STUDENT OF COLOR CRISIS
During the pandemic, K-12 students of color have dealt with and continue to face a lot of loss…in their homes, families, neighborhoods and lives; potentially life-changing learning loss, is a direct result.
Pre-Pandemic Disparities
Even before the pandemic hit, there were always systemic gaps in the school districts whose student bodies are children of color.
Everyone felt the negative impact…instructors, administrators, counselors, parents but especially, the students.
Disparities abound in resources, opportunities, and outcomes experienced by many students of color.
Disparities of resources, opportunities and outcomes
For example, funding per student tends to be lower for students of color.
Students of color tend to go to schools with fewer resources, are less safe, and have poorly maintained property and HVAC systems.
"..the average Black or Hispanic student remained roughly two years behind.."
In addition, compared to white students, students of color experience more challenges at home such as parents who are poor or financially stressed. They also have the related problem of the lack of the access to technology and broadband internet.
As a result, for academics in particular - the average Black or Hispanic student remained roughly two years behind the average white one
Then the crisis came.
“Students of color may have lost three to five months of learning in mathematics” by the fall, “while white students lost just one to three months.”
(Source: McKinsey)
Academic progress for students of color appears to have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
While all types of students experienced unfinished learning, students of color and low-income students suffered the most.
A number of studies revealed a range of alarming facts.
The students have dealt with a lot of loss, in their families, in their neighborhoods, in their lives, resulting in a loss of learning.
The number of children who have lost a parent to COVID-19 has been staggering—with somewhere between 37,300 and 43,000 children already impacted as of February 2021, by one recent estimate. But losses hit families of color especially hard. For example, 20% of children who lost a parent were Black, though making up 14% of the population.
When taking into account these and numerous other challenges, the negative educational outcomes and learning gaps are understandable, but no less alarming.
Especially when we ask ourselves…What about the “at risk” students who already demonstrated chronic and long-term learning gaps before the pandemic. How do we keep the powerful momentum of academic failure that lays a pathway to a lifetime of underemployment and depressed earnings?
Never before has there been such a pervasive state of crisis for students of color.
During this pandemic crisis, we all became used to the term “first responders.”
To turn things around for students of color, it takes a team of “ready responders.”
At DSES, we turn K-12 educator teams into “ready responders” that understand and proactively meet the needs for students of color and as a result, individual learning gaps are recovered.
COVID-19 learning loss is a stark reality, but we have the solution!
