High School Math Guide

Change the Learning Loss Narrative

Reality : The wide-spread discussions about learning loss result in deficit thinking and grant permission to lower expectations. Recommendation : Change the narrative to focus on accelerating learning. We are not certain about how much learning was lost or for whom. There are students whose performance or understanding has been compromised. Yet there are other students who performed well, even better than in their past. The predictions of learning loss, such as the “COVID slide” projected by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University (Kuhfeld et al., 2020a) of 32-37% in reading and 50-63% in mathematics, have been challenged by large-scale data presented by groups such as NWEA and their 4.4 million MAP assessments of grades 3 to 8 that show relatively little loss for those who took the assessment (Kuhfeld et al., 2020b). But there is solemn news within those findings. Up to 25% of the students who took the test in 2019 did not do so in 2020. Many of those students were from low-income households, often Black or Latinx. While some students did well, others fell further behind. In many school systems, existing equity gaps further widened. The distribution of learning, and learning loss, has not been equal. It wasn’t evenly distributed, pre-pandemic, either. The learning loss could be quite different across subjects, and early research hints at some important drops in student writing growth (writing, not handwriting) and may be greater in some areas than others. Don’t just assume; have a scouting of where and for whom there may be loss. At the same time, check for accelerated growth as these cases could prove most worthwhile intel on what worked well to consider in the Rebound. What is clear is that there is a perception of loss and lack of learning. And that perception is fueling conversations about remediation. And that perception is creating a mindset that we need to expect less from students. In fact, there are discussions occurring about not expecting students to learn as much for the next couple of years. That’s a dangerous road that leads to further inequity. We need to counter this narrative yet not dismiss the very real concerns about the experiences that students had. Redefine and Reinvent Whatever the data are, the students in your school are where they are. It’s your role to ensure that students are learning. As part of that role, we have to counter the “learning loss” narrative. If you really think about it, the phrase is mostly wrong. Learning loss implies that they had it and now they don’t. The reality is that some students experienced less than ideal instruction and did not learn all that they could have. And yet, some students learned more than they would have. As learning loss is discussed, we need to focus on acceleration and learning recovery. Drawing on the research regarding acceleration for students identified as gifted and talented, focus conversations on the following: • Identify skills and concepts that have yet to be learned . • What tools do we have to notice what students still need to learn? • How can we ensure that we do not focus instructional time on content students have already learned?