Summer School 2022: New and different programs aim to address pandemic learning loss
Pittsburgh Arlington elementary school in Mt. Oliver. (Photo by Clare Sheedy/PublicSource) Once a time for make-up courses or addressing special needs, summer is now some school districts’ best shot at making up ground lost to COVID-19. by Emily Sauchelli, PublicSource For many schools and students, summer is now an opportunity to catch up on learning … Continued The post Summer School 2022: New and different programs aim to address pandemic learning loss appeared first on New Pittsburgh Courier.
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Pittsburgh Arlington elementary school in Mt. Oliver. (Photo by Clare Sheedy/PublicSource)
Once a time for make-up courses or addressing special needs, summer is now some school districts’ best shot at making up ground lost to COVID-19.
by Emily Sauchelli, PublicSource
For many schools and students, summer is now an opportunity to catch up on learning missed during academic years marked by a changing landscape of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some districts in Allegheny County have created summer programs in response to pandemic learning loss, while others have adjusted existing efforts.
Duquesne City School District, for instance, has put new day camps in place to combat COVID-19’s effects on education.
“There’s a lot of learning loss that has happened over the years,” Principal Eric Harper said. “This is our effort to kind of close that gap.”
“There’s been a drop in early childhood enrollment and families [are] not sending their kids to pre-K because of COVID,” added Jamie Schmidt, Duquesne’s director of curriculum and instruction. “So we want to be able to close those gaps before those students get to kindergarten.”
Pre-K participation is instrumental in helping children develop literacy, language and math skills, and the gains preschoolers make can have a lasting impact as they go through elementary school, according to the Urban Child Institute.
In recent pandemic school years, U.S. students in grades 3 to 8 have shown significant drops in math and reading test scores, with the disparities magnified by poverty. Districts are hoping that summer school can be a key to reversing that trend.
The post Summer School 2022: New and different programs aim to address pandemic learning loss appeared first on New Pittsburgh Courier.
