Grim as they were, the recent release of student assessments known as “the nation’s report card” should have surprised no one. Education researchers say the effects of learning disruption during the pandemic are worse than what kids in New Orleans faced after Hurricane Katrina.
Only 28 percent of Washington eighth-graders are currently proficient in math, a drop of 13 points since 2017. Overall, the pandemic wiped out decades of slow academic improvement, pushing us back to where we were in the 1990s.
Some will note that Washington students are still doing better, on average, than kids in 21 other states, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. But averages blur glaring — and important — extremes. Consider the ocean of difference in math scores between low-income eighth-graders and middle-class kids: a 31-point gap that is among the widest in the nation.
If ever there was a moment to do something different, surely this is it. Yet the prevailing attitude in most school district headquarters might best be described as a desperate effort to get back to normal.
State Sen. Brad Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee, floated legislation aimed at this problem during the pandemic. It didn’t pass, but the central concept — modifying the traditional school calendar — is gaining traction with some school districts anyway.
Sometimes referred to as “year-round learning,” the modified calendar takes our state’s standard 180 days of school and, instead of cramming them into nine months, spreads the time more evenly throughout the year.
Educators in 43 state school districts appear to agree. They are either studying or implementing modified calendars. The guiding concept is responsiveness to student needs, rather than fidelity to a calendar designed when the U.S. was an agrarian society.
A more targeted response, high-dosage tutoring, also has shown results. It’s expensive, requiring one-on-one sessions between teachers and students. But Washington received $1.6 billion in federal aid to cover exactly this sort of intervention. To date, a perplexing 68 percent of that money remains unclaimed, according to the state Superintendent of Public Instruction.
It’s puzzling to examine school district spending choices so far. Though they have until September 2024 to use the funds, only 9 percent of the learning recovery dollars have gone toward intensive tutoring and social-emotional support for kids. Just 3 percent has been spent on helping disadvantaged students. The bulk has instead funded sanitation and bookkeeping costs.
As Sen. Hawkins points out, Washington has made enormous investments in education during the past 10 years, responding to the McCleary ruling. Yet the school system itself seems the same as it ever was.
