Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 education continues to experience an unprecedented wave of school closures in terms of the number of students and school days affected. Even if some states reopen schools prior to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, districts face the difficult task of planning curriculum and instruction for 2020-21 while still uncertain as to the amount of learning loss students have suffered.
The extraordinary nature of COVID-19 means that no direct analogue exists to which districts may look for guidance. However, districts may benefit from studying other contexts in which students face considerable out-of-school time, such as summer vacations. We created the Learning Loss Discussion Guide to help district leaders educate stakeholders about how COVID-19 may create new learning gaps for students and what supports may help students retain what they have learned.
