Covid-19 and Learning Loss (slash scapegoat)

[Jimmy Higgins]

So, Covid-19 is being blamed for a drop in student performance. Indeed, learning on a Chromebook in some places (or in person in a lot of other places) can have an impact on learning.

Math scores were worst among eighth graders, with 38% earning scores deemed “below basic” — a cutoff that measures, for example, whether students can find the third angle of a triangle if they’re given the other two. That’s worse than 2019, when 31% of eighth graders scored below that level.

38% seems bad... especially compared to 31% from 2019.

Wait... what?! Before the pandemic 31% of students in eighth grade were "below basic"?! So in a group of 10 students, we went from 3 being completely unacceptable to 4. That isn't a good trend, but I'm thinking that 3 in 10 is pretty fucking high to begin with! The funny thing is that the increase was due to the pandemic. We can understand that. It wasn't what we wanted, but dead people and all. But 3 in 10... that doesn't have the pandemic to blame.

The pandemic pointed out how hard it is for a child to learn in a household without a teacher. Fucking imagine that! One thing that shocked me was just how much attendance was an issue in Akron... and how many missed days students had. Missing school (and the reasons for it) are likely compounding other issues of poverty when it comes to city schooling.

 

[Jarhyn]

So, Covid-19 is being blamed for a drop in student performance. Indeed, learning on a Chromebook in some places (or in person in a lot of other places) can have an impact on learning.

Math scores were worst among eighth graders, with 38% earning scores deemed “below basic” — a cutoff that measures, for example, whether students can find the third angle of a triangle if they’re given the other two. That’s worse than 2019, when 31% of eighth graders scored below that level.

38% seems bad... especially compared to 31% from 2019.

Wait... what?! Before the pandemic 31% of students in eighth grade were "below basic"?! So in a group of 10 students, we went from 3 being completely unacceptable to 4. That isn't a good trend, but I'm thinking that 3 in 10 is pretty fucking high to begin with! The funny thing is that the increase was due to the pandemic. We can understand that. It wasn't what we wanted, but dead people and all. But 3 in 10... that doesn't have the pandemic to blame.

The pandemic pointed out how hard it is for a child to learn in a household without a teacher. Fucking imagine that! One thing that shocked me was just how much attendance was an issue in Akron... and how many missed days students had. Missing school (and the reasons for it) are likely compounding other issues of poverty when it comes to city schooling.

Did the data control for remote learning? Did it measure through the same period and only compare on past infection status?

How was the data collected and what is the control structure? If some jackass can ask questions like this about control yet it still passed peer review, is it realistic as the OP does to interpret this as not-from-covid?

I dare say without these questions being asked and answered, the OP questions do not find fertile ground.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It isn't a very long run to see how remote learning impacted children's learning. What I haven't seen, though, is comparisons of states where remote learning was going on for longer than southern states and comparing the "loss" between them.