'Appalling' standardized test scores in wake of covid school closures

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm old enough to remember when those of us advocating for opening schools early on were selfish jerks!

When I usually say "I hate to say I told you so" I don't usually mean it. I love to be proven right retroactively.

Not this time. I predicted just how bad shutting schools down for an extended period would be for kids, especially for lower-income and at-risk kids. I do genuinely wish I was wrong on this point, though.

I wonder if the people responsible for extended school shutdowns in DC and other blue states and cities will ever admit they were wrong?

If you're one of the people who was opposed to reopening schools in the fall on 2020, this is on you. And people like me are going to rub your nose in it for the rest of your days.

Sorry to interrupt your victory lap, but we can address educational gaps and falling test scores. We can't fix dead.

Can the educational gaps be addressed? DC has been trying for decades and hasn't been able to

It's more like we can say that educational gaps are being addressed, but they aren't being fixed. No one really knows how to attack this. The narrative should not be revisiting school closures, but there has to be some admission that students lost out and the repercussions will be felt for decades, if not a lifetime for some children. Embrace that reality, and figure out solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

So a negligible percentage will go towards helping a negligible number of students? Sounds like they're really on the ball with that solution

It's hilarious that all the adults reading press releases have left schools years and decades before the pandemic and yet can't math enough to notice how little $39M is out of $1B, and how few 4,000 students are compared to the DC school population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

This is an apples to oranges comparison. NAEP data does an excellent job of providing apples to apples comparisons through the use of TUDA data. This information shows you that DC didn't do appreciably worse than other cities in the country and, in fact, did better than the large city average.

The link above provides information on 4th grade reading but if you click around you can get reading and math for 4th and 8th graders.

THANK YOU. People, DC isn't a state. It's a city - you need to compare it against other cities. They all suffered.

It does look like the cities that did the best (no significant learning loss - there are only three - all the others dropped) are in Texas and Florida, where schools mostly stayed open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm old enough to remember when those of us advocating for opening schools early on were selfish jerks!

When I usually say "I hate to say I told you so" I don't usually mean it. I love to be proven right retroactively.

Not this time. I predicted just how bad shutting schools down for an extended period would be for kids, especially for lower-income and at-risk kids. I do genuinely wish I was wrong on this point, though.

I wonder if the people responsible for extended school shutdowns in DC and other blue states and cities will ever admit they were wrong?

If you're one of the people who was opposed to reopening schools in the fall on 2020, this is on you. And people like me are going to rub your nose in it for the rest of your days.

I'm a teacher and would never say I was wrong for being unwilling to go into school prior to being vaccinated. You can rub my nose or your nose in it as much as you want. I'm focused on trying to support students where they are now.

I'm sure you won't. You'll of course ignore states like Florida which reopened their schools in fall of 2020 and.... nothing happened. Teachers and kids went back to their normal routine, and there weren't body bags stacked in the gym.

No, you're not just going to get to "move on." People remember what you did (or didn't do, such as your actual job).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm old enough to remember when those of us advocating for opening schools early on were selfish jerks!

When I usually say "I hate to say I told you so" I don't usually mean it. I love to be proven right retroactively.

Not this time. I predicted just how bad shutting schools down for an extended period would be for kids, especially for lower-income and at-risk kids. I do genuinely wish I was wrong on this point, though.

I wonder if the people responsible for extended school shutdowns in DC and other blue states and cities will ever admit they were wrong?

If you're one of the people who was opposed to reopening schools in the fall on 2020, this is on you. And people like me are going to rub your nose in it for the rest of your days.

Sorry to interrupt your victory lap, but we can address educational gaps and falling test scores. We can't fix dead.

I'm sure you can point out to me the body bags stacked in front of schools in the states that did re-open.

That didn't happen. Schools reopened in the fall of 2020 all over the country, and there's no evidence that it lead to any meaningful deaths among students or teachers.

You were wrong, you continue to be wrong, and I expect you'll just keep doubling down on wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm old enough to remember when those of us advocating for opening schools early on were selfish jerks!

When I usually say "I hate to say I told you so" I don't usually mean it. I love to be proven right retroactively.

Not this time. I predicted just how bad shutting schools down for an extended period would be for kids, especially for lower-income and at-risk kids. I do genuinely wish I was wrong on this point, though.

I wonder if the people responsible for extended school shutdowns in DC and other blue states and cities will ever admit they were wrong?

If you're one of the people who was opposed to reopening schools in the fall on 2020, this is on you. And people like me are going to rub your nose in it for the rest of your days.

I'm a teacher and would never say I was wrong for being unwilling to go into school prior to being vaccinated. You can rub my nose or your nose in it as much as you want. I'm focused on trying to support students where they are now.

I'm sure you won't. You'll of course ignore states like Florida which reopened their schools in fall of 2020 and.... nothing happened. Teachers and kids went back to their normal routine, and there weren't body bags stacked in the gym.

No, you're not just going to get to "move on." People remember what you did (or didn't do, such as your actual job).

Well I guess that’s going to be something you’ll have to live with. I’m confident the majority of people aren’t as irrationally weird as those that continue to teacher blame on here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm old enough to remember when those of us advocating for opening schools early on were selfish jerks!

When I usually say "I hate to say I told you so" I don't usually mean it. I love to be proven right retroactively.

Not this time. I predicted just how bad shutting schools down for an extended period would be for kids, especially for lower-income and at-risk kids. I do genuinely wish I was wrong on this point, though.

I wonder if the people responsible for extended school shutdowns in DC and other blue states and cities will ever admit they were wrong?

If you're one of the people who was opposed to reopening schools in the fall on 2020, this is on you. And people like me are going to rub your nose in it for the rest of your days.

Sorry to interrupt your victory lap, but we can address educational gaps and falling test scores. We can't fix dead.

I'm sure you can point out to me the body bags stacked in front of schools in the states that did re-open.

That didn't happen. Schools reopened in the fall of 2020 all over the country, and there's no evidence that it lead to any meaningful deaths among students or teachers.

You were wrong, you continue to be wrong, and I expect you'll just keep doubling down on wrong.

Uh … go ahead and post the per capita death rate for 2020/2021 in states that reopened schools and states that didn’t. I’ll wait.

-NP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

So a negligible percentage will go towards helping a negligible number of students? Sounds like they're really on the ball with that solution

DCPS couldn’t even roll out a summer tutoring program because there were no takers and you think they will be successful with a school year one???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm old enough to remember when those of us advocating for opening schools early on were selfish jerks!

When I usually say "I hate to say I told you so" I don't usually mean it. I love to be proven right retroactively.

Not this time. I predicted just how bad shutting schools down for an extended period would be for kids, especially for lower-income and at-risk kids. I do genuinely wish I was wrong on this point, though.

I wonder if the people responsible for extended school shutdowns in DC and other blue states and cities will ever admit they were wrong?

If you're one of the people who was opposed to reopening schools in the fall on 2020, this is on you. And people like me are going to rub your nose in it for the rest of your days.

I'm a teacher and would never say I was wrong for being unwilling to go into school prior to being vaccinated. You can rub my nose or your nose in it as much as you want. I'm focused on trying to support students where they are now.

I'm sure you won't. You'll of course ignore states like Florida which reopened their schools in fall of 2020 and.... nothing happened. Teachers and kids went back to their normal routine, and there weren't body bags stacked in the gym.

No, you're not just going to get to "move on." People remember what you did (or didn't do, such as your actual job).

Bigger take away was higher poverty school districts saw the biggest gaps. Just like their families saw the biggest gap in health outcomes, income stability, and virtually every other metric in our society. The .1% got WAY richer and the poor got f***ed. Nothing new

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

This is an apples to oranges comparison. NAEP data does an excellent job of providing apples to apples comparisons through the use of TUDA data. This information shows you that DC didn't do appreciably worse than other cities in the country and, in fact, did better than the large city average.

The link above provides information on 4th grade reading but if you click around you can get reading and math for 4th and 8th graders.

THANK YOU. People, DC isn't a state. It's a city - you need to compare it against other cities. They all suffered.

Look at the the TUDA data, which compares large city districts. DC still was still near the bottom. E.g., https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/districts/scores/?grade=8

[Anonymous]

The Catholic K-8 in our DC neighborhood went back right after Labor Day in 9/2020. It is crazy that our DCPS kids stayed home almost the entire 2020-21 school year.

[Anonymous]

What is DC doing with all that money? Some tutoring. What else?!?!? This much money should be obvious to parents. Our kids and teachers should be fully supported.

[Anonymous]

From a PR perspective, one would think that the union would offer suggestions on how to improve kids' test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From a PR perspective, one would think that the union would offer suggestions on how to improve kids' test scores.

in the past two years, the WTU has asked for:

*budgets that allow for more interventionist
*smaller class sizes
*protected planning time to differentiate learning for all students
* less focus on busy work tests such as RCTs and ANET, more time focused on content

I’m sure there are many others, but these are just off the top of my head.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, sorry there was a pandemic. It sucked for everyone. Esp. the dead.