Editorial: The lost learning in Ventura County schools
The evidence of what we all knew would be true has become plain: The disruption of the COVID pandemic on schools has substantially set back children academically, and children from families with the least resources have been set back most of all.
A sobering report in The Star last week detailed how what educators refer to as “learning loss” has affected Ventura County schoolchildren. The months of isolation and online-only instruction clearly exacted an academic toll. Unsurprisingly, the toll has been heaviest among children who had limited access to online resources, no adequate place to log into remote classes, and limited opportunities for educational support from working parents.
Among all students countywide, the percentage of students who meet the state standard on English scores dropped 3.3 points during the pandemic, and the percentage who meet math standards fell 5.7 points.
But the declines were uneven, and a tale of two districts cited in the report tells the extent of the disparity. In the Oak Park Unified School District, in which just 12 percent of students are from low-income households, test scores in math and English were virtually unchanged from 2019, the last year before the pandemic, and 2022. In the Hueneme Elementary School District, where 82 percent of students are from low-income households, those test scores dropped substantially.
There is, lamentably, nothing new about the achievement gap in American education. Progress in closing that gap has been slow, but it now sadly appears that the COVID pandemic shifted it into reverse.
How do we go about repairing the damage? The years lost cannot be regained — after all, every child is only 6 or 8 or 12 one time, and the diminishment of learning from that one lost year is forever gone. But the loss can be remediated by providing educational services beyond what existed before the pandemic.
As part of their COVID recovery efforts, the federal and state governments have pumped billions of dollars into extra school funding to provide such services as summer classes and expanded after-school programs. The county’s 20 school districts received $103.7 million in what are known as “learning loss mitigation funds” just for the first post-pandemic school year.
To make these learning-recovery efforts work, it will take more than just government encouragement. It will, to cite an oft-used adage, take a village.
There is an opportunity for volunteers to step up to help children make up for lost time. The Biden administration last year launched an initiative to bring 250,000 tutors and mentors into American schools over the next three years. The effort seeks to engage nonprofit organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs and Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America to provide a pipeline of volunteers.
In Ventura County, the organization Project Understanding has long provided one-on-one tutoring to K-5 students. That mission — and the volunteers who carry it out — are now more vital than ever.
Some libraries also engage volunteers to provide homework help and other tutoring. VolunteerVenturaCounty.org, a website operated by the United Way of Ventura County, can help point folks in the right direction.
In Ventura County and across California, we have seen many examples of how communities can come together and help neighbors who have been harmed by wildfires, floods and other natural disasters. Surely that same generous spirit can be applied to serving a generation whose educations were disrupted by a public health crisis.
The evidence is in. Our kids have lost something. We need to try to help them get it back.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Editorial: The lost learning in Ventura County schools
