Reading Rockets–NEA Guide
COVID-19 and the 2021-22 School Year
What does the 2021-22 school year look like for our kids, families, educators, and school communities? Here you'll find timely news headlines, articles, video, and resource collections that focus on returning to school during the ongoing pandemic, the importance of social and emotional supports, and addressing learning loss resulting from missed school days, the challenges of distance learning, and family trauma.
This project was developed in partnership with the National Education Association and Colorín Colorado.
Social and emotional issues
Classroom Time Isn’t the Only Thing Students Have Lost
Students have endured tremendous trauma during the pandemic — and teachers know learning can’t happen without healing. (The Atlantic)
Why we're prioritizing SEL this year
Four educators write that additional supports are a necessity for students and their families this year to proactively address pandemic stress and trauma. (K-12 Dive)
Related Headlines
- The pandemic has had devastating impacts on learning. What will it take to help students catch up? (Brookings)
- Schools embrace social and emotional learning to help 'overwhelmed' students (NPR)
- What Good Social-Emotional Learning Should Look Like: First, Listen to the Community (Education Week)
- For kids grappling with the pandemic's traumas, art classes can be an oasis (KQED Mindshift)
- Teaching Social-Emotional Skills is Hard, Time-Consuming, and Necessary, Report Says (Education Week)
- Helping Students Reacclimate to Being With Others All Day (Edutopia)
- 8 Activities for Students (and Teachers) to Create a Mindful Classroom (Edutopia)
- Resources for Promoting Social and Emotional Learning at Home (Edutopia)
- What Kids Feel Entering A Third COVID School Year (And How To Help Them Through It) (NPR)
Addressing learning gaps
The Science of Catching Up (Hechinger Report)
Tens of millions of students may now be months or, in some cases, even a full year behind because they couldn’t attend school in person during the pandemic. Significant setbacks are especially likely for the most vulnerable students — kids with disabilities and those living in poverty, who didn’t have a computer, a reliable internet connection or a workspace to learn at home. Educators will have to do something different for the 2021-22 school year to make up for those losses. No catch-up strategy can possibly benefit all students. But studies do point toward which strategies are most effective, how they can best be implemented — and what approaches might be a waste of time and money. Here’s a rundown of the most relevant research. See report >
Related Headlines
- How extra funding and learning time are helping students catch up from COVID interruptions (KQED Mindshift)
- Reading Remedies: How One School Battled COVID Reading Woes Through Teacher Support and Training (The 74)
- ‘The Reading Year’: First grade is critical for reading skills, but kids coming from disrupted kindergarten experiences are way behind (Hechinger Report)
- Reading remedies: Schools assess pandemic’s effect on literacy (Christian Science Monitor)
- How COVID’s K-Shaped Recession Could Widen Achievement Gaps and Spark a Classroom Crisis (The 74)
- 20 Ways to Support Students With Learning Differences This Year (Education Week)
- Student Learning Declined This Year, Especially for the Most Vulnerable Kids, Data Shows (Education Week)
- First-graders in the reading red zone: How one Colorado school is tackling pandemic gaps (Chalkbeat Colorado)
Research and Reports
Reopening schools
What kinds of decisions will schools, educators, and families have to make about how schools work in the 2021-2022 school year? Learn more from these updates.
Returning to School: A Toolkit for Principals
This toolkit from the National Comprehensive Center is designed to help principals organize their approach to reopening and includes tools, tip sheets, and suggestions for action. Topics range from the nuts and bolts of social distancing and cleaning protocols to building the school community by emphasizing what everyone has in common.
Related Headlines
- Omicron and Schools: Resources to Manage the Next COVID Wave (Education Week)
- Serving as Substitute Teacher, Superintendent Gets Fresh View of Schools’ COVID Struggles (Education Week)
- 7 strategies to prevent chronic absenteeism in the return to school (K-12 Dive)
- 11 lessons from schools that kept Covid cases low (Hechinger Report)
- Glimpses of How Pandemic America Went Back to School (The New York Times)
- What Kids Feel Entering A Third COVID School Year (And How To Help Them Through It) (NPR)
- Los Angeles Is Now The Largest School District To Require Vaccines For Students (NPR)
- How Do You Open School in a Pandemic? Start by Asking Teachers and Students (Ed Surge)
- When Vaccines Aren’t an Option: Life for Families With Children Under 12 (The New York Times)
- The Kindergarten Exodus (The New York Times)
- Why Some Families Still Prefer Remote School (The New York Times)
- Masks, Tracking, Desk Shields: How Much Do School Measures Reduce Families’ COVID-19 Risk? (Education Week)
