The North Little Rock School District announced Monday that Virtual Learning Fridays will come to an end after spring break with a return to a five-day school model.
Superintendent Gregory Pilewski said in a release issued Monday the decision to return to school five days a week was “based upon multiple data points and the full support of each school principal.” The five-day school model will go into effect on March 29.
"As we have analyzed the results on local assessments used to monitor student growth and achievement, it clearly indicates the need to maximize instructional time to mitigate learning loss," Pilewski said in the release. "Simply put, we must engage our students more with their classroom teachers each day and use every opportunity of instructional time to benefit each child. In addition, the recent inclement weather event further impacted the continuity of daily instruction."
Earlier this year, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published data provided by the school district that showed students who learned virtually last semester were far more likely to fail classes than their peers who attended classes on campus.
Virtual students at most grade levels also had higher rates of absenteeism, and administrators noticed a concerning trend across the district on standardized test performance.
The data collected over the past year has school officials concerned about a widening learning gap and discussions were held on how to mitigate the damage done by the pandemic.
Pilewski also said the school district would administer state-required assessments in April “as we further use the data to better understand the impact of the pandemic on student learning.”
The number of covid-19 cases and quarantines in the district’s school buildings has declined sharply, according to the superintendent.
“We are very proud to say that more than 85% of our staff members have been fully vaccinated and another 15% are awaiting the second dose," he said.