‘A lost academic year.’ Report shows disparities in Missouri education in pandemic
Nearly all impoverished students in Missouri’s largest urban areas and suburbs spent the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic learning remotely, while most low-income students in rural areas were taught in-person, according to a new report.
Despite the stark differences between how rural and urban school districts handled the pandemic, low-income students were hurt in both areas. Research shows that online education is less effective than in-person studies. And, in rural areas, school districts struggled to provide students with food benefits and technology.
By comparison, wealthier suburban districts were quicker to return to in-person learning and students had better access to technology. And that, the authors of a new Urban Institute report say, likely will only increase the education gap.
Over the last two years, Missouri’s school districts have been placed in the difficult position of balancing safety with offering technology and resources to educate students. Without clear statewide or federal guidance, most schools were forced to craft their own reopening plans.
The report released last month by Urban Institute found 95% of impoverished students in urban and suburban areas learned virtually at the start of the pandemic.
In rural Missouri, more students learned in person, but less than half of schools offered food benefits to students living in poverty, the report found.
“The pandemic has heightened awareness of the gaps in education quality between the nation’s most vulnerable students and most well-off students,” the report said. “And the reopening decisions school districts made in the 2020–21 school year may have both short- and long-term impacts on the academic achievement of the most vulnerable students.”
With almost all students in Missouri’s urban areas attending school virtually, students in urban school districts could be faced with learning loss and a wider achievement gap than their peers in wealthier districts, the report found.
When COVID-19 first hit in March 2020, schools shut down and pivoted to online classes. Districts had to ensure that all students had access to the internet, passing out laptops and mobile hotspots, as teachers created virtual lesson plans for the first time. Some students without internet access sat in parking lots, using businesses’ WiFi to attend classes, or were given packets of homework.
Educators throughout the Kansas City area said that they were noticing dozens of students “disappear,” not logging into online classes or responding to messages from teachers. It was a greater problem in urban districts, where many parents were unable to afford childcare. Older children helped teach their younger siblings from home. And many high schoolers went to work.
Many parents were forced to choose between staying home to help or earning a paycheck.
“These common circumstances may combine into a lost academic year, with disproportionate impacts falling upon students who have faced historical disadvantages,” according to the report by the Urban Institute.
When districts announced plans to start the following school year online, parents in the more affluent suburbs of Kansas City staged protests. Worried about their children falling behind in school, as well as their physical and mental health, they fought for in-person classes and for sports to resume.
With ongoing protests and the threat of lawsuits, it didn’t take long before several suburban districts allowed sports and changed their criteria to start bringing students back to classrooms.
But while many suburban districts brought some students back, at least part time, during the first semester of last school year, urban districts were more cautious. In Kansas City and Wyandotte County in Kansas, where COVID-19 cases were exploding, students stayed online, learning from home.
In Kansas City Public Schools and the Kansas City, Kansas, district, students did not return to classrooms until last spring. Educators worried that achievement gaps would be exacerbated in the districts that serve a higher percentage of low-income students and students of color.
In rural Missouri, where most students attended in-person instruction, food and technology access was scarce during the first year of the pandemic, the report found.
As Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applications rose throughout the state, more than 70% of rural districts did not have a plan to distribute food to students living in poverty, according to the report. Some school districts in southeastern Missouri relied on Missouri National Guard troops to feed students in 2020.
Short on resources amid numerous COVID-19 outbreaks, some cash-strapped rural school districts still struggle to deliver regular meals to students even with school doors open, the study found.
For students of color and students from low-income households, lack of internet access grew since the start of the pandemic, the study said.
Despite efforts by federal and state governments to improve technology access through aid and grants, just 54% of impoverished students in rural districts received devices at the start of the pandemic. Only 25% received both devices and access to the internet, the study said.
One way local and state governments can curtail the pandemic’s impact on low-income students, the report said, is funding districts with high levels of poverty to hire employees and provide continued education to students. The students who were short on resources or whose learning was disrupted will need added attention.
“Both urban and rural students living in poverty will require additional and differentiated responses,” the report said.
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 5:32 PM.
