Jonathan Shutman Ed.D. is a retired elementary school principal. Since retirement, he has taught at Brookdale Community College, mentored for NJL2L, supervised student teachers for Stockton University and NJCU, and been a GED and ESL support teacher for the Monmouth County Vocational School District.

It is not surprising that local and national news reports, and School Performance Reports on the NJ State Department of Education website, show a decline, in some cases significant, in school district test scores. In addition to the School Report Cards, measures and ranking of NJ Schools can be accessed at U.S. News, Great Schools, and Niche. 

School shutdowns due to Covid-19 with loss of seat time has had an indelible effect not only on student academic learning but also on social-emotional learning. 

In the editorial, The Startling Evidence on Learning Loss Is In, the New York Times reports a setback of two decades in reading and math scores, and an even wider achievement gap between wealthy and poor children. Nationally, $190 billion in federal aid has been sent to schools to address these gaps via tutoring, to remedy student absenteeism, and provide services for student mental health challenges. This funding will end in 2024 and will have to be taken over by state governments. Important in the commentary is students’ increased feelings of alienation in schools. “This sense of disconnection stems from a feeling among high school students in particular that no one at school cares about them and that the courses they study bear no relationship to the challenges they face in the real world.” 

The Washington Post editorial, This is the Solution to the Covid Learning Loss Crisis, cites the same evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress of two decades’ loss of progress in reading and math scores with larger gaps for Black and Hispanic students. Statistical findings show the amount of internet access time by subgroups for student learning during the pandemic, subject specific losses, and SES comparisons. The editorial notes that federal funds distributed for academic recovery were also used for needed infrastructure repair and air conditioning, updated technology, and physical and mental health services.

In both pieces, high-impact tutoring, in small groups of three or fewer for three hours a week supported by high quality instruction, is the best remedy. Caveats are that less frequent and less intensive tutoring can have deleterious effects, and that tutors must be well trained and student attendance mandatory. The writers suggest lengthening the school day and summer school sessions to enable tutoring.

In our New Jersey public schools, these recommended tutoring services are provided internally or by outsourced tutoring companies. NJ Spotlight reports that nearly 250 NJ school districts are accessing $52 million in state funds for these services, prioritizing students in third and fourth grades. The quality and effect of these services remain to be determined.

Yes, the pandemic is an indicator of this substantial learning loss. Yet, some of these learning losses are decades in the making. What else can a district’s leadership, instructional staff, and boards do to not only address these present learning gaps but set in motion some instructional and curricular models to turn around these learning gaps going forward?

The successful instructional work in the late 1970s and The Mathematics Project by Uri Treisman at the University of California Berkeley has found iterations to this day have specific and general recommendations.  Treisman noticed trends of achievement, specifically where students of Asian background performed with the most success and Black students had the least success, given they were all admitted to the university and were qualified to take the calculus classes he taught. Upon researching and interviewing students, he found that Asian students immediately upon entering college developed support groups to socialize and study together. This contrasted with Black students, who were isolated and felt they had to go it alone. His remedy, now applied throughout the US, was to develop mixed and cooperative learning groups as part of his course of study. Consequently, all students achieved at commensurate levels. 

This successful application of cooperative learning and study groups, as well as ameliorating student alienation, has broader implications. Mentoring, apprenticeships, and balancing out the high counselor to student ratio with small teacher-led support groups throughout high school are indicators to improve a student’s school experience that are beyond the scope of this commentary.

We also know that high quality instruction requires high quality recruitment and hiring, and high quality and continuing staff development. School districts often operate as enclaves, ranging from those with high professional standards to those that maintain parochial practices and the status quo influenced by politics. 

Moves to consolidate the over 500 school districts in NJ are unlikely to happen, but neighboring partnerships and cooperative consortiums could lead the way, in recognition of the positive effects of organizational synergy, regardless of school or district size.

By example, interscholastic sports bring districts and students together in competition. With interscholastic partnerships, students and districts could be brought together in collaboration. Ongoing and interdistrict staff development could be run by teacher leaders and experts to enhance the instructional level and knowledge base and skills of all teachers and administrators. Diverse and necessary special education services could be shared to diminish costly tuition and transportation for out of district placements and enhance communication between interdistrict experts and parents. 

On a student level, interdistrict celebrations and demonstrations in the fine and performing arts and STE(A)M projects could be scheduled and planned to bring students together in cooperation and creation of joint performances and inventions.

These changes will require an openness and imagination to cross time-worn barriers, not limited to competitiveness where there are only winners or losers, or an artificial hierarchy of authority as contrasted with functional authority. Community outreach to develop a cadre of community volunteers could be shared as tutors, experts, and sponsors. Whether through a foundation or specific to the project, an attitude of cooperation and service could include high school students tutoring or working with younger students, senior citizens with specific skills and expertise working with students, college students included as tutors with incentives such as course credit, and community volunteers to support learning at the schools. Administrators need to see and facilitate these connections with teachers and professional staff including teacher assistants, as do teachers with students, and boards of different districts, to see how these cross currents can benefit one another, and the aphorism, a rising tide lifts all boats, finds expression.