OHIO — Concerns over kids dropping multiple grade levels in reading have subsided at one Central Ohio school. That's because kids are doing much better than expected. 

What You Need To Know

  • Frequent assessments helped Richard Avenue Elementary School determine where students stood

  • Hybrid learning and the virtual option helped as both created smaller in-person class sizes, which allows for intense, one on one instruction

  • Learning this way has cost teachers time away from their families and caused more students to struggle with social-emotional issues 

  • Government funding has help third graders in need of supplies and other resources
  • It'll be three to four years before major growth is seen in test scores from a professional development partnership the school has currently

Richard Avenue Elementary School is a part of the South-Western City School District. Like many other districts and schools around the country, the expectation was that when students started school, they would be way behind because of the pandemic.

Teachers said to their surprise, students were on target in their core subjects.

“Honestly, it was where I would expect them to have been even at the beginning of the year, if it was a normal year," said third grade teacher Mallory Liu.

For reading in particular, Third Grade Reading Guarantee results showed that students at the school scored a few percentage points above the 2019 proficiency scores. 

Armed with information, teachers said they've doing their best to set the pace for learning. While they wish they could slow it down a little more, they can't because they know they need to make sure they get in the required components of the curriculum. The good thing though is better parent engagement, professional development, new curriculum and smaller classes are helping to ease some of the burden. Classes of 26 or more are now around eight to 12 students. That's because students learning in person are on a hybrid schedule and others are learning virtually. 

The smaller class sizes are now giving teachers the chance to work one on one with students, unlike before where they could only provide a handful with one on one help. There is concern that when COVID-19 health guidelines change again and all students return to school, that giving students that kind of attention will fade. 

In the meantime, students are getting some big lessons outside of school work, like learning that it's OK to make mistakes. Plus, school officials said they're asking for help a lot more than before. It's a skill that teachers said the pandemic has prompted, as parents struggle at home to figure things out.

“Before it was like their parents were trying to communicate something they knew nothing about and ask questions about, so I feel like the kids are able to advocate almost like little adults, you know. It's kind of cool," Liu said.

With everything they're learning now, Liu and others said it's all things they can use throughout the rest of their life.

Related Stories