Math scores for fourth and eighth graders have faced their steepest decline ever recorded, and 75% of eighth graders are not proficient at the subject — according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Reading scores also dropped, though not as severely. It’s another example of the setbacks and learning loss kids experienced during the pandemic.
The results aren’t surprising to Christopher Emdin, associate professor at USC. That’s because many students didn’t have access to educational technology.
However, while scores dropped nationwide, Los Angeles Unified was the only district that made significant gains in eighth grade reading. Emdin says it’s an example of the district's work to provide students access to tech during the pandemic.
“There was a really concerted effort to ensure that there were not any young people who didn't at least have a device to get online. And believe it or not, that makes a huge difference,” Emdin says. “Some of the other folks across the country, even though there was Zoom instruction technically, just didn't have access. They didn't have broadband. They didn't have WiFi. So LA did a phenomenal job given the fundamental building blocks.”
Emdin points out that the duration of school shutdowns apparently didn’t impact learning loss. Instead, success depended on the policies implemented during closures.
“A lot of the arguments that are being made in response to this data is ‘well, let's hurry up and get them back to school.’ … Well, the people who actually did best, given the pandemic, were not the ones that got back in-person. They were the ones who really fine-tuned how they were able to have access online.”
He says now there's an opportunity for districts to properly flesh out their hybrid-learning infrastructure.
“It's about access, and it's about meeting young folks where they're at. We have a whole generation now who told us, ‘We like being online. … This is the first time I've had autonomy over my own learning. This is the first time that I've had different kinds of social interactions. It was the first time I've ever been able to pick my own schedule.’ And that they liked that experience. So how can we utilize what worked best during the pandemic to imagine what can work better as we go back to normal?”
He adds, “We've not looked at statistics around the learning of 10th graders or 11th graders, or our young folks on other areas of the spectrum. But the stats say all the reading and math scores for all the kids are the most awful we've ever seen in life. And while I think we should be concerned, I don't think we should have concern lead to alarm, and let alarm lead to the fact that we can't do anything about it.”
Emdin says some students actually love engaging virtually, and digital platforms can provide a new interdisciplinary avenue for teaching through apps like TikTok and YouTube.
“I think sometimes we lose the young folks because we don't want to meet them where they are. … I would say, ‘What is your TikTok pedagogy looking like? What does your YouTube video construction look like? What [does] your Instagram-based learning model look like?’ That's where they are. You have to meet them there.”
That can include assigning students to go onto TikTok and watch videos based on complex science or math. Teachers could also create their own TikTok or Instagram page based on their curriculum.
“We're in an era where our educators have to be creative. Our school leaders have to give them the parameters to be able to allow them to be creative. And I think that if we have a concerted effort to use a little bit of the old school, but also lean into the new school, right? I don't want people to get this wrong. I'm not saying don't wait to get textbooks and don't teach the same old way. I'm saying you got to mix it up.”
Emdin says school leaders also have to focus on how they’re training and supporting educators.
“Teachers have also gone through grief and pain and loss and not wanting to come back. … Young people will always underperform if the teachers … are going through severe problematic issues around why they are teaching, how they're teaching, and whether or not they're not they want to go back. You cannot skip over teachers and say you want to help young people. You've got to be able to support teachers to be able to be good for young people.”
While some advocate for a longer school day or school year, Emdin says it’s crucial to make the learning process an enjoyable one.
“This is why every single year, we have young folks who do well on assessments, and then they get to the next academic year, and it's like they forgot it completely because there's no love of learning. There's no joy of learning, there's no motivation for the retention beyond the assessment. … It's not about time. It's about the quality of what's being done during that time.”
Emdin says that instead of pushing to go back to normal, now is the moment to overhaul how the teaching is done in the first place.
“Let's look at ways to make classrooms more attractive for young folks. I've been doing a project that, believe it or not, I'm not even worried about the content. I'm just worried about making the class look and feel good, so the kids want to come back. We can't ignore contextual issues and then say we want to improve content acquisition. Context and content must work in unison to have good learning.”