Iowa students' grades suffer a 'COVID slide': 55% of Des Moines high schoolers have D or F in at least one class

Note to readers: Amy Williamson was initially misidentified in this story. She is the deputy director of the Iowa Department of Education. 

Many Iowa students are struggling to learn amid dramatic changes in schooling during the coronavirus pandemic, and that struggle is reflected in their grades.

Stress, shifts in learning environments and physical health all play a part in a student's ability to focus and succeed in school, experts said. Officials at several of the state's largest school districts met recently to discuss how to both help students achieve and protect their health.

Des Moines School Board member Kimberly Martorano said she was alarmed by achievement data shared during a special board meeting last week. The data revealed that about 55% of high school students and 21% of middle school students were earning a D or F in at least one class in the week of Nov. 2.

"I am really taken aback by those numbers," she said.

Lisa Bartusek, executive director of the Iowa Association of School Boards, said she was not surprised to hear grades in many districts were lower this year. She is calling it “the COVID slide.”

“Over the summer, educators all across the state were working on their return-to-learn plans, and a big part of that was assessing what are the likely gaps created from the learning loss that’s occurring from March when schools shut down over the summer,” she said.

Districts created return plans to help guide and inform parents, educators and students about learning model plans and options.

Some slippage by students academically is typical during breaks like summer vacations, she said. Every fall, teachers assess ground lost over the summer. But districts have never dealt with learning breaks as long as the ones caused during the pandemic.

“It’s going to take time and resources to build kids back up from the learning loss over the summer and closures to last March,” she said. “I’ve heard people call this the 'COVID year.' It’s just not school as we know it.”

'COVID-19 is a major disruption'

Bartusek said school boards are going to have to put personalized action plans in place to help students catch up. That means teachers and districts will have to determine what is happening in their schools, such as whether their students are struggling in reading or math or are showing a lack of engagement.

“Any time students’ education is disrupted in a major way, their learning is going to suffer, and we have to remediate to catch them back up, so yes, COVID-19 is a major disruption all across our state and country, and we are going to see the impact on student learning and need to address it,” she said.

Amy Williamson, deputy director at the Iowa Department of Education, agreed. The online learning model is also not ideal for all students, especially English-language learners and students with disabilities, she said.

“The achievement gap is already there, and if you’re changing the method of instruction, you may be exacerbating the fact that they were already behind,” she said.

In Des Moines, almost 70% of English-language learners and 60% of special-education students in high school, who have been learning online since March, are earning a D or an F in at least one class. About 32% of English-language learners and 30% of special-education students in middle school are in the same situation.

Des Moines Superintendent Thomas Ahart cautioned in an interview with the Register that the district’s use of “standards-referenced grading,” in which students are evaluated on their mastery of concepts, complicates assessments of performance before the end of a term because students can show new evidence of their progress until then. The district’s first quarter ended Nov. 9.

At Iowa City schools, in a typical year at the midpoint of the first trimester, about 20% to 22% of kids in seventh to 12th grade have at least one F. Usually that percentage falls to the low teens by the end of the trimester.

This fall, 37% of those students have at least one F. Whether students are enrolled in the online-only learning option didn't make a significant difference in that performance.

For junior high students, 39% enrolled in the online-only program and 35.2% in the standard program had at least one F at the mid-term. Since late September, the standard program has been conducted in a hybrid model: half online instruction and half in person. For high school students, 36.7% in the online-only program and 38.9% in the standard enrollment had at least one F.

"It's clearly hard for our kids. It's hard for our staff who are working extremely hard," said Scott Kibby, executive director of teaching and learning in the Iowa City Community School District at a school board meeting last week. "But it is difficult teaching in an online environment and difficult teaching in a hybrid environment. It's hard for our administrators — and you're going to see some numbers that show how hard it is."

At the midpoint of the first trimester, 62.6% of Black junior high students in the online program and 60.2% in hybrid had at least one F. That's compared to 30.7% online-only and 22.6% hybrid for white students.

For Hispanic junior high students, 60% in the online program and 62.3% in the standard had an F at the midterm.

"You can see the demographic breakdown," Kibby said. "When our Black or our African American students are failing at a 60% (rate) and our district average is 39%, that's an achievement gap." 

Students are being disrupted again because of the coronavirus' spread.

Des Moines, Iowa City and West Des Moines are among districts that have applied for and received waivers to return to temporary online instruction beginning Monday. 

All Iowa City students began the school year with three weeks of online-only instruction. On Sept. 28, students enrolled in the standard learning option began taking half of their classes during the week in person. Now, the district will transition back to 100% online learning, at least temporarily, due to rising rates of COVID-19 in Johnson County.

'Doing everything they can to get those kids going'

In West Des Moines, a major challenge for teachers this year is engaging virtual students while simultaneously working in the classroom, according to Valley High associate principal Jeff Grassmeyer. Teachers now implement check-ins throughout their online classes that require the students at home to actively participate.

He told the school board last week that educators and counselors are “doing everything they can to get those kids going, and many are having success, but not all.”

“I hear about the same thing with some of our youngest learners — preschool, kindergarten, first grade — which obviously is worrisome to anyone who’s invested in younger students’ education," he said.

Like in Iowa City, the grade slide is clear for West Des Moines students no matter whether they are learning in person or online.

“Students are struggling. We still have work to do there,” Jamie Ehlert, an instructional coach at Valley High, said. “But it wasn't a higher percentage of the online students as we were fearing.”

Starting Monday because of the high rate of coronavirus spread, all West Des Moines students will transition to 100% remote learning for 10 school days.

More:West Des Moines schools will move all grades online Monday after state approves waiver

The district is also lessening its focus on standardized test preparation and performance, Grassmeyer said. Some districts across the country have gone further, dropping letter grades entirely or ensuring that a student cannot fail a course, the New York Times reported.

Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, said he would support any individual districts that back off standardized tests during the pandemic.

"There should be consideration nationally and here in Iowa on whether it's appropriate to be administering a standardized test during a pandemic," Beranek said.

Instead, he said, educators must continue their work to close the academic and social gaps pried open by the coronavirus.

“This pandemic has really brought to light the inequities in our systems," he said. "There is an issue statewide with broadband availability, with technology equipment availability. Even the idea of food security is one of concern. … Once we get through this period, we will need to step back and evaluate how we can continue to move our kids forward to be productive members of society.” 

Sarah LeBlanc covers the western suburbs for the Register. Reach her at 515-284-8161 or sleblanc@registermedia.com.

Shelby Fleig covers Des Moines city government for the Register. Reach her at shelbyfleig@dmreg.com or 515-214-8933.

Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at ckrejci@press-citizen.com or on Twitter via @_CleoKrejci.