Writing Assignment 3: Catching Up After the Pandemic

The global pandemic by COVID-19 had severe ripple effects on students' academic performance, as shown by the naked evidence of the decline in their academic performance for the worse, especially in Mathematics and reading. Kuhfeld et al. (2023) note in their article the adverse effects; math test scores for students in grades 3-8 declined by 0.20 to 0.27 standard deviations, though reading scores dropped only by 0.09 to 0.18 standard deviations. Such reductions are disheartening and higher than the effects observed in other massive disruptions, including Hurricane Katrina, in capturing the disparities the pandemic presented on learning. These data help reveal one central observation about these declines: the global disruption of students' day-to-day business almost certainly played a role. I think that when the pandemic forced students out of the classroom, they also lost the routines that helped them stay on task during the day. This is by Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, whereby if a child's life circle or immediate environmental space, including school, is interrupt...