Topic: COVID-19 effects on student learning of children attending NYC Public Schools in a low socioeconomic urban environment
The section will focus on how student learning has shifted at the outset of the pandemic to present. The barriers experienced by students and families (e.g. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs scheduling, blended and remote learning, online platforms and tools, revisions to a focus on priority standards, students’ unfinished learning, cultural relevance, trauma) will be discussed.
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While there is no public data published as of yet on the NYC school district. The Fresh Creek School states that their internal data which consists of state test simulations and MAP The Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment is designed to measure a student’s academic achievement and growth over time in reading and mathematics. Together with other classroom-based information, MAP results can help teachers make instructional decisions that match the needs of each child. The internal data suggest that students are managing to stay on track with their ELA academic performance, however in grades 3-5 Academic performance in Math has regressed. As a result teachers have begun lesson studies and Fresh creek Fridays which is targeted to addressing specific unfinished learning in specific standards in ELA and Math. The leadership will be paying teachers per session to instruct students in the FCS Virtual Saturday classes to address gaps in learning.
Fields said, “I don’t mind sacrificing a few hours on Saturdays. Like my principal always says the stakes are high and I am willing to go above and beyond to make sure my scholars are learning what they need to learn to be successful.
The city’s Department of Education is launching a new plan to help students recover from learning loss due to the ongoing pandemic, while also focusing on their emotional and mental health needs, officials announced Thursday.
During his coronavirus press briefing Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that while the COVID-19 vaccine is the light and hope needed to tackle the pandemic, the fallout from the health crisis will still be felt long after the pandemic is over — including within the education system.
“It’s time to look to the future,” he said. “It’s time to start thinking about what our city is going to be like as the [forthcoming] vaccine is distributed more and more, and what schools are going to be like in the future. How we can address the needs of our kids and families and it’s time to really reckon with the challenge we are seeing very, very clearly, which is the way that COVID has stood in the way of our kids’ education: the fact that there has been learning loss and there will continue to be learning loss ahead that we have to compensate for and then overcome.”
Although Richard Carranza, the Chancellor for New York City Schools, described the past several months as a “whirlwind” for students, parents and educators, he said “it’s time to think about recovery. Literally looking up from the here and now and looking forward to where we are going.”
Carranza said that the path forward will require “a recovery period and that’s the vision and framework” of the plan for the following school year.
- Getting a baseline of what academic ground was lost with low-stakes diagnostic assessments citywide and interim assessments throughout the school year to monitor progress and tailor learning. “You can’t know where to focus unless you know what to focus on,” Carranza said;
- Increasing access high-quality digital curriculum at every school in the district;
- Launching one-stop digital learning hub. “This will be a new learning management system phased in, and developed and customized for New York City Schools that houses lessons and tools and that can be shared across the city to help students, their teachers and families better understand how a student is progressing,” Carranza said;
- Deepening professional development for teachers “so our educators have the training and tools to close the gaps,” according to the school chancellor;
- Expanding “Parent University to continue supporting parents with the tools they need to support and deepen learning at home in their language”;
- Confronting the trauma and mental health crisis faced by students through a citywide approach.
“This vision is rooted in healing and in learning because our students need both,” Carranza said.
https://www.cgcs.org/CMS/LIB/DC00001581/CENTRICITY/DOMAIN/313/CGCS_UNFINISHED%20LEARNING.PDF
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1230212.pdf
McKenzie ( 2019)
There are many challenges faced by children raised in poverty. Some challenges are long term obstacles such as chronic stressors and changes in brain structure that effect emotion and memory. Other challenges are more situational causing emotional and social struggles. The mental health issues include high levels of depression among parents and children living in poverty (Jensen, 2009). Students who have experienced emotional and social challenges may
demonstrate acting-out behavior during their school day (Jensen, 2009). They may also be impatient and have poor impulse control. Their behavioral responses may be limited due to having a caregiver who was not sensitive to their needs as an infant. Jensen (2009) pointed to several reasons for this phenomenon. Many of these students have come from homes where they may have had a teen mother. Parents or guardians are often overworked due to working more than one job to make ends meet. This situation, in turn, causes parents or guardians to inflict harsher discipline and be less sensitive to the feelings and needs of their children. Parents or guardians who have experienced difficulties with school in their pasts are less likely to attend parent-teacher interviews or to be involved in any extra-curricular school activities. Poor emotional health, caused by
Children living in poverty see many chronic stressors, including unsafe neighborhoods where there are high levels of crime, parents who are making minimum wage which causes a financial strain on the family, parents who are separated or divorced, siblings living in different households, and households that are overcrowded (Johnson, Riis, & Noble, 2009). All of these stressors create a void in the lives of children raised in poverty, and result in academic and behavioral issues in school. These students have a higher level of absenteeism, they struggle with focus and concentration, they have significantly more difficulty in comprehension and memory, and they struggle with motivation (Jensen, 2009). In addition, living in homes where there is little parental interaction, fewer books to read, and fewer chances for cognitive stimulation will decrease the children’s confidence which, in turn, will lead to future academic failure (Cedeño et al., 2016). Chronic stressors will cause students to under perform in school and
either give up or become disinterested in their school work (Jensen, 2009). For all of these reasons, chronic stressors have a significant effect on academic achievement.
DeParle ( 2020)
Disadvantaged students are much more likely than others to be engaged in remote schooling during the coronavirus pandemic, increasing the risk that less effective instruction will widen the achievement gap, according to the first comprehensive analysis of attendance patterns.
Using cellphone data to track movement to more than 100,000 schools, researchers at Columbia University found that closed classrooms were disproportionately composed of nonwhite students, as well as students with low math scores or limited English proficiency or who are poor enough to qualify for free meals.
About 58 percent of nonwhite students attend schools that rely heavily on remote learning, compared to 36 percent of white students. Remote learning is widely considered less successful than traditional classrooms, especially for younger children.
Others experts have warned that disadvantaged students often lack the support that remote learning requires, such as computer access, quiet study space and help from parents or tutors. The Columbia study shows how the students least equipped for virtual instruction are those most likely to have encountered it this year.
Consider the experience of Shereese Rhodes, a single mother in Kent, Wash., whose fifth grader, Mya Janae, has not returned to the classroom since the coronavirus closed her school in March. While the school has worked hard to improve its online learning, Ms. Rhodes said, problems have abounded.
A school-issued computer would not recharge, and the replacement’s internet connection was weak, causing images to freeze and Mya Janae to sound like a robot. Unlike the last year, when closures followed months in class, Mya Janae has never met the teachers on her screen. They get angry if she turns off the camera but her older brother objects to appearing in the background.
