Having students sit at home to attempt remote learning has been proven to be an abject failure in U.S. education policy, as panicky politicians and overly-cautious public health officials did not look at the effects of abruptly-imposed social isolation and overreliance on technology on children.
Now, with students back in classrooms, their test scores have slightly risen from the low levels set during the pandemic.
According to a study by a third-party organization called Renaissance Learning, Inc., test scores have risen and stabilized. However, the scores have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels at this point. Still, to have marked improvement after two years of remote learning is a positive.
Specifically, there was a small improvement in student literacy of about 3% while math skills have decreased by 2% nationwide, based on Renaissance’s benchmarks for literacy and math standards for K-12 students.
But overall, the nationwide statistics indicated that those who struggle the most were students who did not learn how to read before the pandemic-spurred school shutdowns began.
Student academic progress may be slow and gradual, but policymakers cannot avoid responsibility from shutting down schools and denying quality education to America’s children.
