Recently, there has been much discussion about academic learning loss on the part of our students because of the lack of teacher-directed instruction during COVID. There are a number of people who suggest that student scores on standardized tests are dropping and that the lower scores are due to the fact that students spent fewer hours in the classroom during the COVID years. There are many suggestions as to how we can bring student scores "back to where they should be"and those suggestions center on lengthening the school day and the school year.
William has come upon a Newark Star Ledger editorial that addresses this very problem. The author of the editorial suggests that the NJSDOE provide financial support to districts that want to extend the school day as well as the school year in order to make up for time lost during COVID.
Please read the short article and respond. (The link can be found below). Do you agree with the author's premise? Do you believe that the author's recommended solution will be easy to implement? Should we address the issue of time lost during COVID? Why or why not.
I think that a longer school day and a longer school year would definitely help students to catch up on skills that have been missed during the years of learning through COVID. I think extra time would allow teachers to focus on foundational skills that students must build upon as they progress through their education. I do not think, however, this solution would be easy to implement. I think this solution would be very expensive. Even if the money was there, I think there would be a lot of push back from staff and parents about extending the school day and school year. In addition, I think that students would feel even more "burnt out" than they do now and may not work as hard. This issue of lost time is something that I believe is important to discuss, as students and teachers are still currently struggling with the aftermath.
ReplyDeleteI believe all students were affected differently from the pandemic. While some schools closed, others were open. Schools that typically struggled prior to the pandemic probably struggled more during the pandemic. I don't know if there is a one fits all solution. Extending the day may work for some schools/students; however, people have commitments after school including sports and other extracurricular activities. Educators also have commitments outside of school whether its professional, family, or personal. I believe talking about the issue, acknowledging the issue is a great place to start, parents/guardians, teachers, and students may resist the change to the existing school year and day.
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