How much do you think the pandemic hurt your child academically?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have research that suggests learning loss is a broad issue. Of course, a lot of the parents on DCUM might not have experienced this for their kids—frankly the fact that you are here means you are likely engaged with schooling and have time to do so.

We know that the kids who were already behind were disproportionately affected by learning loss. Some of the kids who were doing just fine before actually did better as a result of individualized attention that their parents were able to provide or pay for.

If your child wasn’t okay, I just want you to know that YOU didn’t do something wrong. It’s a societal problem and in many cases could not be addressed with individual solutions.

Thank you for this third paragraph. I keep feeling like it is my failure

[Anonymous]

Yes, but just because now that we are back the teacher is spending a lot of time dealing with behavior issues instead of teaching. I homeschooled during virtual learning and last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but just because now that we are back the teacher is spending a lot of time dealing with behavior issues instead of teaching. I homeschooled during virtual learning and last year.

I will add that the teacher, as far as I can tell, is teaching at grade level, so that's good. However, we all know that behavioral issues have worsened since the pandemic. There are a lot of reasons for that but I suspect that kids who experienced significant learning loss are frustrated that they can't keep up academically, they are very frustrated, and that contributes to how they are acting out. I also think screens make behavior issues worse because kids have no idea how to self-regulate without them and they are on screens all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but just because now that we are back the teacher is spending a lot of time dealing with behavior issues instead of teaching. I homeschooled during virtual learning and last year.

Oh, as far as how much goes? With math, almost none. With writing? A lot. DS cannot write an essay about an assigned topic because the teacher hasn't noticed that he doesn't know how to do it. He's in fifth grade and when he did his writing SOL he didn't write a word. He just sat there for two hours. That was his choice, obviously, but had he started writing he wouldn't have done much better what he did (or didn't) submit.

[Anonymous]

My daughter did kindergarten on zoom and she is threatening academically in second grade but I think still struggling with social skills. So many of her peer group are in therapy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but just because now that we are back the teacher is spending a lot of time dealing with behavior issues instead of teaching. I homeschooled during virtual learning and last year.

It was not just the kids who missed elementary School even the kids who missed preschool really struggle with social skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to say. I think the pandemic made schools lower their standards enormously. During the shut down it was “oh well, we can’t be expected to teach on Wednesdays or to administer tests!” Post pandemic it was like “oh well, the kids are behind!” I’m not sure that expectations have recovered. In parallel, reducing rigor is also now more broadly accepted as an equity move - eg no homework, honors for all.

This. I’m a teacher and my district is basically begging and bribing kids to even come to school at all. It’s sad.

[Anonymous]

Our teen fell back a year and spent time in residential treatment for suicide. The pandemic wasn't the primary issue but it sure didn't help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't hurt at all. He was in grade 1. K would have been hard.

I had a 1st grader for virtual school and it was not terrific. She went into 2nd grade significantly behind. But so did the majority of her classmates. Last year she basically did 1st and 2nd grade combined. I think this year there is still some catching up on writing. Her reading was drastically behind grade level at the start of 2nd grade, but now she's above grade level. Her school addressed it all, there was intervention plans etc.

She was missing foundational things, which were corrected and clicked quickly once she got that attention. I can see with older kids if you missed something, it might not be covered again.

Also, the "standards" for each grade are made up by us humans. They are not ordained by God. We can and should have done a better job adjusting things for a few years while ground was made up instead of sending kids right back onto the path to be whizzed along at a break neck pace of learning.

It was a global catastrophe. I feel like we sometimes forget that when discussing "learning loss".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't hurt at all. He was in grade 1. K would have been hard.

I had a 1st grader for virtual school and it was not terrific. She went into 2nd grade significantly behind. But so did the majority of her classmates. Last year she basically did 1st and 2nd grade combined. I think this year there is still some catching up on writing. Her reading was drastically behind grade level at the start of 2nd grade, but now she's above grade level. Her school addressed it all, there was intervention plans etc.

She was missing foundational things, which were corrected and clicked quickly once she got that attention. I can see with older kids if you missed something, it might not be covered again.

Also, the "standards" for each grade are made up by us humans. They are not ordained by God. We can and should have done a better job adjusting things for a few years while ground was made up instead of sending kids right back onto the path to be whizzed along at a break neck pace of learning.

It was a global catastrophe. I feel like we sometimes forget that when discussing "learning loss".

You could have gotten a few workbooks and worked with herb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister in law is a public school ELA teacher and brought a stack of essays with her to my house as she’s staying over because her water heater flooded her apartment. I perused though some of them out of curiosity. She teaches the 8th grade. Some of these kids write like they are in elementary school. Serious and consistent spelling mistakes (read is raed, you are is ur, mention is mensin etc), failure to write more than 2 sentences for a 500 word essay, run on sentences, poor punctuation etc. She told me most of the kids are very behind and a good number should not proceed to high school. She said that in the last 3 years the overall quality of the work the kids are producing is down. How much do you think the pandemic hurt your child academically?

It had little to no impact because they went to class, participated, and paid attention. The real problem was the parents who checked out and let their little monsters go AWOL or play video games during school hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No academic impact, but huge social impact on my kid.

Do you think they are recovering? Mine seems to be finally better but the class still seems pretty volatile as whole. Seeing how important the kids are to each other makes the shut down seem even more horrendous.

I’m the PP. Our situation was unusual. We had just moved cross country in September and so it was incredibly isolating when things shut down in March 2020. Last year, DC was in 5th and the class was an absolute mess and behavior was terrible and that really irritated my kid. I think the confluence of move/pandemic/age really knocked DC for a loop. Im hoping that it’ll sort itself out as middle school continues, but we keep a pretty close watch for any signs that things are going off the rails. Middle school has such a range of “normal” that it’s hard to figure out what’s what, but I’m especially mindful because I hit my first rough patch with depression at the same age. I want to believe I’m a little more tuned in than my own parents, but I’m sure they thought the same thing.

I think most kids are resilient, but the devil is in the details on an individual level.

[Anonymous]

wow someone is trolling hard on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have research that suggests learning loss is a broad issue. Of course, a lot of the parents on DCUM might not have experienced this for their kids—frankly the fact that you are here means you are likely engaged with schooling and have time to do so.

We know that the kids who were already behind were disproportionately affected by learning loss. Some of the kids who were doing just fine before actually did better as a result of individualized attention that their parents were able to provide or pay for.

If your child wasn’t okay, I just want you to know that YOU didn’t do something wrong. It’s a societal problem and in many cases could not be addressed with individual solutions.

Thank you for this third paragraph. I keep feeling like it is my failure

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but just because now that we are back the teacher is spending a lot of time dealing with behavior issues instead of teaching. I homeschooled during virtual learning and last year.

I will add that the teacher, as far as I can tell, is teaching at grade level, so that's good. However, we all know that behavioral issues have worsened since the pandemic. There are a lot of reasons for that but I suspect that kids who experienced significant learning loss are frustrated that they can't keep up academically, they are very frustrated, and that contributes to how they are acting out. I also think screens make behavior issues worse because kids have no idea how to self-regulate without them and they are on screens all the time.

Those things are true AND kids were ignored for so long during the pandemic because their parents had to work, so most kids were just not parented very well or at all during that time. They never learned how to behave and had literally no discipline during that time because parents were too exhausted.