In early March 2020, parents began receiving emails from their children’s schools stating that campuses would be closed for approximately two weeks because of a new virus, COVID-19.
Parents and students were unsure of what was happening or what to expect.
Two weeks passed, and the schools were still closed. Districts predicted that they would not reopen for the remainder of the school year.
Many teachers felt unprepared, scrambling for information and resources, not knowing how to proceed. Angelise McIntyre, a fifth-grade teacher at Canyon View Elementary School, shared what was happening behind the scenes.
“The district did give everybody a laptop so we could work from home. Nobody knew what to do or nobody knew what to expect,” McIntyre said. “I feel like we did what we could, [like] Zooms … as far as how to teach on Zoom, I don’t think the district was ready to give support because none of us had done it before.”
However, teachers weren’t the only ones feeling unprepared. Students also had difficulties adjusting. The global pandemic negatively affected early education students, according to Canyon View Elementary Principal Erica Edmonston.
“There is no doubt that students missed out on instruction during that time because virtual learning was a new modality for learning … we were figuring it out as we went along,” Edmonston said.
Nearly 77% of third-graders met or exceeded standards in the 2018-19 school year, according to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. In the 2023-24 school year, only 66% of third-graders met or exceeded standards, showing an 11% decrease.
It became increasingly difficult for students to learn during the pandemic. Students’ reading levels were negatively impacted due to the closure of physical schools, according to The Western Howl.
Third graders in 2018-19 completed kindergarten and first grade in person, whereas the third-grade class in 2023-24 completed kindergarten and first grade over Zoom.
“There are more kids that are at risk [not meeting standards] in kindergarten and first grade than there were then,” Edmonston said.
Children between the ages of 4 and 10, tend to get distracted easily by having access to a computer that was able to cause further distractions from their teacher.
“There is only so much I can do when you have 30 kids on the other side of the screen. Who knows what they are doing on their screen and how many tabs are open and how many little kids they have in the background,” fifth-grade teacher Angelise McIntyre said.
Reading isn’t the only thing that affected students during the pandemic. Students also experienced delays in social development.
“Kindergarten and first grade are the primary grades that set really high expectations of what is expected at school, keeping your hands to yourself, sitting on your bottom, and staying in a straight line,” McIntyre said.
The COVID-19 lockdown significantly affected children’s social interactions and behavior.When students experience emotional distress in class, teachers have to pause lessons to address individual needs, impacting overall instruction time, McIntyre noted.
“I have had a couple of kids who are fun, until all of a sudden something overwhelms them. Whether it’s a noise in the classroom or an assignment… They just break down… They put their head down, they refuse to talk, they refuse to move. There is no rationalizing with [them] at that point,” McIntyre said.
Social interactions are valuable when they have personal, meaningful interactions that are tied to social support and practices, according to the National Library of Medicine.
“I have had [students] in the past that they would just need to get up and take a walk and they’d come back and they were fine. I’ve had [students] that you can’t even leave for recess because they’ve just shut down completely, I’ve had some who just refuse to do anything,” she said.
Students struggled to regulate their emotions and couldn’t bring themselves to continue with the day, which affected students’ academic progress and their ability to engage socially.
“I see more need for emotional regulation, social skills, conflict resolution, and self-regulation, being able to have that social-emotional component that you need to access your education. I think it impacts academics as well,” Edmonston said.
Tamara Holthaus, program director at the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Lab School at Palomar College, shared how COVID-19 affected young children.
“We are seeing more children that need screening, for whatever reason. Whether that it’s because of language… during COVID everybody was wearing a mask and for young children, they look at your facial expressions. It’s part of communication,” Holthaus said.
Children rely on facial expressions and movements to articulate words. Without visible faces, many children missed key social and language development milestones. Houlthaus added that the students’ receptive and expressive language skills have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ECE Lab School noticed an increase in referrals for speech and other behavioral issues. Due to preschool closures, many children had a rough time adjusting socially.
COVID-19 negatively affected students’ reading levels and social behaviors. While there were benefits due to the cause of the pandemic, the pandemic has brought about unforeseen benefits- schools and districts have expanded their support system.
There is now a greater understanding of how to support early literacy development. During the pandemic, students faced setbacks, but the Poway Unified School District introduced Impact Teachers at each school to address learning loss and provide targeted interventions.
“My true hope is that we’re not going to see this trend continue … Now we are relying on the training that we have given all of our teachers to be able to deliver those interventions to their own students,” Edmonston said.
