Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, students have been faced with a variety of hardships and challenges.  One of the biggest challenges students are facing is having to use new and completely different styles of learning such as e-Learning and in-person learning with social distancing, mask mandates and plexiglass dividers for desks. 

These types of changes can be detrimental to students’ education if not approached with caution. So with all of this in mind, how are students performing? 

According to the NWEA, students in grades 3-8 in fall 2020 performed similarly to students in the same grade in Fall of 2019 in reading, but 5-10 percentile points lower in math. 

Also, students in grades 4-6 performed as projected by the NWEA, and students in grades 7-8 performed slightly better in math than projected. 

Although the lower performance in math may be alarming to some, there is a silver lining: Students in all grades saw gains in reading and in math. The only difference is that students did not make the gains that they would have normally made had the year been normal. 

But how will students make up for their losses? This can be a tricky question to answer because each state and district is taking different measures to combat these losses. 

While information regarding students’ performance in lower grades is abundant, what about high school students? Nationally, information is limited given the time frame, but locally, there are some things to consider. According to Assistant Principal Amy Driggers, some students are able to stay on top of their work and feel like they’re okay, but some students have had some struggles. 

“It took a lot of adjustment, but for the most part students got their work done and got the credits they needed,” Driggers said..  

This is a sigh of relief for teachers at Chapman because they have been working diligently to make sure that students are performing the best they possibly can given the circumstances. 

Freshman Taryn Rogers feels as though she was not able to retain information as well as she normally could have. 

Rogers went on to say that in her math class last semester, there was a day that every student failed a test and had to retake it two times.

“I did okay I guess, but it could have been better,” Rogers said about the year overall. 

Rogers also mentioned that she feels her classmates either did well or really bad. 

“Each student has their own unique experience,” Driggers said.