LPS making learning loss progress, certain grades still lagging

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Teachers across the capital city and beyond faced the challenge of navigating their students throughout the pandemic.

“Everybody’s always willing to do whatever needs to be done to ensure that learning happens every day,” said Jodie Jantz, a middle school science teacher.

Tuesday, we are getting a first look at the results from the Measure of Academic Progress or MAP assessment. Simply put, it looks at how well students perform in the classroom.

When COVID-19 came along, Lincoln Public Schools sent students home in March of 2020, and that fall some hybrid options came online.

“It was the hard work of everybody involved, parents, teachers, students administration, you name it, everybody had a hand in,” Jantz said.

Across the country that impacted grades and learning. The newest MAP scores show that LPS did better in reading and math compared to other schools across the country. Jentz has been a teacher at Goodrich Middle School for 25 years.

“So it’s a pleasure to see those scores and to see some validation for what we worked so hard for,” Jantz said.

The district credits that relative success to keeping kids in classrooms as much as possible. Along with that, specialists were installed at each school whose main job is to keep kids on a normal academic pace.

“They were supporting students who maybe missed school or struggled,” said Sarah Salem with LPS. “Our staff really pulled together and were the reason that we have the scores that we do.”

That higher-than-average test score is for the district as a whole but some grades saw more learning loss than others.

At LPS in particular 7th and 8th graders are among those who have not seen any improvement in their MAP scores going back to 2019.

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