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It’s no secret that the pandemic has hit many students hard — emotionally, academically, or both. Test score data shows a sharp drop in reading and math skills. Thousands of students “disappeared” among the public school population. And in February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report detailing the rise in mental health problems among young people, especially teenage girls and LGBTQ+ teens.
And especially for juniors and seniors whose school experience has been defined by the pandemic, the return to academic demands and routine hasn’t erased the past few years. As these high schoolers end their K-12 careers, one question comes to the fore: Can school districts learn lessons that can help the younger generation that comes after them?
Why did we write this
While everyone hoped that returning the students to the classroom would help, there was no automatic return to normal. What can school systems learn from students graduating from high school due to the pandemic?
Bella Alvarado, a high school student at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, California, spent the pandemic caring for injured and sick relatives and teaching her younger brother and cousins. Back in class, she notices that students want to work at their own pace and be more selective about what they are learning.
Bella notices that teachers, students and the system have changed.
“There is no such thing as a return to pre-COVID education,” she says. “I firmly believe that nothing will ever be the same.”
Like many generations of students before her, Bella Alvarado, a student at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, California, is approaching the end of her senior year with mixed feelings.
Proud of your achievements and looking forward to new adventures? yes Ready to say goodbye to childhood and part with friends? Not really.
For Bella, who was looking forward to “being a kid again,” face-to-face learning was mixed: some normal moments and some big differences. It took time to make new friends, adjust a new schedule, and deal with academic expectations despite feeling retarded at first.
Why did we write this
While everyone hoped that returning the students to the classroom would help, there was no automatic return to normal. What can school systems learn from students graduating from high school due to the pandemic?
“Everyone learns at a different pace,” she says. “Everyone perceives things in their own way.”
In general, American education has returned to normal three years after schools switched to distance learning. But especially for juniors and seniors whose school experience has been defined by the pandemic, the return to academic demands and routine has not erased the reality of the past few years.
As these high schoolers phase out their careers in K-12, one question comes to the fore: can districts learn from current students that can help the younger generation that comes after them?
“I don’t think the usual approach to things will work for kids,” says Robin Lake, director of the Center for New Public Education. “I think they need something extraordinary right now and I don’t see it happening.”
It’s no secret that the pandemic has hit many students hard — emotionally, academically, or both. Test score data shows a sharp drop in reading and math skills. Thousands of students “disappeared” among the public school population. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report in February, detailed the rise in mental health problems among young people, especially among teenage girls and LGBTQ+ adolescents.
Some students report that at first even simple social interactions irritated them.
Contributed by Bella Alvarado
Bella Alvarado, a senior at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, California, recently celebrated her 18th birthday. The prospective graduate says she sees students wanting to work at their own pace and be more selective about what they study.
Audrey Shea, a junior at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, found herself freezing when a classmate dropped something on the ground—not knowing how to react, not feeling embarrassed. She credits her student council duties with helping her overcome her social anxiety over time.
“I was lucky to get it back,” she says of her social confidence.
What do kids really need to know?
These snapshots of student well-being reflect what Louise Williamson, an English and peer mediation teacher at Hilltop High School, sees every day. In Ms. Williamson’s words, in her 33 years of teaching, she “never saw so many really bright and capable students struggling so hard.”
Last year, a creepy sight quietly reigned over her class, with students chained to their phones rather than talking to each other. Although it has improved in some aspects, Ms Williamson says students still cannot concentrate. This observation inspired her to create a section on phone addiction in this year’s English class. The students read articles on the topic, discussed the results in a group, and set their own goals.
According to her, this is an example of changing the curriculum to meet the needs of students, even if these are subjects not explicitly listed in state content standards.
“We as teachers are trying to figure out what kids really need to know right now?” she says. “And of course, as always, the system is far behind us.”
Bella, a senior at Hilltop, says the rigidity of the school structure doesn’t fit with the routines set during distance learning.
Her transfer to the school — a few days after her 15th birthday — coincided with the transition to distance learning in March 2020. By the time she was 16, her roles had multiplied. She juggled caring for her grandmother, who injured her leg; cared for a sick great-grandmother; and guides her little brother and cousins through their online learning as he tries to follow his studies and learn to drive.
“I don’t think I sat much at the time,” she says.
Now she sits in class for hours every day. She no longer serves as a pseudo-teacher for her brother and cousins, but other household duties remain. In addition, she works at SeaWorld, which keeps her connected until 11:30 pm on weekdays.
The prospective graduate says she sees students wanting to work at their own pace and be more selective about what they study.
“There is no such thing as a return to pre-COVID education,” she says. “I firmly believe that nothing will ever be the same. No matter how hard we try to bring it back to its former state, the academic mentality of the students has changed. The education system has changed. And teachers have changed.
And the changes are not necessarily negative when it comes to Melinda Lou. A senior at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Conn., says her digital skills have blossomed during the pandemic. She navigates Google Workspace and Microsoft Office with ease.
The pandemic has also presented her with the opportunity to join the student capital advisory board, which could otherwise be difficult given her parents’ work schedule. Melinda participated in events virtually, a situation she said helped her overcome her shyness.
“I want adults to know that the skills we have developed in the younger generation are useful,” she says. “These digital skills will really help us in the future.”
Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor
Audrey Shea, a student at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, sits outside a coffee shop on March 27, 2023. She says she would like more teachers to spend time on past lessons rather than immersing themselves in brand new content.
Efforts to attract students
Teenagers’ observations underscore what Ms. Lake of the Center for Rethinking Public Education sees as an accidental mismatch between what they want and need and what adults think students want and need. She says school districts should send out more student surveys and include more students at the table when decisions are made at the board level.
In schools in Greenville County, a public district in upstate South Carolina, two to four students from each of the district’s 15 traditional high schools and its elementary college program meet monthly in the Interhigh Council. According to Jeff McCoy, assistant director of academic affairs, the meeting allows district leaders to hear directly from the students it serves. At these meetings, students personally raised mental health issues and some of the challenges of missing key transition years.
“When you go from eighth to tenth grade…it’s pretty hard because you missed it all,” he says.
To help students cope, Mr. McCoy said Greenville County is relying on an existing program that places at least one mental health professional in every school. The district has also used federal COVID-19 funding to double and in some cases triple the number of math and literacy professionals working to close learning gaps.
There is some evidence that this works. Mr. McCoy says 60% of the district’s schools outperformed their pre-pandemic test scores last year.
Ms. Lake says she’s starting to see some school districts—though not enough—reimagining the high school experience and mottoes of learning strategies that better prepare students for the future and keep them engaged.
“Everything can and must change,” she says. “I think there is a growing recognition that career readiness, career relevance should be the focus. And I see many school systems moving in that direction – trying.”
It probably won’t be enough for today’s upper-class men.
Audrey says she wishes more teachers would spend time on past lessons rather than immersing themselves in brand new content. Her first year of algebra came with distance learning, which she says put her at a disadvantage going forward.
“It’s like you’re lost in the dark because you really… don’t fully understand what you’ve learned in the last two years,” she says.
Looking to the future, Bella dreams of a career as a licensed mental health consultant. She credits therapy with helping her cope with her grief and anger following the death of her parents as a child. When the pandemic hit and gave her new challenges, she says she was better prepared to deal with them.
However, Bella realizes that she lost because she needed to grow up quickly.
“Now I see myself trying to heal my inner child,” she says.
On her recent 18th birthday, her face lit up with a big smile when she received Sesame Street themed balloons. It gave her a piece of childhood, if only for a moment.
Last October, the RCMP, Canada’s federal police, arrested a 27-year-old Canadian returning from Syria and charged her with terrorism-related offences. Another woman who returned to Canada after marrying an Islamic State militant has also been arrested and released on bail as officials seek peace in her case.
