Harvard EdCast: Learning Loss And The Coronavirus

With many schools closed around the country due to the coronavirus, educators and parents may have growing concerns about how long students can go without formal instruction. Jennifer McCombs, a senior policy researcher for the RAND Corporation, has long studied the effects of summer break on learning — particularly for at-risk students from low-income families or students performing below grade level. In this episode of the EdCast, McCombs discusses how what we know from summer learning loss might guide educators, districts, and parents as they set forth on learning when school is closed.

Ways to borrow from what we know about summer learning (and learning loss):

• Home learning can be effective. Don’t stress about learning loss too much. “We don’t have to replace every single hour, particularly when we’re giving one-on-one attention to our kids,” McCombs says. “It’s really engaged time in academic learning that’s creating the learning, not necessarily the number of academic minutes in a school day……………………………………………………………..