One of the biggest unknowns during the six months of quarantine and lockdown since March was whether schools would open in the fall. Ever since schools shut down in the spring and the world turned upside down, students have been looking forward to returning to school and finding some sense of normalcy. Now, after almost six months of academic break, students are facing a dramatic “summer slide,” which refers to the information students forget over the summer.
Schools in the Chattanooga area have quickly become aware of this problem as they have seen a rise in students struggling with academic readiness. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “Tennessee students who were already struggling in school are taking a major hit in terms of learning loss this fall with a traditional ‘summer slide’ becoming a much steeper ‘COVID’ slide.”
Students who have been impacted the most by the long period out of school are the younger ones who are learning to read, and those who already learn at lower proficiency rates. Those who had lower proficiency in benchmark testing found that their scores dropped, and those who had tested proficient maintained their proficiency but didn’t increase at all.
Teachers are struggling as well, as they are stuck between the difficulties of teaching online and the risk of teaching in person. The majority of people weighing in on this issue agree that teaching in-person is best for students, but it is dangerous to do so.
In early September, the Hamilton County School District gave the green light to spending $2.1 million to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in its schools. Monique Brand covered this story in the Times Free Press.
Brand writes, “One local doctor said while surface cleaning can help prevent the spread of coronavirus and other viruses, social distancing and wearing a mask are more beneficial.”
The Times Free Press reported that “this one-year contract—good through May 2021—will be paid for by a combination of federal coronavirus funding and savings from the general operating budget.”
Some private schools in the area have implemented many new procedures to ensure their students’ safety. McCallie, a boarding and day school in the Chattanooga area, found itself with a massive influx of enrollments this year as people fled the underfunded and struggling public school system. Another private school in the area, Baylor, was able to set up on-site COVID-19 testing.
One thing that is certain, however, is the fact that private schools are able to handle the pandemic better than public schools due to their superior funding and access to better resources.