As schools rushed to move face-to-face classes online, the unique challenges faced by students attempting to learn remotely came to the surface. The enormous loss of instructional time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to widen performance gaps in public education.

The early warning indicators that districts typically use as predictors of performance and engagement—such as attendance, suspensions, and summative assessment scores—are not data points districts are currently tracking. Knowing that, how should you be thinking about student performance? What new or additional data points are critical for understanding how students are engaging remotely?

There’s still relevance in your historic data

While you may not have data from this spring, you likely have historic data from past benchmark assessments to see student performance trends in previous screening windows. You can start to get a sense of where students were and where they should be at this time. This historic data can provide great insights into populations of students that typically have performed below district benchmarks so that you can make critical decisions on how to support them once schools reopen.