A recent report analyzing the performance of North Carolina students during last year’s far-reaching COVID-19 disruptions finds that learning progress slowed across all grades and subjects. The report from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR) revealed that students made less progress, on average, than students in the same grades and courses in previous years. Results also suggest that students who experienced more face-to-face learning in the classroom, and where specific and targeted resources and supports were implemented immediately, made stronger gains than students who learned only virtually.
To understand the impact of the pandemic on student learning, the report compared students’ projected 2020-21 school year scores on state End-of-Grade and End-of-Course exams with their actual scores for the 2020-21 school year. These findings are unique to North Carolina as it is individual, student-level data and not based on representative samples.
This report goes beyond how many students met grade level proficiency and presents the difference between where we expected students to perform and how they actually performed. Use of both pieces of information will provide local educators a more complete picture of the impact of the pandemic on student performance and how to move forward.
Using these findings, NCDPI can better understand learning recovery and acceleration programs that are most needed and highlight those that have best served students. Moving forward, this report will serve as a benchmark to monitor progress over time and ensure students continue to accelerate in their learning. OLR is now embarking on a series of stakeholder engagement sessions to gather input from key state and local leaders on the next levels of analysis for the subsequent, technical, and final, report on the impact of lost instructional time which is due in December.
This first blog kicks off the series and provides a brief overview of the statewide summary. Blog #2 will focus on the converting the estimates of effect sizes published in the Lost Instructional Time Report and Presentation into months of lost instructional time to help the general public understand the magnitude of the negative impact caused during the 2020-21 by COVID-related disrupted learning. The series will then turn to focusing on differential impacts and targeted interventions for male and female students; rural and urban students; economically disadvantaged students; academically and intellectually gifted students; students with disabilities; etc.
“This preliminary report will help us pinpoint which North Carolina students need additional supports and allows us to better target resources to specific grades and content areas. This data is a significant step forward in our work to identify the challenges so we can continue developing and supporting district run interventions that accelerate student learning.”
~Superintendent Catherine Truitt