Adelaide Parker: After COVID, make education recovery for at-risk students a priority

March 12, 2020, began as a perfectly normal, unremarkable day. Like I would on any other Thursday, I woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast and ran out the door to school. I chatted with friends on the way to class, stressed about homework and tests and made plans for the upcoming spring break.

Little did I know, this ordinary day of school would be my last in-person school day in a year.

As fourth period approached, class was abruptly interrupted by the whine of the school bell. My friends and I sat in shocked silence, listening to an impromptu announcement as all sports, clubs and school activities were canceled indefinitely. Two days later, school itself was moved online. It’s been a year since that announcement, and for countless students, parents and educators, it feels as though an entire school year has slipped away.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed devastating societal discrepancies, disproportionally impacting low-income and at-risk families. One of the most serious and impactful of these inequities is that of education. In early spring, as the pandemic hit its first peak, the virus consigned nearly all of the more than 55 million U.S. school children under the age of 18 to learning in their homes. As a student at a Title I school, I have witnessed just how harmful these effects can be. COVID-19 and a widening digital divide have placed low-income students, students with language barriers and students with special needs at a significant disadvantage.

The academic discrepancies of the past year could put students at a disadvantage for years to come. Utah must create and adopt policies to make up for this lost learning and put all students back on equal footing.

To help students regain lost education, schools must first understand their students’ needs. By expanding end-of-year student assessments, Utah schools can identify the areas where students are lagging behind, identifying how much learning has been lost and assessing how much assistance is needed.

It is critical that Utah schools understand the specific subject areas where student performance has fallen behind so that interventions can be targeted. For example, initial studies by The Brookings Institute show that student performance in math has fallen at a much steeper rate than reading, which has largely remained stable.

Once schools have identified their students’ areas of greatest need, they can use the information to adjust schooling and programs in order to help students return to their pre-pandemic level of learning. Through the creation of extended school schedules that allow for more instruction time, schools could address these needs in a free and accessible way.

Strengthening after-school education programs, especially those intended for elementary and middle school-aged children, can provide students with an effective way to access supplemental instruction and boost their own learning. Additionally, schools could develop and offer summer enrichment programs designed to cover students’ areas of greatest need in the time between academic years, giving students an educational boost as they transition between grades.

Utah schools can also utilize the knowledge and infrastructure developed over the past year during online school to create robust virtual enrichment programs aimed at supplementing in-class instruction. Throughout the pandemic, schools across Utah and around the country have made remarkable efforts to offer quality online education to remote students. In addition to in-class instruction, school at all levels could offer online instruction and supplemental programs, such as Lexia Core 5 and Imagine Math, that can be accessed by students after school, on weekends and throughout the summer, giving students the resources they need to recover missed learning at their own pace.

Finally, as vaccination rollout expands across America, the importance of vaccinating students should be not be overlooked, particularly among high school students who have shown a higher tendency to carry and spread the disease. Once those most at risk have been vaccinated, vaccinations should be made available to children as they are approved by the FDA. By giving eligible students fair access to vaccines, Utah’s policy makers can help to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students and their families, creating a safe and healthy learning environment for all Utah students.

During this next year as Utah begins to return to normal, it is critical that we focus on many different types of recovery, including education. We have it in our grasp to ensure equal footing and a bright future for each and every Utah student, guaranteeing their success beyond the end of the pandemic. The time to act is now: we cannot let the opportunity slip away.

Adelaide Parker is a junior at West High School in Salt Lake City, where she writes for the school newspaper, The Red and Black.