Unfinished learning concerns still plague educators

Key points:

Concerns over unfinished learning continue to occupy educators’ minds, with only teacher shortages and burnout ranked higher, according to a national survey conducted by The Harris Poll and commissioned by Lexia, a part of Cambium Learning Group.

Just 43 percent of parents strongly agree that their child’s school has done a good job addressing unfinished learning from the 2021-22 school year, according to the survey.

For educators, teacher shortages and burnout are the only issues that loom larger than unfinished learning and other curriculum concerns. In Lexia’s 2023 nationwide survey of educators, almost half (45 percent) of respondents cited unfinished learning and curriculum issues like grade level appropriate topics as sources of concern for the 2023-24 school year.

In addition, multiple respondents added comments about their struggle to meet the wide range of learning needs for all the students in their classroom.

Examples of those comments include:

• “[S]tudents beginning way below grade level.”
• “Not enough time to teach required curriculum.”
• “Students[‘] needs outweigh adult ability to support.”