Younger students face further risk of learning loss amid Omicron surge

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Just as educators were poised to tackle learning gaps from the early months of the pandemic, a new wave of disruptions from the Omicron surge is putting even more strain on struggling students.

Alberta Education provided $30 million late last year to address learning loss, with much of that going to hire specialists to support Grade 2 and 3 students in small group settings. The Calgary Board of Education received $5.8 million while the Calgary Catholic School District got $2.2 million.

But after the highly transmissible Omicron variant delayed the return to school this month, and absentee rates for students and staff are now hitting record highs, local districts cannot maintain optimal learning environments for many students.

With the CBE and CCSD only filling 65 to 75 per cent of teaching positions with substitutes every day, officials are calling on a variety of school staff to head classrooms, including learning specialists, principals, and central office administrators.

Andrea Holowka, CBE superintendent for school improvement, told trustees at their board meeting this week that the ongoing redeployments can have an unwanted effect.

“Redeployment has had impacts on teaching and learning,” Holowka said. “And it means there are disruptions to learning.”

Officials estimated that in the past few weeks, up to 1,000 teachers and support staff were absent on any given day, but redeployment does not always cover each position, forcing some classes to transition to online learning.

Academics say that is when the youngest students are most at risk.

“Online learning is particularly challenging for young children who often lack the technical skills to manage the computer and lack the attention span to sit and listen for very long,” said Jodi Nickel, a professor in the department of education at Mount Royal University.

“It’s also challenging to design hands-on experiences for online learning, something they really need given their developmental stage.”

Nickel explained students in early grades learn a variety of critical skills in an in-person environment, like manipulating letter tiles, playing games in groups and socialization.

“Those opportunities are mostly lost in online learning.”

At the same time, students may also struggle to learn at home because they don’t have access to devices, or the adults to help them.

Gar Gar, executive director at the Youth Empowerment and Skills Centre in southeast Calgary, says kids whose parents don’t speak English at home are especially vulnerable.

“For many of the students that we support, they are already struggling with English as a second language, they may already have learning disabilities, or they just need more assistance,” said Gar, who also provides free tutoring for students at the YES Centre.

“And those supports usually come in the class, when they’re learning in person. But now, if they have to go back home to learn, it’s really tough for them to get that support.”

Gar added some students may not be logging in to online school at all. And their parents may not know how to check, and whether they are finishing assignments.

Nickel added it’s also challenging for teachers to identify students who need help in an online environment.

“When face to face, they can scan the room and check what students are recording on whiteboards or even consider what their facial expressions indicate about their understanding,” Nickel said.

“That ability to check for understanding is also diminished in an online environment.”

But Helmut Kaiser, director of learning services with the Catholic school board, said schools are doing as much as they can to support vulnerable students at home.

In fact, students who were identified last fall as requiring extra help with newly funded teaching specialists are still getting those supports.

“Those interventions are still happening, online, in small groups,” Kaiser said, adding that because those students are all in the early grades, they would have to have a parent or guardian at home to help them log on.

And for families who may speak English as a second language, or who are unable to access technology or Wi-Fi, Kaiser said schools are providing paper packages for students to work on at home.

“There are multiple points of contact for these students every day, from their teachers to their EAs (educational assistants).

“These are difficult times, but we are trying to be as responsive as we can.”

Alberta Education says funding for learning loss provided last fall provides school boards with the flexibility to implement literacy and numeracy programming interventions to best meet the needs of their students.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on learning for all students in Alberta, especially students in early years — and it is crucial to address learning challenges at this stage of their development,” said Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary to the minister of education.

The ministry has also promoted a new “e-Tutoring Hub,” which consists of four short videos on math and reading basics.

Academics have been highly critical of the Hub, saying the videos are poor quality, not age-appropriate and rife with educational deficits.

“The minister devalues the expertise of teachers, educational assistants and other professionals who support students in schools by suggesting that these short and poorly made videos will address learners’ needs,” said Carla Peck, professor of social studies education at the University of Alberta.

Stavropoulos said content on the e-Tutoring Hub is “aligned with current programs of study” and that later in the year tutoring services will be expanded to cover more grades and subjects, including live sessions.

eferguson@postmedia.com