School officials in Jackson and White counties are implementing recovery plans to address learning gaps caused by extended winter weather closures.
Jackson County Director of Schools Jason Hardy addressed the two-week closure caused by ice and road conditions. The district is utilizing a strategy that involves daily incremental efforts rather than rushing through the curriculum all at once.
“And despite our best efforts, and I think we’ve had some good plans to try to get back on track, our students are doing well, but you just can’t make up those two weeks, you know, in a short amount of time,” Hardy said. “So we’re hoping our plans that we’ve laid out will get us back on track, but it’s going to take just a little bit of effort each and every day.”
Hardy said the state provided a larger timeframe for testing, allowing the district to push its schedule back slightly. Hardy said to regain instructional time, schools may have to cut specific activities like field trips and assemblies.
“Unfortunately, we talked to our principals about, you know, we’re big in Jackson County; we believe in field trips, we believe in assemblies, we believe in making the student have the whole school experience, but we’re really going to have to maybe cut some things out that normally we might have had extra because we’re going to have to really focus on some of this instructional time,” Hardy said. “But again, got great leadership, great district leadership, so feel very confident in our plan to make up this time for our students.”
White County Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said his district utilizes pacing guides established before the school year begins to determine where students should be academically.
“So they are able to adjust accordingly,” Dronebarger said. “So it takes a lot of work, there’s maybe some little extra homework that goes home, there’s extra work that goes on in the computer labs.”
Dronebarger said younger students face a greater challenge because they are working on foundational skills like reading and basic math. He said older students are often able to press the accelerator to catch up on missed standards.
“The problem with us in a rural community—and we do have great technology—it’s just that we don’t always have the best coverage in the county; people, a lot of people don’t have internet access where they live,” Hardy said.
Hardy said the district will continue to reflect on how to be better prepared for future extended closures.