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Social Phenomena Informative Narrative

Abby Howell, Kyli Reese, Grace Thacker, & Cat Waters

There are one-hundred and eighty days in a school year for students. Meaning, teachers

have limited time to cover the curriculum and aid student comprehension. Teachers find that they

cannot move forward in their instructional content because of learning loss. Learning loss refers

to the state in which students lack the background knowledge and skills to build upon after a

discontinuity in their academic routine. As a result, teachers have to take a step back, re-teach

previously taught content, and risk falling behind schedule. Instruction then moves at a faster

pace, spending less time diving into academic content. Students are falling further behind in

school, challenging teachers to fulfill the demands and responsibilities expected of them. The

learning loss of students originates from a variety of things, such as COVID-19, school breaks,

and other internal or external factors.

COVID-19 has not only impacted the entire world, but it has specifically influenced the

success of learning for students in the classrooms. Challenges in schools arose such as “Test

scores dropped, absenteeism surged, and mental health incidents reached crisis levels (Bhatt,

2023). The impact of COVID-19 has left students with new challenges and setbacks when it

comes to learning. Because many schools went to virtual learning, students missed out on the

environment of the school setting. An abundance of schools did not have the same requirements

for online learning. Furthermore, this leads to many students not completing school work or

online assignments. It was identified that there are 40 empirical studies directly linked to student

learning loss from COVID-19 (Moscoviz, n.d.). Students have been and continue to be

tremendously impacted by the severity of COVID-19. Learning loss is taking a toll on students'

success in the classrooms and can affect their instructional learning of their futures.
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While the pandemic brought new challenges of setbacks seen both inside and outside of

the classroom, learning loss typically occurs on a minor scale after breaks in between learning

sessions. These setbacks occur daily, but are really seen by teachers after summer break. The

“summer slide” is a term often used to describe the setbacks or decline in educational

achievements in the period between academic terms (Quinn, 2017). It is very typical to see this

decline among students, but the decline widens the learning gap between students of different

socioeconomic status levels. Alexander (2007) found that students of higher socioeconomic

status often do not lose as much or some may even experience academic gains. Students of lower

levels typically fall further behind their peers. This cycle tends to repeat over each summer,

making it even more challenging to catch up.

In conclusion, while the world had come to a pause in 2020, the abundance and demand

for education in the school systems did not come to a halt. The education system and everyone

within it has seen a new struggle that no one has experienced at this level before: learning loss.

While many reforms are being done to aid this educational phenomena, the drawbacks COVID

has implemented into our schools as well as the seasonal hiatuses from school every calendar

year have offered wider educational gaps from students in these previous years. With many other

factors and contributions to consider with this obstacle, the same question always remains: how

can we fix this? Upon the research and implementations of professional dispositions in the

system, it has been found that the more helpful question asked instead of how we fix this

transitioned into who can fix this. Families and community members of young adolescents have

been shown to be a huge influence in YA lives. Having the support and open line of

communication between the elements from inside and outside the school can broaden the support

for each student and aid them towards their success and closing that gap on learning loss.
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References

Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Olson, L. S. (2007a). Summer learning and its implications:
Insights from the Beginning School Study. New Directions for Youth Development, 114,
11-32
Monica Bhatt, J. L. and J. G. (2023). The dangers of "long covid learning loss" and how to fix it.

The Dangers of ‘Long COVID Learning Loss’ And How To Fix It. Retrieved from

https://www.newsweek.com/dangers-long-covid-learning-loss-how-fix-it-opinion-177448

6.

Moscoviz , L., & Evans, D. (n.d.). Learning loss and student dropouts during the COVID-19

pandemic: A review of the evidence two years after schools shut down. Center for Global

Development | Ideas to Action. Retrieved January 19, 2023, from

https://www.cgdev.org/publication/learning-loss-and-student-dropouts-during-covid-19-p

andemic-review-evidence-two-years.