Opinion: Want to Correct “Learning Loss” in Texas Schools? Listen to Texas Students.
To improve students’ experience in school and their capacity to learn, student voices need to be amplified
By Haley DeVos-Roy, Fri., Jan. 21, 2022
Over the past 18 months, all students experienced schooling disruptions. State leaders in Texas must address "learning loss" and to do so they need to empower student voices.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath recently called "learning loss" the "largest problem facing the state of Texas." 2020-21 STAAR scores indicate students have fallen behind in both mathematics and reading. In math, students have fallen back to percentages not seen since 2012.
House Bill 4545, passed this past summer, requires districts to provide 30 hours of intervention tutoring for any student who failed, or did not take, the STAAR in each tested subject. This leaves school districts with virtually no choice but to extend their school day and/or year and use their ESSER funds to meet these demands.
The solutions offered up by Texas leaders focus heavily on instruction and increasing the amount of time children spend in school. However, leaders are assuming that all Texas schools are safe spaces that are conducive to student learning, which is not always the case. Students need to feel a sense of belonging at school. They need to be known, seen, heard, and valued. Research shows that until these basic needs are met, no amount of mandated tutoring or intervention will be effective.
Texas can learn from the work occurring in other states. When discussing how to best reopen schools in Chicago, the superintendent held forums with the Student Voice Committees established at secondary schools across the city. Students easily identified solutions to some of the struggles they were experiencing due to the pandemic. Some of these solutions included reducing student workloads, hiring additional school counselors, and adopting a more culturally responsive curriculum.
The superintendent of the Ferguson-Florissant School District, outside St. Louis, also sought student input when deciding how to best reopen school doors through listening sessions with middle and high school students. Students said they wanted to see more of themselves in the curricula and wished to connect more with their teachers. Students there are now helping to design and lead school reopening orientations and drafting districtwide anti-racist standards.
High school students in Kentucky teamed up with researchers at the University of Kentucky to survey almost 9,500 students across the state. They found that a majority of students (84%) reported taking on additional responsibilities since the pandemic, including working and taking care of family members. They recommended schools be more flexible about attendance policies and expand mental health resources and opportunities for online college and career counseling. The students took their data and policy recommendations to the Kentucky State Board of Education in August 2020 causing districts to delay and amend their reopening plans.
Effective teachers are those who enable students to be producers of their learning, rather than consumers, by empowering their voices and listening to their ideas. This happens daily in classrooms across the state of Texas. If effective teachers are doing this, shouldn't effective leaders do the same?
To improve students' experience in school and their capacity to learn, student voices need to be amplified. Their views need to be leading the way in informing school policy and practice. Rather than pushing a longer school day/year and requiring intensive interventions, Texas leaders should be encouraging school leaders to listen to student perspectives and use ESSER funds to implement their ideas.
As we get back to the normalcy of schools and classrooms and work to fill the gaps in state-mandated standards, it is important to remember schooling is fundamentally for and about students. Students know their own learning experience best. Now is the time for Texas leaders to step back and listen to them.
Haley DeVos-Roy is a full-time teacher in a Texas public school. She is also a part-time graduate student at the University of Texas-Austin studying education policy and planning.
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