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BRIDGING THE GAP: K-5 STUDENTS STRUGGLE TO RECOVER FROM PANDEMIC
LEARNING LOSS
MASAPAN: SASCHA, PETER, MARIANA - EDUCATION GROUP
VIDEO
EXT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CLASSROOMS
EXT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MISTY BRUNASO IS CONVERSING WITH
CHILDREN.
EXT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
SCHOOL NAME AND SIGN
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS IN CLASS
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM
WORDS AND LETTERS ON WHITEBOARD
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS IN CLASS INTERACTING IN
ACTIVITY
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AUDIO
VO
IT'S BEEN FOUR YEARS SINCE THE
PANDEMIC ONLINE LEARNING.
MISTY BRUNASO (EDUCATOR) NAT SD
“What are you wearing tomorrow? What's
tomorrow? What do we hope we get
tomorrow? You know, you never. I don't know
where to wear hats. Crazy hats tomorrow.”
VO
ALTHOUGH SCHOOL MAY LOOK FAMILIAR
AGAIN, IT DOESN'T FEEL THAT WAY TO
THE MILLIONS OF STUDENTS, PARENTS
AND TEACHERS STILL TRYING TO
RECOVER.
MISTY BRUNASO (EDUCATOR) SOT
“We're a title one school, which means that
the majority of our families are below the
poverty line. And so that means that at home,
they didn't have internet. They don't have any
parents that are helping them. Many of our
students never logged on or they logged on
for short amounts of time. And so now, years
later, we're seeing still those very those very
serious gaps in our students that we have to
fill.”
VIKKI KATZ (EXPERT) SOT
“K through five is an essential part of how kids
learn for a few reasons. The end of third grade
is where we talk about kids having needed to
learn how to read so that they can start
reading to learn. And so kids who aren't
reading proficiently by the end of third grade
find themselves in big trouble in the later
grades, where they're not able to read to
learn.”
VO
WHILE MOST STATES REPORT LOWER
MATH AND READING PERFORMANCE
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EXT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
EMPTY SCHOOLS
STUDENT PLAYING OUTSIDE
INT. MISTY BRUNASO OFFICE
BRUNASO IS WORKING ON THE
COMPUTER
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM
STUDENT WITH IPAD
STUDENT USING APPS ON IPAD
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS IN CLASS
CG:
ONE YEAR INTO ONLINE LEARNING -
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SINCE 2020, EXPERTS FEAR FOR THE
SOCIAL IMPACT OF YOUNG STUDENTS
JUST AS MUCH AS THEIR TEST SCORES.
VIKKI KATZ (EXPERT) SOT
“This is a period where kids learn how to
share and negotiate and collaborate with each
other in ways that really make a huge
difference.”
MATEO QUEZADA (STUDENT) SOT
“I was in third grade when it was distance
learning and what it was like. It was very hard
to concentrate most of the time. Whenever we
had a recess, which is the teacher put a 15
minute timer and then I would go watch tv with
my little brother. Sometimes I would be scared
that I would never get out of the house.
School became like like something I didn't
want to do. Like something that didn't really
help me.”
VO
WITH FUNDS FROM EMERGENCY AID
GRANTED DURING THE PANDEMIC
RUNNING OUT. MOST SCHOOLS ARE
INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGY TO GET
STUDENTS BACK ON TRACK.
MISTY BRUNASO (EDUCATOR) SOT
“1 to 1 devices is going to be the future. It
already is. After the pandemic. You know, our
district and I don't know about other districts,
but our district committed to every student k
through two. Having an ipad, three through six
having a chromebook, and then devices as
they move through. Our students had a real
advantage to other schools because of that.
Technology's is our students knew how to log
on to devices. Our students had, even in
kindergarten and preschool, had been using
apps for 3 or 4 years before that. But even
with all of that stacked in our favor, we still see
those academic gaps.”
VIKKI KATZ (EXPERT) SOT
“I did a national survey of lower income
parents parents raising kids in the bottom half
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53% OF PARENTS REPORTED THEIR
CHILD WAS UNDERCONNECTED.
CG:
THIS CREATED LEARNING
DISCREPANCIES WITHIN STUDENTS
DURING COVID - KATZ' STUDY FOUND
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
RODRIGUEZ TEACHING
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
RODRIGUEZ HELPING HER KID WITH
HOMEWORK
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS IN CLASS
INT. MISTY BRUNASO OFFICE
BRUNASO REVIEWING CLASS
MATERIALS
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
RODRIGUEZ HELPING HER KID WITH
HOMEWORK
INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS IN CLASS
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of incomes in the us, k through six.You know,
a full year into the pandemic, we still had an
unacceptable number of kids who didn't have
access to broadband at home.”
JEMMA RODRIGUEZ
(EDUCATOR/PARENT) SOT
“I just I have seven children. When covid hit,
we actually at some point had to have two
different internet providers because their
classes just kept dropping. “
SANTIAGO RODRIGUEZ
(STUDENT)
“I was in the 2nd grade
before-whenever-before covid hit. I couldn’t
really be noticed that often.”
JEMMA RODRIGUEZ
(EDUCATOR/PARENT) SOT
“They also got hotspots from their school.
Each one of them got one and it still wasn't
enough. So for me as a parent, maybe
because I am an educator and because I
know how important it was for them to not
miss a class, I just felt stressed constantly,
knowing that they were like, unable to listen to
the entire class, unable to maybe understand
completely the instructions of what they had to
do.”
VIKKI KATZ (EXPERT) SOT
“What we saw as immediate losses doesn't
have to be destiny. What we do next matters a
lot. And so really, a lot depends on what
policymakers and educators put funding into
now. What the long-term impact of that is
going to be for what high school looks like or
what college matriculation looks like really
depends on what happens in the next month
or years. ”
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>END OF SCRIPT

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