photo by: Mackenzie Clark/Journal-World File Photo

The Lawrence Board of Education meeting room at district offices, 110 McDonald Drive, is pictured in this file photo from Feb. 25, 2019.

A Lawrence school district report suggests the coronavirus pandemic is having a negative effect on students’ academic performance, with students at every grade level receiving more D and F grades so far this year than in previous years.

During its meeting on Monday, the Lawrence school board will hear a presentation on the report from Zach Conrad, the district’s director of research and evaluation. The report looks at students’ academic performance so far this school year in a variety of metrics.

According to the written report provided to the board members, the district studied whether students were performing worse academically during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to a typical school year and whether remote learning had an effect on student performance. While the report found that students were doing worse academically at all grade levels, it also said that it wasn’t clear whether remote learning itself was contributing to the drop.

The report also looks at some of the data from the district’s AimsWeb Plus assessments, which evaluate students’ progress in math and reading. Students are scored in one of three categories on the assessments — low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk. The data shows that for several grade levels, the number of students scoring in the high-risk category increased since the 2019-20 school year. Julie Boyle, a district spokeswoman, said the high-risk category referred to students who were performing below their grade level.

The report also includes data related to student disciplinary incidents, but it also says that “With limited numbers of incidents, the data is not as useful in comparison to years past.”

The full written report is published in the board’s meeting agenda, which is posted on the district’s website, usd497.org.

In other business, Kansas State Board of Education member Ann Mah will provide an update to the board on state education issues.

The school board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday through an online conference call. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district encourages the public to watch the meeting on Midco channel 26 or online at youtube.com/USD497.

Those who want to speak during public comments at the meeting can still do so. The district asks for comments to be sent by email to PatronCommentary@usd497.org. Comments can also be emailed to board members ahead of the meeting. Their contact information is available on the district’s website at usd497.org/Board.