To be clear, the pandemic didn't cause the issue. The reaction to it did.
The Pandemic Erased Two Decades of Progress in Math and Reading
- Thread starter ThorneStockton
- Start date
When there is in-person learning it's been proven to at least maintain the knowledge and usually results in improving knowledge.
Links to what I could find on a quick search since you asked:
Pv vs Pb performance - https://www.highschoolofamerica.com/why-private-schools-perform-better-than-public-schools/
Pv vs Pb pandemic attendance - https://www.cato.org/policy-analysi...d-19-how-private-sector-has-fared-how-keep-it
You do realize, that the lockdowns were in place for a prior variant of the disease, right?
Would you like to recognize that my statement referred to NO mitigations in place?
We're at 1.1M with mitigations.
My youngest was out on Spring Break when they shut down for the remainder of their 19-20 school year, Has never missed a day since due to COVID.
Yeah, I’ve seen similar info before. I may just have to wait. I’m really looking forward to data that shows say 2019-22/3 test scores broken down by something like “months in school” vs. “months out of school” so you could definitively show through data that kids who where in-school performed better. To me it’s not a public or private question as much as it’s an in/out of classroom comparison - which those options were clearly driven by Covid response / policy decisions. I may just need to be patient as all the data probably isn’t available (going to ‘23 is probably the best bet) and people haven’t carved it up that way yet. I have no doubt there will be a big gap. How big is what I’d like to see.
*sigh* In 2015 on PISA tests...the supposed gold standard for international testing...the US was middle of the pack. Again. #31 out of 70. *gasp* US education sucks!!!
Here's the thing. When you look at the scores of our schools with a free/reduced lunch population that's less than 25% of the total student body, the US was first in the world...#1...the BEST...in reading AND science and #3 in math. Our aggregate score for those schools smoked everyone. In the whole world (that takes the PISA test).
The scores of our schools with a free/reduced lunch population greater than 75%...they're abysmal. Bottom of the scale. Turrible. It's those scores that pull the US down. And the child poverty rate in the US is one of the highest in the world among developed nations. Truly pathetic for the wealthiest country the world has ever seen.
And the funny (not funny) part is the folks on here reporting breathlessly about the impact of Covid don't say shit about that. They weren't here in 2016 claiming we were failing our must vulnerable children. They. Did. Not. Give. A. Fvck. The data is crystal clear...you want to help kids impacted by Covid...deal with childhood poverty. Until you make a true committment to that, you're simply shoveling horseshit.
Here's the thing. When you look at the scores of our schools with a free/reduced lunch population that's less than 25% of the total student body, the US was first in the world...#1...the BEST...in reading AND science and #3 in math. Our aggregate score for those schools smoked everyone. In the whole world (that takes the PISA test).
The scores of our schools with a free/reduced lunch population greater than 75%...they're abysmal. Bottom of the scale. Turrible. It's those scores that pull the US down. And the child poverty rate in the US is one of the highest in the world among developed nations. Truly pathetic for the wealthiest country the world has ever seen.
And the funny (not funny) part is the folks on here reporting breathlessly about the impact of Covid don't say shit about that. They weren't here in 2016 claiming we were failing our must vulnerable children. They. Did. Not. Give. A. Fvck. The data is crystal clear...you want to help kids impacted by Covid...deal with childhood poverty. Until you make a true committment to that, you're simply shoveling horseshit.
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That's not the teachers fault and certainly not the teachers responsibility to risk death. One thing that has come out of the pandemic is that many of you have this thought that teachers are responsible for more than teaching but yet many of you claim they're over paid.
If you're so concerned about the kids, start support groups.
You do realize the virus has changed since the initial variants and initially we didn't have the vaccine. Stop trying to act like the start of the pandemic is the same as it is now.
Exactly, it's the old saying, my kid doesn't have to get smarter, the other kids just have to be dumber.
No. I’m saying Joe’s “we’re all gonna die” schtick he’s been promulgating for the last three years is stupid and irresponsible and has caused a generation of kids to be behind the curve educationally and socially.
You keep up the same drivel. Did you think there would be no mitigations? Why didn't you continuously post a number that included assumptions about mitigations?
Did you ever think your schtick might be as bad or worse?
I'm a teacher. Sorry. Not sure your schtick is working here with whatever it is you're trying to do.
You must not have been around here or have chosen to forget that when schools like ours were staying open, we did the work to make sure things were safe (temperature checks, staggered release, spread out lunch times, and classroom desks, masks mandates, etc.) and efficient and there were plenty of people (some in this thread) saying "it won't work" and that it's best to just stay home instead of try. Again, they've been proven wrong.
Let's be honest, you took a chance when you stayed opened. You had no proof that what you were doing would work. No one has been proven wrong or proven right. I had a friend who thought he was doing everything right too, but now he's dead. For you to think you had the right answer at the start of the pandemic is absolutely laughable and you should be laughing at yourself.
Of course we took a chance. It was understood that staying home would harm our students, so we decided to be pro-active in preventing that. I mean, how could you not know that was the case? We stil have people in denial of this. Amazing.
We went week by week. And as we went, we got better at it and more familiar with it and learned what worked and what didn't. We had protocols and "If/ Then" scenarios at the ready. You know...adult problem solving shit. We didn't sit on our hands and cry "It'll never work! It's not safe! The kids won't wear masks! We need to stay home until whenever we get tired of it!"
The fact that the schools who took responsible precautions and stayed open, now have kids that are now miles ahead of those who didn't...both educationally, socially and emotionally. But go ahead and pretend that "not going back until we have new ventilation in all classrooms and spend billions of dollars" was the way to go. Be like Joes and the rest. Just double and triple down on nonsense that is provably wrong.
Kids and teachers are still getting COVID all over the country. Why aren't you advocating keeping the schools shut down? Still wiping down your groceries? Maybe because you know now what you weren't willing to learn two years ago.
You took a chance with people's lives when you didn't know enough to make that decision. You can try to justify it however you want but you put people at risk. Consider yourself lucky.
As a teacher you should know you can't learn something until it's been taught or experienced. My view on the pandemic changes as the virus changes and as I learn more. I don't question or second guess anything I did back then because I know the most important things was to protect lives (especially my family). The virus today doesn't seem to be a deadly as the early variants. We also have the vaccine to protect people. Keep pumping your chest, like you had all the answers when the pandemic hit, but know that some day your decision may destroy families and one might actually be your own. That friend of mine that died, left two boys without a single parent (their mom died 8 years ago of cancer).
We have vaccines now, which make it far far less deadly and very likely protect against long-term sequelae/illnesses.
That's precisely what you and others are arguing SHOULD have been done here.
And in the largest "experiment" run, Sweden kept the upper level teachers remote while keeping lower secondary students and teachers in school. Those in school were twice as likely to contract Covid as their remote peers. They were 30% more likely to transmit that to someone in their home.
My daughter was a struggling reader entering 2nd grade and began the pandemic in the 15th(ish) percentile. We kept her home during that time and and I worked with her. When she went back in person in the spring she was in the 50-60th percentile. Today as a 4th grader she's in the 80th percentile. It's not so much about the virtual learning as it was parents that were willing to work with their kids, IMO. I saw first hand the unwillingness to do so.
LOL...I'll post this again. Generation after generation after generation of kids have been "left behind" because of poverty. Children who can't get decent food. Children without access to adequate health care. Children in school buildings that are literally falling apart. And the solution has been "Not my problem. Their parents need to pull themselves up by their own (non-existent) bootstraps".
And NOW you're concerned because a period of shutdown might have affected THIS generation? Curious. Where was this concern for children being left behind before Covid? Methinks I know the answer to that question. Here's the solution...their parents need to get them tutoring and whatever other interventions are required to "catch them up". Grab their kids' bootstraps and pull them up to whatever the goal is. This is on the parents.
Am I doing that right?
I've always been concerned for kids my entire adult life. Especially the underprivileged ones. Your assumptions suck ass. You just happen to know that you were one of the fearmongering idiots arguing against opening the schools and crying that safety procedures wouldn't work (I remember it well and did my best not to name you as one of the fools), so you feel the need to throw this stupid shit against the wall to distract from it.
And I just presented you with data showing that being in school doubled a teacher's chances of developing Covid and increased their chances of taking it home to their family by 30%. And I remember better than you because I stated that I would be in school as soon as it was allowed. I left it up to the folks looking at the science and actually stated that I would prefer to be in school with the students because remote learning sucked. I also said that cramming 30+ students in a room was NOT conducive to controlling the spread of Covid...do you disagree?
Now that we have that out of the way, you are now aware that the problem of children left behind by poverty absolutely DWARFS the issues associated with any lockdowns...by many orders of magnitude. It is absolutely monumental compared to what you're complaining about now. I fully expect to see all the other concerned citizens in this thread going absolutely apocalytic on that any day now.
I've shared this same info multiple times...going back to 2016 in the Search and it was shared prior to that year. Nary a peep from the people so concerned NOW. It's almost like they aren't really concerned about children being left behind educationally and are, instead, looking to score cheap political points. Curious, huh?
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