Is your child’s learning gaps being filled in?

[Anonymous]

My child is in high school. He has disabilities and his performance declined greatly during online learning. The biggest deficit is in math and he appears to have not made any forward progress for the last two years.

For those parents who have children that have gaps in learning, is your school filling in those gaps? If so, how?

Is the return to in person learning what you expected?

[Anonymous]

Get a tutor or Saturday school.

[Anonymous]

My son has ADHD and anxiety, and has a 504. He is a freshman. Virtual learning was extremely hard on him, and according to the Map tests, he didn't gain any knowledge but he didn't lose any, either.

He has a lot of trouble in Geometry and Spanish, and there is no obvious additional assistance from teachers. I really wasn't expecting any though. They are overwhelmed. Absolutely overwhelmed. I go through Spanish with him at night and he has a Geometry tutor. His school has afterschool homework clubs with teachers who provide additional assistance, but he refuses to go (likely anxiety-related). So there are some supports in place like that if your child can and will go. But I do think most of this has to be done out of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in high school. He has disabilities and his performance declined greatly during online learning. The biggest deficit is in math and he appears to have not made any forward progress for the last two years.

For those parents who have children that have gaps in learning, is your school filling in those gaps? If so, how?

Is the return to in person learning what you expected?

It is exactly what I expected which is why I got tutors for my child last year in math and foreign language - the two classes he had that were sequenced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a tutor or Saturday school.

Nope, the school has an obligation to address these gaps.

[Anonymous]

My son is younger, OP. His reading progression suffered over last year, even with supplemental help from DH and me. He is receiving in-school intervention from the reading specialist and we’re doing tutoring two days a week.

[Anonymous]

Nope. We have implemented a program at home to fill in the gaps for both kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a tutor or Saturday school.

Nope, the school has an obligation to address these gaps.

Good luck with that!

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, math has always been an issue in MCPS. OP, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to fill in the gaps outside of school.

My kid’s Geometry teacher straight up told them that they would not be making up or reviewing anything they missed in Algebra 1. She took an online Algebra course that seemed to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a tutor or Saturday school.

Nope, the school has an obligation to address these gaps.

Lol! That doesn’t happen. Public school teachers are completely overwhelmed already.

OP we needed tutors to help our general ed daughters in math (they are in accelerated language arts and didn’t need help in that area)

We decided to switch them to private this year and they are now actually getting the math help they need at school.

[Anonymous]

I had to hire a weekly tutor for my 11th grader. She is in precalculus this year.

[Anonymous]

You do need a private tutor. The schools are not addressing these gaps in any practical ways. They talk about them and then that stops and nothing happens. It's a disaster for many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a tutor or Saturday school.

Nope, the school has an obligation to address these gaps.

Exactly. And students with disabilities, particularly ADHD, will not respond effectively to the attention demands of Saturday school or afterschool tutoring, when they need to be recovering from the school week (which is more demanding on them neurologically than those without such LDs). The learning and gaps need to be addressed with teachers present during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a tutor or Saturday school.

Nope, the school has an obligation to address these gaps.

Exactly. And students with disabilities, particularly ADHD, will not respond effectively to the attention demands of Saturday school or afterschool tutoring, when they need to be recovering from the school week (which is more demanding on them neurologically than those without such LDs). The learning and gaps need to be addressed with teachers present during the school day.

I wonder if the right thing is for teachers to give the kids a break during school with classes that don’t really do anything for kids with ADHD and have the school get them a tutor during that time. DD’s school counselor let her drop a class that wasn’t necessary and she is doing study hall instead. School was a lot less stressful both because she didn’t have to do the assignments and she didn’t have to go to a boring class. And I don’t see why kids with ADHD can’t just get completely different math instruction from a tutor during their math class time.

But I don’t know how this would shake out in high school and I’m sure many schools would scoff at parents who asked for this.

[Anonymous]

If you can swing it, get a tutor. I’m so sorry you have to, but I work in an MCPS school and there is no help for struggling kids who have been left behind for a year. The effects on this Covid generation are going to be felt for a long time.