On pandemic 'learning loss,' schools look forward, not back
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A complete picture has yet to emerge of how much learning was lost by students during the pandemic. That’s all right with educators like Superintendent Craig Broeren, whose top concern is figuring out where each student stands now.
Wisconsin Rapids, his small school district in central Wisconsin, isn’t administering any special test to measure how much districtwide progress stalled after classrooms closed in March. Such data wouldn’t capture a student’s unique circumstances or point a way forward, Broeren said.
Instead, the district is sticking with its usual fall assessments. Those tests can roughly estimate learning loss since the spring, but leaders say they are most useful for pinpointing what students know now and tracking how much they learn.
“Frankly, what we lost is less of an issue than where a kid is starting from,” Broeren said, “and using that to inform instruction.”
That approach is the norm nationwide. Most states aren’t requiring all districts to administer uniform tests to measure students’ slippage. Rather, districts generally are using the tests they give each fall to guide instruction for the school year and, in many cases, also assessing students’ mental health and well-being -- an approach favored by many experts and educators who say a rush to quantify learning loss could demoralize students and teachers.
But as many schools continue distance learning or brace for more virus-related closures that could further slow progress, the patchwork approach to testing this fall worries some advocates and policymakers who say it’s difficult to plan academic recovery this year without consistent data across districts and states.
“We’re in this data black hole,” said Kyle Rosenkrans, executive director of...
