Latest news with #NWEA
Miami Herald
16-05-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Study: Teaching science and reading together yields double benefits for learning
This month marks the five-year anniversary of the World Health Organization's declaration that COVID-19 was a pandemic. That announcement shuttered school buildings and launched millions of students into remote learning. While the immediate health crisis is over, the long-term impact on students is not, The 74 reports. The latest Nation's Report Card underscores that academic recovery remains elusive, with many students needing months of additional instructional time to close the pandemic achievement gap. One of the most troubling areas is reading. Despite hopes for a rebound, students' reading progress remains stalled, with academic growth in 2023-24 again falling short of pre-pandemic trends. The gap between pre- and post-COVID reading scores has widened by 36%, and at the current pace, the average student needs nearly five more months of learning to catch up. The struggle is even greater for historically marginalized students, who remain the furthest behind, making it clear that pandemic recovery has a long way to go. Science achievement has also suffered, with uneven recovery across grade levels. While students in grades 3 through 5 have largely returned to pre-pandemic performance, middle schoolers are still struggling-particularly eighth graders, who remain more than three months behind. The setbacks are especially pronounced for Hispanic and Black students, highlighting persistent gaps that could have long-term consequences for STEM readiness. Without targeted support, these disparities may continue to widen, limiting opportunities for students already most at risk of being left behind. Education leaders have limited avenues for addressing these challenges, especially now that federal recovery funding has expired. One underutilized approach is the integration of literacy and science instruction in elementary schools, which creates a mutually reinforcing learning experience. Students read, write and discuss real-world scientific phenomena while building background knowledge, strengthening their ability to understand complex text and information, and engaging in meaningful conversations-all factors in literacy success. Plus, integration means literacy and science instruction don't have to compete with each other on the school schedule. A new report from NWEA dug into the research on the benefits of blending these two subjects in elementary school and found that first- and second-graders who received integrated literacy and science instruction retained more reading skills over the summer and performed better, by nearly 8 percentage points, on science-related reading tasks than their peers who did not. By building knowledge through thematic lessons and extensive reading of a broad range of informational texts on various topics, this approach helped students transfer what they learned to new reading challenges. Similarly, third through fifth graders participated in a three-year classroom study where instruction in reading and writing comprehension were woven into science lessons. The students read scientific texts, analyzed data, discussed key ideas and wrote about their findings, strengthening both their literacy and science skills. By the end of fifth grade, students in the study scored more than a full grade higher in science and more than a half-grade higher in reading on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills than their peers in traditional classrooms. These gains persisted into middle school, with students in grades 6 and 7 continuing to show higher achievement in both subjects. Another study focused on professional development to help preK-3 teachers integrate science, reading and math into daily instruction. In these classrooms, students explored scientific concepts through books, engaged in hands-on investigations and applied math to interpret their findings. As a result, they scored higher on early literacy, reading and math assessments than those whose teachers did not receive the training. Notably, students whose teachers participated in the professional development demonstrated reading achievement levels equivalent to an extra half-year of instruction compared with their peers. To do integration well, four components needed to be present: Engaging students with real-world phenomena that spark curiosity and drive deeper learning. When using everyday occurrences to anchor science instruction, students begin to see science all around academic vocabulary by immersing students in the specialized language of science to enhance their reading and writing skills. Supporting sustained and structured learning with science instruction that builds over time, with each lesson connecting to the next to help students develop understanding. Encouraging scientific discourse that involves students in planning investigations, making hypotheses and debating evidence to deepen their understanding of science concepts while reinforcing literacy skills. Implementing integration successfully means schools must allow time for collaboration among literacy instructors, science teachers and school librarians. It may also mean rethinking the master schedule, including the planning time needed. School leaders also need to acquire high-quality, phenomenon-based science materials, like science journals and texts, and ensure students have access. For schools with a limited budget, it might be useful to partner with a public library or identify free materials online. Lastly, schools must invest in sustained professional learning, including how to incorporate real-world science phenomena, leverage academic vocabulary, build structured instructional plans and sequences, and foster coordination between subjects to engage students. To help educators bring these components to life in the classroom, NWEA developed a Practitioner's Guide that provides concrete strategies, lesson ideas and examples of integrated instruction in action. The guide illustrates how teachers can engage students with real-world phenomena, build academic vocabulary, support structured learning and foster scientific discourse-all while strengthening literacy skills. The challenge of unfinished learning remains urgent. Integration of literacy and science instruction in elementary schools is one untapped approach for driving greater student outcomes. Doing both together can drive greater academic growth than either subject can do alone. This story was produced by The 74 and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. © Stacker Media, LLC.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Study: Teaching science and reading together yields double benefits for learning
This month marks the five-year anniversary of the World Health Organization's declaration that COVID-19 was a pandemic. That announcement shuttered school buildings and launched millions of students into remote learning. While the immediate health crisis is over, the long-term impact on students is not, The 74 reports. The latest Nation's Report Card underscores that academic recovery remains elusive, with many students needing months of additional instructional time to close the pandemic achievement gap. One of the most troubling areas is reading. Despite hopes for a rebound, students' reading progress remains stalled, with academic growth in 2023-24 again falling short of pre-pandemic trends. The gap between pre- and post-COVID reading scores has widened by 36%, and at the current pace, the average student needs nearly five more months of learning to catch up. The struggle is even greater for historically marginalized students, who remain the furthest behind, making it clear that pandemic recovery has a long way to go. Science achievement has also suffered, with uneven recovery across grade levels. While students in grades 3 through 5 have largely returned to pre-pandemic performance, middle schoolers are still struggling—particularly eighth graders, who remain more than three months behind. The setbacks are especially pronounced for Hispanic and Black students, highlighting persistent gaps that could have long-term consequences for STEM readiness. Without targeted support, these disparities may continue to widen, limiting opportunities for students already most at risk of being left behind. Education leaders have limited avenues for addressing these challenges, especially now that federal recovery funding has expired. One underutilized approach is the integration of literacy and science instruction in elementary schools, which creates a mutually reinforcing learning experience. Students read, write and discuss real-world scientific phenomena while building background knowledge, strengthening their ability to understand complex text and information, and engaging in meaningful conversations—all factors in literacy success. Plus, integration means literacy and science instruction don't have to compete with each other on the school schedule. A new report from NWEA dug into the research on the benefits of blending these two subjects in elementary school and found that first- and second-graders who received integrated literacy and science instruction retained more reading skills over the summer and performed better, by nearly 8 percentage points, on science-related reading tasks than their peers who did not. By building knowledge through thematic lessons and extensive reading of a broad range of informational texts on various topics, this approach helped students transfer what they learned to new reading challenges. Similarly, third through fifth graders participated in a three-year classroom study where instruction in reading and writing comprehension were woven into science lessons. The students read scientific texts, analyzed data, discussed key ideas and wrote about their findings, strengthening both their literacy and science skills. By the end of fifth grade, students in the study scored more than a full grade higher in science and more than a half-grade higher in reading on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills than their peers in traditional classrooms. These gains persisted into middle school, with students in grades 6 and 7 continuing to show higher achievement in both subjects. Another study focused on professional development to help preK-3 teachers integrate science, reading and math into daily instruction. In these classrooms, students explored scientific concepts through books, engaged in hands-on investigations and applied math to interpret their findings. As a result, they scored higher on early literacy, reading and math assessments than those whose teachers did not receive the training. Notably, students whose teachers participated in the professional development demonstrated reading achievement levels equivalent to an extra half-year of instruction compared with their peers. To do integration well, four components needed to be present: Engaging students with real-world phenomena that spark curiosity and drive deeper learning. When using everyday occurrences to anchor science instruction, students begin to see science all around them. Strengthening academic vocabulary by immersing students in the specialized language of science to enhance their reading and writing skills. Supporting sustained and structured learning with science instruction that builds over time, with each lesson connecting to the next to help students develop understanding. Encouraging scientific discourse that involves students in planning investigations, making hypotheses and debating evidence to deepen their understanding of science concepts while reinforcing literacy skills. Implementing integration successfully means schools must allow time for collaboration among literacy instructors, science teachers and school librarians. It may also mean rethinking the master schedule, including the planning time needed. School leaders also need to acquire high-quality, phenomenon-based science materials, like science journals and texts, and ensure students have access. For schools with a limited budget, it might be useful to partner with a public library or identify free materials online. Lastly, schools must invest in sustained professional learning, including how to incorporate real-world science phenomena, leverage academic vocabulary, build structured instructional plans and sequences, and foster coordination between subjects to engage students. To help educators bring these components to life in the classroom, NWEA developed a Practitioner's Guide that provides concrete strategies, lesson ideas and examples of integrated instruction in action. The guide illustrates how teachers can engage students with real-world phenomena, build academic vocabulary, support structured learning and foster scientific discourse—all while strengthening literacy skills. The challenge of unfinished learning remains urgent. Integration of literacy and science instruction in elementary schools is one untapped approach for driving greater student outcomes. Doing both together can drive greater academic growth than either subject can do alone. This story was produced by The 74 and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Boys Outperform Girls in Middle School STEM, Reversing Gender Gap, Study Finds
Boys are surpassing girls in middle school math and science achievement, according to new research comparing three of the nation's top academic assessments. A study published Tuesday by the testing company NWEA shows a gender gap in eighth grade STEM achievement has returned following the pandemic. Historically, boys have tested better than girls in math and science in middle school, said Megan Kuhfield, one of the NWEA report's authors. But the gender gap disappeared in 2019, according to results from The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an assessment administered across dozens of countries every four years. For the first time since 1995, girls outperformed boys in eighth grade math and science that year. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter But TIMSS scores released in December 2024 showed that girls' performance substantially declined more than boys' in eighth grade science and math. The study showed the same trend was found in two national tests: NWEA's MAP Growth assessment and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Across all three tests, gender gaps in math and science went from almost nonexistent in 2019 to favoring boys starting in 2022. The MAP Growth assessment — which is administered annually — shows that the gaps widened mainly between 2021 and 2024, when students returned to classrooms. Related Kuhfield said the research is concerning because decades of progress in closing the gender gap for STEM achievement was wiped out in four years. 'It's really hard to say definitively what's happening here,' she said. 'It's the million-dollar question — why did we see these gaps close by 2019 and then reopen during the last five years?' Researchers discovered that girls suffered more mental health challenges during COVID-19, but Kuhfield said if that was the main cause, reading test scores would have followed a similar pattern. Girls still outperformed boys in literacy on the latest NWEA and NAEP assessments, according to the study. 'That kind of led me to two other theories that are going on kind of in my head,' she said. 'One being: Maybe there's something about how teachers are interacting with students in the classroom — reinforcing old stereotypes of pushing boys [more] towards advanced math. We don't have evidence of this.' Related Kuhfield said her other theory is that there's been a shift in education to focus on boys' academic achievement as researchers have found they are falling behind girls in school. The NWEA study includes recommendations for schools to improve the equity in STEM education. Researchers suggest examining classroom dynamics and instructional practices to ensure boys aren't receiving more teacher attention, and providing academic and emotional support — particularly to girls — to improve math and science skills.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New NWEA Research Suggests Pandemic Reopened Achievement Gaps Favoring Boys in Math and Science
PORTLAND, Ore., May 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- NWEA, a K-12 assessment and research organization, released a new study examining the impacts of COVID-19 school closures and disruptions on boys and girls in STEM skills. The new report, "Boys regain the advantage in middle school STEM skills: Post-COVID trends in gender achievement gaps," highlights that STEM gaps in achievement between boys and girls that took more than a decade to close were reopened in just four years. The study used a robust set of data from three national assessments, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and NWEA's MAP Growth, to examine trends in gender gaps in 8th grade over the course of the pandemic. The study also analyzed MAP Growth data from approximately two million U.S. students to see if the gender gap widened for both low- and high-achieving students. The final part of the analysis looked at 8th-grade Algebra enrollment across 1,300 U.S. public schools to determine if participation rates differed by gender throughout the pandemic. Key findings indicate some concerning trends: Girls' STEM achievement declined more than boys' between 2021 and 2024, reversing decades of progress in closing gender gaps in these subjects. This decline was not seen in reading scores. Similar patterns were observed in other English-speaking countries (Australia, England, New Zealand) and on state-level assessments in the U.S. Gender gaps widened after a return to in-person school. The gaps became more pronounced after 2022. Fewer girls are enrolling in 8th-grade Algebra, a gateway course to more advanced mathematics and STEM fields. "These trends are concerning, especially since decades of progress in closing those gaps between boys' and girls' achievement in STEM skills were, essentially, wiped out in four years," said Dr. Megan Kuhfeld, Director of Growth Modeling and Data Analytics at NWEA. "Our goal in providing this analysis is to shed light on concerning trends and the potential long-term impact if these gaps are not addressed. The data doesn't tell us why these gaps were widened, and more understanding and research are needed to provide our education community with insights on how best to address this moving forward." One trend that could have long-term impacts on STEM pathways for girls is the decline in girls enrolling in 8th-grade Algebra. This course is a gateway to higher-level mathematics and is a key step in future college and career opportunities in STEM fields. The study found enrollment rates in 2022 had dropped for both boys and girls, but boys' enrollment rebounded to 2019 levels by the 2024 school year, while girls' enrollment remained two percentage points lower than before COVID-19 hit. This new research study underscores that the pandemic was not an equal opportunity hitter and disruptions to learning impacted some student groups more than others. Moving ahead, we must look beyond surface-level comparisons and dig into how different groups of students are faring over time to ensure that recovery efforts don't inadvertently reinforce old inequities or allow new ones to take hold. This includes: Monitoring participation in key STEM milestones by gender, over time, not just within a single year. Providing targeted support for students' academics and well-being. Examining classroom dynamics and instructional practices. View the full report at About NWEA NWEA® (a division of HMH) is a mission-driven organization that supports students and educators in more than 146 countries through research, assessment solutions, policy and advocacy, and professional learning that support our diverse educational communities. Visit to learn more about how we're partnering with educators to help all kids learn. Contact: Simona Beattie, Communications Director, or 971.361.9526 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE NWEA
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
10 ways COVID changed American schools
COVID had already killed thousands of people in other countries and was spreading in the United States when a top federal health official said schools should prepare to offer "internet-based teleschooling" in case they had to close for a period of time. "We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this could be bad," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, then a leader in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's pandemic response, told reporters on a Feb. 25, 2020 conference call. School leaders said they weren't really set up for remote learning. But ready or not, three weeks later, nearly every school in the country was closed, reported Chalkbeat. Some would not open their doors again for more than a year. Five years on, the impact of COVID-era closures—the ways schools rose to meet the moment and the ways they failed—continue to reverberate through the American education system and in the lives of students, parents, and teachers. "We just didn't do nearly enough of what we needed to do, and the results speak for themselves," said Robin Lake, who runs the Center for Reinventing Public Education. "We have a learning chasm that is shocking. We failed an entire generation of kids." Teachers were too overwhelmed, Lake said, and the drive to return to normalcy was too great. Student academic performance remains below pre-pandemic levels. Inequality has grown, with students in more affluent school districts largely back to normal—academically at least—and those in high-poverty communities still struggling. Students carry lingering emotional scars from the deaths of family members, from the anxiety and weight of responsibility they felt during the pandemic, and from the isolation of school closures. Far more students miss school regularly than before the pandemic. And teachers report many students seem less engaged in their lessons. "We are the generation that spent important years of our lives in the COVID-19 lockdown, then released back into the world without the tools to cope," high school senior Adonte DaCosta told New York City Council members at a hearing last fall. With the pivot to remote learning, technology is now everywhere in American schools, but a new digital divide has opened up between those filling out worksheets on Chromebooks and those learning how to use generative AI. Divisions over school closures and COVID safety protocols turned schools into political war zones and fueled the rise of the conservative parents' rights movement. Here are 10 ways schools have changed in the past five years: Karyn Lewis recalls thinking that the worst had passed when she saw promising signs from testing during the 2021-22 school year. Lewis is vice president of research and policy partnerships at NWEA, which administers the MAP test used by many school districts. But it's clear now—on NWEA's own assessments and on numerous other national and international tests—that the impact of COVID learning disruptions have only grown. "We were just thinking about the act of missing school in the wrong way," Lewis said. Students who missed out on foundational skills are struggling to learn more advanced material later on. Even students who would have been in preschool during the height of the pandemic are behind their prepandemic counterparts. Research finds that students are making up ground—but not fast enough to make up for what was lost. In retrospect, Lewis said, it should have been obvious that recovery would be a multiyear effort and one that will need to continue into the future. An NWEA analysis suggests it may take seven years to see full recovery in math. Schools should have been treated like emergency rooms, Lake said. Children should have been triaged for learning loss, given individualized assessments, and routed to specialized teams trained to help. Instead, classroom teachers were expected to address learning loss largely on their own—an impossible task. "I didn't imagine that people wouldn't act as if there were a crisis," Lake said. "Business as usual took hold." School districts around the country invested in tutoring, summer school, and academic interventionists. These strategies often showed promising results, even as districts struggled to scale those interventions to serve enough students effectively. In the process, many educators and administrators realized students needed this kind of support all along. Manuel Sanchez was a veteran math teacher with three decades of experience when his Chicago elementary school tapped him to be an academic interventionist. But at first he felt "lost" in his new role. Because students often hesitate to ask for help, he hadn't realized just how far behind some students were. Sanchez now works with several small groups of students, pulling them out of their classrooms for intensive help and also "pushing in" to classrooms to help teachers offer extra support. The relationships he's developed with students have helped him find his stride. He also works with a small group of high-achieving middle schoolers on more-advanced math. "Students now trust me in a way that they can ask me anything," Sanchez said. The challenge going forward is how to keep paying for these positions now that federal pandemic relief dollars have expired. Around the country, districts are reallocating money and lobbying their state legislatures for funds to keep tutors and other academic supports. School closures upended routines and left many students isolated from their peers and cut off from supportive teachers. Students also faced the loss of family members to the virus and the upheaval of parents losing jobs and housing. Students now struggle with mental health challenges that feel more pervasive and more persistent than before the pandemic. Schools continue to report more behavior problems and less student engagement. All of this has led schools to take a more active role in supporting student mental health and emotional well-being. They've invested in social and emotional curriculum—about 83% of principals reported last year that their schools use an SEL curriculum compared with fewer than half before the pandemic. Schools have also hired more social workers and counselors. In New York, local and state officials are ramping up investments in student wellness clubs and peer-to-peer mental health programs. The peer-led model allows students to hear from people their same age or just a little older, who have been through the same experiences. They can be more credible messengers than adults. Tamar Cox-Rubien, a youth peer leader at the National Alliance on Mental Illness NYC, was 20 when the pandemic arrived. She hit "rock bottom" during that time. "That allowed me to realize what I needed to change in my life," she said. "Forcing that growth can be really painful but needed, and I know that's true for many other young people as well." Susan Meek already was a veteran of political battles over school vouchers when she was elected—on the cusp of the pandemic—to the school board in Douglas County, a conservative suburban district southeast of Denver. But nothing could have prepared her for the intensity of fights over masking, hybrid learning, and quarantines—decisions that kept her up at night as she weighed complex trade-offs. "School boards became ground zero for debates on individual rights versus collective responsibility," said Meek, who spoke for herself and not on behalf of the district. "When you think about the role of school boards, parents advocate for their own child's needs, and school board members are responsible for the collective. We're responsible for all students." Keri Rodrigues Langan, founding president of the National Parents Union, said the pandemic broke the relationship between parents and schools. Parents were no longer welcome inside schools due to safety protocols, and they haven't been welcomed back in the years since, she said. Conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education have used the sense that schools are hiding something to advance their priorities. Some parents didn't like what they saw during remote learning, including that many teachers struggled with basic technology. In some large cities, the influence of teachers unions contributed to schools staying closed longer. "There were a lot of teachers who were heroes, but there were a lot of teachers who weren't," Rodrigues Langan said. "They were just whipping out packets, watch this YouTube video, answer three really quick and simple questions on Google Classroom. And that's learning? And I think people were really shocked because they were expecting more and wanted more." Not long after the pandemic officially ended, most parents still gave their local school high marks. But the broader public perception of American schools is at an all-time low. And the political fallout can be seen in the recent expansion of school choice and in efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Kids missed school at alarmingly high rates during the pandemic. Students got COVID. They got sent home to quarantine after exposure to COVID. Their parents kept them home for sniffles and coughs. And when their classmates and teachers were absent too, school felt kind of pointless. All of that contributed to a dramatic spike in the share of students nationwide who were considered chronically absent, a designation that typically means they missed 18 days of school or more. Chronic absenteeism peaked during the 2021-22 school year when nearly 30% of students missed that much school, almost double the pre-pandemic rate. Many states have made improvements, but chronic absenteeism remains a stubborn problem. Schools have tried every strategy in the book. They hired more staff to call home and knock on doors. They bought better computer systems to flag kids as they accrued absences. They hosted family events to make school feel more inviting. None of these strategies have been particularly effective at reducing absenteeism, a nationally representative survey of school district leaders conducted by the nonprofit RAND Corporation and Center on Reinventing Public Education last year found. But why? Lydia Rainey, a Center on Reinventing Public Education principal who conducted follow-up interviews with a dozen of the surveyed districts, heard repeatedly that more students feel school is optional and not as important. To address that, schools have to make sure families know why in-person attendance matters and give students a reason to be there. "If there is this cultural shift away from thinking daily attendance is really critical, then we need different strategies that get toward that—which the early warning systems and the calls home don't get to," Rainey said. That reflects the experience of Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, an organization that provides counseling services at roughly 50 New York City schools. He's seen students grapple with questions like, "Why do I have to show up in school? I used to sit at home on my computer," or, "Why do I have to take this course, when life can be fleeting and things can happen that are out of our control?" Student reading scores on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, were the lowest in 30 years—even as students showed modest improvement in math. Many states recently adopted policies to promote evidence-based reading instructional practices, in particular more explicit phonics instruction. These policies may take time to show up in test scores. Math may be easier to remediate now that students are back in school, while gaps in foundational reading skills could be following students into older grades where teachers have less training in teaching students how to read. Students who leave elementary school as poor readers may struggle the rest of their academic careers. Surveys also find that far fewer students read for pleasure than in the past, and cell phones and social media could be sapping children's attention spans. The pandemic fueled a technology access explosion in American schools. Before COVID, fewer than half of students had access to a personal device at school. Now it's estimated that 90% of secondary students and 80% of elementary students do. But surveys indicate the most common way students use technology at school is taking online tests and quizzes. Some educators are determined to buck that trend. "I didn't use those computers until COVID," said Adrienne Staten, a veteran English teacher in Philadelphia who was far more comfortable with textbooks, paper, and handwriting. "COVID was the catalyst." Now Staten weaves generative AI—another innovation she initially greeted with skepticism—into her own lesson planning and what she asks her students to do. She wants them to understand technology's potential and its pitfalls, including built-in biases and privacy risks. AI has been especially helpful for her students who are learning English as a second language, giving them more confidence in how they express themselves and opening up more content areas, Staten said. Staten has the support of the Philadelphia school system, where officials want to become leaders in using AI in education. By the end of the school year, Staten's seniors will use Google's Gemini chatbot and Adobe's Express Firefly image generator to create virtual zines about a community they belong to, in conjunction with reading the novel "There There," which follows the stories of Native American characters in Oakland. "I just want to know that I gave them all the equipment and tools that they need to be OK out there," Staten said. Districts large and small have seen a steady decline in the number of students. Declining birth rates and rising housing prices play a large role, but the pandemic accelerated underlying trends. Families who didn't like their pandemic schooling options moved to private schools or opted to homeschool, and some haven't returned. Expanded voucher programs in a dozen states provide financial support for alternatives to public schools. What's the result? Even as the student population has declined, schools employ more adults than before the pandemic, according to an analysis by researcher Chad Aldeman in partnership with The 74. Federal COVID relief paid for many of these positions—and research suggests that money helped improve student academic recovery—but now that money has gone away. With school district budgets largely dependent on student population counts, these trends set the stage for painful budget decisions, layoffs, and school closures. Many child care centers stayed open through the pandemic to serve the children of essential workers even as schools shut down. Staff at Chelsea Ndaiga's Day Early Learning Center in Indianapolis, divided into two teams to maintain social distancing, and became experts in ever-shifting CDC protocols. "If they don't have their children in a safe spot, they can't do their quality work," Ndaiga said. "Families need to feel safe, need to feel that their children are safe, in order to do that." The pandemic made clear that a functioning economy depends on families having access to reliable child care. Federal pandemic relief helped shore up an early childhood sector that nearly faltered under the weight of lost income and staffing shortages. But advocates warned of a "child care cliff" when that money ran out. While the worst-case scenarios have not come to pass, child care supply isn't expanding and prices are rising, according to a report from The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. With significant federal help unlikely, states have forged their own solutions. In Indiana, that looks like deregulation coupled with expanded access to child care subsidies. The state can now offer child care to 62% of the 466,000 children who need it, up from 55% in 2021, according to an analysis by Early Learning Indiana. But a smaller share of Indiana's available childcare seats are in high-quality programs, according to the state's evaluation metric. And there's now a wait list for subsidies. The University of Northern Colorado, where about 40% of students are the first in their family to go to college, launched University 101 before COVID to help freshmen adjust to college expectations. But in the pandemic's aftermath, the course has evolved to cover more basic ground. "I can't believe the class expects me to show up in person," one student told University 101 program director Angela Vaughn last fall via a class feedback form. "I should be able to make that decision for myself." "How dare you say I can't have my cell phone," she said another student wrote. "I'm an adult." Relaxed expectations for high school students have become a habit that's hard to break. Higher education institutions, in turn, are having to do more to educate students about how to be a student. "Students are pushing back even more against those boundaries, those expectations of college," Vaugn said. "They're struggling with understanding why those things might be important." University 101 instructors meet weekly to discuss strategies and find better explanations than "because I said so." They bring in upperclassmen to talk about why University 101's expectations are normal, and they emphasize how college expectations relate to workforce demands. "They're starting to become adults, and we're here to help them expand their perspective beyond what they've experienced and what they know or think they know," Vaughn said. Chalkbeat staff Aleks Appleton, Kalyn Belsha, Jason Gonzales, Mila Koumpilova, Julian Shen-Berro, and Carly Sitrin contributed reporting. This story was produced by Chalkbeat and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
