How to Solve for Learning Loss — What Does the Evidence Say?

You don’t need to consult the myriad statistical reports during COVID-19 to know that most students have suffered a learning loss. And students who entered the pandemic below grade level have of course suffered most. How can teachers and learners recover?

First, let’s look at the phrase itself. In a recent article in Ed Week, Tommy Thompson asks a very lucid question: What does the phrase learning loss mean? What standards have been lost? What actionable data can we glean from reports that tell us the number of months our students are behind? The simple answer is that all the laments get us nowhere.

Let’s Go Learn’s adaptive diagnostic assessments and instructional systems have been used for over 20 years to determine and remediate learning gaps in math and ELA/reading.

We know where to start. It’s the same place that effective teaching and learning always start. With an evidence-based diagnostic. At Let’s Go Learn, we agree with Thompson’s recommendation: “Educators that administer an assessment before instruction are better equipped to know where students are in relation to the desired course outcomes.” To take meaningful action teachers have to know where learning gaps exist. We have to provide each student with a granular diagnostic assessment that measures “present levels” as defined in special education versus grade level instructional goals. Then we can plan learning activities that are at each student’s Zone of Proximal Development in the specific content gap.

The results? In the summer of 2017, all students who used our online reading instruction for more than 6.4 hours measured a gain of over one-half year in comprehension and a gain in decoding skills from three months to one year. In the summer of 2018, students who used our instruction for more than 5.2 hours measured a gain in comprehension of over one-half year and a gain in decoding from 4 months to one year.

We know where to start. It’s the same place that effective teaching and learning always start. With an evidence-based diagnostic. At Let’s Go Learn, we agree with Thompson’s recommendation: “Educators that administer an assessment before instruction are better equipped to know where students are in relation to the desired course outcomes.” To take meaningful action teachers have to know where learning gaps exist. We have to provide each student with a granular diagnostic assessment that measures “present levels” as defined in special education versus grade level instructional goals. Then we can plan learning activities that are at each student’s Zone of Proximal Development in the specific content gap.