Lackawanna County PSSA scores show students still feeling the effects of COVID-related learning loss

Yahoo

26-01-2025

Nearly five years after schools around the state were forced to pivot to online instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts on learning and skills lost during that time are being felt and seen in Lackawanna County public school district classrooms. However, educators and administrators are implementing strategies to help students get back on track and are experiencing success.
An analysis by The Sunday Times of Pennsylvania System of School Assessment results from the 2018-19 school year to 2023-24 school year showed scores in the three subject areas tested — math, science and English language arts — were down for the majority of Lackawanna County school districts.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020.
The test, administered yearly, measures how proficient public school students are in the three subject areas. Students in grades 3 to 8 are assessed in English language arts and math, and grades 5 to 8 are tested in science.
Districts experienced the largest drop in English language arts scores from the 2018-19 to 2023-24 school year, with scores decreasing 9% for all school districts in the county.
School districts that experienced the largest drops in scores during those years were Old Forge and Scranton. Old Forge's English language arts scores dropped 37% and the science scores decreased nearly 22%, the biggest decreases in the county in those subjects, according to the Times analysis. Scranton's math score had the county's biggest decrease during that time, dropping nearly 34%.
Districts with the smallest drops in scores from 2018-19 to 2023-24 were North Pocono and Abington Heights, with North Pocono having the smallest drop in ELA scores at 9%. Abington Heights had the lowest decrease in math scores at nearly 4% and science at almost 5%.
Districts experienced moderate declines in their science scores from the 2018-19 to 2023-24 school year. Those scores increased in five districts — Forest City Regional, Lackawanna Trail, Lakeland, Mid Valley and Riverside. Three districts — Dunmore, Lackawanna Trail and Riverside — had math scores that increased during that time. English language arts scores declined in all 12 school districts that have a boundary in the county.
There was some improvement in the scores between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school year, as science scores in four districts — Carbondale Area, Forest City Regional, Lackawanna Trail and Riverside — increased, and math scores went up in six districts — Carbondale Area, Dunmore, Forest City Regional, Lackawanna Trail, Old Forge and Riverside.
The improvements are in line with averages reported by the state Department of Education, which reported that math proficiency increased from 38% in 2022-23 to 40% in 2023-24, and science increased from nearly 58.9% in 2022-23 to 59% in 2023-24. But English language arts proficiency dipped from nearly 55% in 2022-23 to almost 54% in 2023-24.
Although Carbondale Area's scores decreased between the 2018-19 and 2023-24 school years across all the subject areas tested, they improved from the 2022-23 to 2023-24 school years — up almost 11% in science, 11% in English language arts and nearly 33% in math. The district was the only one in the county whose English language arts score increased from the 2022-23 to 2023-24 school year, the analysis showed.
The decline in scores doesn't surprise Suzanne Murray Galella, an associate professor of education and chair of the education department at Marywood University. She said the pandemic changed the environment students learn in, with some not even returning to school.
'There have been great, great pockets of learning loss,' Galella said. 'We're seeing it in urban, suburban and in rural districts. It's across different types of districts, socioeconomic class status.'
Galella said younger students who were entering kindergarten through third grade during the pandemic missed the opportunity to hone their reading skills through in-person activities.
'They lost that learning time, which was so critical for those foundational skills,' she said.
She said school districts are doing the best they can to mitigate the effects of learning loss, often balancing getting students caught up in subjects like reading and math while ensuring they also experience subjects like music and gym. Some schools have incorporated cross-curricular activities into the day, where students can practice skills like reading in different areas.
However, Galella said there have been more students diagnosed as having special needs and more students have had attention problems since the pandemic began.
She said technology can be an effective tool in the classroom, but there needs to be a balance between it and in-person learning. She said she's learned a lot about it from her students at Marywood who used technology to do their schoolwork during the pandemic.
Administrators have implemented various strategies to address learning loss.
At Carbondale Area, administrators credit relationships between students, families and teachers with improving learning in the schools.
Building relationships has been particularly effective for elementary school students, elementary school Principal Meg Duffy said, along with self-regulation techniques, such as mindfulness exercises and goal-setting skills, and social-emotional learning.
'When students feel supported and valued, they're more engaged and more motivated to learn,' she said. 'That sense of belonging translates into increased participation and academic effort.'
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Ninth-grade student Mikayla Heath attends a demonstrative CDT one-on-one consultation in a classroom in Carbondale Area High School in Carbondale Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Carbondale Area High School Principal Joe Farrell, district Superintendent Holly Sayre and Carbondale Area Elementary School Principal Meg Duffy speak about the increase in students' PSSA test scores from the previous years. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Carbondale Area Elementary School Principal Meg Duffy speaks about the increase in students' PSSA test scores from the previous years. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Math teacher Jennifer Demchak demonstrates a Classroom Diagnostic Tool (CDT) one-on-one consolutation with ninth-grade student Mikayla Heath in a classroom in Carbondale Area High School in Carbondale Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Carbondale Area Superintendent Holly Sayre speaks about students' improvement with PSSA test scores. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Ninth-grade student Mikayla Heath attends a demonstrative CDT one-on-one consultation in a classroom in Carbondale Area High School in Carbondale Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Administrators at the high school began looking at student academic data and started one-on-one conferences between teachers and students last school year to identify student strengths and weaknesses in math, English language arts and science. Teachers discuss the student's strengths and weaknesses in the subject areas and put together a plan to improve in a particular subject. The high school schedule was also revamped to include a flex period, where students are given extra time with teachers to work on a particular subject.
Math teacher Jennifer Demchak said the conferences allow her to adapt her curriculum and instruction for students who have more of a significant need than others.
'I'm able to meet those targeted needs for those students and help them show some growth,' she said.
Superintendent Holly Sayre and Principal Joe Farrell believe the conferences contributed to the higher school performance profile.
'I think we see the most value in that student conferencing,' she said.
Administrators have also learned de-escalation techniques and focused on reading techniques.
Sayre said not having one-to-one attention and loss of structure were challenging for students during the pandemic, making it hard for them to engage with their schoolwork. But the district's one-to-one Chromebook initiative was started during the 2020-21 school and has continued, and is particularly helpful with the PSSA being administered online later this year.
Officials in the Scranton School District, where students learned virtually through much of the 2020-21 school year, have dealt with the effects of learning loss, but Robert Gentilezza, the district's director of compliance, is confident the strategies implemented to combat it will help boost PSSA scores to prepandemic levels.
Those strategies included revamping curriculum; a free summer academy in summer 2021 that offered tutoring, reading and math interventions; doubling up on English language arts and math classes; and administering benchmark tests to see how well students are doing in different subjects.
'We tried to get them as much back to speed as possible,' he said.
Officials also focused on emotional and mental health needs by administering climate surveys about how students feel and bringing on more mental health staff, including a mental health coordinator, Elizabeth Hemphill, who started last year. Principals have also learned techniques to work with students on their problems when they are disciplined, which Gentilezza hopes all administrators in the district will learn.
Old Forge Superintendent Christopher Gatto, Ed.D., said learning loss manifested in the form of gaps in foundational skills, particularly with higher-order thinking and comprehension, reduced reading fluency and challenges in applying problem-solving strategies in math. They were particularly evident in grades where transitions to new academic levels coincided with the pandemic, he said.
To address it, officials have implemented various strategies, such as supplemental learning programs, writing frameworks and text analysis, administering assessments and incorporating PSSA test questions into curriculum, providing incentives for student growth and performance, and tailoring remediation for students based on benchmark tests.
However, he said the most effective strategies have been rewards, tailoring instruction based on growth and regression trends, and teacher collaboration. Gatto said analyzing the trends had led to growth for sixth grade students from the 2022-23 to 2023-24 school year.
Abington Heights Superintendent Christopher Shaffer, Ed.D., said it is important for students to be engaged in tasks that push and develop their critical reading, writing and thinking skills. He added it is important to address inconsistencies in learning and get students involved and engaged in it.
'It's absolutely important that students own that learning,' he said.