Searchby Vicki Whiting
Did your local schools close down during the COVID-19 crisis?
Your reporting surely described parents struggling with children stuck at home unable to understand lessons via the computer—or without internet connection at all! School principals and teachers feared the worst—learning loss.
As children return to their classrooms, teachers are seeing how broad and deep learning loss is in all subjects—but especially in reading comprehension. Educators are bracing for a dramatic reduction in reading test scores.
Your newspaper can help children catch up from COVID learning loss.
You may be surprised to know that children of all ages love newspapers. Teachers report their students’ eyes light up and little cheers go up when the bundles of local newspapers come into the classroom. It’s real. It’s local.
There’s much of interest in local newspapers to elementary school children: sports, weather, people they know, stories about animals, and more. Children feel proud and grown-up to be able to read about their community in their local newspaper.
Kid Scoop looks like a lot of fun, and it is. But here’s the real reason why the Kid Scoop page actually helps children learn to read better:
Kid Scoop learning activities are based on high “standards” for English/Language Arts and mathematics. These standards have been developed at the state and local level by highly-experienced school leaders and teachers. By consensus, these standards represent the highest, most effective goals to ensure success for children.
Take a look at this typical Kid Scoop page. In small print you’ll find the standards listed in several places. These standards are connected to the learning activities to help teachers fulfill these important reading and math goals for their students.
These standards have been adopted by 41 individual states and are known as the Common Core State Standards. This list of state standards is maintained by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (GA Center).
Everyone including parents, educators, policymakers, and journalists can see the complete list of standards that define the knowledge and skills students need to succeed in college and careers through life.
Kid Scoop is committed to helping children overcome COVID learning loss. Publish Kid Scoop as a learning resource to your newspaper. Invite your local businesses, civic organizations, utilities, and foundations to partner with you. Together, your newspaper will be supporting your local teachers and help children overcome learning loss due to the education disruption of COVID-19.
