Even as vaccines have been issued and social distancing stops being practiced by the majority of Americans, COVID-19 continues to have many effects on society today. Some of the persisting effects of the pandemic are specifically felt by youth who faced the drastic shift to remote, online education in 2020. Now, many students are still adjusting to coming back to in-person schooling post-pandemic, even after years have passed since students first moved to online school. These lasting impacts are seen in the lowered motivation and effort many students put towards school as their perception of education was skewed by the standards and practices set during remote learning.
As education switched to online school, students faced fewer consequences for being absent than during in-person schooling. In a way, it was considered relatively normal to miss a class due to the lack of effort it would take to simply not pull out one’s computer to join a Google Meet or Zoom meeting.
Daisy Jimenez-Antonio, the student attendance coach at Franklin, describes, “We currently have 1,781 students enrolled [at Franklin]. Out of that number 51.8% [have] chronic severe absenteeism.” This term is used when a student misses 10% of school or more, and these percentages reflect how around half of the students here at Franklin are missing large amounts of school.
Jimenez-Antonio explains that these numbers of absences among Franklin students are higher than pre-pandemic numbers, showing how the attitude towards attendance and participation that was commonly felt among students during online education may be continuing to impact the effort students put towards school today.
Rhonda Gray, a teacher here at Franklin, shares her perspective on the systems changed during the shift to online learning, stating, “During the pandemic, students that attended online [school] were automatically passed whether they had their camera on, completed assignments, or ever spoke during class discussions.” While this change was made to support struggling students to be able to pass their classes without access to many of the support systems that in-person learning provides, these expectations set during the pandemic have led students to still expect low standards, even as we’ve moved back to in-person learning. Gray describes how this took form: “The year we returned to school, some students expected to be able to attend class and pass based on attendance.”
Gray further explains the connection between student participation and the habits students have developed in the last couple of years, saying, “[Nowadays] I don’t think standards are lower, [but] I see that the level of engagement is lower.”
Gray also finds that a big contributor to lowered engagement is because of cell phone usage during class. There could be no regulation of phones during online school, and, as a result, many students are still in the habit of thinking that it’s okay to pull their phone out whenever they find a class or assignment boring. In the face of higher phone usage in classes, Gray adds that the cell phone policies in schools should be raised in order to ensure “that they are respected by all.”
Despite teachers’ work to support students’ academics during the return to in-person instruction, what has lowered alongside student participation is student academic performance post-pandemic. Education Week reports on these lowered scores, citing, “Test scores from 6.7 million U.S. public school students in grades 3-8, found that students are still making progress at a slower rate than their peers were pre-COVID.” These scores show how the effects of the pandemic go beyond students struggling to fully engage in their classes, but also have harmed many students’ ability to academically progress.
Perspectives can vary drastically over which grade level was affected most by the pandemic, ranging from arguments that it was the young children to the teens switching from middle school to high school. Although there could be many different arguments to be made, Morgan Polikoff, a professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, describes that he doesn’t think there is a “correct” grade level that was disproportionately impacted. However, Polikoff does describe the way academics were impacted differently among different ages, sharing, “I believe the effects may have been larger at younger ages [for] reading but older ages [for] mathematics.”
Nowadays, as it’s been more than four years since the start of the pandemic, the learning loss and sense of being behind in subjects isn’t always addressed or brought up by students. Polikoff explains that, while he thinks that the standards in schools have been lowered since COVID, “[Learning loss is] a long-standing trend that pre-dates COVID, [even though] COVID accelerated it.”
When asked about his perspective on the concern felt by some guardians’ that standards in their children’s schools are being lowered, Polikoff adds that while guardians’ perceptions of the standards being lowered are in some ways accurate, “What we don’t see is parents fully understanding the impact of COVID on their children’s academic performance [which is] probably compounded by the lowering of standards.” Despite some parents acknowledging that the pandemic has had an effect on students’ learning, Polikoff highlights that many do not fully understand truly by how much, as students’ academic success isn’t only being impacted by lowered standards but by a variety of factors.
Vicky Phan, a sophomore at Franklin, describes how “there are kids [her] age who can’t spell basic words, don’t attend class, and don’t get consequences for it.” A big reason for this lack of effort can be seen in a lack of motivation. Phan describes how, from her experiences, she has continued to feel more “lazy and unmotivated” since online school in 2020. Phan adds onto this, finding that to support increased motivation towards school it would be helpful — for herself — to have “advanced classes [like] math, English, and history be [graded] based on answers [not effort].” Even as students are still trying to academically catch up from the learning loss that resulted from the pandemic, Phan’s perspective shows that for some it might help them most to be pushed to put in increased effort in their academics.
Everyone’s experience during the pandemic and its aftermath impacted their mental health, academics, and well-being in varying ways, with some still recovering. I myself am still adjusting from not taking classes during online school seriously, even as we’ve been in-person full-time for the past three years. While everyone continues to adjust to a “normal,” students should strive for their best and not let past experiences hold them back. For some, this may involve pushing past their own negative habits developed during online school. For others, this might mean reaching out for help from educators and other support systems around them if they are continuing to struggle to adjust to coming back to school and keeping up academically. No matter what it looks like for you, don’t forget to reach out to the many resources Franklin has to offer to help get you and keep you on track.
