One district went all-in on tutoring to catch kids up

Dawn Lineberry, a sixth grade math teacher at Jackson Middle School in Guilford County, North Carolina, noticed that some of her students were struggling with long division.

Principal Angela McNeill of Eastern Guilford Middle School said that students had lost ground in multiplication, division and problem solving.

And Shayla Savage, a middle school principal, said that when her students returned to in-person learning this spring, she noticed differences beyond just their math and reading progress compared to previous years.

“We go to PE now and they can barely run a lap,” she said. “Even with the physical aspect of school, the learning loss is real all across the board.”

Thousands of American students were able to return to class in person during the last weeks of spring, after a year of remote or hybrid learning. When the kids showed up, educators could see even more clearly how uneven their learning has been during the pandemic.