First comprehensive data in two years show big academic setbacks for California students

[Demovictory9]

California’s K-12 students experienced significant academic setbacks during the 2020-21 school year of mainly remote learning, showing growing achievement gaps, lagging progress in math and English, increased chronic absenteeism and a slight decline in the statewide graduation rate, according to data released Friday by the California Department of Education.

The data provide the most comprehensive picture yet of how California students have fared during the pandemic. It includes standardized test results for students from third to eighth grade and high school juniors, as well as information on attendance, discipline statistics and graduation rates.

The results show that about half of all California students tested did not meet state standards in English language arts and about two-thirds did not meet standards in math. The scores of Black, Latino and economically disadvantaged students were significantly lower, with more than 60% not meeting English standards and about 80% not meeting math standards.

In English language arts, the rate of students not meeting expectations was significantly higher in earlier grades compared with later grades, indicating that younger students may be uniquely struggling with literacy skills. For example, about 60% of third and fourth graders were not meeting standards in English compared to about 40% of 11th graders.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-07/california-students-suffered-major-academic-setbacks-last-year-data-shows

[Sympthsical]

1. My nephews were just not being taught

I've posted about this before. They stayed with us during the first year of the pandemic, because we both work from home and could keep tabs on everything, while their mother is a single parent and in nursing. I watched their assignments and homework, often assisting them with science and math.

They weren't learning anywhere close to what I'd consider acceptable.

"Watch this YouTube video and answer five questions to let me know you watched it," is not teaching. Saw that one quite a few times.

I am not even slightly surprised by these results.

[Demovictory9]

7. I thought teachers gave a full zoom class... yeah,not going to learn math that way

[Sympthsical]

10. Many do

I've watched them. It's kind of a mess. Even after a time of adjustment. If the kids aren't paying a ton of attention, there's not much to be done for it. Some teachers work crazy hard to manage it. Some clearly think they're on a bare minimum vacation.

It's not great. It's one thing to do in-home when all this began, there were no vaccines, and we weren't sure what was happening.

Now, time to just start dealing with it.

Ironically, I'm in college working on my master's, and our in-person classes were all moved online. But, it's a little different as an adult. There, it's a bit "Pay attention and do your work or you fail." Profs don't give a flip.

[Tomconroy]

3. Dr. Jha wrote about this the other day:

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Tickle]

4. I'm not surprise ny

[mike_c]

5. it's a pandemic public health emergency, for Pete's sake

No one doubts that unprepared parents are less able to supervise teaching and learning than trained teachers in a professional learning environment. Public health officials prioritized protecting children from the ravages of a deadly disease and slowing the spread of COVID-19 in their communities. That was the right choice IMO.

[mike_c]

9. yep

And it should be no surprise how many of them are willing to throw their kids under the pandemic bus as soon as teaching them becomes inconvenient or costly. More than anything, these stats highlight how many parents who are unable (or just unwilling) to teach their own kids basic stuff like literacy and arithmetic. More than anything else, this should be a wake up call about the social and economic value of professional teachers and public schools. Unfortunately, we already see people blaming teachers for pandemic fallout.

[ARPad95]

8. COVID-19 hospitalizations on the rise among children, too.

https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2022/01/covid-hospitalizations-rising-among-ny-kids-but-most-are-unvaccinated.html

New York — Covid-19 hospitalizations are on the rise among children in New York, but the vast majority of young New Yorkers ending up in hospitals with the illness are unvaccinated.

[skip]

Overall, new Covid admissions to New York hospitals among kids remain low at 571 as of the week of Dec. 26, Bassett said. That’s up from 85 the week of Nov. 28.

But it’s the rate of increase in hospitalizations among children that is concerning, Bassett said.

For the week of Dec. 26, that increase ranged from 335% for kids 5 to 11 to over 1,000% for kids 12 to 17. Kids 4 and under saw an increase of 791%.

Those numbers outpace the increases among adults.

[Full article linked above.]