When 5-year-old Avarian Delray met his teacher on the first day of kindergarten this fall, his grandmother Sharon Larson knew she wouldn’t have to worry about him.

“He looked at me [and said], ‘Mama, I’m ok. You can leave now. This is no different than my other school. I’m good,’” said Larson, who is raising him.

She gives Avarian’s Head Start program in Racine, Wisconsin, a lot of the credit for his self-assurance, despite the fact that interaction with his preschool teacher from the program last year often took place through a screen. Like many preschoolers nationwide, children in the Grand Avenue center spent much of the 2020-21 school year at home. It’s a period that research generally projects will set young learners back academically, socially and emotionally. But a recent report on Acelero Learning, the New York City-based company running Grand Avenue and 43 other Head Start centers in four states, offered a more hopeful outlook.

Preschoolers who attended the centers in person most of the year made significant gains in three areas of school readiness, but those in the virtual model kept pace with their peers, showing strong progress in two areas — early reading and math skills. In addition, the infants and toddlers served in Acelero Learning’s Early Head Start programs developed language skills beyond what is expected for their age.

“We serve a population that is typically struggling when there’s not a pandemic,” said Cate Smith Todd, Acelero Learning’s vice president of monitoring, systems and analysis. “We were super proud to see that the kids were learning at home.”

The study doesn’t compare children’s growth to that of their peers before the pandemic. But in a year when many preschool programs operating virtually saw a sharp decline in participation among families, the results provide some direction if classrooms need to close again, said Susanna Loeb, director of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University and a co-author of the study.

The findings, she said, show “the importance of in-person educational experiences for young children, but when those are not possible, other approaches including virtual classes, can support child development, particularly if coordinated well with families.”

Read the full article about gains for virtual learners during the pandemic by Linda Jacobsen at The 74.