,” said Brent-Sanco. “Ourstudents suffered not only grief and possible loss of parentsand grandparents and family members, in addition therewas a loss in learning.”
The pandemic also .A 2021 report by the Department of Education’s Office ofCivil Rights confirmed that the pandemic “deepened theimpact of disparities to access and opportunity facing manystudents of color in public schools.” A found that an alarming 40% of Black and 30% of HispanicK–12 students received no online instruction when schoolswere closed during the pandemic, compared with 10% ofWhite students. Preliminary data indicated that the negative effects of the pandemic fell unevenly with regards toeducational opportunities and achievements.
The sobering reports have become a call to action foreducators, shedding light on how students of color haveexperienced a decline in academic achievement. The pandemic compounded and widened structural inequalities.“In other words, students who were struggling in schooldue to complications of poverty, structural racism, languagedifference and/or learning difference, among other factors,fell further behind during and after the pandemic,” saidPatricia Burch, a ̳ professor of education.
For many low-income families, surviving the pandemicwith their health and financial well-being intact becamemore important than how well their children were performing academically. Considering the hardships enduredby those who were required to report to work in person, it’shardly surprising that there is no sense of urgency amongmany families to address the backward slide in achievement.
According to the , many employees—mainly Black and Brown—worked in person, citingthat only 16.2% of Hispanic and 19.7% of Black workerswork remotely. And that was before the pandemic. Polikoffsays the burden for addressing the problem should not reston parents or caregivers. “I would say that the system needsto identify students who need the support and provide thesupport,” he added.
Helpful (or hopeful) solutions: Research and data offer learning loss remedies
Brent-Sanco says that in the Lynwood Unified SchoolDistrict, “the pandemic illuminated what we already knew.We know that there has to be different levels of engagementstrategies for those students who face struggles outside ofschool [and] have environmental factors that they have todeal with when they are outside of our walls.” To addressthose concerns, Lynwood opened a food bank, distributedcomputers and wi-fi hotspots, and created a mental healthcollaborative with a hotline for parents. Other offeringsinclude small-group instructions during the school day,direct instruction and guided and independent practice. Inaddition, a leadership academy at the elementary and middleschools instructs students on leadership lessons. Several studies have offered evidence-based methods—many overlapping—to mitigate learning loss.
conducted a mixed-methodssurvey with more than 300 schools whose below-level students exceeded expectations. Researchers interviewed thoseschool leaders to understand how they managed to do soduring the 2020–2021 school year. Six key practices thatwere most effective in supporting students emerged fromthe study: Cultivate educator mindsets to support studentsuccess; create a culture of data; prioritize meeting the needsof the whole child (this includes addressing mental healthas well as the need for social-emotional learning); createa school environment that engages and inspires students;enhance teacher practice with more resources and support;and strengthen connections with families. A CaliforniaSchool Boards Association report from the summer of 2020offered useful guidelines to address learning interruptionechoing similar remedies.
A Learning Policy Institute report, co-authored by USCRossier Dean Pedro A. Noguera, from May 2021 integratedresearch on the science of learning and offered six guidelinesfor educators to address whole-child learning. The researchaddressed the need for “learning environments that center strong teacher–student relationships, address students’social and emotional learning, and provide students withopportunities to construct knowledge that builds upon theirexperiences and social contexts in ways that deepen theiracademic skills.”
“The biggest mistake schools could make now is tofocus narrowly and exclusively on academic achievement,”Noguera said. “They must acknowledge the tremendoussocial, psychological and emotional challenges that manystudents and staff experienced, and they must devise strategies to address all of these. This won’t be easy, but it’s theonly sensible approach for moving forward.”
What's working?
The research and data reveal the needs that must be addressed.Federal funds have been , and nowthe question is: How do educators and administrative leadersimplement a strategy to address and respond to COVID-19 learning loss? Perhaps the pandemic created a uniqueopportunity to reimagine how students are taught. Someschools have explored possible options including or academic year, and . The latter, while well-intended, may carry . Other options include , reevaluatingcurriculum, and teacher professional development.
“High-impact tutoring has emerged as a for addressing learning loss,” Burch added. “From years of research, we know that high-quality tutoring cansignificantly change outcomes for students struggling academically. Tutoring is something that middle- and higher-income families purchase for their children. It needs tobe available to all students in public schools. One-on-oneor small-group tutoring with highly qualified trained staff,integrated within the school day where possible and focusedon literacy and numeracy, is necessary to a functioning publiceducation system. Districts around the country already arespending Elementary and Secondary School EmergencyRelief (ESSER) dollars on this. The challenge is how to sustain and, where appropriate, scale efforts once funds dry up.”
A meta-analysis by the National Bureau of EconomicResearch reviewed studies of tutoring with control groupsand showed that it widely increased student achievementand engagement, was shown to be cost-effective and wasresponsible for significant gains across the board.
have proved that the combination of “high-dosage tutoring,” culturally and linguistically relevant instructions, and the building of relationships with students andparents, delivers significant gains for students. is defined as intensive learning in small groups.Consistent, carefully thought-out in-school tutoring hasdrastically improved learning, according to a February 2021EdResearch for Recovery report. Brent-Sanco’s Lynwooddistrict offers an additional layer of support to studentsthrough mentoring programs, a social emotional curriculum, homework tutoring and support to prepare studentsfor college and a career. “It fills in the gap for anything thatstudents might be missing,” she said.
Secretary Cardona agrees with this approach. “Theevidence is clear. High-impact tutoring works, and I’veurged our nation’s schools to provide every student who isstruggling with extended access to an effective tutor,” hesaid in a from April 2022.
In addition to tutoring, improving curriculum should be afocus. “Now is the moment to double down on what we knowseems to work,” Polikoff said. Through the —part of the USCCenter for Economic and Social Research—he and histeam are working with a nationally representative panel ofAmerican families regarding the impact of COVID on theireducational experiences. The project focuses on collectingdata from the subset of UAS households with at least onepre-K–12 child and/or at least one postsecondary student.“I think high-quality curriculum materials will play a verycentral role in addressing learning loss,” he said. In a , Polikoff examined how the pandemic affectedhow curriculum materials were used. Whether in school,online or in a homeschool setting, his recommendationsincluded providing access for all children to quality corecurriculum materials, offering personalized curriculumtailored to student abilities and interests, and supportingteachers’ supplemental core curriculum efforts.
“The biggest mistake schools couldmake now is to focus narrowly andexclusively on academic achievement.They must acknowledge the tremendoussocial, psychological and emotionalchallenges that many students andstaff experienced, and they must devisestrategies to address all of these.”—̳ Dean Pedro A. Noguera
Throughout the pandemic, teachers have been askedto juggle multiple roles, often balancing educator, mentalhealth provider and technology support. Providing themwith quality and support is anotheroption to mitigate student learning loss. Polikoff stressesthe importance of equipping teachers with the right toolsand providing thoughtful solutions, so they can challengestructural barriers.
Before the pandemic, there was a growing concern forstudent mental and emotional health and the correlationwith learning. In April 2022, school counselors on the effect the pandemic had on studentmental health. The participants noted that students were notmotivated in the classroom and that “emotional health isnecessary for learning to happen.” As the value of the wholestudent increases, so has the role of student counselors.Schools are spending a portion of to address student mental support and hiring counselors.
Carol Kemler Buddin BS ’79 is a fourth-grade teacher inthe Poway Unified School District in San Diego County. With41 schools in the district, 60% of the population are studentsof color and 10% of students are economically disadvantaged.
When everyone returned to the classroom the previous academic year, her district recognized that studentswere not at the level they should be. “We saw it across theboard with all of our students,” she said. For example, in herschool’s beginning weeks of kindergarten, when studentsgain readiness routines, some were not able to write theirname, hold a pencil or sit in a group. In the upper grades,some students were not able to regulate their outdoor andindoor volume or were not able to perceive personal space.
“We looked at all the data, and with that data we wereable to decide how to best help our students,” Buddin added.The district used COVID funds to focus on student social
and emotional health. To address food insecurity, the districtprovided free meals to students, and additional counselorswere hired for small groups, social emotional lessons andindividual student support. Technical and summer trainingwas also provided to educators in the district. Summer schoolwas provided in 2021 and 2022 for students who needed anextended school year for academic instruction.
"Tutoring is something thatmiddle- and higher-incomefamilies purchase for theirchildren. It needs to beavailable to all students inpublic schools.”—̳ Professor Patricia Burch
In addition, they were able to identify students whoneeded additional assistance and made recommendationsfor tutoring. Peer-to-peer tutoring is available three days aweek after school, and additional reading teachers were hiredfor students who needed support. “At the end of the year wejust kept saying, We can’t believe what we’ve accomplished,”Buddin said. “At the beginning of the school year, some ofour upper-grade students were reading at the second-gradereading level, and we were able to catch them up to theirgrade level by the end of the school year. We just couldn’tbelieve it, yet we were joyful about their successes.”
The learning challenges created by the pandemic haveprovided the opportunity for educators and administrators toreimagine the classroom and reevaluate current educationalstructures. Buddin said: “We’re all working a lot of hours,and we’re doing a lot of individual instruction right now,because we need to give the kids what they need, and thatis what teachers do!”
Morgan Polikoff
- Professor of Education
Patricia Burch
- Professor of Education
- Co-director of CEPEG
