Episode 43: Learning Loss

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and take the quiz today. Foreign welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microdiscriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children and in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening on today's episode be Discussing Learning Loss the learning loss that's addressed in this episode focuses on the learning that was lost from the pandemic years, not the learning loss that occurs during summer break. The learning loss that occurred during the three years of the pandemic is a much more serious, widespread issue. I'll address the implications of this type of learning loss in in the discussion that follows. Let's get started. The term learning loss refers to any loss of information and abilities, whether this loss is specific or generic loss of knowledge and skills that cause a regression in academic progress. The extended absence from school in the fall of 2020 due to the pandemic had detrimental effects on student achievement. Learning loss is typically addressed when schools close for extended periods of time, for instance during the SUMM when natural catastrophes occur or for epidemics. Even brief school closures may result in significant loss of learning. School closures don't result in an equal loss of learning for all students. The variables that contribute to learning loss include changing teaching methods, opportunities to reach education, less time for learning, and emotional factors. Research on online learning and teaching reveals that there are only effective if students have consistent access to Internet and computers and if teachers have received focused training and supports for online instruction. Students from low income families don't always have access to alternative forms of instruction that high income families have access to These alternative forms include books, computers, the Internet, radio, television and smartphones. As recently as the spring of 2022, school district leaders who were still motivated by concerns over learning loss were still trying to adequately staff classrooms, maintain student attendance, and manage the ever present political conflicts. The findings from a study conducted by the center on Reinventing Public Education in November of 2022 came from a research partnership between the RAND Corporation and the center on Reinventing Public Education. School district leaders have reported that their work has been much harder than they originally anticipated. Even though they they've tried to help students regain lost academic ground, the district leaders were dealing with more emergent crises such as staffing shortages, capacity deficits and staff burnout. Yet in spite of all this, district leaders remained determined to provide the necessary frameworks to improve academic instruction and promote student learning. The main findings from this study and subsequent report by the American School District Panel include student absences and shortages and key staff have sidelined the adoption of academic acceleration strategies and another finding was that some districts are turning back to familiar classroom instruction habits that were developed before the pandemic, while others are trying to different strategies beyond learning acceleration in order to address learning issues and learning losses. District leaders are applying high dosage tutoring, project based learning and career infused education in a piecemeal fashion rather than implementing academic acceleration in a comprehensive approach. According to the first meta analysis of global learning loss published in in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the pandemic's academic damage continues to persist for students around the world, a loss equal to roughly 35% of a typical school year's progress. Researchers of the study analyzed results from 42 studies of primary and secondary students in 15 high and middle income countries, including the United States. The analysis was conducted from the start of the pandemic in 2020 through March of 2022. Students in all of these 15 countries experienced both delays in their expected academic progress as well as the loss of their existing skills and knowledge, particularly in math. Gaps between low income children and their wealthier classmates have also widened worldwide since the pandemic began. The researchers found that the learning gaps that opened early in the pandemic have not worsened, but they haven't improved significantly either. What has worsened was the academic inequalities that exist across every grade. As recently as March 2022, government programs that address avoiding further learning deficits as the pandemic continued to seemed to be successful. However, they did not succeed in recovering the learning deficits that arose early in the pandemic. Students in the United States have experienced more than a third of a year of learning loss, which is on par with the global average. The data in the study came from countries such as Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Columbia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom. Middle income countries like Brazil had greater learning loss than other countries, and some estimates indicate that the pandemic set back academic progress in low and middle income countries to the year 2000 levels. A study by the World bank indicated that in some states in India, Mexico and Brazil, students have lost a full year of academic progress. One of the concerns about this learning loss that's occurred over the past three years is that older students will not have sufficient time to recover their lost academic ground before they're expected to enter the workforce. This is the downstream effect that could have an impact on a country's gross domestic product because a secondary student's learning loss could result in lower lifetime earnings. A key researcher in the study of the meta analysis of these 15 countries indicated his uncertainty with whether the learning deficits would be completely erased. The fact of the matter is that it's very difficult to recover learning deficits once they are present. It will involve a significant policy investment, an increase of qualified teaching personnel, and opportunities for students to learn outside of the normal school year. Some countries are making changes to their curriculums at the national level in order to help students recover academic ground, but fewer countries have scaled up personalized interventions as well as tutoring. A number of international organizations including UNESCO, the World bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have launched what they refer to as a rapid framework for recovery efforts. Rapid standing for reach, access, prioritize, increase and develop. Surprisingly, even after more than a year since schools have reopened in person, absenteeism in many areas remains higher than it was pre Covid. Only about 60% of the countries that were evaluated in the study have consistently collected data on student absences and in all three years of the pandemic. In order to assess learning levels regularly, district leaders should analyze students system wide, test data for specific content areas that have gaps for different grades and students, and then tailor professional development and other supports for teachers in those specific areas. There are a couple of action steps that you can take if your child is suffering from learning loss due to the pandemic and post pandemic years. So here's some practical ways to close the gap from where they were to where they are now. 1. Provide the necessary supports and or resources to scaffold your child's learning. These could include books, flashcards, workbooks etc. I remember being an active customer of a teacher supplied store when my children were in K 12 public school in order to enrich and extend the learning they received in the classroom. 2. Play games on a weekly basis that reinforce math and reading skills. Number three Create challenges that build on mental math problems and vocabulary words. Choose an appropriate reward system that makes the learning fun and get creative. So here's the summary to take away from this episode. Quite simply, a plethora of research indicates that there is significant learning loss around the world by the 1.6 billion students impacted by the COVID pandemic. It's very difficult to recover learning deficits once they are present. One of the concerns about this learning loss that has occurred over the past three years is that older students will not have sufficient time to recover their lost academic ground before they're expected to enter the workforce. And finally, school district leaders and administrators have plans in place to address these losses, but the complexity of the issue makes this an extremely large undertaking. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast on whatever service you're listening to this. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a rating, a review, or a comment on apple stitcher or podchaser. You can also rate my podcast@ratethispodcast.com if you like this podcast. The best way to support me and help me grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. I really appreciate it if you would recommend my podcast to a friend directly on Twitter and to mention my show in your tweet. Additionally, you can connect with me on Instagram and Facebook with the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. And be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode of my podcast, I'll be discussing the flipped classroom. Until next time. Aim to learn something new every day. Foreign subscriber. You can subscribe for as little as $3 per month. Just go to HTTPs://forward/tinyurl.com forward/podcast support. There's no contractual obligation. You can cancel at any time. If you choose to subscribe, I'll give you a special shout out thanking you in an upcoming episode. Remember, that's tinyurl.com podcastsupport to subscribe.