Students in Rod McPherson’s second-grade class erupt in applause as one of their classmates achieves a goal at Willow Creek Elementary School in Nampa on Wednesday.
Students in Rod McPherson’s second-grade class erupt in applause as one of their classmates achieves a goal at Willow Creek Elementary School in Nampa on Wednesday.
Learning gaps are normal for kids. Summers spent running through splash pads and slurping lemonade don’t exactly equal learning retention. Teachers are prepared for those gaps, but they weren’t necessarily ready for the chasms created by the pandemic, Idaho Press reporter Emily White writes.
A study conducted by Harvard and Stanford universities revealed that as a state, Idaho lost nearly five months of learning in math and reading post pandemic. According to the study, 131 students in Nampa School District had nine months of math learning loss and nearly 11 months in reading learning loss. The average public school student in the United States in grades three through eight lost the equivalent of a half year of learning in math and a quarter of a year in reading, according to the study. And those subjects aren’t the only things that suffered during the pandemic.
“These are non-traditional gaps,” Scott Knopp, Nampa School District director of curriculum and instruction, said. “You would be hard-pressed to find an educator that wouldn’t say that the lack of social interaction in the structured environment showed up right away.”
Curriculum is designed to include behavior, to a certain extent. After kids returned from the pandemic, learning gaps were expected, but teachers were spending much more time teaching students “how to play school,” Knopp said.
Read White's full story online here or find it on the front page of today's paper.
