Today, a quarter of elementary school students in the U.S. use the Zearn platform and they have completed more than 7.5 billion math problems since Zearn’s launch in 2016. In the course of doing so, they have allowed us to see patterns that we believe can help get kids’ learning back on track. Here are three:

1. School closures are undeniably tough on student learning, especially for students in low-income households. But there are steps states and districts can take to prevent interruptions to learning.

Before the pandemic, there was no gap in participation on our platform between children in low-income and high-income schools, but a massive gap emerged when schools closed. By the end of that school year, participation among kids in high-income areas had mostly recovered, but it was still down roughly 40 percent in low-income areas, which has massive implications for learning — students who aren’t participating in lessons aren’t learning and will need to both catch up and move forward in their future learning.

For much of the country, this alarming opportunity gap persists, yet some states and districts have been able to shrink or even eliminate it. Educators saw that students can’t learn when they can’t connect and treated that as a problem to solve. Keeping schools open whenever possible, distributing devices, expanding internet access and providing families with targeted logistical, technical and learning support —such as technological training so parents can help their children navigate online platforms and academic assistance for students learning remotely — can greatly increase student participation, particularly for low-income children.

Connecticut understood this from the outset, which is why the state was able to raise participation among students in low-income schools to nearly double the rate it was pre-pandemic. And Louisiana demonstrates that it’s never too late to change course. Three months into the pandemic, average student progress in the state, as measured by lessons students completed by demonstrating mastery, was down by more than 50 percent compared with the previous three months, and down nearly 70 percent for low-income students. When the state’s schools reopened for in-person learning, student participation on Zearn skyrocketed and Louisiana demonstrated a stronger recovery in the 2020-21 school year than any other state in the country.

2. Acceleration, not remediation, is key to getting kids back on track.

Many educators face the daunting task of helping students make up for multiple years of missed learning. Traditionally, this means revisiting the previous year’s content to ensure children understand more basic content before moving on. The problem with this approach is that teachers are likely to spend time on what students should have learned in earlier grades rather than on grade-level skills. It’s also not the most effective way to bring kids up to speed.

How do we know? Zearn’s recent research with TNTP analyzed more than 6,000 third-, fourth-

and fifth-grade classrooms serving more than 50,000 students who missed an entire section of critical math content during the 2019-20 school year. About half the classrooms followed a traditional approach, starting with below-grade-content first, while the rest took a learning acceleration approach, starting with grade-level content and filling in below-grade-level gaps only as needed.

Students who experienced acceleration struggled less — answering more questions correctly — and were able to successfully complete 27 percent more grade-level lessons than those who started at the same level but received remedial lessons instead. This strategy is even more effective for students of color (49 percent more grade-level lessons than those receiving remediation) and students from low-income households (28 percent more grade-level lessons than those receiving remediation).

3. Consistent use of quality curricula can propel student learning.

American students’ math performance has long trailed that of children in many other countries, not because of a lack of resources, but because of a flawed approach. In the absence of a quality curriculum, math is often taught as a set of disconnected procedures that students often memorize, instead of a progression of interrelated, foundational concepts. Without a solid grounding in the hows and whys of math, students have difficulty putting it into practice to solve complex problems — and that difficulty breeds dislike. In the context of the pandemic, children are at even higher risk of missing out on key concepts , which could hinder their progress in math for years if left unaddressed.

It doesn’t have to be this way. High-quality curricula focus on sequentially moving through the big concepts and provide support as students need it to ensure they get to mastery — and an independent study of more than 800 schools and 100,000 students in Louisiana showed that this approach produced learning gains equivalent to an additional 1.5 months of instruction over the course of a school year, an effect that compounded over multiple years.

Similarly, in a separate analysis, students in schools with high Zearn usage in Louisiana showed 1.5 to 2.5 times higher growth than students in non-Zearn schools — and the gains were even larger for students in low-income schools and schools predominantly serving Black and Latino students.

For all the ways the pandemic disrupted learning, it also revealed important truths about how to get kids re-engaged and learning more effectively. The way back won’t be easy, but we know what it takes, and we can start today.

Shalinee Sharma is the CEO and co-founder of Zearn Math.

Seventh graders in a learning pod in Calabasas, California (Getty Images)

Over the past school year, the the Center on Reinventing Public Education has tracked how pandemic learning pods evolved from emergency responses to, in some cases, small, innovative, and personalized learning communities.

This summer, as COVID-19 vaccinations increased, it seemed like the major impetus for these efforts was fading from view. We turned to our existing database of 372 school district- and community-driven learning pods to answer this question: How sustainable is the learning pod movement?

That question has taken on greater urgency as new, more transmissible variants of the virus raise new safety fears — especially for children too young to be vaccinated — and school systems explore options for families who remain hesitant to return to normal classrooms.

Our analysis found clear evidence that a little over one-third of the learning environments we tracked operated through the end of the school year. But we also identified promising evolutions of the original concepts that will continue into next school year. While, in the short term, most students will likely return to some sort of “normal” school model, the lessons of these small learning communities have the potential to persist in new ways.

Public school learning models changed considerably between our last update in February and the end of the school year. Though there were school districts that remained fully remote through the school year, by the end of the year most districts had added at least some in-person options which would, in theory, minimize the need for many of the learning pods in our database since many of them were designed to provide in-person support and internet connections to students who were learning remotely. If pods continued after school districts resumed in-person instruction, that offers some evidence families valued the alternatives to traditional classrooms that they provided.

We found that 37 percent of all learning pods identified in the database operated through the full 2020-21 school year (figure 1). Half of the pods were “unclear,” meaning there was no clear end date to the pod-like offerings, but also no clear indication they continued through the end of the year. Only 12 percent had definitively closed at some point before the end of the year. It’s possible that many of the “unclear” pods also ceased school-day support but never updated their websites or social media to make the announcement.

Over one-third of learning pods operated until the end of the 2020-21 school year (Center on Reinventing Public Education)

Many of the learning pods that existed before the pandemic as afterschool programs or summer camps switched back to their pre-pandemic programming. For example, as schools opened, some YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other afterschool enrichment clubs simply closed their school-day supervision.

But others continued on. Some, like the Equity Pods network, which supported culturally relevant community-based pods across the country for Black and brown students, finished out the school year even as districts in some locations opened for at least some of the year. Some virtual learning centers, such as the city-led options in Philadelphia or San Jose, likely continued based on ongoing need as schools reopened late in the school year and some families chose to stay remote.

Even as the school year came to a close, some organizations that emerged specifically to support remote learning are evolving to serve their communities in new formats. For example, The Real Minneapolis, a learning pod that provided whole-student support to BIPOC youth through the full school year, runs a summer program and continues to provide mentorship opportunities for teens. And a partnership program between a local nonprofit and the Jefferson County School District in Kentucky is leading summer learning hubs across the county with staffing support, including counselors and teachers from the school district, to re-engage students and prepare them for the upcoming school year.

These continuing programs provide glimpses of where the learning pod movement might go beyond the pandemic. Six school districts in the Community of Practice organized by CRPE and TNTP are developing plans for pod-like structures in the next school year, with goals like providing space for students to focus on their purpose and passion projects, or to create opportunity for mentorship and serve as a pipeline to develop a more representative teacher workforce. Programs like the new Great Hearts self-organized microschools, or the virtual learning pod program launched by KaiPods provide further examples of efforts to build intentional small learning communities into the future—and seed ideas for school districts that want to find new ways of supporting students who continue with virtual learning options.

In all of these examples, it’s clear some families and communities discovered something during the pandemic that they would like to preserve—different ways to organize school, new approaches to supporting students, stronger ties between school and community. And while many learning pods simply launched to meet a specific need in a crisis — providing in-person support to students learning virtually — that function, too, is likely to remain relevant as school systems across the country create or expand virtual learning options.

Sustaining these crisis responses through the next phase of the pandemic will likely require shifts in funding and staff, as well as changes in policies governing everything from teacher credentialing to the definition of school. CRPE will continue to share lessons we learned from studying small pandemic learning communities. We can’t afford to let the possibilities they uncovered simply vanish.

About this analysis: The CRPE database focuses on learning pods sponsored by school districts and community organizations — as opposed to the learning pods some parents and independent educators offered in their homes. We checked the original sources for each of the learning pods in the database to identify whether the learning pods were still operational as of the end of the 2020–21 school year. As in prior analyses, the data here should be considered an estimate and is not representative of all learning pods across the country. For many learning pods in the database, we could find no updates from the original source. In these cases, we marked that it was “unclear” whether or not the pod continued through the school year. We only coded “yes”—that the pod continued—if we could closely ascertain that the pod was offering services through the end of the year by advertising program end dates, session schedules, or other evidence such as an end-of-year report noting that school-day learning supports had continued.

Alice Opalka is a research analyst with the Center on Reinventing Public Education. This analysis originally appeared at CRPE’s education blog, The Lens.

In response, savvy schools and nonprofit partners in the college access field have turned to virtual advising to keep students on track when they cannot meet in person over the summer. In Connecticut, for example, the CT RISE network sends text messages to thousands of students in nine high schools. The program has been so successful that the Connecticut State Department of Education is now offering access to the texting software to 26 additional schools.

These kinds of practices were crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic, as millions of students facing overwhelming financial and academic challenges were unable to connect face-to-face with counselors and advisers. The number of students completing their Free Application for Federal Student Aid — FAFSA — has plunged, and schools doubled down on virtual advising strategies to help combat this COVID melt. Now, those same strategies can serve as a foundation for a more flexible, impactful approach to counseling moving forward.

Here are three steps schools can take to create an effective virtual advising program that can serve students far beyond the pandemic.

First, schools must decide how they will communicate with students virtually. The best programs will make use of a variety of platforms, including texting, email, social media, videoconferencing and newsletters. It’s easy to drown in a sea of options, but the choice among the many available platforms should be driven by both the kinds of interventions a school hopes to offer (e.g., one- or two-way texting, social media campaigns and outreach, virtual meetings with students and families) and the kinds of students the school serves. If students lack regular access to email outside school, for example, an email campaign may be of little use.

Second: Data is key. Without it, schools are in the dark, and virtual counseling efforts will fail. Schools cannot text students reminders without first creating a database of students’ and parents’ phone numbers. A robust system of virtual advising is built on data.

Grade-point averages, coursework and standardized test scores are all vital pieces of information that can help schools develop stronger, more effective advising solutions. Schools must also collect data on the impact of their advising programs. They should set clear goals and milestones and then measure whether those are being reached. Clear data-sharing agreements between districts and schools and the community-based organizations and vendors with whom they partner will be critical in avoiding any confusion over what data is available and how it can be used.

Finally, schools must avoid an ad hoc approach and instead determine what interventions make sense for their communities and individual students. When FAFSA deadlines approach, schools might want to roll out a community-wide campaign, sending every student an email or a text message with reminders of important dates and forms and links to helpful resources. They could organize Zoom calls with small groups of students to discuss their college plans and what steps they are taking. Triaging is important: Some students may need one-on-one advising sessions to address their questions, while others might require a lighter touch.

Schools should let data inform what interventions are needed for which kinds of students, and when. Directly asking students about the level of support they’re interested in will help guarantee they get what they need. Having a clear plan in place will allow schools to determine how to best make use of their limited time and resources so students receive the right kinds of care and support.

To help, the College Advising Corps has created a guide to help districts, schools and community-based organizations like college access programs choose the right types of communication for them and parse the large variety of available platforms, from texting tools like Remind and SignalVine to virtual meeting services like Zoom and Google Hangouts. The 500 members of the National College Attainment Network can help districts and schools support their students as they navigate college-access mile markers like FAFSA completion and comparisons of financial aid offers. The College Advising Corps offers districts a rich library of resources.

Additional aid is coming in the form of more than $120 billion in the American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund to help state education agencies, districts and schools support existing initiatives and create new ones. Districts have considerable flexibility in how to spend these funds, including on college and career readiness.

While COVID-19 has challenged even the best-laid education plans, it has also spurred developments in support that may serve students well for years to come. By creating a thoughtful and robust virtual advising plan, schools can help ensure that their students have the support and resources they need to keep moving forward on their college journey.

Bill DeBaun is director of data and evaluation at the National College Attainment Network.

(Krystal Clifton)

I remember my shock the first time I was working with one of my fourth-grade students who spent most days working asynchronously — on his own — at home during the pandemic. He had completed all the online lessons assigned to him and came to school to take a multiplication test in person. Of the 20 problems on the test, he got none correct. Since this was a student who had started the school year with a solid set of math skills, I expected him to be successful, but he simply had no idea how to multiply.

He could follow the directions on the self-paced lessons enough to receive credit, but he had not learned the skill. Then, when we moved on to division and fractions, the same thing happened — he passed the learning modules without really grasping any of the material. When he came to work with me in person, however, we reviewed the concepts and there was a clear and fast difference in his ability to understand them. He grasped a lot more.

To meet the needs of my fourth-graders during the pandemic, I had provided my students with multiple options for math instruction: synchronous in-person, synchronous online and asynchronous online. Synchronous in-person students received instruction in the classroom with me and completed their work online, with my support, in real time. Synchronous online students received instruction through Zoom and Nearpod with me. They completed practice problems online with me offering feedback and did lessons on their own as well. Asynchronous online students received instruction via video. They did not interact with me personally and worked through lessons on their own.

I was interested in the role that asynchronous learning could play in their learning, so I ran a study to see how it would affect my students.

I developed this study as a member of the Teacher Run Experiment Network, a group of educators devoted to answering their most pressing questions through research. The Learning Agency Lab assisted my research through workshops on experiment design, data collection, data analysis and one-on-one research support.

The formation of the network was timely, given COVID-19 and the sudden shift to remote and hybrid learning. As teachers, we are often asking “What works?” and COVID-19 only raised more questions, especially around learning environments and the role of the teacher.

There is also a bigger movement around teacher-driven research, which can leverage the knowledge of those who work most closely with students and lead to faster results from research in order to impact instruction. One example of this can be seen in a study done by Bill Hinkley, a math teacher who uses ASSISTments, an online math tool to explore how the use of pencil and paper to solve math problems affects his students. The results suggested that pencil and paper seem to be more effective than online tools for students learning math.

As I navigated through the new world of remote teaching during the pandemic, I was interested in the role that asynchronous learning could play in my students’ learning. Did they always need me to provide feedback? Was it possible that some students could work independently using online programs that will give immediate feedback to their work?

The data I collected provided a clear answer: No. My study showed that synchronous learning led to better outcomes overall. My students who worked asynchronously generally performed worse than their peers who received instruction from me in real time, either online or in person. The mid-range of scores on classroom assessments for in-person students was between 80 and 100 percent, while for online synchronous students, it was between 67 and 100 percent. The mid-range for asynchronous students was the lowest, at between 55 and 81 percent.

While I suspected that synchronous instruction would be more beneficial, I was surprised by how much the lack of teacher interaction affected my asynchronous students. I knew they had completed numerous lessons online, watched instructional videos, completed practice problems and used a program with assistive technology to help clarify misconceptions. Still, it was as if they had not done any of this at all.

My students’ relationship with me seemed to positively influence learning, and this was one of the missing pieces for my asynchronous students. I noticed that students who were learning in real time with me were more invested in the outcome. They were visibly happy when they did well and frustrated when they didn’t succeed. If students worked asynchronously, I saw less investment. When they interacted with me personally, they put more effort into their work.

Of course, it makes sense that students give more attention and effort when they are being held accountable by a teacher who knows them. It also makes sense that students ask more questions when working synchronously and therefore have more opportunities to receive feedback. Asynchronous learning seemed to promote passive learning behaviors in my students.

I do think there is a place for online platforms and that asynchronous learning can be beneficial in some contexts, but I would need to do more research on how to make that approach more effective. In future research, I might look into different options for delivering asynchronous instruction, like including a writing component.

The pandemic upended schooling for millions of students and teachers. Some have predicted that there’s no turning back from the infusion of technology that the pandemic forced on schools. However, the data from my research makes clear to me that the teacher will always be at the heart of learning.

Krystal Clifton is a fourth-grade teacher in Illinois’ Kankakee School District.

W

The state was fortunate to receive an offer of help from a partner early on. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert and I had existing relationships with Renaissance’s myON, an online literacy platform, from previous positions we’d held. In April 2020, we were still trying to decide how to move forward for our students when Renaissance reached how they could help. With relief funding having not yet made it to schools, the company committed to temporarily providing myON at no cost; by June 2020, students and educators throughout Nevada had access to thousands of online books and news articles.

Part of the reason this happened so fast is that the governor issued an executive order streamlining the adoption process. Instead of going through several layers of review, we were able to flag the rollout as an emergency response to the pandemic, drastically shortening the process from several weeks to just days.

Part of the challenge the state faced, even with a generous partner, was that we knew the federal government was likely to provide emergency funds, but we didn’t know how much, when or what restrictions there would be on spending the money. In short, we knew we could launch the program, but we weren’t sure how we could sustain it beyond that. So we looked for partners to bring on board to expand this initiative beyond the Department of Education.

We began by reaching out to the Nevada State Library and Archives because it was already providing support and services to students and families throughout the state, from putting together packages of books and offering various mobile technologies so families could access the internet. It was a natural fit, so we asked them to start sharing information about myON along with their other offerings.

Next, we began working with our regional professional development program. We needed teachers to understand that myON was more than just a reading tool or online books, and to consider how they could leverage it for teaching and learning, given that the shift to remote classes was so abrupt and totally new to most of our teachers.

Finally, to inspire more excitement, we encouraged each school district and student to read as many minutes as possible through the READ Nevada partnership. To date, students have accessed more than 6 million digital books and read more than 58 million minutes. Meanwhile, my team and I began to address another statewide challenge: internet access.

Before the pandemic, about three of every four students in the state had a mobile device and access to home internet. But many were sharing a single device among multiple siblings or with parents. And entire communities didn’t have broadband internet at all.

A first step in improving access was to have districts identify the technology they already had that could be distributed to students. We knew that federal funding was coming through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund that would allow us to buy the additional devices we needed. However, 49 other states were also looking to provide devices and connectivity for their students, and placing orders that wouldn’t arrive until the fall wasn’t going to help students who needed to learn now.

Fortunately, Gov. Steve Sisolak allowed Ebert to reorient the Nevada COVID-19 Response, Relief & Recovery Task Force to include Connecting Kids, an initiative to solve the issue of providing students with devices and access. The head of the task force, Jim Murren, and Elaine Wynn, former CEO of MGM Resorts and former president of the State Board of Education, really stepped up for our kids. They went so far as to use their private planes to transport devices from countries where they were manufactured to Nevada to skip the fraying supply lines and get devices into students’ hands.

Some students still lacked access to the internet, though. My department partnered with the Governor’s Office of Science Innovation and Technology to help districts distribute hotspots throughout the state, but there were still some students and communities we weren’t able to reach. Fortunately, people and organizations from all over the state stepped up to offer community access at schools, at local businesses or via school buses with wireless access. Only four months after the launch of Connecting Kids, 100 percent of Nevada students who were learning remotely had connectivity and access to a device.

The circumstances around our transformation from 75 percent to 100 percent connectivity were extraordinary, but the process is applicable beyond any crisis.

Begin with an inventory of what you already have and, crucially, what you need. Find partners with a genuine concern for kids and start a conversation about what you need and how they’re prepared to help. Partnerships with philanthropic organizations and businesses are important not just for what they can give students and teachers, but for how they can help leverage resources or provide access to powerful people or systems. Then, think about how to communicate with your stakeholders in a way that will get them invested, such as a contest to generate excitement. Next, measure the effectiveness of your implementation.

Finally, make sure to celebrate, because this is difficult work. It takes time, and celebrating those who’ve contributed as you reach milestones or achieve your ultimate goal will keep them engaged for the next push.

Dr. Jonathan Moore is deputy superintendent of student achievement at the Nevada Department of Education. He can be reached at jpmoore@doe.nv.gov.

Planned Parenthood Los Angeles

Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic closed Los Angeles County schools, Elena, a Promotora (community educator) who has been with Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA) for more than 15 years, reached out to a mother who had taken parent education classes at a LAUSD high school. Elena called to find out if the mother had followed up and spoken to her children about Substance Abuse, Healthy Beliefs and Clear Rules, and How to Say No to Drugs – lessons learned during three in-person classes she attended.

The mother shared that she had spoken with her teens and was appreciative of having the tools to initiate potentially difficult conversations. Elena was prepared to discuss the next classes she thought the mother might like to take, albeit not in person at this time, but the mother had something else on her mind. She had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Elena listened to her tale of not being able to get timely testing, not having help in caring for her two younger sons who, thankfully, had not contracted the virus, and the guilt she felt from having passed it to her oldest son who had taken her to the doctor.

Elena listened — and then sprang into action, providing the mother with information about mental health support, food banks, and rent assistance programs. As the mother now recovers, Elena continues to check in and follow up with new resources, understanding some parents need help now more than ever.

The hundreds of calls PPLA’s Promotoras are making to check in on parents and offer ongoing education and support are just one part of the work PPLA is doing to meet the moment. Knowing teens are struggling too, PPLA quickly has adapted our education programming to make sure we can continue to be a trusted resource for students even while school is not in session.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended high school students’ expectations for milestones like prom and graduation. It interrupted clubs, sports, and academic pursuits. It separated students from their friends. Then, students found themselves worried and overwhelmed in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, wanting to participate in protests against police brutality and systemic racism but also seeking out coping strategies and ways to feel safe.

At the beginning of the year, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH), in partnership with PPLA, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, LAUSD, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, launched a program that offers support for teens through Wellbeing Centers and PPLA clinics located within those centers on high school campuses throughout the county.

When schools were open, Wellbeing Centers gave students a safe space to ask questions and receive guidance on a wide range of issues. While they are closed, PPLA is making sure teens and their parents continue to have the support they need.

PPLA’s designated Teen Call Line gives teens an opportunity to ask questions about a variety of issues like substance abuse, sexual health, healthy relationships, anxiety, depression, and general mental health and wellbeing. They also can speak with a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who can provide additional resources if needed.

Trainers, in collaboration with LADPH Health Educators, are hosting virtual meetings with peer advocates to provide a safe space for teens to discuss the issues most important to them and hear more about resources they and their friends or family may need. Peer advocates learn stress and time management techniques and gain inspiration from each other. Weekly video conferences provide teens with a much-needed sense of connection and camaraderie that reminds them we’re all in this together.

And like Elena, PPLA’s Promotoras are calling parents who attended workshops at the Wellbeing Center schools to find out if they have increased communication with their teens about drug and alcohol prevention and healthy relationships. Almost all parents say they have and appreciate having the tools needed to discuss how their teenage children are feeling during these times.

PPLA is meeting all of these new challenges with compassion, prioritizing the health and safety of patients and staff, and continuing to deliver the time-sensitive care our community relies on us to provide. At the same time, hundreds of Los Angeles County parents and teens are learning firsthand that care extends well beyond our health centers and high school Wellbeing Centers because it lives in the people who make up PPLA — people like Elena who don’t always have to connect in person to make a very personal connection.