

No figures have yet been reported for the spring effort. In January, Los Angeles district officials said they spent $36 million on the winter break classes.

Both students and teachers afterward described a calm atmosphere with a solid learning environment for those who came.Īll this, of course, cost plenty, with many hundreds of teachers called in to work extra time. Still, the spring turnout of 33,076 students for two days of extra learning was a lot better than nothing, demonstrating that at least some parents and their kids are motivated to learn and try to move ahead.įor the kids who came, there was plenty of individual attention, activities where they practiced basic math and reading skills, got prepped for advanced placement tests or tried to lift their grades in various subjects.
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In Los Angeles, the first day of extra classes brought out tens of thousands of students, with many teachers reporting pupils enthused even as they lost free time.īut things did not look as optimistic when that same district tried essentially the same thing during its spring break in early April.Īverage turnout was almost 15 percent smaller, despite teachers having months longer to recruit students who needed help the most. Since every study shows the poorer a child’s family, the more learning was lost, most districts prioritized low-income pupils, English learners or kids in foster care for the extra classes.

Standardized tests have proven this, with drops in student performance at almost all levels in reading and math.īut under the state’s Expanded Learning Opportunities program, school districts over the last year could add three hours to many school days and extend the school year to help students improve their academics. No one can doubt what was lost - some say stolen - from children during those almost two years when virtually no public school in California operated in person. It’s a truism by now that children lost a lot of educational opportunities during the coronavirus pandemic, forced for many months to stay home and study via Zoom and other long-distance modalities.īut kids and their parents last winter defied the longtime stereotype that they are essentially uncaring about education, showing up in large numbers over the holiday break when school districts including Los Angeles Unified, with the largest enrollment in both the state and nation, offered extra classes designed to start making up for learning missed during the online-only era.
