Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/stephtaitwrites/status/1565820444846227456?s=21&t=kDVUN65iyFwCkh8wZN0V4w


Interesting. This woman compared states who had the highest percentage of inperson school to states with the lowest percent of inperson school. The results aren’t what you think.

Did this person learn data analysis via remote school in 2020? Because that’s not how you do it.

You can’t just say: schools in “the South” reopened sooner and they saw significant learning loss, ergo the learning loss was not caused by closures. You aren’t accounting for a ton of variables, like SES, the conditions under which schools reopened, etc.

It’s also very likely that the learning loss we are seeing has multiple causes. School closures are an obvious one and I think it would be silly to ignore them as a cause. But there’s also the fact that many kids experienced massive familial disruptions during the pandemic, from losing loved ones to Covid to parents who lost their jobs, to marital issues and domestic violence made worse by social isolation. Of course this all has an impact, and the impact is likely greater on children who were already designated at risk.

But school closures also likely compounded those issues. If you are a child who has lost a parent or other family member to illness, not having school to go to can deprive you of a needed break from you grief. If you are a child in an unhappy or violent home, this is even more true. If you are simply experiencing higher stress levels during the pandemic, the routines of school and the presence of caring adults and friends, can ease that stress.

I’m sorry, but anyone trying to tell me that school closures had no impact on kids, or were even good for them, is not credible. Some badly done data analysis at the regional level with no controls is not persuasive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Or maybe DC will just drop PARCC like every other state in the US already has.

And do you think the score would be different if they administered a different test? When will you finally get it? If it's not PARCC it'll be something else and the scores will still be the same and the rankings won't change.

Any other test would take fewer days to administer, meaning more time to actually teach. So there’s that.

If you think the problem is the extra 2 days to take PARCC then you must not have a kid in school. Between PJ days, movie days, equity days, days preceding school vacations and all manner of days that aren't fully utilized there's simply no rational argument that the extra days of PARC vs another test are materially related to performance.

PARCC happens over 3 weeks at our ES. The tests take too long, and the disruption exceeds the specific test time. There is way too much talk about it, it changes the specials schedules for other classes, other classes make “good luck” cards, parents are supposed to send in extra snacks. The whole thing is dumb.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Or maybe DC will just drop PARCC like every other state in the US already has.

And do you think the score would be different if they administered a different test? When will you finally get it? If it's not PARCC it'll be something else and the scores will still be the same and the rankings won't change.

Any other test would take fewer days to administer, meaning more time to actually teach. So there’s that.

If you think the problem is the extra 2 days to take PARCC then you must not have a kid in school. Between PJ days, movie days, equity days, days preceding school vacations and all manner of days that aren't fully utilized there's simply no rational argument that the extra days of PARC vs another test are materially related to performance.

Are you stating we should take all the fun out of elementary school and start instruction day 1? Because I’m sure doing those things will definitely raise the scores. 🙄

https://twitter.com/stephtaitwrites/status/1565820444846227456?s=21&t=kDVUN65iyFwCkh8wZN0V4w


Interesting. This woman compared states who had the highest percentage of inperson school to states with the lowest percent of inperson school. The results aren’t what you think.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Before any academics, I'd like schools to focus on behavior -- how to make friends, how to be resliant, how to listen, how to be patient -- so many kids are missing these skills because of the pandemic.

Sorry, but that's horsesh**. At the start of school there were deficiencies to overcome. But kids are resilient. Kids in upper ES get away with what they can. As an example, at our school the specials teachers who are not string classroom managers gave up on teaching because they couldn't control the class. Those same kids (exact same class) were somehow able to sit quietly and learn in classes led by strong teachers. It doesn't take a year (or more) to relearn how to make friends or sit quietly and listen. You are acting like they were all on a Lord of the Flies desert island for years before they returned.

If anything, I think we can drop the “kids are resilient” narrative.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Or maybe DC will just drop PARCC like every other state in the US already has.

And do you think the score would be different if they administered a different test? When will you finally get it? If it's not PARCC it'll be something else and the scores will still be the same and the rankings won't change.

Any other test would take fewer days to administer, meaning more time to actually teach. So there’s that.

If you think the problem is the extra 2 days to take PARCC then you must not have a kid in school. Between PJ days, movie days, equity days, days preceding school vacations and all manner of days that aren't fully utilized there's simply no rational argument that the extra days of PARC vs another test are materially related to performance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Or maybe DC will just drop PARCC like every other state in the US already has.

And do you think the score would be different if they administered a different test? When will you finally get it? If it's not PARCC it'll be something else and the scores will still be the same and the rankings won't change.

If we drop PARCC and go to a test that is more universally given then we'll learn that in addition to scores that suck on an absolute basis, DC sucks on a relative measure against other districts.

But if it weren't such a weird test, maybe educators could better blend actual teaching and teaching to the test, and maybe it wouldn't take this many days to test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Or maybe DC will just drop PARCC like every other state in the US already has.

And do you think the score would be different if they administered a different test? When will you finally get it? If it's not PARCC it'll be something else and the scores will still be the same and the rankings won't change.

If we drop PARCC and go to a test that is more universally given then we'll learn that in addition to scores that suck on an absolute basis, DC sucks on a relative measure against other districts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Before any academics, I'd like schools to focus on behavior -- how to make friends, how to be resliant, how to listen, how to be patient -- so many kids are missing these skills because of the pandemic.

These children have parents, right?

BINGO! The kids whose parents somehow lost control of them in a year at home are crappy parents who never supported teachers or checked homework. These are the same kids that were distractions in class pre-pandemic. They just had a convenient excuse after COVID and their crappy parents played up the COVID thing as a shield.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Before any academics, I'd like schools to focus on behavior -- how to make friends, how to be resliant, how to listen, how to be patient -- so many kids are missing these skills because of the pandemic.

Sorry, but that's horsesh**. At the start of school there were deficiencies to overcome. But kids are resilient. Kids in upper ES get away with what they can. As an example, at our school the specials teachers who are not string classroom managers gave up on teaching because they couldn't control the class. Those same kids (exact same class) were somehow able to sit quietly and learn in classes led by strong teachers. It doesn't take a year (or more) to relearn how to make friends or sit quietly and listen. You are acting like they were all on a Lord of the Flies desert island for years before they returned.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

I worry about this too, but I also think this could really light a fire to focus on phonics and math in the pre-PARCC grades, which is a good response. The bigger issue is how we remediate the kids scoring poorly in the testing grades. Especially in the elementary grades, these are the kids who really got screwed over and need/deserve serious attention focused not just on raising their PARCC scores but addressing the underlying reasons why they were so low.

One of the reasons these scores are so terrible is that last year schools and parents seem to have bought into the narrative that because of COVID closures, we simply couldn't expect kids to behave in the classroom or to approach school and learning the way they did pre-COVID. I know at our school kids were permitted to engage in regular disruption and the excuse was always, "but COVID". Even in the last few months of school admins were still leaning on excuses that kids had "forgotten" how to be in class.

When you set low expectations you get commensurate results.

Anonymous wrote:When will each schools' data be reported? I check on DCPS website and can't find it. Thanks

It's there. You are just not looking in the right place.

When will each schools' data be reported? I check on DCPS website and can't find it. Thanks

My kid did PARCC at BASIS over 2 days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Or maybe DC will just drop PARCC like every other state in the US already has.

And do you think the score would be different if they administered a different test? When will you finally get it? If it's not PARCC it'll be something else and the scores will still be the same and the rankings won't change.

Any other test would take fewer days to administer, meaning more time to actually teach. So there’s that.

I agree. In my eyes PARCC should be done in one week. At BASIS they did it all in three days! But if you want more days of teaching, then you should get rid of some of the other assessments teachers have to administer and take up valuable instructional time like ANet and RCTs.