PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria County’s Regional Superintendent of Schools got a national stage to talk about what she believes has been significant learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beth Crider tells the “Fox News Rundown” podcast Wednesday she’s troubled.
“The latest study that I read was out of ‘Education Week,’ and I believe I read that last week, that said as a general approximation, we’re looking at one third of a school year lost to our students from the pandemic year and looking forward,” said Crider.
Nationally, standardized test scores among fourth and eighth graders showed drops in mathematics.
Crider says it’s not just the academic loss; it’s also the attendance loss, the social-emotional learning loss, and resulting mental health struggles leaving districts with a lot to do to recover.
“We have some strategies that we’re putting in place. The evidence is suggesting that we need accellerated after-school programming. We need accellerated summer school programming. And then, we need to wrap all of that in to mental health support.”
Crider says parents who may not see the loss as a big deal should change their minds — for example, ninth graders are starting to show up in school as if they were learning at a seventh grade level.
