Virginia schools ranked dead last nationally in math recovery since pandemic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Which Virginia schools were still closed in the winter of 2022?

The closures definitely had an impact and we should discuss that, but exaggeration isn't necessary.

And the pandemic doesn't account for the poor performance of students in K-3, as discussed above.

NONE. No schools were closed in winter of 2022. Kids were back in the classrooms by Feb/Mar 2021.

Republicans are LYING POSs.

I'm not a Republican. Not even close. But I do remember what was happening in my kids' schools.

In winter of 2022 they were keeping the windows open in my kid's classroom to reduce the chance of COVID spread. I sent fingerless gloves to school because it was often 40-50 degrees in the classroom. They also weren't using paper to do work because it could spread COVID. Kids had to stay 6' apart to avoid spreading COVID, so no group work or moving around the classroom. Teachers wouldn't move around the classroom either and stayed at their desk, distanced from kids. Kids were also pulled out for weekly COVID tests. Kids had to keep their masks on at all times and washed hands many times a day. It wasn't close to normal at all.

There was also a huge backlog in testing needed for younger grades, as many kids had missed screening for dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD and other LD. So lots of issues socially and academically for teacher to handle.

So your kid was in the classroom?

Thanks for admitting that you are a lying POS.

Nothing about my post is a lie. Why are you so angry that you're swearing at me? Your issue is with another poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Winter 2022? What school? At that point everyone should have been vaccinated. Life was very much back to normal. Social distancing had been scrapped and almost no one masked--except on planes or if families had very young child who weren't eligible for the vaccine.

I don't disagree that the interruption of in-person learning resulted in a massive backlog of testing for various learning disabilities and the ripple effect of that was felt for a long time. The current 3rd and 4th grade cohorts have a reputation for being unusually difficult because of Covid impacts.

School was more normal in Nov/Dec 2022. But in Jan/Feb 2022 masking was still mandatory and there were a ton of COVID measures.

Right. And schools were certainly not closed.

But schools also weren't really open in March 2021. My kid was only getting virtual instruction, even if in a classroom two days a week. And the 20201-2022 school year was heavily disrupted by COVID measures and concerns.

[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!

I was pretty shocked at how little the curriculum seems to care that kids know what basic coins are, or how to read a circle clock. Sure most of it is digital, but don't you need to know the physical underpinnings to truly understand?

We're now at a private where the basics are much more emphasized. Kids use computers in library, old-school style, until 6th grade when they get introduced to ed tech at a pace that they're ready for whatever college needs from them. IMHO the school could push the tech back even later, but I do appreciate that they're teaching kids things like how to organize their files (most kids who only use the cloud don't understand file systems) and email inboxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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)

My 7th grader got called an "almond kid" for not having an Instagram account. She's going to have to deal. But yes, since about that age PP we've definitely dealt with fallout from holding our ground. But in return we have kids who have a wide variety of interests and can entertain themselves when bored. Hopefully when they're older they appreciate that more than knowing the Sigma song before their classmates have sung in 10 times.

[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-sc...ort-says/ar-AA1yZKce

Did the parents that pulled their kids out in favor or private or homeschooling ever re-enroll their kids in the public districts? Are the missing kids affecting the recovery rates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Winter 2022? What school? At that point everyone should have been vaccinated. Life was very much back to normal. Social distancing had been scrapped and almost no one masked--except on planes or if families had very young child who weren't eligible for the vaccine.

I don't disagree that the interruption of in-person learning resulted in a massive backlog of testing for various learning disabilities and the ripple effect of that was felt for a long time. The current 3rd and 4th grade cohorts have a reputation for being unusually difficult because of Covid impacts.

School was more normal in Nov/Dec 2022. But in Jan/Feb 2022 masking was still mandatory and there were a ton of COVID measures.

Right. And schools were certainly not closed.

But schools also weren't really open in March 2021. My kid was only getting virtual instruction, even if in a classroom two days a week. And the 20201-2022 school year was heavily disrupted by COVID measures and concerns.

Schools were open.

STOP

LYING

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Which Virginia schools were still closed in the winter of 2022?

The closures definitely had an impact and we should discuss that, but exaggeration isn't necessary.

And the pandemic doesn't account for the poor performance of students in K-3, as discussed above.

NONE. No schools were closed in winter of 2022. Kids were back in the classrooms by Feb/Mar 2021.

Republicans are LYING POSs.

I'm not a Republican. Not even close. But I do remember what was happening in my kids' schools.

In winter of 2022 they were keeping the windows open in my kid's classroom to reduce the chance of COVID spread. I sent fingerless gloves to school because it was often 40-50 degrees in the classroom. They also weren't using paper to do work because it could spread COVID. Kids had to stay 6' apart to avoid spreading COVID, so no group work or moving around the classroom. Teachers wouldn't move around the classroom either and stayed at their desk, distanced from kids. Kids were also pulled out for weekly COVID tests. Kids had to keep their masks on at all times and washed hands many times a day. It wasn't close to normal at all.

There was also a huge backlog in testing needed for younger grades, as many kids had missed screening for dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD and other LD. So lots of issues socially and academically for teacher to handle.

So your kid was in the classroom?

Thanks for admitting that you are a lying POS.

Nothing about my post is a lie. Why are you so angry that you're swearing at me? Your issue is with another poster.

If you represent yourself as that poster then you can take the comments directed towards him.

No schools were closed in winter of 2022. Kids were back in the classrooms by Feb/Mar 2021.

Republicans are LYING POSs.

[Anonymous]

Regardless of what any single school or district was doing four full years ago, the conversation has shifted to “they/we should have…” when really we need to be discussing “we should next do….”

As a teacher, I wish my school and district would face the test scores fully and admit that we need to do serious remediation and tweak the curriculum. But admin and district people don’t want to admit that because it makes them look bad, IMO. We need to be honest about how kids are struggling and acknowledge that what and how we teach needs to change, at least for a few years.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t the va kids still at or above the national average?

The data said they are last in “recovery rate” but they are still at or above average so maybe they didn’t have as much ground to recover. Maybe they were further ahead and it is harder to recover being advanced than from knowing nothing to knowing a little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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-virgi...ng-gov-northam-says/).

Our school was still teaching "in person" students virtually. The fully vaccinated teachers were afraid to be in the same classroom with the kids so they sat elsewhere and the kids used their iPads with headphones from in person classrooms.

Even though it was spring and the weather was mostly lovely, they even did virtual PE and kids watched the PE teacher exercise from their desks with the suggestion they try the exercises at home later. The teachers had decided that kids doing exercises in the classroom was too dangerous because kids would exhale more and it was too dangerous to take them outside because they'd have to pass other kids in the hallway.

Was this all ridiculous? Absolutely yes, but I don't consider that spring 2021 to be in person education. My 7 yo didn't get any in person instruction from a teacher. Only classroom aides supervised the class.

Even fall of 2021 was crazy. Teachers weren't allowing kids to do work on paper and turn it in because they considered the work to potentially transfer COVID. They also couldn't get up out of their seats to get a book or paper because that would disturb the 6' spacing and someone could get sick. Then there was also the weekly COVID testing, with kids missing class regularly. Not at all normal school.

This was APS, btw. Not all APS schools were like this, but the Duran let each principal choose what they wanted to do and Ventilation Lady's kid went to my kid's school, so we ended up with terrified teachers and a crazy plan.

Who is Ventilation Lady?

[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.

Trump needs to ban using computer programs go teach kids. It’s AWFUL.

X1000 PLEASE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Disagree. Technology has no place in education until maybe middle school, and even then, it should be limited to Word programs, documents, how to research, etc. Not spending the whole math hour on Zearn and English doing tons of required minutes on Lexia. Such a waste of time and brain cells

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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-virgi...ng-gov-northam-says/).

Our school was still teaching "in person" students virtually. The fully vaccinated teachers were afraid to be in the same classroom with the kids so they sat elsewhere and the kids used their iPads with headphones from in person classrooms.

Even though it was spring and the weather was mostly lovely, they even did virtual PE and kids watched the PE teacher exercise from their desks with the suggestion they try the exercises at home later. The teachers had decided that kids doing exercises in the classroom was too dangerous because kids would exhale more and it was too dangerous to take them outside because they'd have to pass other kids in the hallway.

Was this all ridiculous? Absolutely yes, but I don't consider that spring 2021 to be in person education. My 7 yo didn't get any in person instruction from a teacher. Only classroom aides supervised the class.

Even fall of 2021 was crazy. Teachers weren't allowing kids to do work on paper and turn it in because they considered the work to potentially transfer COVID. They also couldn't get up out of their seats to get a book or paper because that would disturb the 6' spacing and someone could get sick. Then there was also the weekly COVID testing, with kids missing class regularly. Not at all normal school.

This was APS, btw. Not all APS schools were like this, but the Duran let each principal choose what they wanted to do and Ventilation Lady's kid went to my kid's school, so we ended up with terrified teachers and a crazy plan.

Who is Ventilation Lady?

An infamous and outspoken APS parent who thought APS needed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade ventilation in all schools before schools could reopen or hundreds of teachers, students and families were going to die from COVID or suffer horrible long term effects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Winter 2022? What school? At that point everyone should have been vaccinated. Life was very much back to normal. Social distancing had been scrapped and almost no one masked--except on planes or if families had very young child who weren't eligible for the vaccine.

I don't disagree that the interruption of in-person learning resulted in a massive backlog of testing for various learning disabilities and the ripple effect of that was felt for a long time. The current 3rd and 4th grade cohorts have a reputation for being unusually difficult because of Covid impacts.

School was more normal in Nov/Dec 2022. But in Jan/Feb 2022 masking was still mandatory and there were a ton of COVID measures.

Right. And schools were certainly not closed.

But schools also weren't really open in March 2021. My kid was only getting virtual instruction, even if in a classroom two days a week. And the 20201-2022 school year was heavily disrupted by COVID measures and concerns.

Schools were open.

STOP

LYING

Nope. I explained. My kid was in a classroom, but the teachers were only virtual. There was no in person instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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-virgi...ng-gov-northam-says/).

Our school was still teaching "in person" students virtually. The fully vaccinated teachers were afraid to be in the same classroom with the kids so they sat elsewhere and the kids used their iPads with headphones from in person classrooms.

Even though it was spring and the weather was mostly lovely, they even did virtual PE and kids watched the PE teacher exercise from their desks with the suggestion they try the exercises at home later. The teachers had decided that kids doing exercises in the classroom was too dangerous because kids would exhale more and it was too dangerous to take them outside because they'd have to pass other kids in the hallway.

Was this all ridiculous? Absolutely yes, but I don't consider that spring 2021 to be in person education. My 7 yo didn't get any in person instruction from a teacher. Only classroom aides supervised the class.

Even fall of 2021 was crazy. Teachers weren't allowing kids to do work on paper and turn it in because they considered the work to potentially transfer COVID. They also couldn't get up out of their seats to get a book or paper because that would disturb the 6' spacing and someone could get sick. Then there was also the weekly COVID testing, with kids missing class regularly. Not at all normal school.

This was APS, btw. Not all APS schools were like this, but the Duran let each principal choose what they wanted to do and Ventilation Lady's kid went to my kid's school, so we ended up with terrified teachers and a crazy plan.

Who is Ventilation Lady?

An infamous and outspoken APS parent who thought APS needed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade ventilation in all schools before schools could reopen or hundreds of teachers, students and families were going to die from COVID or suffer horrible long term effects.

APE nutters obsessed over her because she was trying to figure out rational solutions to get kids back in school. Instead of just throwing tantrums and screaming at other parents and cursing out teachers in front of the class.