Virginia schools ranked dead last nationally in math recovery since pandemic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No textbooks. Teaching using videos like Brain Pop, Moby& Annie, Amoeba Sisters, Lexia, ST Math, Math Antics,…. No spelling. No rote memorization. No practice. No homework. De-emphasized money, clocks, the basics. No hand-writing practice. They teach math off of Google slides instead of slowly writing stuff on board and having students copy it down. The math tests are standardized and the teachers hoard all the tests and don’t return them. The students do not learn from their mistakes. This has been happening for years across ALL subjects. Writing has not been taught, nor grammar. I’ve sadly had a front row seat to this constantly filling in gaps at home. Someone should get fired over these results!

It might be the result of too many kids and too little money, plus money diverted to ESL and other support programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of what we are seeing is definitely remnants of the pandemic and the failure of online learning. But that does not count for the abysmal reading scores we are seeing in grades K-3. Last year nearly a quarter of my kindergarteners met the criteria to suggest retention. This year it's looking like more. The attention issues I am seeing are a major stumbling block to their learning. Kids spend too much time watching screens and not enough thinking, interacting, and responding. Both schools and families are contributing to this with the amount of time kids spend on screens. I can tell parents until I am blue in the face that their kindergartener doesn't need a phone and certainly shouldn't be watching YouTube in bed all night, but I am not in charge there. And my district sets the screen time at school, not me; if my kids don't get their minutes in the programs, it's my head. I feel like I'm in the middle of a slow motion train wreck.

In my experience I it happens with the lower class families

Right here on DCUM this week, a poster asked for advice on making diaper changes with a squirming, uncooperative 22 month old easier, and a poster suggested handing the toddler a phone to distract them. Parents of differing SES are guilty of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of what we are seeing is definitely remnants of the pandemic and the failure of online learning. But that does not count for the abysmal reading scores we are seeing in grades K-3. Last year nearly a quarter of my kindergarteners met the criteria to suggest retention. This year it's looking like more. The attention issues I am seeing are a major stumbling block to their learning. Kids spend too much time watching screens and not enough thinking, interacting, and responding. Both schools and families are contributing to this with the amount of time kids spend on screens. I can tell parents until I am blue in the face that their kindergartener doesn't need a phone and certainly shouldn't be watching YouTube in bed all night, but I am not in charge there. And my district sets the screen time at school, not me; if my kids don't get their minutes in the programs, it's my head. I feel like I'm in the middle of a slow motion train wreck.

In my experience I it happens with the lower class families

Right here on DCUM this week, a poster asked for advice on making diaper changes with a squirming, uncooperative 22 month old easier, and a poster suggested handing the toddler a phone to distract them. Parents of differing SES are guilty of this.

A couple minutes is fine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bring back textbooks. These essentially did the work for the teachers. The lessons were all presented in an organized way to build on one another. It's LESS work for the teachers. It's CHEAPER than all the ipads and laptops and apps. You can still differentiate by -- gasp -- giving accelerated kids more advanced textbooks. When I was in school they just handed me the math book from the next level up and told me to work independently. The lessons were there.

+10, please FCPS bring back paper textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To add insult to injury, students are still reading three-quarters of a grade level behind where they were in 2019.

It’s time for a sanity check where we acknowledge we’ve been conned by pseudo “experts,” then dump any school policy implemented since 2018.

If this isn’t crisis mode, what is?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/virginia-schools-ranked-dead-last-nationally-in-math-recovery-since-pandemic-report-says/ar-AA1yZKce

In related news, have you seen the JLARC study on Virginia public education funding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bring back textbooks and workbooks aligned with the textbooks.

+1. And some homework which is corrected and returned, but is not an important factor for the grade. Homework is how I escaped being poor. My family could not afford to supplement the way other parents routinely did, so homework was where I got the practice needed to learn the material. And no, my parents were not home to help me with it…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yet another Youngkin failure.

This. Youngkin, whose kids went to Georgetown Prep (which seems appropriate), is hardly interested in fixing public education in Virginia, but he is interested in licking MAGA boots and kissing maga ass and so he’s spent almost four years kowtowing to the far right and stoking culture war BS to make an example of Northern Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of what we are seeing is definitely remnants of the pandemic and the failure of online learning. But that does not count for the abysmal reading scores we are seeing in grades K-3. Last year nearly a quarter of my kindergarteners met the criteria to suggest retention. This year it's looking like more. The attention issues I am seeing are a major stumbling block to their learning. Kids spend too much time watching screens and not enough thinking, interacting, and responding. Both schools and families are contributing to this with the amount of time kids spend on screens. I can tell parents until I am blue in the face that their kindergartener doesn't need a phone and certainly shouldn't be watching YouTube in bed all night, but I am not in charge there. And my district sets the screen time at school, not me; if my kids don't get their minutes in the programs, it's my head. I feel like I'm in the middle of a slow motion train wreck.

In my experience I it happens with the lower class families

Right here on DCUM this week, a poster asked for advice on making diaper changes with a squirming, uncooperative 22 month old easier, and a poster suggested handing the toddler a phone to distract them. Parents of differing SES are guilty of this.

A couple minutes is fine

But it never stays at a couple minutes. The phone gets used for diaper changes, and because it works, then it gets used in situations where you need to keep the child quiet (waiting rooms, worship services, restaurants), then it becomes part of the routine for airline flights and road trips. Eventually, it’s the solution when mom is sick or dad has a headache. Finally, child is addicted and begs for it and throws a fit when they don’t get it and it becomes a bargaining chip between parent and child. Kid #2 gets it even earlier because they want to be like kid #1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of what we are seeing is definitely remnants of the pandemic and the failure of online learning. But that does not count for the abysmal reading scores we are seeing in grades K-3. Last year nearly a quarter of my kindergarteners met the criteria to suggest retention. This year it's looking like more. The attention issues I am seeing are a major stumbling block to their learning. Kids spend too much time watching screens and not enough thinking, interacting, and responding. Both schools and families are contributing to this with the amount of time kids spend on screens. I can tell parents until I am blue in the face that their kindergartener doesn't need a phone and certainly shouldn't be watching YouTube in bed all night, but I am not in charge there. And my district sets the screen time at school, not me; if my kids don't get their minutes in the programs, it's my head. I feel like I'm in the middle of a slow motion train wreck.

In my experience I it happens with the lower class families

Right here on DCUM this week, a poster asked for advice on making diaper changes with a squirming, uncooperative 22 month old easier, and a poster suggested handing the toddler a phone to distract them. Parents of differing SES are guilty of this.

A couple minutes is fine

But it never stays at a couple minutes. The phone gets used for diaper changes, and because it works, then it gets used in situations where you need to keep the child quiet (waiting rooms, worship services, restaurants), then it becomes part of the routine for airline flights and road trips. Eventually, it’s the solution when mom is sick or dad has a headache. Finally, child is addicted and begs for it and throws a fit when they don’t get it and it becomes a bargaining chip between parent and child. Kid #2 gets it even earlier because they want to be like kid #1.

Or you hold your ground and keep your kid away from it all and then they get to be in 4th grade and shunned by the other kids because they can't converse about "Mr. Beast" and "influencers". (Dealing with this now)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Studies in Sweden and Norway showed us by the end of 2020 and before vaccines that it was safe to open schools with some basic precautions. But many school districts in blue states kept out school closed until late 2022 despite the plethora of empiric evidence saying it wasn’t necessary as well as growing evidence of harm from the school closures.

None of these people have been held accountable for this malfeasance.

European studies conducted in European cities don't transfer to our environment. European schools are much, much smaller than American ones and their classrooms have windows that can be opened for ventilation, unlike the giant windowless prison bunkers our children attend.

[Anonymous]

Not surprising, chasing equity does not make things better but does get you to the lowest common denominator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Studies in Sweden and Norway showed us by the end of 2020 and before vaccines that it was safe to open schools with some basic precautions. But many school districts in blue states kept out school closed until late 2022 despite the plethora of empiric evidence saying it wasn’t necessary as well as growing evidence of harm from the school closures.

None of these people have been held accountable for this malfeasance.

This conversation is about Virginia schools, where schools had an in-person option by March 2021 (per the governor's orders) and every school was open full-time in September 2021 (https://www.wavy.com/news/education/all-virginia-school-districts-open-full-time-for-in-person-learning-gov-northam-says/).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yet another Youngkin failure.

This is basically the problem. Youngkin's DOE provided a small list of approved programs for schools to choose from, and they had to choose one and use it. I haven't seen all of the programs, but some of the counties chose Benchmark, and it's pretty dang awful. Makes you wish for the return of Lucy Calkins. If only they'd just let teachers teach - teachers knew Calkins was bad, and they know this is bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Studies in Sweden and Norway showed us by the end of 2020 and before vaccines that it was safe to open schools with some basic precautions. But many school districts in blue states kept out school closed until late 2022 despite the plethora of empiric evidence saying it wasn’t necessary as well as growing evidence of harm from the school closures.

None of these people have been held accountable for this malfeasance.

European studies conducted in European cities don't transfer to our environment. European schools are much, much smaller than American ones and their classrooms have windows that can be opened for ventilation, unlike the giant windowless prison bunkers our children attend.

Not to mention the overcrowded classrooms and a workforce where 60% had a pre-existing condition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:K-3 need to stop blaming the pandemic as it has nothing to do with them. What's changed is the bad curriculum, lack of textbooks and lack of homework/classwork for reinforcement

People need to stop blaming computers too. Technology has excellent tools for learning. A mix of technology and actual books and notebooks are ideal and are happening in schools in some districts.