You watched during the pandemic as Democratic governors forced hard lockdowns in many states across America. Backing up the lockdown governors like Andrew Cuomo and Gretchen Whitmer were the teachers’ unions, which even cowed some weak Republicans into hard school lockdowns. Now that the kids are back at school, and taking tests, America is getting a fuller picture of the damage done by locking down the kids. Test scores are at historic lows. Neirin Gray Desai reports for the Daily Mail:
The Covid pandemic caused historic setbacks for America’s children by erasing decades of academic progress and widening racial disparities, national test results suggest.
Across the country, math scores saw their largest decreases ever while reading scores dropped to 1992 levels and nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts.
Not a single state saw a notable improvement in their average test scores.
These were findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the ‘nation’s report card’, were released on Monday.
It tested hundreds of thousands of fourth and eighth graders across the country.
Scores had been stalling even before the pandemic but the new results show decreases on a scale not seen before, with math levels dropping the most they have since the test was established in 1969.
It was the first time the test had been conducted since 2019 and it is seen as the first nationally representative study of the pandemic’s impact on learning.
‘It is a serious wakeup call for us all,’ Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics said in an interview.
‘In NAEP, when we experience a 1- or 2-point decline, we’re talking about it as a significant impact on a student’s achievement. In math, we experienced an 8-point decline – historic for this assessment.’
Researchers usually think of a 10-point gain or drop as equivalent to roughly a year of learning.
The pandemic upended every facet of life and left millions learning from home for months.
The results released on Monday reveal the depth of those setbacks, and the size of the challenge facing schools as they help students catch up.
Action Line: You knew that the lockdowns were hurting the children. Now you know how bad it was. When the leaders of some states reacted to COVID by doing their best impressions of the Chinese Communist Party’s lockdown strategy, it was inevitably wrong for America. If your state was one of the hard lockdown states, and you’re looking for a better America, start your search with my Super States. In the meantime, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, and you’ll learn more about me and how I help American families improve their personal and financial security.
