Are schools set to attack lost learning? This pandemic year—when so many children fell so far behind, when stu-dents dropped off the radar, when teachers could hardly tell who understood what as they tried to teach from a distance—could this year be the year that American education gets serious about helping kids catch up?
With the infusion of cash from Washington and a new determination from educators across the country are laying the groundwork for an unprecedented combination of tutoring, all aimed at helping children recover from what was for some, a lost year.
For Texas students they won’t be required to wear masks, stated Gov. Greg Abbott. “Kids will not be forced by government—or by schools—to wear a mask in school.”
So Back To School this year is called “It’s Parents’ choice” or “The Great Catch-Up”.
The decisions on whether children should wear a mask are being best left to parents. “The people who are most responsible for the health of their children are the parents, and the parents have the right to make. . . The choice about whether or not their child will be wearing a mask to school,” Abbott told Fox News. “Governor Abbott has been clear that time for government mandating of masks is over—now is the time for personal responsibility,” the statement read.
Districts, including Dallas ISD, have encouraged students and families to learn more about vaccines. Two Dallas high schools, Samuel and Conrad, held second-shot clinics last week, said Finley, DISD’s health director.
“we’ll have information on campuses—but we realize it’s a very family-driven choice, and we understand that,” she said.
Doug Williams, Sunnyvale ISD superintendent and president of the Texas Association of School Administrators, said his district considered reducing class sizes again but didn’t find that move practical at this point.
He pointed out that another preventive measure-returning to virtual schooling-was off the table, after the State Legislature failed to move on a bill that would have fully funded such instruction.
So the Great Catch Up is ON
With remediation, the goal is to make up what a child missed the first time around. Some call it meeting students “where they are!” the problem is students may never catch up. Accelerated learning, by contrast, seeks to make grade-level work accessible to those who are behind through a combination of intensive help and modifications.
So if a child is behind in reading, he or she might be given the grade-level test along with tools to make it more accessible, such as a plot summary or a list of characters, or perhaps the audiobook version. Instead of segregating these children and trying to give them what they didn’t learn, you say to yourself, “What must they know in order to stick with their peers and have access to next week’s lesson.” “the key is you’re always asking yourself, What do they need for next week?” not “What did they miss?” said David Steiner, executive director of the John Hopkins Institute for Education policy and former education commissioner for New York State.
It will be a shift, in the learning environment. Looking for the opportunity to find ways of keeping students at the level they should be. . . Not just giving them the same stuff all over again. How can we improve education is the key.
All kids young and old need peer contact, looking forward to school in 2021/2022 is going forward. Education gives us knowledge, and knowledge is power. Parents you want that for your child young and older, put not only is education important so is the social part of going to school and interacting with your friends, new and old. Human contact this year is important, so is education.
So as the beginning of the school year approaches, many are looking at what a great fun year, with their friends will mean to your children, young and older. Stay informed, stay present. Also let us not forget to be mindful of others if they so choose to wear a mask, it is their choose to-or-not-to. It is your responsibility to protect your children and it is your right to do what you feel is best. Here is to a great school year!
