TAMPA, Fla. — Many children have experienced learning loss since the pandemic. Some have been able to catch up, while others are still trying to close the gap.
“She’s actually working on fine motor and upper body strength," said Raquel Fuentes-Zapata, as she works one-on-one with her daughter Aleena in the sensory room at Bilingual Speech Therapy in Clearwater. Aleena is about to turn nine. “It allows her to be able to understand her body and space—spatial awareness.”
Raquel is a mom and full-time speech therapist. She was in the medical field when COVID-19 started and decided to leave her job and open her own speech therapy facility during the pandemic.
“Go ahead and pull out all of the little beads that you find in there," she said as she sat with Aleena at a desk. Aleena is playing with putty, a way to work on her handwriting and fine motor skills.
She's also come a long way.
“She essentially lost a year of learning," Raquel said.
Aleena is in third grade now but was in kindergarten when COVID-19 began. Her learning loss started when things went virtual. She struggled to engage. Then came masks and social distancing, and she found it hard to keep up.
“With reading definitely for sure. Because in kindergarten, they learn phonological awareness and decoding and segmenting and blending and rhyming," said Raquel. "She just was not getting it.”
They met with teachers and developed a game plan. She was quick to act—some parents weren’t. Parents tell her they didn’t know where to go or how to get help—now they’re in the middle of catching up.
“From kindergarten to third grade, you’re learning to read, and once you hit third grade, you’re reading to learn," she said. "If you don’t have those skills at that time in third grade, it’s usually the year they start considering retention at that point.”
According to Researchers at Harvard and Stanford Universities, learning loss was far-reaching. In the spring of 2022, the average student in third through eighth grades had lost the equivalent of half a grade level in math and a third of a grade level in reading.
The Nation's Report Card shows that 2022 reading test scores were five points lower than they were in 2020 and seven points lower in math.
“I'm a kindergarten teacher, and I’m also a mom of four kids," said Lindsay Jakubowski.
In August 2020, Lindsay did a six-week hybrid of virtual and in-person teaching. She said kids struggled to understand sounds and phonics behind her mask.
Her first-grade daughter, Kylee, is still having trouble. They’re signing her up for summer school this year.
“She struggles with saying words sometimes, so currently, she is being evaluated for a speech delay or a language impairment. She does have an IEP for academic reasons," said Lindsay.
There is hope that things are turning around. The National Center for Education Statistics found just a third of public schools reported COVID-19 and its lingering effects would have a large or negative impact on student performance in the 2023/2024 school year. That’s because of the added work to help kids.
One of Florida’s largest school districts is working six days a week.
“You’d often think, what kid wants to go to school on a Saturday? You would be so surprised," said Meagan Parenteau, Elementary Generalist for the Hillsborough County School District.
Based on their needs, select third through fifth-grade students come in after school and on Saturdays this year for extra learning and support. They are tested throughout to mark growth or what still needs to be improved.
“We can’t wait for all the students to finish testing and for us to see some big learning gains taking place with them," said Parenteau. "We’ve been on a lot of campuses, we’ve walked a lot of Saturday schools, and we’ve seen the learning and the teaching that’s taking place. We’re very excited to see how this is going to turn out.”
The district also focuses on test prep, credit recovery plans, community support, parent outreach, and home visits to help kids reach the finish line.
“We will get there. Our teachers, our administrators have worked so hard since COVID," Parenteau said. "I know our teachers are doing everything they can to ensure students are getting the best quality education they can every single day. We will get there. We will.”
Money for programs like these is uncertain as COVID-era funding runs out. The next president's funding priorities may shape the future.
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