Is there really a COVID slide?

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 What Happened to Student Learning This Year?



    Renaissance Learning released data they have collected about where students are right now in Math and Reading. They were surprised to find that reading wasn't impacted as much as expected. Math, however, was a different story. Students in grades 3-6 especially were behind 8 to 10 points nationally. Learning was impacted more in rural and small town areas versus suburban and urban areas. Growth rates from last year were similar to typical rates, although still lower by a few percentage points overall. The acheivement gap is something that education struggles with ordinarily. Remote learning has accentuated this especially for those already at risk. (Every teacher knows this already.)

    While we do not want to hold our kids back, we also need to be able to focus on skills that are more critical when we work with them going forward. As we look at our instructional practices during this hybrid period, offering students learning experiences that emphasize more critical skills will be important. 

    Here is a website that offers insight into critical standards that could be considered focus areas. Keep in mind that this is a Renaissance Learning site and they will, of course, be promoting their products. It may be helpful to peruse their resources since we are using their STAR Reading and Math assessments to drive our instruction both within the district and for this year's state tests.



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