Students face pandemic learning loss as they return to Maryland classrooms, but WCPS says extra learning time is the answer
MARYLAND – As students across Maryland head back to the classrooms, they face learning loss from two years of pandemic schooling and an average loss of two-grade levels worth of skill, according to the New York Times.
The Worcester County Public School system says their own internal testing system found students were in line with grade averages but were 10 percent short on regional test scores compared to previous pre-pandemic results. They say for students that are behind, the challenge becomes catching them up with what they lost, while still making sure they can progress on their current academic path.
“Let’s say students read on a third-grade level, but now they are in 4th grade, they can’t miss out on that 4th-grade content to teach them 3rd grade because even if we get them those skills now, they are now in 5th grade missing 4th-grade skills,” said WCPS Chief Education Officer Annette Wallace.
Wallace says their district hopes to offset that deficit, with a combination of extra training for teachers, better programming funded by recent grants from the state, and by expanding intervention hours in schools. Those characterized set blocks during the day where teachers work in small groups with students to help catch them up on class work, or for students to get ahead on AP or college level advance track classes. Wallace says the program will now be expanded to all middle school and elementary schools in the district, but prior to the pandemic all but two schools already had the programs in place. She tells us the pandemic brought those dedicated hours and the need for more student time into sharper focus, as well as looking at the grade level scores for the schools that had not yet done the program.
“When we looked at those scores we noticed that about 30 percent of a grade wasn’t at grade level,” she said.
Wallace tells us that another challenge will be the typical summer-related learning loss that all schools face, and tells us their teachers are ready, with better programming and online tools that students can access out of the classroom to come in ready to learn. She tells she hopes those factors can get them back to where they were pre-pandemic.
“At the end of last school year, we were so close to where we needed to be. So my goal is by the middle of this school year, I want to see that data back in line with where we usually fall,” Wallace said.
She tells us they also hope to expand the intervention hours to high schools in the district in the future.
