NEW YORK - While a nation of burned-out, involuntary home-schoolers slogs to the finish line of a disrupted academic year, a picture is emerging of the extent of the learning loss among children in America and the size of the gaps schools will be asked to fill when they reopen.
In south Los Angeles, Danielle Gandy has spent countless difficult hours guiding her energetic six-year-old, Cadynce, through online meetings and assignments provided by her charter school. Still, Gandy is under no illusion that Cadynce has completed the normal kindergarten curriculum and is especially concerned about her progress in math.
"We know this isn't a good way to teach," Silva said."We want to hold kids accountable. We want to see their progress, be in the classroom with them and see them struggle and overcome that. Instead, we are logging in for an hour a day, and kids are turning their cameras off and staying quiet and not talking to us."
When all of the effects are taken into account, the average student could fall seven months behind academically, while black and Hispanic students could experience even greater learning losses, equivalent to 10 months for black children and nine months for Latinos, according to an analysis from McKinsey & Co., the consulting group.