Discover the critical insights shedding light on how the pandemic has shaped the educational landscape, as we sit down with the brilliant Kelsey Young, Senior Research Scientist at Curriculum Associates. Through our conversation, Kelsey provides a deep dive into Curriculum Associates' latest research findings, which signal a warning for educators everywhere: our youngest learners' education has been notably impacted by the pandemic, leaving them at a disadvantage as they begin their academic journeys. This episode is a must-listen for those passionate about early education and the long-term implications of these formative years.
Kelsey doesn't just share the challenges; she brings hope and solutions to the table, discussing the silver lining of phonics improvement and how it can serve as a predictive beacon for reading success. The episode is rich with actionable strategies for teachers, emphasizing the power of early intervention and a strong foundation in early childhood services to close the pandemic-induced gaps. Kelsey's insights provide a fresh lens through which educators can reassess and energize their teaching methods, ensuring that our littlest scholars aren't just catching up, but are poised to thrive in their educational endeavors.
Curriculum Associates presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast with hosts Danielle Sullivan and Sarah Loveris. Here tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We're here for you.
Speaker 3:
Hi everyone, welcome to the Extraordinary Educator podcast. I'm Danielle.
Speaker 1:
And I'm Sarah. This week, we are joined by our amazing colleague, kelsey Young, who is a senior research scientist at Curriculum Associates.
Speaker 3:
And Curriculum Associates just released brand new research that Kelsey is going to. Well, Kelsey talks about, breaks it down and talks about what you, as educators, can think about as you are reading the research Plus. I love research, Sarah, it's my favorite.
Speaker 1:
It is, and Kelsey does a really nice job of kind of providing the broad strokes and also some things for you to think about as you're in your classroom with students. So here's our conversation with Kelsey. Welcome, kelsey. We are so excited to have you on the podcast today.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 3:
So, kelsey, our team recently released new research and we're definitely going to link in the show notes for anyone interested in taking a look. But I'd love to know what are some of the broad strokes of the main data points in that research.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think the main thing we're seeing is young students who were not in school when the pandemic first hit are entering school less prepared than their prior cohorts. We're seeing fewer students enter on grade level, more students below grade level and a drop in scores. In some grades and subjects. These changes are pretty small, I'd say. In others they're a little more concerning. I think in grade K we saw some relatively small changes in scores in both math and reading, but interestingly the pandemic or the impact of the pandemic appeared kind of delayed for these students. So the cohort entering grade K right after the pandemic showed really similar scores to the cohorts before the pandemic. But then in 2022 and 2023, there was kind of a slight drop in performance for grade K students. Now, encouragingly, we saw grade two overall reading and then the phonics domain across all grades are showing signs of recovery or returning to pre-pandemic levels. Seeing this improvement in phonics scores is really encouraging because it's a very strong predictor of later reading achievement.
Speaker 1:
That is really encouraging and thank you for sharing all of that. So, as our listeners are kind of taking this all in, how can they take what the research found and use it in their classrooms?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think the thing is. Research highlights the importance of early intervention and access to early childhood services. I think, while it makes perfect sense that these students are entering school less prepared for grade level learning, we didn't really always consider these children as being as impacted by the pandemic since they weren't in school. I think the research points to just how crucial those early childhood education and care services are and that recovery efforts really need to be implemented across grades. We've had a lot of focus on later, elementary, middle school, but focusing on these younger grades, we know that student gaps and learning can be remedied, especially for addressing them really early in their educational career.
Speaker 3:
I mean, I feel like early intervention has been a priority, so this is just reinforcing that we still need to have that as a priority. So, thinking about just priorities, best practices what are their best practices or strategies can teachers focus on as they think about the implications of this study?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think there's probably a couple of things we can really kind of extrapolate from a study, I think. First, the structure routine experiences of early childhood are important. Ensuring these are in place in your classroom, I think, are really critical for just setting students up for success, making sure that environment is there to support them. I think the next thing that comes to mind is kind of a reprioritization and focus on foundational skills Ensuring students have access to the supports they need, be it to intervention, high quality supplemental tools or other resources that they really need to master those foundational math and literacy skills that set them up for later success. I think, like you're saying, early intervention is prioritized because it works. Students have the ability to quickly remedy those gaps in learning when we intervene early.
Speaker 1:
So, before we close out, kelsey, is there anything else that you want to share with our listeners, either advice or reflections that you have after releasing this?
Speaker 2:
research. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that I don't know if this is new information. I think a lot of what we've done is confirmed. What educators are seeing? They're noticing students are entering less prepared. We're simply putting numbers and kind of quantifying what their lived experience is.
Speaker 3:
I mean, I love research, so just thank you for sharing the perspectives on this research. And, as we're moving forward, the last thing like I know you just did a nugget, but then I just want, like one, another nugget, one actionable next step.
Speaker 2:
If I was to say something actionable, it would be. I think it's kind of what we've already said, like this refocus on early intervention, prioritizing foundational skills, just acknowledging that the pandemic did interrupt learning for these students and we need to like recovery efforts need to be addressed Intentional.
Speaker 3:
Thank you so much for coming on the podcast Kelsey and sharing the research and breaking down the research. I know educators when I was an educator. I love reading research but sometimes it can be whoa look at all these bars. What does this mean If educators who are listening? If you're interested in some supports for a foundational approach, we do have a program called Magnetic Foundations that we'll link in the show notes. But we just appreciate your time. Please check out the research and thank you so much for being on the podcast Kelsey.
Speaker 1:
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Speaker 3:
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