Test scores have plummeted, and children’s education is dwindling.
Friend,
It’s what we feared about the pandemic-era school closures' toll on children: math and reading scores for elementary school children have plummeted to the lowest level in decades.
The global pandemic hindered many aspects of our lives, but it especially impacted our nation’s youth. The cruel COVID-era policies implemented by teachers unions, education bureaucrats, and negligent school boards caused test scores to plummet.
Just take a look at how students’ scores dropped from the start of the pandemic to the end of last school year — including a first-ever drop in math scores (7pts) and the largest dip in reading scores in three decades (5pts):
Worse, the data shows that learning gaps widened further with the lowest level learners’ score plunging 10 to 12 points.
Teachers unions and their bureaucratic and political cronies were failing K-12 students long before COVID arrived. NAEP scores were declining prior to the early 2020 testing, and the 2022 results reveal that students are performing at the same level as two decades ago.
Our schools should be focused on addressing the nation’s learning loss crises through quality education. But clearly, the focus is elsewhere.
Rather than teaching our children divisive content and activist-drafted lesson plans, schools should be focused on core academic subjects that advance student achievement.
This is truly a travesty.
These NAEP test scores offer a heartbreaking picture of the harm the system has inflicted on this generation of children. Policymakers should empower parents to have leverage and choice to leave their public schools and enroll their children in alternative educational options when the education assigned to them is no longer serving their child.
