PROVIDENCE – A study from the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment released Thursday notes that K-12 students across Rhode Island had their learning disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it will take multiple years of recovery in order to get learning back to pre-pandemic levels.
The 180-page report, commissioned by both NCIEA and the R.I. Department of Education, examines the extent to which student academic attainment was impacted because of the pandemic that began in March 2020 by utilizing pre-pandemic state assessment data as a baseline. NCIEA and RIDE used Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System data for both math and English-language arts, as well as the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment-ACCESS English-language proficiency data to look into how the pandemic impacted student academic achievement.
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According to the report, student academic impacts in math were greater across the state than ELA. While ELA impacts were between “moderate” to “large,” the impacts on mathematics learning were “large” to “severe,” the report states in looking at the RICAS data. Additionally, Hispanic students overall demonstrated “the largest impacts in mathematics,” the report states.
Also, in looking at the WIDA-ACCESS data, the report said elementary and middle school students were negatively impacted more by the pandemic than high school students. However, higher-achieving students suffered “more severe” impacts in learning due to the health crisis, the report states.
The report also concluded that all of Rhode Island’s public school districts had some academic impact, but with “substantial variability by district.” While the report looked at all of the school districts, it specifically highlighted Barrington, Coventry, Cranston, Cumberland, East Providence, Pawtucket, Providence, Warwick and Woonsocket in some of its graphical data because each of those districts had at least 250 students within each grade level.
Recovering from the pandemic could be a lengthy process. The report states that it will take three to five years for Rhode Island’s academic rates to return to what they were in 2019, and “additional supports” will be needed to help with that recovery. The report also said the 2022 RICAS and WIDA-ACCESS data “will be a critical barometer to determine whether recovery has commenced or whether students continue to fall further behind academically.”
R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said Wednesday that the department is going to bring superintendents in and look closely at their respective districts’ academic plans in order to help students across the state rebound from learning loss as quickly as possible. She said it’s possible that some districts may need to “tweak” their plans and accelerate learning recovery faster based on the learning data they receive.
“Instead of having [additional learning] every other day, maybe we’ll have it every day,” Infante-Geen said. “Or maybe instead of it being for an hour, it will be for an hour and a half. It’s those kinds of conversations that we’re going to have.”
Infante-Green said that during the pandemic, the state ran summer courses in various districts with math being the emphasis. Students who took part in those summer courses saw a 50-point increase in their SAT scores, the commissioner said, and she noted that the state-run summer courses will continue to be offered.
“These are the things that we’ve seen work, so how do we replicate it?” Infante-Green said, “and how do we make sure that’s [being offered] in the districts?”
The full report can be read here.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
