Assessing The COVID Learning Gap

Standardized testing in Alabama will not be canceled because of the pandemic this year, some students having started taking the tests as recent as last week.

Set by the biden administration.

New at six... standardized testing in alabama will not be canceled because of the pandemic this year.

Some students started taking the tests last week -- while other districts started testing today!

Waay 31's alex torres-perez spoke with the state superintendent about why this year's test is more crucial than ever before.

Ll: it's been a challenging year for students and teachers.

With classes either being moved completely online or students coming back to the classroom in smaller groups with masking and social distancing in place.

The state superintendent hopes this year's standardized and assessment tests will give them a look at how all those changes impacted your kid's education.

Mackey "it's very important we get a solid baseline foundational data for our students and where they are performing.

We believe it's important to gather that data this year more than ever."

State superintendent dr. eric mackey says they are working to see how big the covid learning gap really is.

So far -- he's seen some unifinished learning -- where students didn't get to finish last year's lesson plans during the current school year.

But he knows the impact goes beyond that.

That's why they're planning other assesments in the summer and fall to further figure out where gaps exist.

School districts across the state are also working on their own plan to close the learning gap.

"what we're asking is for each district to look at their community...to understand where they are and what they need to be doing going forward."

Some districts have already announced some of their plans.

For example -- birmingham city schools is trying to revise their school calendar to start school earlier to prevent a bigger gap.

Madison city schools says it's using federal funding to add more summer reading and math programs to address the problem.

"plans are going to look different in different parts of the state."

But dr. mackey says all school's 30-month plans will have the same goal.

"to move forward, accelerate learning and get back on track."

Ll: school districts have until june 1st to submit their plan to the state.

Reporting in hsv atp waay 31 news.