English teachers are deciding which books to
skip. History teachers are condensing units.
Science teachers are often doing without
experiments entirely.
With instruction time reduced as much as half by
the coronavirus pandemic, many of the nation’s
middle school and high school teachers have
given up on covering all the material normally
included in their classes and instead are cutting
lessons. Certain topics must be taught because
they will appear on exit exams or Advanced
Placement tests. But teachers are largely on
their own to make difficult choices — what to
prioritize and what to sacrifice to the pandemic.
“I have to make decisions constantly about
what material I’m not going to cover because
it is impossible to get it all done,” said Leigh
Foy, a chemistry and Advanced Placement
biology teacher at York Suburban High School
in Pennsylvania.