EmpowerK12, RedefinED Atlanta, and Learn4Life worked together to study the impact of school closures due to COVID-19 on student proficiency across Metro Atlanta.
Based on local and national data, if students had taken Milestone assessments in spring 2020, the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency would be expected to drop 3.6 points in English language arts and 4.9 points in math as compared to last year. Based on regional student enrollment of 594,000 in 2018-19, today, about 21,000 fewer students in ELA and 29,000 fewer in math are now on track for grade-level proficiency than prior to COVID-19. Two specific proficiency measures tracked by Learn4Life, 3rd-grade reading and 8th-grade math, show an expected decline of 3.5% and 4.8% respectively.
What are people saying?
Thousands of Metro Atlanta students have fallen behind in math and English after the coronavirus forced schools to move to remote learning, a new study found.
The report estimates that out of roughly 600,000 students in eight metro districts, about 21,000 fewer students are now on track for their grade level in English and 29,000 fewer students are on track in math.
Read the full article from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution here.
Metro Atlanta public school students lost about nine weeks of in-person instruction when schools switched to virtual learning in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. That likely caused thousands of Atlanta public school students to fall behind, according to a new analysis commissioned by non-profits Learn4Life and RedefinED Atlanta.
Read the full article from WABE here.
If you wondered how Georgia’s leaders would respond to the pandemic’s disruption to education this spring, the answer is in: They’re conceding next year, too.
Gov. Brian Kemp and the state’s schools superintendent, Richard Woods, on Thursday said they were asking for a federal waiver of standardized-testing requirements next year – exams still some 10 months away. In the name of “common sense,” they would eliminate the state’s most meaningful measure of student progress.
Let’s hope the feds turn them down.
Read the full opinion piece on Savannah Now here.