When the COVID-19 pandemic first shut down schools nearly two years ago, Joseph Howe was an assistant superintendent in the Freehold Borough School District and many thought the spreading virus would last only a few weeks or months.
Two years later, Howe is now the superintendent, the virus is still a major issue, and he believes it will be for years to come.
“Things are still far from normal and they continue to be,” said Howe, who noted that cases increased sharply in January after the holiday break. “We anticipate cases are going to be pervasive. It has lasted so long. If this was something that lasted only a few weeks or even just through June of 2020 we could have recovered quicker, but it went so long and affected lives beyond education.”
And with Monday’s announcement by Gov. Phil Murphy that the statewide school mask mandate will be lifted next month, some contend more cases may arise.
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For Freehold Borough and other school districts in Monmouth and Ocean counties, the major impact has been on so-called “learning loss,” the diminished education of many students who were forced to engage in virtual or remote learning for so long.
Studies have shown students who spent all or most of their time attending classes online lost comprehension, focusand engagement, according to experts. Others found stress, anxiety and depression increased as well and affected learning.
“Our members are very concerned about the impact that pandemic has had on our students’ social, emotional and academic health,” said Steven Baker, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, which represents Garden State teachers. “The stresses that students have faced both in and out of school have been tremendous, and they are not over yet.”
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What the studies show
A Novemberreport from Curriculum Associates, an education materials and research firm, found that “more students are two or more grade levels below their actual grade level this fall than before the pandemic began. This means that teachers will not only have fewer students beginning the school year on grade level, but they also will have more students in need of intensive intervention and support.”
Another report from the Pew Charitable Trust issued the same month found that student mental health and anxiety had worsened due to pandemic effects, stating, “the grief, anxiety and depression children have experienced during the pandemic is welling over into classrooms and hallways, resulting in crying and disruptive behavior in many younger kids, and increased violence and bullying among adolescents.”
The report also cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that found emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts among adolescents jumped31% in 2020, compared with 2019.
For school districts, the emotional and learning impact has meant a slew of enrichment programs, before- and after-school sessions, and summer school in larger numbers than ever.
New Jersey received $4.3 billion in federal funding for schools as part of the three major relief COVID relief packages: the CARES Act, CRRSA, and in the American Rescue Plan, according to Department of Education spokesman Michael Yaple.
“In accordance with the legislation,90% of that went directly to school districts to spend on 15 allowable costs,” he said via email. “States were not authorized to dictate to districts to spend their funding on one allowable cost versus another; those were local decisions based on local needs.”
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Local educators contend those additional programs have helped keep many students on track, with most using the federal funds to pay for the instruction.
“The district has been focused on preventing learning loss since the outset of the pandemic, and that focus has only sharpened as the pandemic has continued,” said Mike Kenny, a spokesman for the Toms River Regional School District, the largest Shore district with more than 15,000 students. “And even after students transitioned to full in-person learning last year.”
But with the virus continuing to spread under the omicron variant and perhaps new strains that couldappear in coming months, educators say the impact on schools is far from over, and they need to plan for remedial and summer school programs to continue well into the future.
“We will continue to offer these enrichment programs for the next few school years,” said Howe.
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Nicole Santora, superintendent of the Manalapan-Eatontown Regional Schools, offered a similar view, noting her staff had been providing such enrichment programs even before the pandemic.
“It’s exhausting, it has been a difficult year because everything is normal with added pressures,” Santora said. Asked how long it will go on she said, “We have to wait and see, I don’t think any of us know.”
'She wasn’t like that before'
Parents offered similar views, saying their youngsters are still seeing the effects even as most are back in class full time.
“My concern between the masks and the distancing and the restrictions, all the stress of it, they might not even realize it, but it has affected the kids,” said John Inzilla, whose son is a freshman at Allentown High School in the Upper Freehold Regional School District. “The first year of high school he had some struggles with some classes in the first semester.”
Lisa Johnson, a Marlboro mother of three, said her 9-year-old daughter had trouble adjusting to in-school classes after so much at-home instruction. “When she started going back to school she was anxious, nervous, and she wasn’t like that before,” Johnson said. “It affected her emotionally.”
Even with federal funds to help defray the cost to local districts of the added learning programs, the toll on teachers has been severe as well. A National Education Association study released this month found that 55% of educators surveyed are ready to leave the profession earlier than they planned.
“After persevering through the hardest school years in memory, America’s educators are exhausted and increasingly burned out,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle. “This crisis is preventing educators from giving their students the one-on-one attention they need.”
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For local districts, the ongoing impact of COVID on students and staff indicates the remedial instruction and extra planning to account for social distancing, time off for quarantines and lost staff will not end soon.
“With so much of our classroom instruction disrupted over the last two years, we know there are gaps and not always across the board but also individual gaps,” said Tami Crader, superintendent of Neptune schools. “Over the summer,we offered a remote learning program as well as extended school year, a program for English Language learners, and a high school credit recovery program.There are additional after-school programs during this school year.”
Jackson Superintendent Nicole Pormilli also pointed to such ongoing evaluations. “Our focus has been on repairing what was lost and continuing to advance the programs and supports our students need in all areas — which include academics and social-emotional development,” she said via email.
How do we know where students are weak?
But even with extra enrichment and remedial options, districts are finding it hard to evaluate the impact since no regular state assessment tests have been given since late 2019.
One new statewide assessment known as Start Strong was administered in the fall of 2021, but it had no comparison data, educators said. “To me we always use comparative data, so if I don’t have comparative data I can’t do anything with it,” Santora said about the state tests.
Yaple stated that the Start Strong assessment results were “fairly reflective of national trends observed throughout the pandemic … that students may need more support in math than in reading, younger students may need more support than older students, and opportunity and achievement gaps for our historically underserved students have persisted.”
Still, most local educators contend students have adjusted to the pandemic requirements for masking and have seen improvementnow that most are in school full-time, except for those who test positive for COVID and face quarantine under state guidelines.
Many districts are getting around the quarantines with new “test-to-stay” programs that allow students who have been exposed to COVID to attend class if they test negative through school-administered tests done with parental approval.
Among those that have implemented such testing are Lakewood schools and the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School District. Marlboro schools had planned to do so, but are finding a supply problem and a challenge in providing so many tests.
“We are seeing both vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff get sick,” Marlboro Superintendent Eric Hibbs said at the district’s Jan. 18 school board meeting. “We also realize that completing the number of tests for both the vaccinated and unvaccinated right now is a task that we can’t do.”
But he said the number of positive cases is on the decline after a boost following the holiday break.
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experiencewho covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of three books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reachhim at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp
