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In this article, Lynn Thompson explores how COVID-19 affected students' grades, including the viewpoints of teachers, and the future effect of social distance learning.
How COVID-19 Affected Us
How COVID-19 Affected Us
By Lynn Thompson
By Lynn Thompson
COVID-19 was a global pandemic that hit the modern world heavily. Without a doubt, everyone was affected in some way by the virus. Across the country, students of all ages suffered declining scores for grades. Grants Pass High School students were quickly introduced to Canvas, an online website similar to Google Classroom. Zoom and Canvas created the foundation for an online classroom that introduced students and teachers to a new way of learning.
The pandemic caused test scores to decline across the board. According to Public Broadcasting Station, fourth-grade reading scores decreased by 16 points. Language Arts skills are important for the creation of opinions, building knowledge, and engaging thoughtfully in text, as stated by Hawaii Public Schools. ELA scores were not the only subject to take a hit, and here at Grants Pass High School, student’s grades displayed the effect of social distance learning.
Mrs. Wright is an Algebra I and Geometry teacher with a master's degree in education, who sees the impacts of social distance learning. Wright states, “Student’s skill levels are lower than average…I feel like I’m reteaching what they should have learned in the 7th grade.” Wright says that her math students' grades only slightly declined. However, she mentioned, “We heavily modified the curriculum. If we hadn't, the grades would have totally dropped more.” Social distance learning would lack the teacher to student interaction, meaning something would have to give. Unfortunately, that was the quality of the curriculum given to students.
Though Mr. Knapp is a first year teacher at Grants Pass, he agrees that students will lack basic skills that they will need in the future. Coming from Arizona, Knapp can give us a view on what History classes should have looked like compared to what they really looked like. With confidence, Knapp stated that the students' grades declined hugely. Online schools did not provide students with the one-on-one education that they needed, as many teachers responded from hallway to hallway. They were ill-equipped to teach during a pandemic, making the quality of their teaching go down. With worse teaching came worse test scores, lower GPAs, and a rising skill level deficit, Knapp agrees.
A poll given to Grants Pass High School students by Scroll staff showed that 60% of polled students had a 3.0-3.99 GPA before the pandemic hit. However, during social distance learning, 44.4% of these students had a GPA ranging anywhere from 1.0-2.99. Anonymously, students shared that the pandemic affected their mental health poorly, introducing a world of lower scores. Christopher Buker, a high school student here at Grants Pass, stated that his grades had never been lower than during the pandemic. Buker admitted that he disliked the lack of social interaction that Zoom and Canvas provided. Even now, many students shared they had not returned to their 4.0 selves. On average, 59.3% of students now have a 3.0 average GPA. A student shared, “I built bad habits for myself during COVID that I’m still doing to this day.” Students still have not fully recovered from the pandemic, following up with teachers stating they felt like skills were behind.
Many students and teachers agree that the pandemic was a setback for their good grades or fine skill levels. Both Knapp and Wright agreed that students lack the foundation of concepts needed in class today, and many students also agreed. Some students felt ill-equipped to participate in classroom activities. On the upside, students looked to increase their GPAs the farther they got away from the pandemic. COVID will be an event our gradebooks will never forget.
Sources:
Sources:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/test-scores-show-how-covid-set-kids-back-across-the-u-s
https://learningdesign.hawaiipublicschools.org/standards-based-content/english-language-arts-ela
Interviews With: Mrs. Wright, GPHS Geometry teacher; Mr. Knapp, GPHS World Cultures teacher
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