More On Learning Loss and Afterschool

Source: Fab Youth Philly

By Sam Piha

There is a lot of concern that the COVID disruption resulted in significant learning loss and mental health issues (anxiety, depression, etc.). Should afterschool shift their focus to learning loss and academic support and move away from promoting a sense of safety, belonging and offering learning in non- academic areas?

Rebecca Fabiano

We asked Rebecca Fabiano, who is a respected afterschool leader and founder of FAB Youth Philly, to share her thoughts on these questions. Fab Youth Philly focuses three things: support youth-serving organizations through a variety of consulting services; connect youth development professionals to training and networking, and innovate summer and afterschool programming for children & teens. Rebecca has over 25 years of experience working in the afterschool field.

"I think afterschool should lean into its tradition of supporting Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and promoting a sense of safety & belonging as a primary goal and supporting academics as a secondary goal. The afterschool field has a long history of creating spaces that encourage and promote physical and emotional safety and center relationship building as a key tool in this effort. 

Source: Fab Youth Philly

Afterschool staff often serve as critical supports and advocates for youths’ social and mental well-being and should continue to do so. They can also serve as a bridge between the school day and non-school day activities, such as academic support, including things like SAT test prep. They can partner with other organizations that provide tutoring or special academic supports to offer that either during the day or afterschool, as afterschool programs often have flexibility in terms of partnerships, hiring, funding, etc. that school systems do not have.   

Afterschool programs should respond to learning loss and mental health concerns by continuing to center positive, trusting relationships between young people and their peers and with caring adults. They should also include youth in conversations about their own mental health needs and wishes. From there, they may offer, depending on their expertise and comfort, workshops or counseling services to meet these requests. Afterschool programs can also do some additional leg work to identify resources for youth that include multilingual resources, supports for LGBTQ, undocumented and other particularly and traditionally vulnerable youth. This might include resources for the whole family."

To learn more about Rebecca Fabiano and Fab Youth Philly, click here.

MORE ABOUT
For nearly 25 years, Rebecca Fabiano (She/Her/Hers) has worked in various capacities across nonprofit and youth-serving organizations, served on boards and helped to build solid youth programs that engage, encourage, and create spaces for positive development. As a program leader, she has successfully raised funds and managed program budgets; hired and supervised staff; developed and sustained strong community partnerships and designed award-winning programming. 

How Afterschool Programs Should Address COVID Learning Loss? Staying In Their Lane

Source: Photo by Ketut Subiyanto: https://www.pexels.com

By Sam Piha

Much has been discussed and written recently about learning loss during the pandemic. Headlines like those below raise alarms among educators and parents.

• Preliminary Glimpse at Test Scores Show Steep Declines in Reading and Math
• Nation’s report card: Massive drop in math scores, slide in reading linked to COVID disruption 
• Math Scores Fell in Nearly Every State, and Reading Dipped on National Exam 
• 2022 California Standardized Test Results Wipe Out Years of Steady Progress

“These are some of the largest declines we have observed in a single assessment cycle in 50 years of the NAEP program,” said Daniel McGrath, the acting associate commissioner of NCES. “Students in 2022 are performing at a level last seen two decades ago.” - Associated Press, Reading and math scores fell sharply during pandemic, data show

But children and youth suffered more than academic learning loss. They experienced trauma due to family death/illness, fear, and isolation. Two years of upheaval as schools and community-based afterschool youth programs, including those offering sports, the arts and music activities were shut down. Young people spent this time learning, playing and socializing from home. Virus outbreaks among adult staff and youth continued the disruption even after kids returned to school and afterschool programs. In addition to academic learning loss in math and reading, we also saw social learning loss, increased absences and behavior problems.

“Three years into the pandemic, K-12 students continue to face deep social-emotional learning (SEL) challenges. Now is a crucial time for districts and schools to address students’ social-emotional needs to help them be resilient, ready to learn, and able to succeed academically. Before students can recover academically, districts and schools must first address their social-emotional learning needs.” – Hanover Research, Program Planning Guide, Social Emotional Learning

Source: Photo by Charlotte May: https://www.pexels.com

“Adolescents coming of age during the pandemic have experienced social “learning loss,” and will need remedial support in social, not just academic, development, suggests new research presented this week at the Society for Neuroscience’s virtual annual conference.” – Sarah D. Sparks, ED Week

HOW SHOULD AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS RESPOND TO THE ACADEMIC LEARNING LOSS? 

Allow schools and educators to do what they do best- teaching reading and math in ways that will impact test scores.

“Even as U.S. school districts return to traditional modes of instruction, K–12 students continue to face deep social-emotional learning (SEL) challenges — a reality that’s seeping into their ability to reach expected academic progress.” – Hanover Research, Program Planning Guide, Social Emotional Learning

Instead of diverting resources away from learning that is kid-centered to academic activities, afterschool programs should stay in their lane and do what they do best:

• re-engage youth with peers and promote the excitement of learning;
• address social isolation by providing an environment of safety and belonging, and positive peer interaction;
• provide young people a place where they can be physically active; 
• build skills associated with social emotional learning. According to CASEL, these skills include:

• self-awareness (this includes capacities to recognize one’s strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose and understanding your emotions and thoughts and how they influence your behavior).
• self-management (the abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. This includes the capacities to delay gratification, manage stress, and feel motivation and agency to accomplish personal and collective goals).  
• responsible decision-making (the abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations. This includes the capacities to consider ethical standards and safety concerns, and to evaluate the benefits and consequences of various actions for personal, social, and collective well-being).
• social awareness (the abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others, understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings, and recognize family, school, and community resources and supports).
• relationship skills (the abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups. This includes the capacities to communicate clearly, listen actively, cooperate, work collaboratively to problem solve and negotiate conflict constructively, navigate settings with differing social and cultural demands and opportunities, provide leadership, and seek or offer help when needed).

Source: CASEL.org

POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT 

Crafting afterschool programs around youth development principles naturally addresses issues of social learning loss and earlier trauma. 

“PYD has been defined as voluntary education outside school hours aiming to promote generalized (not just health) and positive (not just avoiding risk) development of assets such as bonding, resilience, social, emotional, cognitive, behavior or moral competence, self-determination, spirituality, self- efficacy, clear and positive identity, belief in the future, recognition for positive behavior, opportunities for pro-social involvement and/or pro- social norms.” – BMC Public Health, What is positive youth development and how might it reduce substance use and violence? 

“Positive youth development (PYD) strategies offer ways to support and respond to mental health needs at different levels: promoting resilience through positive youth development; and adopting trauma-informed practices…” – National Center on Afterschool & Summer Enrichment, Supporting and Promoting Mental Health in Out-of-School Time 

To learn more about positive youth development strategies for afterschool, see Youth Development Guide 2.0. 

The Power of Us Workforce Survey is administered by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance, both domestically and internationally. This reliable survey will be administered throughout 2022. 

Summer Programs: A Gateway to the Return to School

Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education
Source: Edweek.org

By Sam Piha

Summer programs will be an important gateway to returning to school and healing from a year of isolation. However, these programs should not be pressured to fix the pandemic induced learning loss. Two available articles on focusing on learning loss deserve a read: Too Much Focus on ‘Learning Loss’ Will Be a Historic Mistake and Our Kids Are Not Broken.

Our kids have lost so much—family members, connections to friends and teachers, emotional well-being, and for many, financial stability at home. And, of course, they’ve lost some of their academic progress. The pressure to measure—and remediate—this “learning loss” is intense; many advocates for educational equity are rightly focused on getting students back on track. But I am concerned about how this growing narrative of loss will affect our students, emotionally and academically. Research shows a direct connection between a student’s mindset and academic success.” – Ron Berger, Senior Advisor at EL Education 

We’re in the throes of a pandemic. Put yourself in the perspective of a 9-year-old. Students have been looking at a computer for the better part of a year as they learn. So, any summer learning enrichment experience really needs to be re-engaging students in a community of learners. That’s done through experiential learning, getting outdoors, doing projects, [while] maintaining the health and safety standards that are required, to really re-engaging them with experiences. It could be connected to a museum visit. It could be connected to a summer camp where they have experiences.” – Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education  

How should we be thinking about our “gateway” summer youth programs? What do youth need from their summer program experiences?  How will this year's summer programming differ from past years? We asked some youth program professionals to share their thoughts on how we should we be thinking about summer programs.

Brad Lupien, ARC
President & CEO

This summer is a chance to test theories and demonstrate excellence in collaborative, active, meaningful experiences. We may only get this chance, at this scale, once. The hypothetical question, “if you had [nearly] unlimited funding for summer learning, what would you try, change, experiment with?” is now a reality. This is the time for innovators. 

Bill Fennessy,
A World Fit for Kids

There certainly is great academic learning loss, no question. The social emotional learning loss, however, coupled with the loss of daily personal human contact will have left students with an acute need for programming, activities, and play that intentionally address those needs. As we all know, these basic and critical human needs must be addressed, before there can be any real academic learning. Training to help understand and identify students' mental health issues, coupled with knowing how to refer them to services, will likely be the long-term challenge.  

Autrilla Gillis,
ISANA Academies

This year’s gateway summer youth programs must be multi-faceted. There is a strong need for social-emotional supports, academic interventions and enrichment opportunities. Programs will play an integral role in re-acclimating students to a structured environment to lay the foundation for their successful return to full-time on-campus instruction. Youth need structured, supportive, well-organized, and focused hubs to support these healthy transitions and provide a break from the monotony of life during the pandemic. While we’re a long way from our old normal, the ability to craft programs that are safe, supportive, and engaging are endless. This year’s return to summer programming has never been more important. As we approach summer programming, we must maximize the opportunity to reach all students. While data will indicate which students are most at-risk and in need of targeted supports, there is also a very real need to maintain contact with and provide supports for students that are at grade-level or above.

Stu Semigran,
EduCare Foundation

This summer, our young people will need the time to breathe, to play, to reconnect, and to enjoy themselves and one another. In many ways, it can be similar to reuniting a family after being apart for so long... to tell their stories, to share their experiences, and to begin the process, welcomed for some and awkward for others, of being together again. This time for healing and reconnecting with their peers and teachers will hopefully rebuild communities of safety, renewed comfort, and stability that can then serve as a foundation for reigniting learning.  Being patient and allowing space for the awkwardness of reestablishing connections and for the opportunities to address the trauma and pain of this pandemic year will be essential as we focus on the social-emotional needs of us all- both students and adults.

After a full year of learning isolation, young people are just now returning to school, in a face- to- face or hybrid model. This Fall youth are likely returning to school full time. Summer youth programs will be an important gateway to returning to school and healing from a year of isolation. But how should we be thinking about our gateway summer youth programs? What do youth need from their summer program experiences? How will this year's summer programming differ from past years?

On Friday, May 7, 2021, we are sponsoring a Speaker's Forum/ webinar discussion on this topic. It will be facilitated by Ayala Goldstein (Director of Programs, California School- Age Consortium). She will be joined by Aaron Dworkin (CEO of National Summer Learning Association), Autrilla Gillis (Director of Expanded Learning, ISANA Academies) and Selekha Ramos (Mighty Writers) who will be sharing their thoughts and responding to your questions. To register and learn more, click here.