ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — If you're a parent, you've likely lost sleep over virtual learning and how it might impact your child's education. For the first time, we're getting a look at how remote learning is affecting our nation's children, including students here in the St. Louis area and what school districts plan to do about it.
According to a new study by national nonprofit the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), math scores for students in third through eighth grade are down 5-10 points from last year. The study looked at test scores for more than 4 million students.
Dr. Megan Kuhfeld is the senior research scientist at NWEA.
"We're definitely seeing some evidence that students have learned less since March than students would normally learn in a normal school year," explained Kuhfeld. "We know math is very sequential and builds a lot on what kids have learned. So, really making sure that for the students who have fallen behind, we identify those skills and give students the support they need is really important."
The Parkway School District has been keeping a close eye on their own data.
Kevin Beckner is the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Parkway. He says those students who have always done well continue to do so. It’s the students who have struggled who are falling behind.
“We are seeing overall some slight declines that we're going to have to really focus on, but we know that it won't just be on the academic side, but there's going to be social and emotional things that we're going to have to address,” explained Beckner.
The study found the most affected students in 2020 are those in elementary school. Particularly students transitioning from fifth to sixth grade. The least affected appeared to be seventh and eighth graders.
It's for that reason, Parkway's elementary school students are on a blended learning program.
“We have really small classes and as I walked around some of our elementary schools, you might have anywhere from two to 10 kids in a class. What that means is on the days those kids are in school, they’re getting a lot more personal attention and individualized instruction,” explained Beckner.
Parkway schools have also carved in an extra 20 minutes per Zoom class for high school students to allow for extra questions and explanation for those students who need it.
What the NWEA study doesn't show are the students who weren't able to test because they don't have WiFi, or maybe they're not attending school at all right now. Those are the kids who aren’t represented in this data and are the ones who are struggling the most.
Brittany Hogan is Rockwood's coordinator of educational equity and diversity. She also helps run the school’s VICC program, or Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation. Rockwood takes in 1,500 students from the city.
“We ensure that every family who said that they did not have WiFi got a hotspot, and we ordered a plethora of Chromebooks and then we did all these delivery days and we did pick up days," Hogan explained. "We have perfected an imperfect system with ensuring that our kids have technology right now."
Hogan said her high school kids have done a great job of advocating for themselves if they need something or if they’re having issues getting their work done because of outside circumstances. She said the district is paying extra close attention to the elementary school students.
“Our elementary social workers are doing literally hundreds of home visits a month. It's crazy how many they're getting done a week. So, even our kids who are not in person, we are still addressing their needs,” said Hogan.
Both Parkway and Rockwood said they're already planning a much different summer school for 2021 as they’re expecting an increase in students both online and in-person to make sure they're ready for the new year.
Today in St. Louis anchor Allie Corey posted this study on her Facebook page. Here's what a few parents had to say.
Mathew said his sixth grade daughter is doing really well, but she misses her friends.
Tara feels the opposite with her kids saying, “This is all a nightmare!!! No one under the age of 12 is learning anything!!!” She went on to say her SLUH honors student actually switched his math class to better manage.
Parkway and Rockwood have added extra online tools to the curriculum for students. If your child is struggling, reach out to your district and ask about extra resources. Most have them available.