Students Getting Back To Speed Quickly After Layoff

As schools start up again, teachers are gauging where students stand in various subject matter after nearly four months away from the classroom.

Putnam PK-4 Curriculum Supervisor Jill Ramsey said students are less behind than originally thought.

“We’re not going back to previous grade level material per say, in that we’re not going to back up in first grade and do kindergarten type work to begin with,” Ramsey said. “We’re going to go straight into the first grade material, and then we’re going to fill in gaps in instruction by spiraling and reviewing.”

Ramsey said formal assessments will take place late August and early September, giving students time to get used to their new environment. She said education gaps are more noticeable K-2 since children learn how to read at that grade level.

Teachers repeatedly preform assessments to gauge which grade level the students are. Ramsey said each grade has different standards that must be met.

“As teachers are teaching throughout the day, they are constantly asking kids to preform or to provide some kind of sample of work to show their progress toward mastery of those standards,” Ramsey said. “That’s ongoing and that’s every day.”

A universal NWEA Map Test is given every fall, winter, and spring. Ramsey said the school district and individual schools review the Map Test results to determine specific skill deficits students may have.

Despite students not being in school for over four months, Ramsey said she’s not expecting a lot of differences from this year’s assessment in comparison to last year’s.

“The teachers are working very closely with the previous grade teachers about what material was not covered perhaps at the end of the year, and then having really specific conversations about their students,” Ramsey said. “Their individual students where they were preforming when we went out to remote learning and maybe what struggles they were having.”