The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of our lives. Most of these upheavals promise to normalize after a successful vaccine arrives and people readjust. However, there is one fundamental aspect of life that will be hurt for years: the American education system.
A “COVID Generation” — portending reduced achievement and growing inequities — will define the period between now and the mid-2030s. Policy leaders must confront this generational reality in guiding strategic education policy.
When schools first went virtual in mid-March, Arkansans lamented the loss of traditions like proms and graduation ceremonies, and the fact that learning would be limited over two months. However, people were generally confident that while education would look different, normalcy would return in the fall through thoughtful adjustments. It’s clear that despite great effort, absolutely nothing will be normal about the 2020-21 school year in terms of student engagement and learning.
The obvious challenges begin in early childhood. Across the nation, tens of thousands of students are kept home from early childhood programs. Closer by, only half of the typical numbers of 4-year-olds are participating in preschool programs offered through the Little Rock School District. While parents’ choices in protecting their young children are understandable, decades of research prove the power of high-quality early childhood learning to prepare students for first grade. Pre-K is particularly effective for children from lower income families. There’s no escaping the consequences of half of our youngest learners missing the benefits of pre-K education. Educational outcomes and equity will reverberate across the following 13 years.
As problematic as these pre-K numbers are, the risks are clear in all grades. Enrollment — in either in-person or virtual settings — is down in most grades in most schools. While some of the students have shifted to options such as virtual charters, thousands across the nation have simply vanished from school rolls. Disadvantaged students, who have been most likely to skip schooling this fall, face a double blow. Along with educational offerings, they also miss other services available at schools, including meals. Other students are officially on the rolls, but thoroughly disengaged in a chaotic year.
In the youngest grades, these troubling engagement patterns mean that more students will fail to gain the literacy skills they need to advance as reading increasingly becomes a tool for learning after third grade. In later grades, it means more students will get off track with their course credits, leading to nearly inevitable decreases in graduation and college and career attainment. (In the LRSD, for instance, about 40% of middle and high school students had interim grades of D’s or F’s this fall.)
Providing a truly adequate education across all the states and communities of our nation will require not just enhanced funding but also smartly employed programming across the next dozen-plus years as the COVID Generation works its way through the educational system. And it’s more important than ever to be certain to get our most vulnerable students access to programs supported by solid evidence of success. These include:
► Ensuring that enrollments in high-quality pre-K programs rebound next year;
► Providing enriching out-of-school learning opportunities — linked back to classroom content — in the after-school hours and summer months;
► Meeting mental and behavioral health needs of students and families in the aftermath of COVID, which has elevated trauma across age groups.
The Community School Model, now being implemented in four elementary schools in a partnership between the city of Little Rock and the LRSD, provides a policy mechanism for providing such an array of compensatory programs targeted at the individual needs of students. Fortunately, because of its success shown in empirical research, the incoming Biden administration’s education platform has shown commitment to community schools.
With the COVID Generation’s educational opportunities hanging in the balance, such efforts are needed now more than ever.
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