Atlanta Public Schools interim superintendent is working to improve academic performance after COVID
The State of the American Student 2023 illuminates insidious and hidden ways COVID-19 and related school closures have led to unprecedented academic setbacks for American students.
Nick Nesmith / WABE
Dr. Danielle Battle has stepped into the role of interim superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, and her administration has partnered with the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy, a development organization for educators, to pilot ideas that can improve literacy in Atlanta’s schools.
New report says COVID exacerbated inequalities and accelerated mental health crisis for Georgia students
A new report from the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRP) — the State of the American Student 2023 — illuminates insidious and hidden ways COVID-19 and related school closures have led to unprecedented academic setbacks for American students.
The report found that 30% of US eighth graders performed below basic in reading on the NAEP exam, and 38% performed below basic in math. Nearly 50% of students who started the 2022-2023 were below grade level. The CRP’s report says it will take the average eighth grader about eight months to catch up.
Absenteeism increased, and enrollment declined across the board as well, according to the National Education Statistics. Some 72% of public schools reported an increase in chronic absenteeism compared to typical years before the pandemic, and between 2019 and 2023, enrollment declined by nearly 1.3 million students.
More than 8 in 10 public schools also reported stunted behavioral and socio-emotional development in their students because of the pandemic, according to the IES Pulse survey.
Stephen Owens, education director at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, says in Georgia, these issues didn’t start with COVID, however.
Georgia has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country and yet is one of six states where low-income students are not factored into the state’s annual school funding formula.
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