“It is a tremendous issue for us:” Schools working with students to address them falling behind academically

DELMARVA- Getting students back on track.

That is a main goal for many local school districts with the pandemic changing how kids learn causing some to fall behind.

“It is a tremendous issue for us and so when we start in the fall, we are going to go to assess our students again,” Dr. John Gaddis, Somerset County Superintendent, said.

School Districts said the learning loss they’re seeing can be due to many reasons such as the virtual learning and a break of the classroom structure.

But I’m told they’ve already been addressing the issue through summer programs.

“We had a very robust summer school program, with over 900 students that were specifically picked out because of learning loss,” Dr.Gaddis said.

This effort will continue going into the school year with more assessments being done and hands on learning.

“Our students we are going to focus on, in-person learning, group work with students, and that relationship with the teacher manipulatives being used,” Dr. Mike Collins, Director of DCPS Curriculum and Assessment, said.

As well, as provide review of material when needed.

“We are going to focus on the grade level they are in, the content they are in and work with students on teaching grade level material and then we do find these unfinished learning,” Dr. Collins said.

“Looking at our first unit of the school year for example, determining what concepts students might struggle with most and then preview that for them,” Dr. Renee Jerns, Director of Secondary Education for the Indian River School District, said.

While the school year is just around the corner there’s still planning to be done, and schools are hopeful that students will get caught up.

“We can’t look backwards we have to keep looking forward,” Dr. Jerns said.

“We are confident that we can get back to grade level content and that our students will pick up pretty quickly,” Dr. Collins said.

On top of getting students back on track when it comes to education schools are really putting in an effort to address the mental well being of students.

Somerset said they have hired mental health professionals for this purpose.

Dr. Renee Jerns said for this years summer program they had nearly 3,000 students.

The Dorcester County Public School District said during the school day their will be intervention blocks for reading and math.

They also will offer tutoring after school and maybe even on Saturday’s.