“We’ve had three interrupted school years,” Robert Trombley told guests during a plenary session on learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We still don’t know the full impacts.”
Trombley, who serves as senior policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), was one of several speakers who discussed efforts to mitigate learning loss and gaps during a plenary session of the 2021 CSG National Conference on Thursday. Also speaking were Colorado Senate Assistant Majority Leader Rhonda Fields; New Mexico Secretary of Education Kurt Steinhaus; and Kentwood Michigan Public Schools Superintendent Kevin Polston.
The 2020-21 P-20 academic year forced an unprecedented scramble to deliver educational content by alternative means to students all along the spectrum of academic proficiency and technological accessibility. This session explored how educational recovery requires sustained commitment to addressing learning loss and exacerbated learning gaps negatively impacting minority populations.
“We need to be aware of kids’ attitude and mindset,” Fields said, referring to students who were largely absent from remote school efforts. “You can’t just go back. We took a strategic, thoughtful process to address loss of learning. We did a lot of great work, and still have to do more.”
For Polston, one takeaway from the pandemic is that schools can be more proactive in engaging parents and making us of learning outside the classroom, and he discussed using dedicated school staff to function as liaisons between the school and families who may not feel connected.
“Kids spend 80% of their time outside of school,” he said. “The first teacher is the parent. How can we support families?”
Steinhaus shared his commitment to keeping schools open, despite opposition from a medical advisory team.
“The research is really clear,” he said. “If we learned anything, it’s that kids need in-person learning.”
Instead of shutting schools down, Steinhaus pushed for a local option to temporarily pause school and switch to remote learning based on the local need. He also implemented a test-to-stay measure that requires students and staff who’ve been exposed to COVID to take rapid tests on the first, third and fifth day after exposure. If all tests come back negative, the affected student can stay in school
“Since we started in August, 99% of school days have been in-person,” he said.
Trombley also highlighted the work of the Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth (CAPE-Youth), a project launched by ODEP in collaboration with The Council of State Governments and the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University.
“CAPE-Youth put together a national scan of what states are doing,” he said. “There are things we can do, because we did them by necessity, to increase access and opportunity for kids who have different barriers.”
The CAPE-Youth Center works to improve employment outcomes for youth and young adults with disabilities by helping states build capacity in their youth service delivery and workforce systems. It conducts research, develops partnerships, and shares best practices. In addition, CAPE-Youth helps states identify new opportunities to expand career pathways, work-based learning, strategic partnerships, systems coordination and professional development for practitioners.
