A child attending online learning session

4 ways to reverse COVID-19 related learning loss

by Dearest Community Partners Team

When schools around the world shut down due to the pandemic, we as parents and educators and teachers feared for the significant learning loss and social isolation children would experience. And while education analysis has typically favored examining the short-term impact of remote learning and school closures, two economists — Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann — looked into the potential long-term effects of on-going and unbroken learning loss. Importantly, they focused their research beyond K-12 education, and recently released their findings, quantifying the costs of lost learning and it’s impact on future earning.

This past weekend, the O.E.C.D presented Hanushek and Woessmann’s findings to education ministers from around the world. It’s a sobering piece of analysis. Unsurprisingly, they find that prolonged learning loss many students have experienced due to COVID-19 will cause a lasting economic impact unless immediately and effectively remediated.

“Students in grades 1-12 affected by the closures might expect some 3 percent lower income over their entire lifetimes,” Hanushek and Woessmann write, citing previous research on the economic benefits of education. “These economic losses would grow if schools are unable to restart quickly.”

We know that schools and administrators are doing all they can to support children and families. And while we work together to mitigate further disruptions to traditional school operations, we’re sharing four ways to reverse prolonged learning loss.

1. Ask for teach backs

Ask your child to teach you something they’ve learned at the end of every day (and ask follow up questions). Not only will it support your child’s critical thinking, verbal, and executive function skills, but it may highlight your child’s interests, which is a great jumping off point for project based learning.

2. Pay attention to what your young learner is reading

The ability to read, and read well, is an incredibly important skill. Teaching little ones to read not only helps to develop their language and listening skills, it supports their vocabulary, spelling, verbal fluency. But reading alone is not enough to stretch many young learners’ skills. Many children who select their own books, select texts that are far too easy for them. And with children spending more time at home, they may be more prone to continuously choosing books that don’t do enough to challenge them. Understanding your child’s independent reading level will help you to support their selection of both challenging and interesting books to make sure their skills don’t atrophy.

3. Try and stick to a routine

We know this is a tall order, but structure, predictability, and security can help to lower young children’s stress and anxiety during uncertain times, allowing them to focus on their online or in-person classes. But take it day by day, and allow children to break from the routine if needed.

4. Don’t just rely on large group Zoom Rooms

Hanushek and Woessmann write, “More attention to individualising the instruction could elevate the learning for all students and could act to ameliorate the losses from prior closures by offering learning opportunities matched to each student.” Particularly for younger learners, large group virtual learning is not as effective as 1:1 personalized instruction. Hiring trained online teachers who work directly with your child on reading, writing, math, STEM and other subjects, even just for 30 minutes a day, can help ensure that your child is being challenged and actively learning.

About Dearest
Dearest provides private online classes and group sessions, subsidized by employers, to provide a family oriented corporate benefit like no other.
Families can access top teachers through www.dearest.io/parents/onlinelearning