Starting School After the Pandemic: Youngest Students Will Need Foundational Skills

Posted on 23rd Jun 2021

Young children have been among those hardest hit by academic disruptions during the pandemic, and experts worry that already overwhelmed early-childhood-education teachers will grapple with a rocky transition as those students enter or return to school this fall.

That’s the consensus of a new research analysis by 11 university and independent research groups tracking education for children ages 0-8 (roughly preschool through grade 2) during the pandemic. The report collected data from 16 national studies, 45 state studies, and 15 local studies.

“Even in the best of circumstances, early-childhood education is complex and challenging,” said Christina Weiland, a co-author of the report and an associate professor and faculty co-director of the Education Policy Initiative at the University of Michigan. “The pandemic increased that complexity, and the stress of early-educators’ jobs across all programs has negatively impacted teachers’ mental health. All of that is adding up to a current acute crisis, which is, the programs are really struggling to recruit and retain teachers at the same time that parents are expected more and more to be back in work.”

By: Sarah D. Sparks