When the pandemic hit in 2020, U.S. schools went into lockdown. For more than a year, students were separated from their teachers, isolated from their peers and required to attend class remotely. It was abundantly clear that this was not a good way to learn, and that learning loss was a real risk. The only question was how much. The release of national test scores last week provided the answer: worse — much worse — than feared. Now the question confronting the nation’s schools is what to do about it.
Student test scores plummeted during the pandemic. What can schools do?
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as the nation’s report card, on Thursday released results of tests taken from January to March 2022 by 9-year-olds across the United States, and compared them with scores from before the pandemic in 2020. “These results are sobering,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the tests. Math scores dropped seven points, the first-ever decline since the test began in the early 1970s; reading scores dropped five points, the largest decline in 30 years. Two decades of academic progress have been erased.
The day after the NAEP scores came out, D.C. education officials released results from the spring 2022 administration of the PARCC exam, the statewide test given to students in grades three through eight and high school, and the results were equally grim. Reading and math proficiency declined substantially across all grades, and the already troubling achievement gap separating White students from non-White students widened. On both the NAEP and PARCC, there were declines among all income levels and races, but low-income and minority students fared worst. That came as no surprise to those who had warned that the pandemic’s hardships were only exacerbating inequities that already existed in the educational system.
Release of the NAEP results prompted some finger-pointing about who was to blame for the prolonged closure of the schools. The Wall Street Journal editorial page faulted teachers unions for using their clout to keep schools shut even as schools opened in Europe without serious incident. Such an assessment overlooks the fear and uncertainty that surrounded the pandemic and the understandable desire by many to be extra-cautious. More important, however, there is little value in looking back; what is needed is an action plan that gives students the help they need to catch up. As Janice Jackson, former Chicago Public Schools superintendent now with Chiefs for Change, said, “Everybody should be treating this like the crisis that it is.” Sadly, the teachers union in Los Angeles seems not have gotten that message. It announced plans to boycott the first of four planned voluntary school days aimed at giving extra help to students struggling academically.
Extra instructional time — whether tutoring, additional school days, extended school days or summer school — is key to helping students catch up. Congress has allocated $190 billion to schools to deal with the pandemic; those funds should be spent with extra teaching time in mind. D.C. officials assure us that is their emphasis. Now would also be a good time for schools to jettison an outdated school calendar built around giving children summers off to work on the family farm and replace that with year-round schooling. Reversing the educational damage wrought by the pandemic and ensuing lockdown is essential, as quickly as possible.
Source: WP
