It was obvious to anyone not in the pocket of the nation's powerful teachers' unions that closing down in-person learning amid the Covid pandemic would have a detrimental effect on the education — and mental health — of America's school children.
It also was obvious from early on in the pandemic that young children are at extremely low risk of severe illness from Covid. Yet the unions continued to advocate for remote learning and the Democrats whose campaigns they fund and the obedient legacy media went along.
And, now, the grades are in. And they are not good.
According to a report released on Thursday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in math compared to 2020.
It was the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first-ever score decline in math, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP.
The NAEP study included nearly 15,000 9-year-old children from 410 schools across the USA. About two-thirds of the students were in 4th grade, and the rest were in 3rd grade or below.
The results of the study, known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” are “sobering,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
“There is still a widening of the disparity between the top and the bottom performers, but in a different way,” Carr said. “Everyone is dropping. But the students at the bottom are dropping faster.”
It was revealed last year that, under the influence of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the CDC set unreasonably strict standards on when and how schools should reopen.
According to emails obtained and publicized by the New York Post, at least two of AFT’s suggestions were adopted almost word-for-word into the CDC’s final draft of the school reopening guidelines, including one allowing teachers to continue working remotely from home if they live with someone deemed to be at high-risk for Covid-19.
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