Educators have so much on their agendas these days. Their time is limited, yet they have a lot to accomplish with students each year. Educators are challenged by burnout, student behavior, parent demands, district requirements, and more! I know this, I feel this, and I experience this at the school where I teach. But even in the face of all these challenges, we need to make sure students are making academic gains.
Time to Sound the Alarm
Ryan Colman, President of the Randallstown Chapter of the NAACP, says that he watched student outcomes in Baltimore County Public Schools worsen year after year. He wants to know when they are going to see progress, noting that they “keep hearing excuses”.
This article by Chris Pabst, about low levels of student performance, illustrates the academic struggles many Baltimore County students are currently facing. In the first quarter of the 2022 school year, 30% of high school students earned a D or below in Math or English.
Pabst cites many reasons that could lead to these dismal scores. Among those reasons are pandemic-related learning loss, and school violence. Coleman says that right now he considers “school violence a crisis” and “if schools aren’t safe, students can’t learn”.
Leveraging High-Impact Tutoring
According to experts, one way school districts can combat declining grades and bridge the learning gap is by hiring experienced tutors. Research shows that high-impact tutoring motivates students and directly correlates with academic achievement! To learn about how MTT provides high-impact, high-dosage tutoring to students in order to prevent learning loss and increase grades and test scores, click here.
What’s your opinion? How can we turn education around for all of our students?
To read more about how violence affects students in schools and how educators are addressing it, check out this blog post about – Trauma-Informed Teaching.
Tiffany Verhoosel is currently a Computer Science teacher in the Baltimore City School District. Coming from a background of business she joined the Baltimore City Teaching Residency over ten years ago to make the career change into education and has never looked back. Her degree from Johns Hopkins, a Master of Science in Digital Age Learning and Educational Technology, helped propel her from Special Educator to her current teaching position where she teaches Kindergarten to eighth grade students how to code.
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