Tackle Learning Loss with the Science of Reading

How will you determine the best education technology to invest in with your portion of funding from the American Rescue Plan? 

Effective learning recovery plans must include evidence-based, research-proven education technology powered by the science of reading and learning. Here are three examples of how edtech can help address learning loss.
 

Learning Loss Challenge #1: Equity

We know that disadvantaged students are capable—and deserving—of achieving at full capacity. But due to unequal access to resources, students of color and those from low-income households have faced achievement gaps even before the pandemic and have experienced the greatest learning loss during it.

A commitment to equity means we seek to give each student the tools they need in order to perform on the same playing field as their more-advantaged peers. One under-examined but crucial research area on performance is brain science.

Researchers have found that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as poverty and trauma, neurologically inhibit learning. ACEs, compounded by the stress caused by the pandemic, result in kids’ brains under-developing executive function skills.

That means your most vulnerable students, who are disproportionately Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous, are trying to learn with brains that haven’t had the opportunity or experiences that adequately wire the brain for working memory, attention, and processing. These skills underlying executive function have been found by researchers of the science of reading to be crucial to reading proficiency.

This is crucial for Title I educators, especially, to be aware of: their underserved students who struggle with reading likely need targeted work on under-developed cognitive skills in order to become strong readers and learners.
 

The EdTech Solution

The good news is that the brain is malleable, a concept called neuroplasticity. The adverse effects on students’ brains—their most precious learning tool—can be reversed.

Fast ForWord, a 2-in-1 reading and brain training program, helps build the deeper cognitive foundation upon which basic reading skills are built, leading to efficient readers and lifelong learners.

It simultaneously develops the cognitive skills of working memory, attention, processing speed, and sequencing, alongside reading skills including phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. 
 

Learning Loss Challenge #2: Engagement

Any teacher will tell you that keeping students engaged through a screen is a different beast from engaging them in person. And students who are not engaged do not learn.

Social-emotional learning (SEL) factors can hinder meaningful engagement, thus perpetuating learning loss. Research categorized as self-efficacy studies shows that lacking or having confidence can each be self-fulfilling prophecies. When students don’t believe they can achieve, they don’t try, and subsequently, they fall short. In contrast, confident students try harder and learn more. Students who are in most need of learning recovery usually need a confidence boost.

A sure-fire way to raise students’ academic confidence and engagement is by providing the right level of challenge to each student. Students who find the material either too challenging or too easy may end up frustrated or bored and mentally check out. These students cannot afford to do so when there are content and skills they need to catch up on.

However, differentiating instruction is not always easy, especially in distance learning. That’s when we turn to technology.
 

The EdTech Solution

Fast ForWord delivers SEL development to keep students motivated and engaged.

Differentiation is a key component of high student engagement with Fast ForWord. By adapting to each learner’s performance, the program meets each student where they are, ensuring they succeed with just the right amount of challenge.

As students succeed—which is a new experience for many students who have struggled for years—their confidence grows. They enjoy working harder on Fast ForWord and in other classes. Before you know it, your students will be reading at their full potential.

In addition to confidence, Fast ForWord builds the competencies of self-management, self-advocacy, student agency, and healthy self-concept, which all contribute to high engagement and effectively overcoming learning loss.

Learning Loss Challenge #3: Efficiency

A pressing concern is how to squeeze as much learning as possible out of a short amount of time. To recoup learning loss, many districts are planning summer programs, extending the school year, and implementing after-school tutoring services.

These are all great methods of adding learning time to students’ schedules, but we should also explore how to make more efficient use of the time available.
 

The EdTech Solution

Education technology can accomplish tasks at a speed impossible for any person to match, and Fast ForWord is a prime example.

A student might finish a worksheet with ten questions in a few minutes, but they could complete the same number of practice opportunities, or trials, in a matter of seconds in Fast ForWord.

Fast ForWord outpaces all other programs. It provides more than 25,000 trials in language exercises, whereas other reading interventions provide just over 5,000 in the same number of sessions. With five times the number of trials, students catch up to grade level quickly.

How quickly? Students make an average of 1-2 years’ reading gains in just 40-60 hours of use. What’s more, these gains last, with standardized test scores staying up years after completion of the program and with students no longer needing special education services.
 

The Path to Learning Recovery

As the funding from the COVID relief plan rolls out in the coming weeks, remember the three learning loss challenges that your education technology must address: equity, engagement, and efficiency.

Mary Jane Crites, RTI and Title I Coordinator, recognizes all three when she says, “The Fast ForWord program has improved students’ language and reading skills, as well as their memory, attention, and processing skills. They work faster and with more accuracy, and they have more confidence, which improves their performance in math as well."

When you combine the current American Rescue Plan funding, education technology driven by the science of reading and learning, and of course, the teacher's magic touch, you'll see a hopeful path to learning recovery for your students.