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

[Anonymous]

You all are missing a key point. Some places were better than others. But all had terrible scores whether or not they had in person school. We have bigger issues than if schools should have stayed open or closed. Education needs more attention now. Smaller class sizes, teaching as a more attractive option (pay and respect), less admin bull and more time for teachers to prep. Good summer programs. Good after school programs. More services for low income families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 willing to concede that those saying DC definitely should have reopened in September 2020 are engaging in some Monday morning quarterbacking. While that may have been the right decision in hindsight, there was some understandable hesitation. Everything about the pandemic was fully politicized thanks to Trump, there was no reopening recommendation from the CDC, Delta was surging, nobody was vaccinated, etc.

HOWEVER, with proper prioritization of teachers, all teachers who wanted to be vaccinated would have been fully vaccinated by roughly the end of January 2021. That's the latest date when all schools should have returned to mostly normal operations. Many schools in DC remained closed or heavily impacted for another 7+ months, which is inexcusable.

It’s not Monday morning quarterbacking if you were saying it at the time- it’s being proven right

Trust me, I also said it at the time and am also being proven right in hindsight! But I accept that there was some room for reasonable disagreement in Sep. 2020 and the best course of action was not 100% clear at the time. By Feb 2021 there was much less uncertainty. So the Monday morning quarterbacking was in reference to those who are now claiming that it should have been obvious to everyone already in September 2020 that opening then was the only right answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all are missing a key point. Some places were better than others. But all had terrible scores whether or not they had in person school. We have bigger issues than if schools should have stayed open or closed. Education needs more attention now. Smaller class sizes, teaching as a more attractive option (pay and respect), less admin bull and more time for teachers to prep. Good summer programs. Good after school programs. More services for low income families.

Agreed. And this article highlights how the grading policy during the pandemic and post-pandemic is also selling kids short. The achievement gap is just going to widen.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/10/23/dc-schools-grading-policy-50-percent-rule/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 willing to concede that those saying DC definitely should have reopened in September 2020 are engaging in some Monday morning quarterbacking. While that may have been the right decision in hindsight, there was some understandable hesitation. Everything about the pandemic was fully politicized thanks to Trump, there was no reopening recommendation from the CDC, Delta was surging, nobody was vaccinated, etc.

HOWEVER, with proper prioritization of teachers, all teachers who wanted to be vaccinated would have been fully vaccinated by roughly the end of January 2021. That's the latest date when all schools should have returned to mostly normal operations. Many schools in DC remained closed or heavily impacted for another 7+ months, which is inexcusable.

All I can do is share my experience, which was going back in as soon as I was vaccinated

Yes, I wasn't disagreeing with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This doesn’t prove that this was a result of school closures. It was a result of the pandemic. My life is worse after the pandemic. Your life is worse. Our kids live on this planet. Their lives are worse too. There’s no getting around that.

It’s unbelievable that you people are still denying that school closures were harmful to children and learning. I am actually shocked people are still saying these things. I thought this thread would be nothing but people saying, “well obviously, now how can we fix it”. Unbelievable.

It’s unbelievable that people like you are still pretending that living in an ongoing public health crisis with over a million deaths hasn’t had a negative impact on children.

[Anonymous]

Worry about school shootings. This isn't anything to worry about. Yes, we had a pandemic. Yes everything was closed. People died. Tests don't measure what you think they do, they are used in inappropriate ways, don't actually compare anything adequately, it's a real estate tool mostly. Are you alive? Your kids? Ok, then keep moving forward.

[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.

Why do pretend there is no data on this point as well? Half the schools on the country reopened. Schools that reopened had no worse outcomes with re: to Covid than schools that stayed shut. To the extent teachers and students were getting Covid, they were getting it at home. If there were data to show that reopening schools actually harmed health outcomes, the teacher’s unions would be shouting it from the rooftops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://mobile.twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1584512653267185666

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.

She's not. She's one of the many mothers on DCUM still shrieking for attention and demanding apologies and reparations.

[Anonymous]

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

You were. Glad you've finally accepted it.

[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.

Ok, but that doesnt change the fact that you were wrong -- wrong and selfish and poorly informed, and your students suffered because of your poor decisions.

Sorry you had to parent your kids during a pandemic. Boo hoo.

[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).

Their employers set the conditions for their jobs, not you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

With a death rate well under .1 percent for those under 70. Good reason crush children.

Are you always this melodramatic, or only on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://mobile.twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1584512653267185666

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.

Still wouldn’t have done things any differently. For all your supposedly superior education, you evidently don’t understand what “novel virus” means.

So there was some learning loss. That needs to be compared with how many lives were saved by these policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Even worse: Racist, selfish jerks.

+1 and the irony was it was privileged white families in our school demanding extended school closures.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the pandemic was going to negatively affect kids. No one ever thought otherwise.