A few weeks ago, The New York Times featured an article that exposed the educational losses borne by our children during the pandemic: “Math Scores Fell in Nearly Every State, and Reading Dipped on National Exam.” The cited statistics revealed that on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the nation’s report card) well less than one-third of our nation’s eighth graders demonstrated reading and/or math proficiency in 2022, a dramatic decline from proficiency levels reported in 2019 when the last report card was issued. North Carolina’s eighth graders fared even worse with only about one quarter of them demonstrating proficiency in either category.
While the statistics referenced test scores in reading and math from only fourth graders and eighth graders, high schoolers have suffered similar fates. Based on my experience with high school students from schools across the county, I have privately shared my own personal opinions, as early as a year ago, that more than 95% of our local high school children would benefit greatly from repeating a grade after a year and a half of substantial pandemic disruptions. While the nation’s report card only addresses reading and math, I suspect that students have experienced similar losses in other coursework, and those losses will be felt most deeply in courses that are cumulative, that build on prior knowledge, especially foreign languages and math.
Here's what I am seeing:
· Rampant grade inflation that is pushing students through grades without proper demonstration of writing and math skills and simultaneously misguiding parents into believing that their children have attained mastery;
· Much larger gaps in math skills than previously observed as students prepare to take the SAT and/or ACT, with critical deficits in geometry skills;
· A dearth of strong math teachers;
· Minimal, if any, math homework;
· Few reading assignments and scant, if any, outside (homework) reading assignments; and
· Test corrections, offered for full or half credit.
These trends may have started before March 2020, but most of them have surged since then, compounding and extending our children’s losses.
If you have any question whether your children have experienced such losses, trust me, they likely have. The few exceptions are the true self-starters, who not only do what is expected of them but go well beyond and also teach themselves concepts “for fun.” If you even have to pause to ask yourself if your child is among the top five percent, I dare say that he or she is not.
If you think that your child is exempt from these losses because he or she attends private school, I would reply, “Not so.” While the losses may be less extreme for those students who experienced fewer days of interrupted instruction, they still had ample interruptions, and I am seeing significant gaps in instruction in that population, too. In particular, if you are surprised at how low your child’s math PSAT score is (or will be when reported), likely the pandemic and the above ripple effects of the pandemic are contributing culprits.
That’s my reality check for you, should you choose to believe it, and our children, of course, have lost social skills, too, which are much more difficult to measure.
Character, though, is built during times of challenge, so how can we as parents counteract these losses?
1. Be open to a gap year experience. Graduating seniors could benefit from additional coursework, a job, or a deep exploration (not necessarily a costly one) before matriculating to college, so they can mature and ultimately optimize their college experience;
2. Demand more reading assignments;
3. Demand math homework for skill practice and development;
4. Have your children study and complete an online math course alongside their class curriculum (I’m not joking);
5. Do not allow your child to double up on math courses during a single year (e.g., Math III first semester and pre-calculus second semester) because it further compromises instruction;
6. Petition for yearlong, not semester long, English classes;
7. Hire a reputable tutor; and
8. Promote reading at home.
I am very sympathetic to those teachers who are working hard, receiving far too little compensation (which is part of the problem), and being pulled and pushed in divergent directions – asked to improve passing rates yet to simultaneously boost issued grades. Until we, as parents, though, refuse to act naively – to behave like turkeys – and to take responsibility by demanding that our children become more accountable and by refusing to accept meaningless A’s, our teachers will be hamstrung, unable to deliver the education that our children need.
This Thanksgiving, let’s embrace with gratitude the fact this semester of school has been relatively uninterrupted thus far. Now, however, let’s go build character, ask our children to willingly dive a little deeper, and evoke change to recoup some of these losses.