Recently, in my high school Business Communication class, I had one of the most disheartening conversations I’ve ever had with my students. It was regarding the effects of the pandemic lockdowns. Policymakers and leaders need to listen to these experiences, get students back on track and develop new strategies if we ever have a challenge similar to the COVID-19 pandemic in the future.
It was apparent during this conversation that many children under 18 cannot do school by computer. My students admitted that they regularly checked in with their teachers and then either turned off their camera or checked out after attendance. Many students said the isolation shortened their attention spans and made it difficult to stay on task. This is reflected in recent research as well. The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard released a study in May based on two years’ worth of data, from 2019 through 2021. Over that timeframe students who attended school in-person for the 2020-21 school year—and were only remote for the spring of 2020—lost about 20% of their learning in math, while students who were remote for the majority of that time lost close to 50% of their learning. That is a disaster.
Two students shared about taking the ACT exam and how they just wanted to give up in the middle of the test because in the last year they “hadn’t learned anything.” By far, this was the saddest statement shared within the discussion. When I revealed to them that schools in their surrounding suburbs were allowed to go back to in-person instruction much sooner than Milwaukee Lutheran, I saw anger in their eyes. They feel the policymakers and community leaders bailed on them, and they won’t forget it.