So, how will districts make up for the loss of in-person learning?
The grim reality is that in order to make up for the year they lost, it will take money, lots of it, and time, an estimated three to five years. San Francisco has a plan.
When COVID-19 forced schools to close last March, school districts still provided all the services offered in a normal school year, add to that thousands of chrome books and technical support beyond anyone s predictions.
Now one year later, the road to academic recovery will far exceed what districts will have already spent.
Earlier this year the nonprofit Education Resource Strategies analyzed the cost of COVID.
Is it obvious when a child is falling behind?
Guido: Yes. Not only in person, but also online. What s been so wonderful about this year is we have had this way of assessing students online that has made it easy for us to see where they re at with their reading levels. And we re able to see where are they at and compare that to where they should be at. So I m definitely able to see who s behind and who needs a little bit of help.
Spafford: It s not that easy because all these other factors that we are no longer in control of or we are not seeing right in front of our face. It s everything that s on the other side of the screen, with their cameras off. We usually see the signs. They re struggling. They might be frustrated. They might be disengaged and not present and all those other ways that we could quickly fix.