Coronavirus In Pittsburgh: Studies Warn The Learning Loss During COVID-19 Pandemic Will Be Great
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Pennsylvania Department of Education applied for $523 million in emergency funding to help schools across the state during the coronavirus pandemic.
But the crisis in schools is more than just monetary, it's about learning loss.
Students are trying to learn without the in-person help of their teacher, and studies indicate the learning loss will be great, especially for those already struggling to meet standards.
The classroom looks different these days; students in their beds, classmates and teachers on screens.
James Fogerty, CEO of A Plus Schools, says school at home is usually not nearly as good as in a brick and mortar school.
A Stanford study found that brick and mortar schools significantly outperform online charter schools in Pennsylvania.
"It shows me a couple things," Fogerty says. "One, that we have a lot still to learn about what it takes to do online learning well. And that the real secret sauce of schools is this classroom culture that they build with the peers and the teachers and everyone becomes part of."
So how much learning is really happening?
A study by NWEA, a non-profit that studies education, projects kids will return to school in the fall with about 70 percent of what they would normally have learned in reading and 50 percent in math.
"I think what we're going to have to do is say, 'Okay, you're in fourth grade. You missed the second half of third grade. So while you're doing the fourth-grade work, we're going to also be supporting you and catching up," Fogerty said.
In Pittsburgh Public Schools, only about half its students have access to a computer at home. And even before remote learning, almost half of their third-graders were not reading at grade level.
That's just one example of the district's academic struggles.
Fogerty and Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet are thinking ahead to summer and fall and how to help kids make up for the learning loss.
Hamlett says he is already thinking about "putting monies aside and making sure all of our schools have money for after-school enrichment programs and making sure that those kids, whatever those skill sets that were lost in this particular semester, that we make sure we get those skills first."
Fogerty has another idea: pay new college graduates who are having a hard time finding a job to tutor kids after school this fall.
