Every person connected to the school system around the world — teachers, students, and parents of students — are all facing extraordinary uncertainty about the future, along with shouldering overwhelming responsibilities. Teachers are having to adapt to new technology and plan how to teach with it. Students are being asked to sit in front of computers for multiple hours a day, which is mentally exhausting, and parents are having to, on top of all the responsibilities they had before, help educate their children. This is causing a major decline in achievement level, especially in students in grades K-8. There is a correlation between major disruptions and a decline in achievement levels. For example, with Hurricane Katrina, among other major storms, there was a similar decline. Test scores dropped, particularly in math. This article did not talk about the digital divide, but thinking about the impact on a student’s anxiety, sitting in front of a computer for hours, teachers not knowing how to effectively engage them, and parents juggling joblessness along with educating their children alone on top of the digital divide, shows just how impactful COVID-19 will be on the learning curve.
