Coronavirus and the United States Education System

The Coronavirus is greatly impacting the functioning and outcomes of education systems across the globe. Some of these education systems were already stressed. Students differed from high school diplomas and degree programs due to factors such as regions where they reside, family background, and their ages. At the start of spring, when the pandemic peaked, more than fifty-five million United States learners aged below 18 years were forced to stay at their homes. Not only did these teens lack access to learning and basic support from their schools, but they also lost out on team sports, group activities, as well as recreational options like playgrounds and pools.

The shutdown of schools, compounded by the associated economic and public health crisis, poses significant challenges to our learners and their trainees. The public education system of the United States was not prepared, nor built, to cope with such circumstances – we do not have structures to maintain effective learning and teaching during the shutdown of schools. Whereas we don’t know the precise effects, we all see that the performance of learners is worsening during this pandemic. Also, the progress of other developmental skills is affected negatively. Also, we all recognize that since there are many ways through which the pandemic has widened existing social-economic disparities, as well as how these disparities affect educational and learning outcomes, inequalities in education are growing. Consequently, many high school students who struggle a lot to study effectively and succeed in school under normal situations are now finding it challenging, even not possible in some instances, to obtain effective learning instruction, and they experience disruptions in studies that they require to make up for.

With the resumption of learning, we have to understand a lot and think about if we can meet the pandemic head-on. In case learners are to see their temporary disruptions being sustained and are to regain their lost ground if instructors are to do their work effectively during and after the Covid-19, and if the American education curriculum is to deliver on its equity and excellence goals during the following phases of Covid-19, it is vital to recognize learners who are struggling most, and how much development and learning they have lost during this pandemic, the factors that are delaying their studies, the kind of problems that deters instructors from educating these learners, and most significantly, what kind of investments needs to be made so as to deal with these challenges.

This report reviews relevant literature on learning settings with common features in regard to how teaching is happening during this period of the pandemic.

Students Aren’t in their Schools: What is the Expected Consequence

The current recession is different, and it is more severe compared to any that we have witnessed in recent history. Almost suddenly, the Covid-19 forced the cancellation of brick-and-mortar education that takes place in schools. It caused significant changes to the “inputs” employed in producing education – usually school, teacher, family, etc., determinants or characteristics that impact “outcomes” such as graduation rates and test scores. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted inputs at home also; communities and families juggling work and health cries are not in a position of providing assistance for education at home. Since there are no available comparisons to previous trends or events, there are no fully valid references for evaluating the likely effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on learners. There are, nevertheless, specific aspects of this pandemic that have resulted in other situations and have been studied by scholars, and people can derive from them some guidance regarding topics like utilization of alternative modes of learning and loss of education time.

Reduced Learning Time has Possible Delayed Student Learning

School lockdowns that began in the spring of 2020 lowered learning and instructional time, and these impede the performance of students, with different effects on various categories of learners.

Study on Time in School Expects the Outcome of Interrupted Learning

The United States and International data offer a benchmark of what is regarded as usual learning progress over a particular school year. Here we focus on data on science, math, and reading test results of 15-year-old learners in countries across the globe from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) that’s operated by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as well as data on a cohort of United States children who joined kindergarten in 2010 for the 2010–2011 school calendar year from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011, which is managed by the United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2010-2011).

These studies show how much teens learn over a school year (to make the estimations concerning how far the average score on skills of the group was during the end of the year from their skill levels at the start of the year compared across studies, we utilize standard deviation). Averagely, learners advance in their performance in education by between 0.3 standard deviations and 0.5 standard deviations per year, based on their skills and age. The 2019/2020 school calendar year was cut by at least a third relative to its typical length, assuming a linear increment in growth through the year and no main other obstacles, suggesting a loss of around 0.1 standard deviations across the board and larger in their earlier grades. These benchmarks are important when focusing on different ways that learners have experienced the interruption of their learning due to the emergence of Covid-19.

Additionally, it is important to assess the study on the length of the school day since there is a causal relationship between the performance of a student and the total amount of educational and instructional time. Challenges might arise in some assessments since it is hard to separate the impacts of the length of the school day from the implication of beginning school day earlier or shifting to a year-round instruction or five-day school week.

Use of Remote Learning and Online Instruction During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The two major tools of learning available to learners during Covid-19 lockdowns have been alternative and remote learning, as well as homeschooling. Evidence on these two modes of learning makes clear the required conditions for students to learn under these situations and for instructors to teach them effectively under the same conditions. These situations have been absent in the past months.

Research on Effective Virtual Learning Shows that it is Crucial for Learners to Have Experience and Tools

Virtual learning means the shifting of learning from face-to-face to the utilization of various types of devices to deliver instructions. Effective online hence necessitates learners and their trainees to be proficient and familiar in the use of learning devices. Obviously, devices must exist. There is limited knowledge regarding the reasons and how much learners have utilized technology and devices until now.

An estimate of 1.2 million K-12 learners took part in online education in 2010. PISA data for the U.S. imply that, whereas learners spent a lot of time online before the Covid-19 pandemic, most time was spent on accessing email, playing games, seeking information, browsing, and social activities. Learners used little time on learning activities like communication with instructors and other students or schoolwork. These findings indicate that over the last few months, as teens shifted abruptly to online learning, they did so without having the experience or practice of learning online and that the shift necessitated them to change their device-utilization habits to learning from leisure. Also, online learning requires students to ignore interruptions that they come across every time.

The Development of Children that Takes Place is Schools was Disrupted During the Covid-19 Pandemic

For teens, going to school is not merely about learning math, science, social studies, and reading: also; it is about developing emotional and social skills crucial to succeeding in life. The closure of schools eliminated these crucial aspects of school beyond educational activities like developmental, which occurs through personal relationships among learners and between instructors and learners, after-school activities which support the emotional and well-being, and the development of skills.

Additionally, teenagers have lost in-person contact with friend and relatives and have witnessed sobering day-to-day life realities, from parents who are not sure of where to get the next rent or meal or those who are working in risky works so as to make ends meet to family members who are fearing that their relatives are at risk of grave illness or death. Generally, the crisis has assisted in highlighting the significance of skills that are usually ignored in the school context. This ought to be nurtured as part of schooling, and this will need a lot of attention even after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Resources and References:

• Effect of Covid-19 on Students
• Impact of Covid-19 on Education
• Overview of Program for International Student Assessment