The term "learning loss" has gained traction in our sector of the world as a problem we need to throw money at. I realize that none of us are going to give that money back, but how many of us are already tired of the spam email we are getting from dozens of curriculum and assessment companies from across the country? I was frustrated by a post from EducationWeek about study results from Renaissance. In essence, they reported that using the term "learning loss" may be misleading because their scores showed that students were not doing that bad. I would expect that from someone who sells assessments.
Admins and teachers on the ground know that what we are really talking about accountability loss. Kids have the ability to learn and maybe the term learning loss refers to loss of content coverage. That is a little more fair to say. What we witness on a daily basis is not the pandemic disruption causing kids to be able to learn less or at a slower rate, but rather our students losing soft skills that enable them to be good students. The biggest one being being accountable for their own behavior. Schools often provide the best setting for this type of learning.
Lets compare some behavior instances at my school this year compared to 2018-19. You know, our last normal year. Keep in mind that we have attended half days while in school and we have spent a good amount of time in full remote learning. During the first semester, we were remote more than we were in person. Less than a month ago, we changed course and asked that 90% of our remote learners (that were by choice) to return to the school building. Now that you have a rough overview of the conditions, lets look at some behaviors that are destructive to academic performance and are very related to personal accountability.
The biggest change in a given behavior for us is the number of students caught cheating on assignments. In 18-19 we had a total of 9 referrals for cheating. In 20-21, there were 30 referrals for cheating. This was easy to catch when two or more students would submit identical assignments down to each mistake and the color and type of font. In a student wellness survey I sent out in December, nearly 30% of respondents reported that they had received work from another student once or a few times. Eight said they do it all the time. With an enrollment of 250 students, this is a pretty frustrating chunk of the population. It is easy for them to simply text in a group chat and share work. The behavior has become normalized. We are positive that we have only caught a small amount of it.
Being in remote learning as a district or families choosing remote learning has kept many students out of what I call school practice. Dress code referrals are up and we do not make a big fuss about this in general. What we are noticing is that many student come to school in what they went to bed in or what they plan to stay out all night in. Sleeping in class is another one. Many students report that they basically go to bed when they want to and come to school ready to eat breakfast and crash out. As you might imagine, we have lots of morning tardies too. We are seeing a loss of urgency towards school.
When students began to struggle with the in person routines and therefore school, they opted into remote learning. Sometimes moving in and out each quarter at their own convenience. This allowed them to cease getting better at these soft skills or abandon them altogether. Only when we forced them back into the building did we learn of legitimate health related reasons for them to be remote and some just didn't show back up at all. I begged many families to send their struggling children back to help them be successful. The success rate on that pitch was low. Home visits would teach us many times that students were never home during the day and sometimes the parent that was home was not sure of their whereabouts. The conditions some of our students are subject to are completely out of our control, but we spent a lot of time and energy trying to reel them in because we know that they are losing the skills it takes to be successful at school.
We have to be honest about what this is. Students aren't experiencing learning loss, they are experiencing accountability loss. When they are not held to a regular standard of excellence because pandemic conditions keep them out of school, they lose their ability to be academically successful. I have many parents that are working hard to put food on the table and it can be difficult to be an accountability partner for their children. COVID has not just affected schools, but families too. Please do not forget that. Yes, you will have some taking advantage but know that most are doing the best they can with what they have.
But both schools and homes need to agree that best possible place for kids to be is at school. Admins need to acknowledge that while 20% of their federal grant funding needs to be used to address learning loss, you can spend some of that on accountability loss too. I'm seeing lots of districts moving to hire social workers and counselors. This is a great approach to reconditioning kids to be accountable. Hiring liaisons to help re-enfranchise families is another good way to help parents help their kids. Personnel to help address chronic absenteeism post pandemic is extremely critical to helping students rebound from a school year that left them unconditioned to return under normal circumstances. If we address accountability loss, we can overcome learning loss. We cannot heal one without the other.
