Delaware students face up to a year and a half of learning loss

DELAWARE – As students in Delaware return to the classroom, they face on average 1.5 years of learning loss as a result of the pandemic and online learning.

Administrators at the Laurel School District say by looking at a combination of SAT and Statewide assessments they are about 1.5-grade levels behind across their students compared to their 2018-2019 school year figures.

“We really do have kids that are a year to a year and a half behind on grade level in a lot of cases,” said Assistant Superintendent Ashley Giska.

He says the school is looking to take aggressive action to overcome the deficit.

“The key is learning acceleration and what that means is looking at each individual student and determining what are their strengths and weaknesses and tailoring the resource around that,” Giska said.

Giska tells 47 ABC that means more home reading and a summer program that saw over 400 students register. And now, the district says they have more tutors on hand than ever before.

“We have a lot of high dosage tutoring we have more people able to do this due to recovery funding we work on skillsets we know they need,” he said adding “We hope to slash that deficit in learning in half every year.”

But they can’t do it alone that’s why they say they are leaning on a crucial partner; the Delaware Boys and Girls Club which recently ran their own state-wide summer learning program that saw 4 months’ worth of English language learning over the course of 8 weeks.

“It’s to enhance what’s being learned in school and at home so by everything I am hearing they are delighted we are providing that support and it’s got to continue,” said Delaware Boys and Girls Club CFO Chris Basher.

Basher says they hope to expand online options, as well as provide take-home reading material in addition to school resources.

“Our goal is to get them not just to grade level but beyond grade level because of the impact on the other courses that really rely on a strong literacy foundation,” Basher said. 

Giska says their goal is to fully rid of the deficit by 2025, but he realizes for many high school students, they can’t afford to wait 3 years.

“We are doubling up on our work-based learning and apprenticeships and college prep,” he said.

He tells us his message to parents, is the more they can be involved with reading and keep kids engage outside of school, the greater the academic returns will be, and that they need everyone to be on board to reverse pandemic losses as fast as possible.