Prevent the Covid Slide

We know kids lose learning over the summer. Now, with extended time out of the classroom, teachers who are not fully invested in online learning, and parents working from home (This is definitely not homeschooling!), many are rightly concerned about just how much our students will fall behind. This is especially true in core subjects like reading and math.

NWEA researchers Dr. Meghan Kuhfeld and Dr. Beth Tarasawa are among the many experts who know this to be true. In a recent paper titled, “The Covid Slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement,” they stated:

Preliminary COVID slide estimates suggest students will return in fall 2020 with roughly 70% of the learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year. However, in mathematics, students are likely to show much smaller learning gains, returning with less than 50% of the learning gains and in some grades, nearly a full year behind what we would observe in normal conditions.

Read that again. That’s 50% of the learning gains relative to a typical school year where students already lose learning over the summer. Some students will be nearly a full year behind.

That’s scary stuff!

But we didn’t need experts and researchers to tell us that. Any logical person knows there will be some serious learning deficits to deal with in the years ahead.

Some are spending small fortunes attempting expensive solutions by hiring private tutors. Others are making their kids use online resources with the idea that doing more of the same will work this time. Then there are the many who don’t know what to do so they just wait and hope someone, somewhere comes up with a better idea!

Well, I have that better idea!

Ten years ago, I founded The Right Path to teach students academic content and test prep material both locally and internationally. I use a variety of online platforms and, my now, 20+ years of experience teaching students in grades k-12 through a combination of online lessons, DIY practice problems with instant feedback and parent reports, and live tutoring – yes, live, real person tutoring!

And it’s all done at an affordable price.

I have a 60 college credits beyond my Masters in Education/Curriculum Development and dual certification in elementary education and 7-12 math. Unlike those in academia towers, I also have current experience teaching at both the high school and elementary level. In fact, I still teach high school algebra full time!

As if that wasn’t enough, I also have five boys of my own so I know the importance of using a positive attitude and fun loving personality to build rapport to help students engage because let’s face it, if students hate learning, the climb to combat the slide won’t happen!