Parents, educators worried about how kids will make up for learning loss

Dorothy Santana sees the difference that pandemic learning has made in her son Caleb's education. She saw the reading skills of the ninth-grader suffer, which in turn hurt him in other subjects such as social studies, she said.

The North Babylon mother said she worries that the 14-year-old won't be ready for 10th grade when the new school year starts in September.

"His grades suffered. They're still suffering," said Santana, 51. "I saw he had less confidence. As a parent, when you see that, it breaks your heart."

Santana reflects worries that have been simmering since the COVID-19 pandemic forced students across the country into a hodgepodge of at-home, hybrid and in-class learning. Many parents and educators said students have fallen behind and will not be ready for the next school year. Some worry the damage could last long after that.

Educators said they are most concerned about students missing out in math, reading and writing, since these skills build upon one another.

A national discussion is underway looking for solutions, with strategies including targeted tutoring and weekend learning academies, expanding summer school and adding teachers, counselors and reading specialists.

The learning loss will be hard to measure before the fall, and may vary from district to district across Long Island, educators said. And they don't expect the losses to be recouped quickly.

"A lot of students are not prepared. They’ve missed a whole year, or they’ve barely been in school," said Caren Gough, a regional co-director of a state master teacher program at Stony Brook University. "I think the schools will be shocked by the amount that kids are behind."

A recent study by the RAND Corp. concluded, "Students are less prepared to participate in grade-level work this school year relative to last year, but it is likely that few students are getting the extra support they need to close the gap."

In a recent study of 1,000 public school teachers across the country, virtually all said they saw loss of learning by their students over the past year when compared with children in prior years. The March survey, performed by the Horace Mann Educators Corp., reported that 57% of educators estimated their students are behind by more than three months in their social-emotional learning process.

Federal and state authorities are pumping an extra billion dollars-plus into Long Island's schools, much of it earmarked to help students recover from the learning gaps. But much of the money has yet to arrive. The $1.27 billion will mean more after-school tutoring, more summer school programs and more prekindergarten classes for the Island's 124 districts, school officials told Newsday.

Helping students without discouraging them

Educators said they want to bring students up to grade level, but they don’t want to turn them off to education, discouraging them with lower grades, stressing them with an urgency to work harder, and forcing them into summer school when they need time in the sun.

"We don’t want to hurt kids at a time when it’s been most difficult to learn," said Perry Fuchs, a science teacher at Plainedge High school. "I don’t know how we address it, but there’s going to be a gap."

Fuchs, who is also the head of the Plainedge teachers union, said he sees the difference in his astronomy classes. Grades are down from pre-pandemic years. More students show up for extra help. Some labs have been scrapped, he said.

Teachers have been offering a bit of forgiveness in their assignments and tests, letting students hand in work late and so forth, he added.

Plainedge also instituted a "no-harm" policy in which a student's score on a cumulative final exam cannot be used to bring down their overall grade for the course, he said.

Fuchs said he does not believe districts will have a good handle on students' level of learning until the new school year. Then, he said, a teacher of Spanish 2 will see what students learned in Spanish 1.

Each Island district is addressing the learning loss issue in its own way. And the urgency can differ from school to school.

Dafny Irizarry, president of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association, said the disruption of schooling disproportionately hurt Black, Hispanic and low-income populations, widening already troubling achievement gaps. She said she worries that many students could be held back a grade, a move that can devastate a young person and potentially anchor them to a self-image of failure.

"It can be a very bitter, negative experience," she said. "It could lead them to drop out."

Some low-income students live in homes with no computers or internet access, and while schools worked hard to provide these to students, some of that help arrived late in the pandemic, Irizarry said. Some students were pressed into caretaker roles for younger siblings while parents worked, or had to take their turn using a single computer or file assignments on a cellphone, she said.

Irizarry recalled a recent conversation she had with a student learning English as a second language. The student talked about the challenges he faced during the pandemic. She said she hoped he could make up some ground in summer school.

The student, she recalled, said he would have to help his father in his landscaping business over the summer.

Brandy Scott, president of the Long Island Black Educators Association, said she worries that some students are "falling off the grid," meaning they have missed a great amount of school and officials have not been able to contact their families.

Schools need to make extra efforts to reach those students, Scott said. While the virus was spreading widely, school officials were hesitant to knock on a family's door. Scott hopes that is changing.

Meanwhile, Baldwin school district officials said they have not seen significant learning loss due to the pandemic. Superintendent Shari Camhi said the district made sure students had live instruction over their computer during the early months of the pandemic, not just recorded videos. The district provided computer tablets to every student in October, Camhi said.

Baldwin schools are also amping up their mindfulness programs for students, in which they learn to self-regulate their emotions and control anxiety, Camhi said.

Bridging the gap

Santana, the North Babylon mother, said her son Caleb's school work has improved since he returned to in-person schooling a few months ago at North Babylon High School. He's a very visual learner and likes the interaction and the social aspects of school, she said.

Melanie Baker, of Brentwood, said she's worried most about her three children's emotional and social well-being during the pandemic.

"Their friendships and bonding, it was hard to do that," said the mother of Joshua, 17, Jonathan, 15, and James, 12.

But Baker said she saw teachers, her church and others in the community rise to the challenge. "Without the pandemic, maybe they would be further along," Baker said. "I don't think they're far off."

Some Island districts are crafting plans to bridge the gap.

Summer school will look different in the Valley Stream Central High School District, Superintendent Bill Heidenreich said. Instead of one six-week session, the district will hold two three-week sessions. Offering shorter sessions provides time for students to take courses for one session and then enjoy the rest of their summer, he said.

Valley Stream also has had "some success" with the Saturday academies that began in March, one in each of its four secondary school buildings. The district has about 100 students enrolled in programs for math, science, social studies and physical education.

Freeport also is growing its summer program to accommodate more applicants. Administrators expect the number of students signing up for activities such as math, English, art and coding to double from the number served in the past.

"I already have over 700 students who have signed up," Superintendent Kishore Kuncham said of the K-8 summer classes. "Normally, it's about 400."

Freeport received a $10.8 million increase in state foundation aid for the next school year, and the district plans to expand summer enrichment programs such as robotics and coding, while also providing a small cut in school property taxes, he said.

Challenges come the fall

Measuring the setbacks in achievement could be difficult, said Audra Cerruto, associate dean and director of graduate education programs at Molloy College in Rockville Centre.

Cerruto noted that many students opted out of taking the state standardized tests for grades three through eight. Regents exams have been reduced from 10 subjects to four federally mandated tests in English, algebra, earth science and the living environment. Regents exams weren't given last school year due to the pandemic.

Heidenreich said he does not expect students to be caught up by September.

"Addressing the issue will be a process — and not an event," he said. "The process will be ongoing — at the end of the semester, summer school and the start of the new year in September."

Fuchs said the Plainedge district recently posted job opportunities to teach preparation classes for the Regents exams coming up this month. In the past, such prep work was done through standard extra help.

Ron Masera, superintendent of the Center Moriches school district, said schools there will do assessments for all students in September.

"There may be a broader range of readiness levels in September," said Masera, who is also president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association.

Masera said officials are crafting a vision of summer instruction but won't know for a few weeks how many students will attend.

As for next school year, "Nothing is off the table" to find creative ways to help students who need additional support, he said. Center Moriches is considering adding summer enrichment programs and is using federal stimulus money to hire an extra social worker and teachers for reading, academic intervention support and English language learning, he said.

For all the concerns, there remains a sense of hope. Many students could be back in schools full time, with few restrictions. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said he believes schools can fully reopen by September, but the state has yet to announce guidelines.

Paige Panzner-Kozek, 49, of Lido Beach, said she saw her kids struggle during the early months of the pandemic, particularly with the technological skills associated with distance learning. But the two — eighth-grader Thelonious and sixth-grader Zsa Zsa — worked hard, and she sees them on track now, she said.

She saw Thelonious helping his sister log on to her Chromebook and assist her with her lessons. More importantly, she said the children learned invaluable life lessons during the crisis.

"All the children learned resilience," Panzner-Kozek said. "The test of their ability to adapt."

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.comScraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.