COVID-19 Increases Classroom Gaps

Millions of children across the country are still learning virtually, that could mean some children could fall as far as a full year behind.   

A report done by McKinsey & Company showed an estimate of three months deficit in mathematics when they began this school year. In particular, Black and Hispanic students are falling further behind that their white peers.  

 In an interview with Mary Louise Kelly for All Things Considered, Former Education Secretary John King Jr. suggested a national tutoring corps as a way to help those students who have fallen behind catch up. His plan would involve allowing older students and graduates to receive credit or pay for tutoring younger students.   

When asked about the challenges for teachers coming back to a room full of 20 or 30 students, King told Kelly, “Teachers are really going to have to individualize kids’ academic experience. They’re going to need to respond to exactly where kids are. They going to need to diagnose what they’ve missed, what they need, and then address any gaps that students have.”   

King continued, “It’s really challenging. It means you’ve got to define different tasks for individual students. You’ve got to have time to meet with students in small groups. Ideally, you’d be doing that in partnership with this national tutoring corps that I described so you’d have some help. But tailoring the instruction to students’ individual needs is incredibly challenging, especially when you have students who may be multiple grade levels apart in their academic skills.”  

The learning deficit isn’t the only challenge facing school districts. King said that professional development, such as new technology tools, can help but require resources.   

“And one of the big worries is that if Congress doesn’t act, if states end up making 5, 10, 15% cuts to education,” King told Kelly, “the districts that will be hit the hardest will be those districts that have the most students with tremendous need. And so you’ll see a widening of our already unacceptably large gaps in performance”  

While the challenges are abundant, there has also been some progress made, according to King.   

A couple hopeful things. One is, we’ve long had a challenge with inequitable access to advanced coursework. So some kids in high needs districts or rural communities don’t get the same access to Advanced Placement classes to take college courses,” King said. “What this experience has done is shown us that really shouldn’t be a barrier. We should never again have a kid who’s told you can’t take AP Spanish because we don’t offer that in this building. We’ve seen that virtual blended learning is possible at scale.  

The pandemic has also created the opportunity to work on student agency, meaning making sure students are self-starting and managing themselves well.   

King said, “In a virtual or hybrid learning environment, students have to set goals for themselves. They have to manage their work, they have to ask questions when they need help, they have to collaborate independently with peers. Those skills are things that will serve students well in college and in careers. And hopefully we’ve learned some things about how to cultivate student agency that will carry over to teaching and learning practices.”  

Even with the progress, King told Kelly there is still much to be done in the education sector.   

“But let’s be clear,” he said, “even with those hopeful opportunities, COVID has been an equity disaster for education and we have a lot of work to do.”  

To read the full interview or get more information about All Things Considered, click here.   

By Kyra Young 

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