This image taken from the MHPSD's Education Results Report shows a breakdown of learning loss in students who have undergone initial assessments, which began following the pandemic.--IMAGE COURTESY MHPSD
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Public School Division’s annual Education Results Report, which can be found at mhpsd.ca/publications, includes a section on optimal learning with a focus on addressing learning loss. It can be found on page 12 under goal 1.
The province provided an initial assessment used to screen students throughout the province. When learning loss assessments first began following the pandemic, Grades 2 and 3 throughout MHPSD were screened in September and Grade 1 students in January. The following year, Grades 2, 3 and 4 were screened in September and Grade 1 in January. Next year, the Grade 5 students will be included as they were part of the initial screening when the assessment first began.
The first column indicates the number of students in each grade who were at risk in either literacy or numeracy at the start of the year in relation to the screen, which Corey Sadlemyer, associate superintendent of learning at MHPSD, explained wasn’t necessarily about curriculum.
“The yellow (first) column is the number of students we screened; we didn’t assess all students because we knew some students didn’t need to be screened because we have other measures that say they are on track. In most cases, it’s about 40% of our student population we did the assessment on. The numbers in the ‘at risk’ column for September are the students who presented as requiring extra supports for either literacy or numeracy.”
For example, in Literacy Screening Assessment – English, 422 Grade 1 students were assessed with 150 identified as at-risk in September for achieving below their peers. Those students received a series of interventions, such as supports, small group instruction and individual programming. By June, due to those extra supports, the number dropped to 133 and the average number of months behind grade level decreased from 24 to 12.
“We want to close that gap for as many kids as we can,” concluded Sadlemyer. “One of the things connected to this graph is we took the learning loss money the province gave us and our board (of trustees) matched and exceeded that, so we went above and beyond by putting in extra money through reserves to support that learning loss.”
