Academic

From Education in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of COVID-19 on America's Students (US Dept. of Education, Office for Civil Rights)

OBSERVATION 1 (K-12): Emerging evidence shows that the pandemic has negatively affected academic growth, widening pre-existing disparities. In core subjects like math and reading, there are worrisome signs that in some grades students might be falling even further behind pre-pandemic expectations.

OBSERVATION 4 (K-12): For many elementary and secondary school students with disabilities, COVID-19 has significantly disrupted the education and related aids and services needed to support their academic progress and prevent regression. And there are signs that those disruptions may be exacerbating longstanding disability-based disparities in academic achievement.

Understanding the Dimensions of Academic Learning Gaps:

The shortfalls of remote learning--lack of social connections, erratic attendance and sometimes extended absence from class, lack of connectivity (even temporary) or digital skills, language acquisition delays--have contributed to a spotty learning landscape as well as concerns about wellbeing. Not all students have the same deficits in their learning and achievement nor do they experience learning losses to the same depth. Thus, the struggle for the teacher is in finding the right solution for the right student or group of students or even for the whole class.

The following pages provide possible instructional strategies for fillings the gaps, whether individual, small group, or whole class. In addition to the strategies, examples of actions and approaches already taken by MHS teachers are provided. We are actively seeking more MHS examples for the strategies we have identified and for other strategies we haven't yet listed. Please let us know if you have implemented a recovery strategy that we could add to these pages.

Finally, the gaps in student learning may be affected, too, by a lack of Study Skills. Many students lack academic study skills such as Note Taking. Others need help with Time Management and/or Organization. Some are unskilled in Resource Navigation (using E-texts and Print Texts efficiently and developing Media Literacy). All of these skills enhance learning; deficiencies in these areas contribute to learning gaps. The linked pages here provide possible solutions for these Study Skills issues.

Before turning to the Academic Gaps pages, consider the questions below. They are provided to guide your thinking as you navigate the following linked pages: Academic-Concept, Academic-Skill, Academic-Knowledge, and IEP/504/ILP gaps .

Questions to Ask about Academic Learning Gaps:

What is the gap and how big is it?

• How much instruction did the student miss (day/week/unit/spotty absences/etc.)?

• Is this the only student who missed this skill/concept/knowledge or is there a group?

If the group is large, you may have to back up, reteach, teach the missing information to the whole group.

• Could the gap be filled with more practice or drill or must the missing information be newly learned?

• Is the missed information related to the standards for this discipline/course?

If the information is not standards-based, is it enrichment?

Can the specific content be skipped?

Is it just good information to have but not critical information?

If it is critical information, is it

• A fundamental or prerequisite concept? (e.g., rise over run; fair trade; cause and effect. Is it the sort of thing you could create an anchor chart for?)

• An isolated, fundamental, or sequential skill? (e.g., integer skills; grammar, usage, mechanics in English; physical activities that can be practiced, problems that can be solved for or broken into steps)

• Fundamental or prerequisite knowledge? (e.g., the Great Depression, a novel in English class, the genetics unit in Biology I. Is it a whole body of information or unit of instruction?)

The answers to these questions will lead to decisions about specific instructional strategies described in the following pages:

• Academic-Concept

• Academic-Skill

• Academic-Knowledge

Questions to Ask about Tutoring Help:

• Does remediation call for short-term tutoring?

• Does remediation call for long-term tutoring?

• Can another student help with remediation or does the gap call for teacher intervention?

Solutions for tutoring can be found on each of these pages :

• Academic-Concept

• Academic-Skill

• Academic-Knowledge