The pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequality in America: School closures and social

isolation have affected all students, but particularly those living in poverty. Adding to the
damage to their learning, a mental health crisis is emerging as many students have lost
access to services that were offered by schools.

No matter what form school takes when the new year begins—whether students and
teachers are back in the school building together or still at home—teachers will face a
pressing issue: How can they help students recover and stay on track throughout the year
even as their lives are likely to continue to be disrupted by the pandemic?

New research provides insights about the scope of the problem—as well as potential
solutions.

THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP IS LIKELY TO WIDEN

A new study suggests that the coronavirus will undo months of academic gains, leaving
many students behind. The study authors project that students will start the new school year
with an average of 66 percent of the learning gains in reading and 44 percent of the learning
gains in math, relative to the gains for a typical school year. But the situation is worse on the
reading front, as the researchers also predict that the top third of students will make gains,
possibly because they’re likely to continue reading with their families while schools are
closed, thus widening the achievement gap.

To make matters worse, “few school systems provide plans to support students who need
accommodations or other special populations,” the researchers point out in the study,
potentially impacting students with special needs and English language learners.

Of course, the idea that over the summer students forget some of what they learned in
school isn’t new. But there’s a big difference between summer learning loss and pandemic-
related learning loss: During the summer, formal schooling stops, and learning loss happens
at roughly the same rate for all students, the researchers point out. But instruction has been
uneven during the pandemic, as some students have been able to participate fully in online
learning while others have faced obstacles—such as lack of internet access—that have
hindered their progress.

In the study, researchers analyzed a national sample of 5 million students in grades 3–8
who took the MAP Growth test, a tool schools use to assess students’ reading and math
growth throughout the school year. The researchers compared typical growth in a standard-
length school year to projections based on students being out of school from mid-March on.
To make those projections, they looked at research on the summer slide, weather- and
disaster-related closures (such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and absenteeism.

The researchers predict that, on average, students will experience substantial drops in
reading and math, losing roughly three months’ worth of gains in reading and five months’
worth of gains in math. For Megan Kuhfeld, the lead author of the study, the biggest
takeaway isn’t that learning loss will happen—that’s a given by this point—but that students
will come back to school having declined at vastly different rates.

“We might be facing unprecedented levels of variability come fall,” Kuhfeld told me.
“Especially in school districts that serve families with lots of different needs and resources.
Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom,
teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward.”

DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT ON STUDENTS LIVING IN POVERTY AND STUDENTS

OF COLOR

Horace Mann once referred to schools as the “great equalizers,” yet the pandemic threatens
to expose the underlying inequities of remote learning. According to a 2015 Pew Research
Center analysis, 17 percent of teenagers have difficulty completing homework assignments
because they do not have reliable access to a computer or internet connection. For Black
students, the number spikes to 25 percent.
“There are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in
poverty and children of color,” Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates
of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic
parents, who are less likely to be able to work from home during the pandemic.

Although children are less likely to become infected with Covid-19, the adult mortality rates,
coupled with the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, will likely have an
indelible impact on their well-being.

IMPACTS ON STUDENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH

That impact on well-being may be magnified by another effect of school closures: Schools
are “the de facto mental health system for many children and adolescents,” providing mental
health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need care, according to the authors of a
recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics. School closures may be especially disruptive for
children from lower-income families, who are disproportionately likely to receive mental
health services exclusively from schools.

“The Covid-19 pandemic may worsen existing mental health problems and lead to more
cases among children and adolescents because of the unique combination of the public
health crisis, social isolation, and economic recession,” write the authors of that study.

A major concern the researchers point to: Since most mental health disorders begin in
childhood, it is essential that any mental health issues be identified early and treated. Left
untreated, they can lead to serious health and emotional problems. In the short term, video
conferencing may be an effective way to deliver mental health services to children.
Mental health and academic achievement are linked, research shows. Chronic stress
changes the chemical and physical structure of the brain, impairing cognitive skills like
attention, concentration, memory, and creativity. “You see deficits in your ability to regulate
emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress,” said Cara Wellman, a professor of
neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University in a 2014 interview. In her research,
Wellman discovered that chronic stress causes the connections between brain cells to
shrink in mice, leading to cognitive deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex.

While trauma-informed practices were widely used before the pandemic, they’re likely to be
even more integral as students experience economic hardships and grieve the loss of family
and friends. Teachers can look to schools like Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville,
Tennessee, as a model for trauma-informed practices.

3 WAYS TEACHERS CAN PREPARE

When schools reopen, many students may be behind, compared to a typical school year, so
teachers will need to be very methodical about checking in on their students—not just
academically but also emotionally. Some may feel prepared to tackle the new school year
head-on, but others will still be recovering from the pandemic and may still be reeling from
trauma, grief, and anxiety.

Here are a few strategies teachers can prioritize when the new school year begins:

Focus on relationships first. Fear and anxiety about the pandemic—coupled with uncertainty
about the future—can be disruptive to a student’s ability to come to school ready to learn.
Teachers can act as a powerful buffer against the adverse effects of trauma by helping to
establish a safe and supportive environment for learning. From morning meetings to regular
check-ins with students, strategies that center around relationship-building will be needed in
the fall.
Strengthen diagnostic testing. Educators should prepare for a greater range of variability in
student learning than they would expect in a typical school year. Low-stakes assessments
such as exit tickets and quizzes can help teachers gauge how much extra support students
will need, how much time should be spent reviewing last year’s material, and what new
topics can be covered.

Differentiate instruction—particularly for vulnerable students. For the vast majority of

schools, the abrupt transition to online learning left little time to plan a strategy that could
adequately meet every student’s needs—in a recent survey by the Education Trust, only 24
percent of parents said that their child’s school was providing materials and other resources
to support students with disabilities, and a quarter of non-English-speaking students were
unable to obtain materials in their own language. Teachers can work to ensure that the
students on the margins get the support they need by taking stock of students’ knowledge
and skills, and differentiating instruction by giving them choices, connecting the curriculum
to their interests, and providing them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.