school is even more challenging than it was before

According to a research brief from Curriculum Associates, “more students are underprepared for grade-level work” than they were before the pandemic and “pre-existing inequities in learning that existed for students of color and students in lower-income communities before the pandemic are being exacerbated by the condition of education during the pandemic.” Whether we call it “learning loss” or, as many prefer, “unfinished learning,” there is no question that school is now even more challenging than it was before. Students and families (and teachers!) need more support – in reading for the youngest learners, in mathematics for all children but especially late-elementary and middle school youth. Anxiety, depression, the loss of social skills and what we might call “school skills” (how to show up, follow a schedule, raise your hand, deal with teachers and classmates, manage your time) also intensified during the pandemic, so re-learning how to “do” school, build relationships, set goals, and develop life skills is even more urgent now than it was before. (The teacher shortage across the US, as reported by The Washington Post, only adds to the problem.) Nonprofits are seeing these needs and working to address them with intensive tutoring, one-on-one mentoring, social-emotional learning, mental health programming, wraparound services like food and financial support, and new ways to engage/reengage the disengaged. As the world changes around them, one way to help students process it is to foster their active participation in their education, to encourage them to advocate on their own behalf. It’s time to listen, both to them and to the teachers and mentors, both in and out of school, on whom we depend.