{"id":1366274,"date":"2022-03-09T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1366274"},"modified":"2022-03-09T08:01:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T13:01:01","slug":"millions-of-american-children-are-severely-behind-in-reading-due-to-pandemic-learning-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/millions-of-american-children-are-severely-behind-in-reading-due-to-pandemic-learning-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions of American Children Are Severely Behind in Reading Due to Pandemic Learning Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmillions-of-american-children-are-severely-behind-in-reading-due-to-pandemic-learning-loss%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1366274&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Last spring as it was becoming clear that pandemic learning loss was real and a serious problem for some kids, there were some voices suggesting the best approach to the problem was to not test for it. And some educations professionals went farther and claimed that standardized tests weren\u2019t really measuring all the good things kids kept out of school <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/04\/08\/us\/school-testing-education-covid.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">were learning<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Jesse Hagopian, a Seattle high school teacher and writer, said testing to measure the impact of the pandemic misses what students have learned outside of physical classrooms during a year of overlapping crises in health, politics and police violence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are learning about how our society works, how racism is used to divide,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are learning about the failure of government to respond to the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This view was surprisingly widespread on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/28\/us\/covid-schools-at-home-learning-study.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the far left<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt is especially kids of color who are presumed to be harmed by being at home,\u201d said Dr. Ishimaru, who said her conversations with families of color suggested that some children preferred learning remotely, because they did not have to deal with micro and macroaggressions and other challenges they encounter in school.<\/p>\n<p>She argued that many children learned plenty in the past year and a half \u2014 about loss and grief, about racism and resistance, about cooking and family traditions at home. \u201cWhat if we were to focus on the learning found, and then we rebuild our education systems from that learning?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Recently recalled San Francisco school board president Gabriela Lopez <a href=\"https:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:gAQJ8dY6jNEJ:https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/S-F-schools-see-learning-gaps-widen-during-15912588.php+&#038;cd=1&#038;hl=en&#038;ct=clnk&#038;gl=us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019re just having different learning experiences than the ones we currently measure, and the loss is a comparison to a time when we were in a different space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The President of the LA Teacher\u2019s Union <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/citythinkblog\/cecily-myart-cruz-teachers-union\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outright said<\/a>, \u201cThere is no such thing as learning loss.\u201d She continued, \u201cIt\u2019s OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words\u00a0<em>insurrection\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>coup<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today the <em>NY Times<\/em> reports that contrary to all the self-serving nonsense for teacher\u2019s unions, pandemic learning loss was very real and potentially millions of American children are severely behind in reading.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">As the pandemic enters its third year, a\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/amplify.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mCLASS_MOY-Results_February-2022-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cluster<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/pals.virginia.edu\/public\/pdfs\/login\/PALS_StateReport_Fall_2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">of<\/a>\u00a0new\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.curriculumassociates.com\/-\/media\/mainsite\/files\/i-ready\/iready-understanding-student-learning-paper-fall-results-2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studies<\/a>\u00a0now show that about a third of children in the youngest grades are missing reading benchmarks, up significantly from before the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">In Virginia,\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/pals.virginia.edu\/public\/pdfs\/login\/PALS_StateReport_Fall_2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one study found<\/a>\u00a0that early reading skills were at a 20-year low this fall, which the researchers described as \u201calarming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">In the Boston region, 60 percent of students at some high-poverty schools have been identified as at high risk for reading problems \u2014 twice the number of students as before the pandemic, according to Tiffany P. Hogan, director of the Speech and Language Literacy Lab at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in new territory,\u201d Dr. Hogan said about the pandemic\u2019s toll on reading. If children do not become competent readers by the end of elementary school, the risks are \u201cpretty dramatic,\u201d she said. Poor readers are more likely to drop out of high school, earn less money as adults and become involved in the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s not just reading. Students are also behind in basic math skills and in speech. The article makes a big point of saying there\u2019s no definitive evidence that masks are partially responsible for the speech deficits but that seems like a fairly obvious connection to make. How are kids supposed to learn to speak if they can\u2019t see the teacher\u2019s face? The Atlantic published a piece about this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/family\/archive\/2022\/03\/how-masks-get-way-speech-therapy-kids\/623332\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">last week<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__wy3UI\">Americans have been arguing about pandemic restrictions for two years, and the debate is particularly fraught among parents of small children, for good reasons. While measures such as masking and isolation mean temporary discomfort or inconvenience for most people, their consequences for still-developing young children are more mysterious, and possibly more significant and lasting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__wy3UI\">Children with speech or language disorders offer perhaps the clearest example of these murky trade-offs. Pandemic restrictions vary by state, county, and school district, but I spoke with parents in California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, Iowa, and Maryland who said their children\u2019s speech therapy has been disrupted\u2014first by the loss of in-person therapy and then by masking requirements, in places that have them\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Many of the parents I spoke with are frustrated that they\u2019ve been asked to compromise their children\u2019s social and academic life in the name of public safety. The early years of a child\u2019s life are important. Anything that threatens to interfere with development, whether that\u2019s COVID-19 or the mitigations in place to avoid it, can feel like rolling the dice on a child\u2019s future. In one way or another, all parents of young children have been forced to gamble during the pandemic. Many parents of kids with speech delays don\u2019t like their odds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>My son is now in middle school but a few years ago he went to speech therapy in his elementary school. I can\u2019t imagine trying to deal with that in the past two years. Esoteric Jeff has a son this age and he expressed some of his feelings about it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I haven&#8217;t been angrier reading an article in 2 years. I hate the people who allowed this to happen to my son, and I think I will hate them forever. It will govern my attitude towards teacher&#8217;s unions and elite public health opinion forever. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/j17ogxBAw1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/j17ogxBAw1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EsotericCD\/status\/1499355979841945602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 3, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And because all the &#8220;independent&#8221; therapists have to cooperate with CPS policies (oftentimes legally, mostly because they have to coordinate w\/them so often on overlapping care), they use the same standards, even though many hate them. People get reported for deviating.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EsotericCD\/status\/1499356788159918080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 3, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is my son&#8217;s one shot in life. HE DOES NOT GET A RE-DO OF HIS CRUCIAL DEVELOPMENTAL YEARS. This is the time. And these monsters did this to him. They took some of the most important years of his life away from him. For no articulable reason.<\/p>\n<p>As a father, I can never forgive.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EsotericCD\/status\/1499359378989854721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 3, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There are probably a whole lot of fathers and mothers out there who feel something similar. While union idiots were mouthing off about all the alternative learning kids were supposedly doing at home, the reality is that kids were falling behind, especially those kids, like Jeff\u2019s son, who needed extra help. The pandemic was unavoidable but some of the decisions made in response to it, especially by teacher\u2019s unions, have had a negative impact on children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last spring as it was becoming clear that pandemic learning loss was real and a serious problem for some kids, there were some voices suggesting the best approach to the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1366274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1366274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}