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'Appalling' standardized test scores in wake of covid school closures
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Anonymous
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Looks like DCPS is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The only states with worse math scores than DC were West Virginia and New Mexico. Reading not much better. “I want to be very clear: The results in today’s nation’s report card are appalling and unacceptable,” said Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/us/math-reading-scores-pandemic.html |
Anonymous
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Or from axios, if you can't access the NYT:
https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2022/10/24/report-dc-public-schools-math-scores-slump?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslocal_dc&stream=top "What’s next: D.C.’s state superintendent has an effort to reverse the trend, using $1 billion in federal stimulus funds. Thirty-nine million will go towards a tutoring program expected to be offered to 4,000 students this school year." |
Anonymous
So a negligible percentage will go towards helping a negligible number of students? Sounds like they're really on the ball with that solution |
Anonymous
The list of the states that did the best include Wyoming, Wisconsin, Utah, Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio -- i.e. the states that did not close schools for-f**cking-ever. Thanks again, WTU. |
Anonymous
Hey if you are one of the people constantly complaining that we shouldn't do a rehash of school closure wars, maybe don't start something. |
Anonymous
So this is a terrible thread, as it claims that the study found no evidence of a correlation between school closures and test scores. But....the study didn't look at school closures at all. God, people will say any illogical crap to ignore kids' suffering. |
Anonymous
Kids in D.C. basically missed a year and a half of school. Probably not surprising that test schools nose dived. Would be great if the city was trying a little harder to get kids back to where they should be. |
Anonymous
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To me one possible takeaway is that the combination of school closures and high percentage of at risk or FARMS kids in a school district was a recipe for disaster.
DCPS stayed closed too long for a school district with so many children and families who have a heavier reliance on school for providing education. In wealthier districts with more MC and UMC, school closures may not have had as much of an impact on test scores because families with more money have more leeway to ensure their kids are still learning, plus more tools to make distance learning work (well enough, it's still not ideal). Also, higher income workers were more likely to be able to WFH during school closures, and thus also less likely to get sick. Whereas families with FARMS kids are more likely to have parents working in person, and thus also more likely to get Covid. It was just a recipe for disaster. Our school has a very high percentage of FARMS kids and this is what I worried about during the closure and it's never seemed more obvious to me than it is now that in-person school is more important for at risk kids. Our school did offer a limited number of seats to its most at risk kids during the 2020-2021 school year, but in a school were close to 90% of children are FARMS, this small group of "most at risk" does not address the needs of the school population the way it might at a school where most families are MC or UMC and there is a smaller group of FARMS and at risk students who might be served in this manner. It is extra frustrating because it was at risk populations that were used as a justification for prolonged closures, as people argued that this was the group that both wanted and needed schools to stay closed. The further we get from the closures, the more apparent it becomes that this was far from the truth. |
Anonymous
| Our fourth graders do significantly worse in math than fourth graders in Mississippi. I mean, wow. |
Anonymous
pretty much all the states people in dc love to look down on did better. florida? better than dc. arkansas? better than dc. alabama? better than dc. louisiana? better than dc. |
Anonymous
| So what’s the plan? I find the mental gymnastics about how we got here ridiculous and infuriating, but really I just want people to do right by these kids now. I wish I were more optimistic. |
Anonymous
Schools in Mississippi didn't close. They sent kids home when they were sick but everyone else kept going to class throughout the pandemic. Sort of like how we do now. |
Anonymous
| I'm old enough to remember when those of us advocating for opening schools early on were selfish jerks! |
Anonymous
| DC is not a State. It is only appropriately compared to other urban areas. |