As educators, we are familiar with battling student academic regression known as the Summer Slide after a long, relaxing summer. However, due to the pandemic, we now must tackle the learning loss experienced through 2020 and 2021 known as the COVID Cliff. It is essential that we recommit our educational prowess to helping students succeed, renew our knowledge of identifying effective interventions to support student growth and reimagine an educational system without the disruption experienced during the pandemic. Planning for supplemental support is imperative to identify appropriate teaching strategies and interventions. Key considerations are: “At what level are the students performing now?”, “At what level do we want them to perform tomorrow?” and “How do we lessen the gap?” It is important that teachers plan for intervention implementation, monitor student progress, and evaluate teaching effectiveness.
Dr. Denise Cato has served as the Director of Federal Programs for Camden County Schools for five years. Prior to, she served as the Coordinator for Special Education for 6 years. The past eleven years of her professional life have been committed to supporting students through federal programs (Title I, II, IV, V, and IDEA). Her passion to ensure all students learn, experience success, graduate, and perform to his/her highest potential has been her life's dream for 30 years. Removing barriers to learning is instrumental in student growth. Dr. Cato believes implementing ineffective interventions are barriers. Therefore, she is committed to sharing what she has learned along the journey of designing an effective, systemic Multi-Tiered System of Support employing evidence-based interventions. The revamp of the process was germane to student growth as they returned from pandemic-related school closures. They are back, now how are they responding?