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The pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequality in America: School closures and social isolation have affected all students, but particularly those living in poverty. Adding to the damage to their learning, a mental health crisis is emerging as many students have lost access to services that were offered by schools.

No matter what form school takes when the new year begins鈥攚hether students and teachers are back in the school building together or still at home鈥攖eachers will face a pressing issue: How can they help students recover and stay on track throughout the year even as their lives are likely to continue to be disrupted by the pandemic?

New research provides insights about the scope of the problem鈥攁s well as potential solutions.

The Achievement Gap Is Likely to Widen

A suggests that the coronavirus will undo months of academic gains, leaving many students behind. The study authors project that students will start the new school year with an average of 66 percent of the learning gains in reading and 44 percent of the learning gains in math, relative to the gains for a typical school year. But the situation is worse on the reading front, as the researchers also predict that the top third of students will make gains, possibly because they鈥檙e likely to continue reading with their families while schools are closed, thus widening the achievement gap.

To make matters worse, 鈥渇ew school systems provide plans to support students who need accommodations or other special populations,鈥� the researchers point out in the study, potentially impacting students with special needs and English language learners.

Of course, the idea that over the summer students forget some of what they learned in school isn鈥檛 new. But there鈥檚 a big difference between summer learning loss and pandemic-related learning loss: During the summer, formal schooling stops, and learning loss happens at roughly the same rate for all students, the researchers point out. But instruction has been uneven during the pandemic, as some students have been able to participate fully in online learning while others have faced obstacles鈥攕uch as lack of internet access鈥攖hat have hindered their progress.

In the study, researchers analyzed a national sample of 5 million students in grades 3鈥�8 who took the MAP Growth test, a tool schools use to assess students鈥� reading and math growth throughout the school year. The researchers compared typical growth in a standard-length school year to projections based on students being out of school from mid-March on. To make those projections, they looked at research on the summer slide, weather- and disaster-related closures (such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and absenteeism.

The researchers predict that, on average, students will experience substantial drops in reading and math, losing roughly three months鈥� worth of gains in reading and five months鈥� worth of gains in math. For Megan Kuhfeld, the lead author of the study, the biggest takeaway isn鈥檛 that learning loss will happen鈥攖hat鈥檚 a given by this point鈥攂ut that students will come back to school having declined at vastly different rates.

鈥淲e might be facing unprecedented levels of variability come fall,鈥� Kuhfeld told me. 鈥淓specially in school districts that serve families with lots of different needs and resources. Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom, teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward.鈥澛�

Disproportionate Impact on Students Living in Poverty and Students of Color

Horace Mann once referred to schools as the 鈥済reat equalizers,鈥� yet the pandemic threatens to expose the underlying inequities of remote learning. According to a , 17 percent of teenagers have difficulty completing homework assignments because they do not have reliable access to a computer or internet connection. For Black students, the number spikes to 25 percent.

鈥淭here are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in poverty and children of color,鈥� Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic parents, who are less likely to be able to work from home during the pandemic.

Although children are with Covid-19, the adult mortality rates, coupled with the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, will likely have an indelible impact on their well-being.

Impacts on Students鈥� Mental Health

That impact on well-being may be magnified by another effect of school closures: Schools are 鈥渢he de facto mental health system for many children and adolescents,鈥� providing mental health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need care, according to the authors of a recent study published in . School closures may be especially disruptive for children from lower-income families, who are disproportionately likely to receive mental health services exclusively from schools.

鈥淭he Covid-19 pandemic may worsen existing mental health problems and lead to more cases among children and adolescents because of the unique combination of the public health crisis, social isolation, and economic recession,鈥� write the authors of that study.

A major concern the researchers point to: Since most mental health disorders begin in childhood, it is essential that any mental health issues be identified early and treated. Left untreated, they can lead to serious health and emotional problems. In the short term, video conferencing may be an effective way to deliver mental health services to children.

Mental health and academic achievement are linked, research shows. Chronic stress changes the chemical and physical structure of the brain, impairing cognitive skills like attention, concentration, memory, and creativity. 鈥淵ou see deficits in your ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress,鈥� said Cara Wellman, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University in a . In her research, Wellman discovered that chronic stress causes the connections between brain cells to shrink in mice, leading to cognitive deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex.听

While trauma-informed practices were widely used before the pandemic, they鈥檙e likely to be even more integral as students experience economic hardships and grieve the loss of family and friends. Teachers can look to schools like Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, as a model for trauma-informed practices.听

3 Ways Teachers Can Prepare

When schools reopen, many students may be behind, compared to a typical school year, so teachers will need to be very methodical about checking in on their students鈥攏ot just academically but also emotionally. Some may feel prepared to tackle the new school year head-on, but others will still be recovering from the pandemic and may still be reeling from trauma, grief, and anxiety.听

Here are a few strategies teachers can prioritize when the new school year begins:

• Focus on relationships first. Fear and anxiety about the pandemic鈥攃oupled with uncertainty about the future鈥攃an be disruptive to a student鈥檚 ability to come to school ready to learn. Teachers can act as a powerful buffer against the adverse effects of trauma by helping to establish a safe and supportive environment for learning. From morning meetings to regular check-ins with students, strategies that center around relationship-building will be needed in the fall.
• Strengthen diagnostic testing. Educators should prepare for a greater range of variability in student learning than they would expect in a typical school year. Low-stakes assessments such as exit tickets and quizzes can help teachers gauge how much extra support students will need, how much time should be spent reviewing last year鈥檚 material, and what new topics can be covered.
• Differentiate instruction鈥攑articularly for vulnerable students. For the vast majority of schools, the abrupt transition to online learning left little time to plan a strategy that could adequately meet every student鈥檚 needs鈥攊n a recent by the Education Trust, only 24 percent of parents said that their child鈥檚 school was providing materials and other resources to support students with disabilities, and a quarter of non-English-speaking students were unable to obtain materials in their own language. Teachers can work to ensure that the students on the margins get the support they need by taking stock of students鈥� knowledge and skills, and differentiating instruction by giving them choices, connecting the curriculum to their interests, and providing them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.