Miami-Dade Superintendent says district has plans to address "learning loss" and mental health
MIAMI - In just about a week, South Florida students will head back to class for the new school year.
In his opening of schools address last Friday, Miami-Dade Superintendent Jose Dotres spoke about the district's plan to help children catch up from "learning loss" associated with the pandemic.
"The emphasis on the loss learning and continuing to accelerate over remediate becomes really really important. The remediation, or the additional support, you will see there will be occurring over tutoring via after-school interventions via Saturday programming as well. However, truly a lot of the instruction that we have to focus on is on that grade level acceleration piece so that we narrow the gap on some of our students that have lost some learning.
In 2019, 60 percent of Miami-Dade third graders achieved a score of three or more on the state's standard assessment tests. This year, the number was 56 percent.
Broward saw a similar drop from 60 percent of students getting a three or higher to 54 percent of students achieving that this year.
Dotres also said the district will have another focus that goes hand in hand with making up for the learning loss - a focus on mental health.
"Let's not forget, also, that we have entered into a landscape where mental health becomes critically important. So you will see that education now, moving forward, you have to have the academic progress of the child very well in tune with their mental health conditions or mental health concerns or supports that children need. both will come hand-in-hand," said Dotres.
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released earlier this year found that 37 percent of high school students surveyed reported they experienced poor mental health during the first year of the pandemic. Forty-four said they persistently felt sad or hopeless during that same time.
The CDC notes that even before the pandemic, mental health was getting worse among high school students.