The COVID-19 Slide: Research on Learning Loss With Dr. Megan Kuhfeld

In our latest episode, Brian welcomes Dr. Megan Kuhfeld to the program for a discussion about COVID-related school closures and their effects on students.

Megan is a research scientist at the not-for-profit organization NWEA. She seeks to understand students’ trajectories of academic and social-emotional learning and the school and neighborhood influences that promote optimal growth. Her work covers a range of topics, including longitudinal growth modeling, achievement gaps, and summer learning loss. 

Megan recently co-authored a research brief titled “The COVID-19 Slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement.” She also co-authored a new working paper, called “Projecting the potential impacts of COVID-19 school closures on academic achievement,” which built on the COVID Slide brief and highlighted the increased variability of student needs that schools will likely be seeing in the future.

In her discussion with Brian, Megan provides an overview of both studies, and they talk about the immediate and long-term challenges the current situation is creating for students, schools and families.

You can learn more about NWEA on their website nwea.org, and follow Megan on Twitter at @MeganKuhfeld. 

Topics Covered:

0:45 Intro
2:45 NWEA and Megan’s work
5:00 Seasonal learning loss data and its application to the COVID-19 situation
8:00 Slowdown or slide--projected learning losses
12:30 Additional COVID-19-specific challenges
15:15 Increased variability of needs for next school year
18:45 Social and emotional challenges for students and families
21:30 Moving forward--thoughts and recommendations

Links:
COVID-19 Slide Research Brief: https://www.nwea.org/content/uploads/2020/05/Collaborative-Brief_Covid19-Slide-APR20.pdf
COVID-19 Impact Working Paper: https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-226
CRPE: https://www.crpe.org/
CASEL--COVID-19 Resources: https://casel.org/covid-resources/

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