Educational institutions including GreenApple Virtual Campus and GirlsTaketheLead.org are rolling out special programs to help kids stay engaged in education and on track to continue learning.
What is the Covid Slide?
You have probably heard of the summer slide, the backwards steps kids can take in literacy and math over the the summer when they are away from school.
In our new normal Covid 19 days there is concern that the Covid slide will accentuate these academic losses. The big fear is that the annual summer slide could supercharge the loss of learning for students having a hard time keeping up with their education in the lockdown.
- Due to coronavirus school closures, students could be losing 30% of reading gains and 50% of math skills, according to new reports by the NEA
About 68% of parents are concerned about their children falling behind grade level expectations, according to a recent survey of 1,381 U.S. parents.
How much could students lose?
The researchers estimate that if students stopped receiving instruction as of March 15, students could lose 50% of the learning gains made in math, with fifth graders potentially returning to school almost a full year behind. In reading, the researchers estimate students could lose 30% of what they learned in the prior school year.
Educators said that students with resources are struggling to focus at home, but lower income kids are struggling even more. Covid is compounding the inequities of many issues including access to technology in the home.
Students struggling to adapt to remote instruction may retain only 70% of the gains they made in reading and only 50% of the gains made in math.
The net result could be teachers returning to their classrooms with a mix of students up to a grade level apart in their learning.
Experts say academic losses could be particularly problematic for grade school students who should be laying critical foundations of reading, writing, and math skills that will be built on for years to come.
- Keeping kids reading and engaged with academic material can help prevent skills from weakening.
Experts say that a continuing education, even at a reduced level and delivered in nontraditional ways, will help keep kids on track through the current crisis.
Intervention is critical
The activities parents and educators engage in between now and September are going to be really important to making sure that this learning loss doesn’t happen.
Rather than fixate on the lost learning, educators say that intervention now can go a long way to keeping kids on track. Summer literacy programs have proved to help kids hang on to their literacy and math skills. Summer STEM camps engage kids to continue thinking and striving to learn more.
- Educational institutions including GreenApple Virtual Campus and GirlsTaketheLead.org are rolling out special programs to help kids stay engaged in education and on track to continue learning.
Check out GreenAppleVirtualCampus.org Live Virtual Camps and Private Lessons in several topics including Reading and Math.
