Implications from School Shutdowns

Implications from School Shutdowns

1. The recovery from school shutdowns will be extended due to the rate of learning loss that has occurred. It is also important to note that school closures have had highly unequal impacts. Disadvantaged students generally have suffered much more than students from advantaged families.
2. The wide variation within states (and often within schools) means that conventional models of classroom-based instruction—a one-to-many, fixed-pace approach—will not meet the needs of students. Schools will need new approaches to ensure high-quality instruction is available in different settings.
3. Rigorous student-level learning assessments are needed. We must adopt strong diagnostic assessments and frequent progress checks, which should be aligned with historical assessment trends to plot a recovery course. 
4. The measures of average loss and the range around it immediately call into question the existing practice of allowing communities to plot their own paths forward. Communities suffering the largest estimated learning losses generally do not have the means and capacity to create and implement school improvement plans on their own; we should anticipate similar limitations as they build and deploy their recovery plans. Insistence on local autonomy in this case will not yield equitable responses.