Strong Outcomes in a Difficult Year: TNP's 2020-2021 Program Impact Report
In a school year that saw a massive statewide and national decline in student mental health due to the trauma of the pandemic, Nora Project students made empathy and inclusion gains, albeit at a lower rate compared to pre-pandemic years. Still, 95% of our intermediate level educators reported that The Nora Project helped build community during remote learning, while 81% of early elementary educators and 75% of high school teachers reported that Nora Project lessons helped students cope with the pandemic. One teacher put it this way:
With everything going on this year, I learned how to incorporate all students' needs, biases, and backgrounds to best support their SEL. My classroom was very diverse, their family needs varied, and their feelings about the pandemic spanned a wide spectrum. Through using The Nora Project, I was able to ground and unite my students in acceptance and seeing others differently.
Indeed, in a difficult year, The Nora Project gave students and teachers a great deal to celebrate. As set forth in our Impact Report, among our Primer Pack students ranging in ages from three to eight years old, there was massive growth from the beginning of the school year to the end in student perspectives on disability as a natural, valuable form of human diversity.
Substantial DEI gains
Teachers reported that while fewer than 40% of their students understood the term disability, that disability is a form of diversity, and that diversity has value at the beginning of the year, they reported that by the end of the year, most of their students did.
In Storyteller classrooms, intermediate elementary and middle school teachers reported improvements in interactions of students of all abilities, including increases in kindness and acceptance, and decreases in conflict and bullying. Consistent with these reports from educators, students’ prosocial empathy scores increased markedly from pre to post program surveys.
Cultivating students who care
Student prosocial empathy scores were 9.46 out of 12 at the beginning of the year, and 11.21 at the end of the year.
Prosocial empathy measures the extent to which a child is inclined to actually help or support another. These gains were critical to managing the challenges of remote learning, with one teacher explaining, “Students were patient with each other and explained things to one another even if that meant waiting longer to sign-off. Students were kind and used the chat box to reassure and encourage one another.”
Middle and high school students made strides, too. Three schools completed TNP STEMpathy projects, leaving their schools more inclusive at the end of the year than they were at the beginning.
Indian Knoll, West Chicago, IL - Indian Knoll’s STEMpathy Club hosted an inclusive STEM science night in partnership with Science Olympiad. The event was covered by the local NBC station!
Jackson Elementary, Elmhurst, IL - Students at Jackson identified the need to make the stage accessible to all students. Previously, the only way to access the stage was using stairs. The students presented a plan for building the ramp to school administrators. They fundraised for the ramp and it has since been built!
Penn High School, Mishawaka, IN - The STEMpathy club at Penn used Universal Design principles to design and build a biology sensory wall, making freshman biology content accessible to a broad array of students. This project was recently featured on PBS’s Education Counts program.
Though a school year full of challenges, thanks to The Nora Project, our participating teachers, and our committed students, 2020-2021 was also a school year of kindness, disability inclusion, and social change in Nora Project schools. To view the full report and reports from past school years, click here.