It's no surprise to anyone here that schools are generally in a damage control mode, attempting (hopefully) to minimize learning loss from pandemic-related disruptions. A question I've been expecting to hear from educators and public policymakers - but haven't yet - is why we believe learning loss to be inevitable, and over what period.

Locally, our public schools have done little to close the gap for families who do not have the luxuries ours enjoys. (We are in that rare minority who have actually flourished during the rotating lockdowns, largely because we had the means and opportunity to go our own way.) But what about those who cannot? I have heard no discussion about expanding public funding to extend the school year to retrench. Last summer saw no classes offered to students who were falling behind, and there is zero discussion of such a solution for 2021.

There has been a patchwork roll-out of virtual/B&M hybrid delivery models. After a year of pandemic restrictions, I find it challenging to believe that our collective education sector has not identified basic wins in delivery, and tried to more effectively mitigate downside risk for those in need. For example, in a fit of curiosity, I designed a full-semester curriculum for one subject for my DS and created a Google Classroom, complete with embedded lessons and meeting links, over the weekend. It took me 4 hours, starting flat-footed with no prior materials. It was dead easy and required minimal initiative.

The Atlantic, with its usual panache, has anticipated my concern in this excellent article. Key quotes below:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/how-to-get-our-kids-back-on-track/618269/

Originally Posted by Atlantic
If districts focus too much on remediating “learning loss”—holding kids back a grade, categorizing students according to their deficits, and centering lesson plans on catch-up work—the students who have experienced the most trauma and disconnection during the pandemic may be assigned to the lowest level and most stigmatized groups. They will be viewed as deficient, and the inequities in place before and during the pandemic will be further amplified. Children, having been told that they are behind, will internalize the story of their loss.

But our kids are not broken. To foster students’ growth, districts should think beyond traditional ways of grading and teaching. Instead of federal and district test results becoming labels, handed down as if from on high, districts should use them diagnostically, as guides only, and encourage teachers to collaborate with students in understanding their skill profiles so that the kids feel empowered in their own development. Schools should also recognize their students’ resilience over this past year, support their healing and emotional growth, and honor them with meaningful and challenging academic work, not with remedial classes. That’s how we’ll get our children back on track.

Districts face a hard reality, though: Many children lost a great deal of academic growth last year; some kids didn’t attend school at all. Districts need to know which students need extra support, including tutoring in and outside the classroom. But educators need to assess students’ abilities in a way that motivates them to grow.

I'm also sharing a publicly accessible deck McKinsey shared on closing equity gaps in Covid learning losses. Please enjoy!

(Pro tip: slide 57 shares some intriguing options from Maryland and France. The French Minister for Education said, "We need a pedagogical Netflix, centralized and free.")

Thoughts? Solutions? Personal experiences? Tidbits to share from having an ear to the ground locally?

You have my attention.



What is to give light must endure burning.