{"id":1958865,"date":"2023-06-28T03:17:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T07:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/evidence-of-catastrophic-learning-loss-from-school-lockdowns-piles-up\/"},"modified":"2023-06-28T03:22:21","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T07:22:21","slug":"evidence-of-catastrophic-learning-loss-from-school-lockdowns-piles-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/evidence-of-catastrophic-learning-loss-from-school-lockdowns-piles-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Mounting evidence shows significant learning loss resulting from school lockdowns."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/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%2Fevidence-of-catastrophic-learning-loss-from-school-lockdowns-piles-up%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=1958865&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 class=\"article-content\">\n<p>In one sense, the recent press release from the Department of Education featuring the latest results from national achievement tests barely classifies as \u201cnews.\u201d But that fact makes the report no less important because it further confirms what other studies in the past several years have revealed: Closing schools for months on end due to Covid scarred children\u2019s learning \u2014 quite possibly for life.<\/p>\n<p>This report analyzed outcomes for 13-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress \u2014 the \u201cNation\u2019s Report Card.\u201d And as with national tests for fourth and eighth graders, the results of which were <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/13\/abysmal-national-test-score-drops-show-school-lockdowns-hurt-americas-poor-the-most\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">released last September<\/a>, students showed a dramatic drop in their aptitude in reading and mathematics.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1978027251\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-38076fa7228402d691d2779ca959bd0f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-38076fa7228402d691d2779ca959bd0f\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Troubling Trend<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/highlights\/ltt\/2023\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent release<\/a> reflects scores from this fall\u2019s NAEP long-term trend assessment designed to examine how student performance evolves over time. While working to measure long-term trends, this test also quantified a short-term drop in achievement as test scores plummeted by a statistically significant four points in reading and nine points in math compared to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n<p>But sadly, the lockdown-related drop in student achievement, while the most dramatic, is far from the first. To echo Ernest Hemingway in <em>The Sun Also Rises<\/em>, test scores have fallen gradually, then suddenly. Over the past decade, scores have declined by a total of seven points in reading, and 14 points in math.<\/p>\n<p>And as with the NAEP results released last September, the poorest-achieving students suffered the worst drop in test scores. <\/p>\n<p>In reading, the highest-achieving 10 percent of students saw scores drop by three points since 2020, and four points since 2012. By contrast, the lowest-achieving 10 percent of students saw scores drop by seven points since 2020, and 12 points since 2012.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-bc924639cffa0add448eb0b7234e461f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-bc924639cffa0add448eb0b7234e461f\"><\/div>\n<p>In math, the highest-achieving 10 percent saw scores drop by seven points since 2020, and seven points since 2012. On the other hand, students in the lowest-achieving 10 percent saw scores drop by 15 points since 2020, and a whopping 27 points since 2012.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the students in most need of help are falling further and further behind.<\/p>\n<p>Also worth noting: The number of 13-year-olds who report reading for fun on their own time fell nearly in half compared to 2012 (27 percent then versus 14 percent now). Perhaps unsurprisingly, larger percentages of higher-performing students reported reading for fun. While this particular trend may have more to do with the rise of social media than pandemic lockdowns, it nevertheless alters student achievement.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>School Choice Can Help<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A few days before the Department of Education released this latest set of disappointing NAEP results, researchers at Stanford provided a light amidst the gloom. The Stanford University <a href=\"https:\/\/ncss3.stanford.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Credo-NCSS3-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> provided yet more evidence that school choice options \u2014 in this case, charter education \u2014 can increase student achievement, including among underperforming students.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6cd6e7486dfff8d3d37cd80c1e2a83df fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6cd6e7486dfff8d3d37cd80c1e2a83df\"><\/div>\n<p>Overall, the comprehensive study of more than 2 million students in 29 states and the District of Columbia found that charter school students gained the equivalent of 16 days of learning in reading, and six in math, compared to students of similar backgrounds who remained in traditional public schools. Some states showed far greater achievement, with charter students in New York state gaining 75 days in reading and nearly 73 in math, and Rhode Island charter students gaining the equivalent of <em>roughly half an academic year<\/em> in reading (90 days) and math (88 days).<\/p>\n<p>The study findings also provide a rebuttal to arguments that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lesson-learned-study-shows-charters-outperform-traditional-public-schools\/\" title=\"Study finds that charter schools outperform traditional public schools.\">charter schools \u2014 publicly funded schools<\/a> given more flexibility to experiment but held accountable for student outcomes \u2014 attract \u201ceasier\u201d students to teach, leaving traditional public schools with the tougher cases. Not only did the authors\u2019 methodology of matching charter students to their public school counterparts attempt to control for this factor, but students in poverty achieved <em>greater<\/em> learning gains than the entire charter population as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, African American and Hispanic charter school students achieved greater learning gains than their white counterparts when compared to their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harvard-study-homeschoolers-generally-become-well-adjusted-responsible-young-adults\/\" title=\"Harvard Study: Homeschoolers Generally Become \u2018Well-Adjusted, Responsible\u2019 Young Adults\">public school peers<\/a>. Hispanic and African American students in poverty gained more than a month of learning in both reading and math, compared to those who remained in traditional public education. By contrast, the NAEP results for the country as a whole showed a greater drop in test scores for African Americans than for the white population.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/evidence-of-catastrophic-learning-loss-from-school-lockdowns-piles-up\/\" title=\"Mounting evidence shows significant learning loss resulting from school lockdowns.\">granular findings provide additional encouragement<\/a> about charters\u2019 long-term potential.<\/p>\n<p>First, organizations that operate multiple charter schools had much larger gains (27 days in reading and 23 in math) than single-school charters (gain of 10 days in reading and a statistically insignificant loss of three days in math) \u2014 a finding that suggests successful charters can indeed \u201cscale\u201d their accomplishments to broader student populations.<\/p>\n<p>Second, schools that participated in prior versions of the study increased their learning gains in this most recent study, suggesting that scores may rise even further in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Third, the learning gains of students who remained in charter schools increased over time, showing that academic improvement will prove durable at the student level as well as at the school level \u2014 positive achievement begetting more positive achievement.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Let Parents Choose<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The twin studies illustrate the stakes within our current educational system. Even as test scores plummeted following government-imposed lockdowns, options like charter education, Educational Savings Accounts, and other school choice initiatives are leading the way by promoting the academic innovation sorely lacking in many traditional public schools. After the pandemic opened their eyes to the drawbacks of the flawed status quo, lawmakers in many states have worked to expand choice options during their legislative sessions this year.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, teachers unions don\u2019t want to allow parents to choose. They worked hand-in-glove with the Biden administration to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/05\/01\/teachers-union-collaborated-with-cdc-on-school-reopening-emails\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">keep schools closed<\/a> during the pandemic and want to deny parents the ability to select anything other than traditional public schools.<\/p>\n<p>But the American people have seen firsthand the havoc that union-inspired lockdowns wreaked on millions of students, and they don\u2019t want to go back. We can do better \u2014 and with expanded school choice, our nation\u2019s children will.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e4d3a0c14c94c90cdc5fe4ee892d7bfd fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e4d3a0c14c94c90cdc5fe4ee892d7bfd\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a way, the recent press release by the Department of Education on national achievement test results is not surprising. However, it remains significant as it reinforces previous studies&#8217; findings. Closing schools for extended periods due to various reasons has long-lasting effects, as confirmed by this report and other research in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":1958867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1958865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958865","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\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1958865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1958867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1958865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1958865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1958865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}