(Des Moines, IA) — The impact of online learning on the achievement gap between minority and low-income students in Iowa schools is not yet known — but answers should be coming as students are in the midst of tests right now. The Department of Education’s Jay Pennington tells the Board of Education that Iowa should be in a good position compared to other states. He said “I would think that as a state that was more in-person that will help us as a state a whole in decreasing loss relative to others.” Pennington cited one study which looked at how far behind students were based on the availability of online instruction. He added, “even with the highest quality, they were estimating three to four months behind what they would expect of students that were in-person in a normal year. And low quality — it was more like a year behind.” Pennington says this year’s national assessment results will show how the pandemic learning here compared to other states.
