3 years after the Pandemic, kids still aren’t showing up to school

The American Educational Crisis in the End of the Second World War and Why Parents and Students Need Us to Live With What They Want: A Reflection on the State of the Union

Covid has gradually lost its grip on American life, so things have not reverted back to normal. Today’s teachers and students are living with a set of altered realities, and they may be for the rest of their lives:

There is a regression of academic results. Since the National Assessment of Educational Progress was first administered in the 1970s, scores have usually risen or held steady. But two decades’ worth of math and reading gains were more or less erased for 9-year-olds during the pandemic. Declining academic skills will have long-term consequences. Researchers calculated that the decline in math skills alone will lead to $900 billion in lower future earnings over the course of students’ lifetimes.

Surging inequality. As Robin Lake and Travis Pillow write in a Brookings Institution article, “American students are experiencing a K-shaped recovery, in which gaps between the highest- and lowest-scoring students, already growing before the pandemic, are widening into chasms.”

Parents are aware of these new realities and have begun to adjust their thinking. Voters prefer the Democrats over Republicans on education. By 2022, Nat Malkus pointed out that Republicans were as trusted as Democrats by voters.

But this isn’t happening. In his State of the Union address, Biden offered no ambitious plans to fix America’s ailing schools. Even in the midst of a crisis that will have serious ramifications for American history, the Republican Party cannot state a complete sentence on school reform without the initials C.R.T.

What Do Long Covid and Respiratory Infections Tell Us About the Problem? A View from the Opinion Columnist Zeynep Tufekci

Do you think things like long covid and re infections are a problem? That’s a difficult question to answer definitely, writes the Opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci, because of the lack of adequate research and support for sufferers, as well as confusion about what the condition even is. She has suggestions on how to think about the problem. Regarding another ongoing Covid danger, that of reinfections, a virologist sets the record straight: “There has yet to be a variant that negates the benefits of vaccines.”

How is the virus going to change? As a group of scientists who study viruses explains, “There’s no reason, at least biologically, that the virus won’t continue to evolve.” From a different angle, the science writer David Quammen surveys some of the highly effective tools and techniques that are now available for studying Covid and other viruses, but notes that such knowledge alone won’t blunt the danger.

What would Covid look like? David Wallace Wells writes that by one estimate, 100,000 Americans could die each year from the coronavirus. Stopping that will require a creative effort to increase and sustain high levels of vaccination. New vaccines, delivered through the nose, may be part of the answer according to Akiko Iwasaki.

The last year Issac remembers being part of a normal school year was third grade. Now, he’s in seventh, with multiple classes each day, a busier schedule and new classmates.

Jessica says it’s been a struggle getting her son back into his normal routine at school. He will say to me, ‘I’m sick,’ three days a week or four days a week. I don’t feel OK. Is it possible to just pick me up? I don’t want to be here.’ “

Chronic Absence and the Impact of COVID on Students and Families in Maryland, says Ryan Voegtlin, principal of a large Maryland district

Students who are chronically absent are more likely to fail their standardized tests and drop out. And as often happens in education, students who struggle with attendance are also more likely to live in poverty, be children of color or have disabilities.

Absenteeism at the school was reduced by over half between December 2016 and December 2020. Principal Josh Fraser says his team hasn’t yet collected enough data to prove the new classes directly led to better attendance, but he says the vast majority of students have found a subject they identify with, and that has been key.

When COVID became more endemic, people assumed that it would result in an improvement in attendance. And I’m not seeing that.”

In a survey of 21 school districts in rural, suburban and urban areas, NPR found most districts – from New York City to Austin, Texas, to Lawrence, Kan. – still had heightened levels of chronic absenteeism.

“Showing up to school makes sure that you have access to resources,” she says, “whether that’s food and nutrition, whether that’s after school and engaging learning experiences, whether that’s access to health care.”

“Transportation has been our number one issue,” says Ryan Voegtlin, director of student services for the large Maryland district. He says the shortage of bus drivers has made it hard to cover all of the routes and guarantee transportation for every student.

“That impacts a lot of our higher poverty areas where some of our parents don’t have as flexible of jobs, where they may not have their own transportation.”

An attendance number has been improved in San Juan County, New Mexico, but they haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic levels. He has the same challenges as Voegtlin, but his school district is partially in the Native American nation of the same name and his schools serve communities who were disproportionately impacted by COVID with higher infection and hospital rates compared to other groups. Families in his district are still recovering emotionally, and the schools still have mask mandates. There’s also still fear around large gatherings of people, which are hard to avoid in schools. Carlson says his district’s Native families don’t generally think of school as a safe place.

The loss of connections to peers and adults has been made worse by difficult staffing issues in schools. But that means we need to be even more intentional about relationship building, connecting to kids.”

In his district of the LAUSD, attendance has improved compared to last year but it hasn’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.

There are a variety of challenges students face in school, including a youth mental health crisis, increased fear of health concerns, transportation difficulties, and poverty, which can make it difficult for students to keep a routine.

Several school leaders also told NPR they worry their students have lost a sense of belonging in the classroom after so much time away. Hedy Chang of attendance works has the same concerns.

Chang says, while home visits are effective, “how you do them matters a lot.” She says the most successful home-visit programs involve trained school staff or teachers who make repeated visits and maintain ongoing relationships throughout the year.

LAUSD recently started using its home-visit program to target children experiencing housing insecurity. “Many of the homeless children in L.A. happen to be vulnerable kids, who are absent the most in the city,” Carvalho said during his tour of the crisis center.

Carlson is investing in more mental health resources. And in Maryland, Voegtlin has hired more bus-drivers, though he still doesn’t have enough for every bus route. Voegtlin’s district is also reaching out to families before students become chronically absent, and he and his team are working to educate caregivers about the long-term impacts of kids missing school.

“It’s not a quick process,” he explains, “but it’s a process that [has allowed] people to start understanding that everyone owns attendance, and not just when it gets to the chronic point.”

He says that his district tries to not have the same approach as years past. For example, they only file charges in truancy court as a last resort after exhausting other attempts to connect with families.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160358099/school-attendance-chronic-absenteeism-covid

Covide: Sharing attendance data to help cut chronic absenteism in grand rapids schools, Michigan, the decade after the pandemic

Chang says another way to improve attendance is to gather regular, transparent data throughout the school-year, rather than only once, at the end of the year.

“When you look at your data regularly on an individual level, it can allow you to reach out to students before the challenges are so entrenched that you can’t turn them around,” she says.

Grand Rapids Public Schools collects data multiple times a month. Mel Atkins, who leads attendance efforts there, has found that sharing data can make a difference.

“I know you need the data to know where we’re going and how big the problem actually is,” he explains. “So we share the data with community partners, parents.”

He says his district used 8-foot boards to display monthly attendance data. “It wasn’t always good, but what it did sparked a conversation.”

In his district, the data driven program helped cut chronicAbsenteeism by half. The pandemic hampered progress, but the team and I are focused on restarting that and getting back to our old ways.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160358099/school-attendance-chronic-absenteeism-covid

Carlson’s “Dunge” at Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, inspired by a student’s experience at a soccer game in New Mexico

“We want to provide environments where students want to be, so when they walk in the door, they feel safe and they say, ‘I’m welcome here and I want to learn,’ ” says Carlson of New Mexico.

Some say is a way to create environments where students want to be. The Brooklyn Center middle and high school, which is outside Minneapolis, responded by introducing two class periods a week in which students can choose from classes like “art in the garden” and “Dunge”.

The value of students seeing their power is reflected in decisions that impact their day to day lives… He says that it is something that creates belonging.

A sense of belonging has begun to make a difference for the person in L.A. His middle school recently launched a new sports program, which he was eager to join.

“That’s something that kind of made school fun again,” says Issac, in his L.A. Lakers jersey. He’s been playing basketball and says the “fun” parts of the school day have motivated him to show up more.