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US children suffer sharp drops in test scores — Analysis

America’s schools have wiped out two decades of progress in math and posted their biggest decline in reading scores since 1990

The drop in student test scores at US elementary schools has been unprecedented in recent decades. This is a historic setback in education that observers attribute largely to the Covid-19 epidemic and classroom closures.

On Thursday, the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, (NAEP) showed reading scores dropping the most since 1990 and math scores falling for the first-time in five decades of study. Between 2020 and 2022, decades of math and reading proficiency were lost due to the declines.

Also called “The Report”, “Nation’s Report Card,” marks the first national assessment comparing test results before the pandemic with current performance. It’s based on tests taken by 9-year-olds in early 2022 and early 2020 – just before most of America’s schools were shut due to Covid-19.

Some cities deprived children of learning in person for over a year. New York City schools, for instance, weren’t fully reopened until 18 months after their first Covid-19 lockdown. Los Angeles: Parents sued both the schools and teachers union. “holding children hostage”They will not compromise their political goals. The union also demanded that police be stripped of their funding and that wealth taxes be implemented before students return to the classrooms.


Parents sue Los Angeles teachers union & school district for ‘holding children hostage’ to political agenda with ongoing closures

“Actual science didn’t support school closures,”US Representative Guy Reschenthaler, a Pennsylvania Republican. “Democrats were too busy following political science to care. We lost decades of gains in reading and math scores as a result.”

However, the school closings weren’t the only cause of declines in test scores, said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. “Our own data reveal the pandemic’s toll on education in other ways, including increases in students seeking mental health services, absenteeism, school violence and disruption, cyberbullying, and nationwide teacher and staff shortages.”

Math and reading skills were particularly difficult for children with disabilities. While the average reading score fell by five points from 2020’s level, the decline was twice as severe for students at the 10th percentile, meaning those who performed worse than 90% of the class. This trend continued in math, where the average score fell 7 points while the 10%ile declined 12 points.



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