DENVER — It’s been 5 years since Gov. Jared Polis ordered schools statewide to close to stop the spread of COVID-19. The initial order on March 18, 2020, was only for one month. Colorado’s Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova was superintendent of Denver Public Schools at the time. She recalled when the district began discussing the possibility of schools closing, there were concerns about how to ensure kids still had meals and technology for remote learning.
“We literally took every device that we had anywhere in the district, in the central office, and pushed those out to kids,” Córdova said.
Córdova left the district in 2021 for a job in Dallas and wrote a doctoral dissertation on the impact of COVID-19 on education. She said the pandemic made it harder to recruit and retain teachers, led to declines in math performance as well as mental health issues for both teachers and students.
Colorado students have shown some academic improvement in standardized test scores but many students are still struggling to recover.
“Disproportionately our low-income students, black and brown students, are further behind,” Córdova said.
Córdova said that post-pandemic, the district did learn some things to improve education going forward, particularly about the importance of attendance and engagement. She said hands-on learning and career and technical education have received more attention, as a result of the pandemic. She noted that the technological improvements were a silver lining, allowing families to stay more engaged through virtual parent-teacher conferences.
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