Carroll Community School District (CCSD) Superintendent, Dr. Casey Berlau, credits the November decision to require face coverings for students and teachers for a substantial reduction in their quarantine numbers. Entering the year, the school board narrowly approved a Return to Learn plan that strongly recommended masks. Berlau says board changed course after quarantine numbers climbed to unsustainable levels a few weeks before the Thanksgiving break.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
With the mask requirement, Berlau says they were able to bring quarantines in the district down to less than a tenth of their peak levels.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
He adds overall numbers within Carroll County are trending in the right direction with a 12 percent two-week positivity rate as of Thursday afternoon, which is the lowest rate recorded in months. According to Berlau, the board’s goal has always been to keep students in the classroom with teachers as much as possible, and as a result, they have declined to make any changes to their Return to Learn plan. The importance of in-person education was made clear as building principals presented identified academic achievement gaps. Elementary students saw clear declines in reading and math proficiency. Similar trends were observed at the middle school, but the gaps were far less pronounced. High school students appear to have handled the educational disruptions in stride with almost no decrease in assessment scores. Plans to address the gaps are either currently being developed or already implemented, and early indications are students, particularly at the elementary level, are already starting to make up for the time missed at the end of the 2019-20 school year. Berlau says it is easy to be disheartened by the data, but he encourages parents, teachers and staff to remain focused on local students’ needs and successes.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
Not all of the most recent assessment data was available during the Jan. 18 meeting, and the board anticipates seeing this topic appear on the agenda for the next several months. To view that report in its entirety, follow the link included below.
_____
CCSD-Learning-Continuum-2020_2021