NY parents rip schools after test scores show historic COVID setbacks
Concerned New York parents ripped schools on Monday for not offering more support amid the COVID-19 remote learning saga — as new data known as the “nation’s report card” revealed the pandemic erased decades of progr🌠ess for US kids.
Across the country, math test scores recorded the largest ever decline in history, while reading scores hit👍 a 30-year low, according to the results from the National Assessment of Educatio𓆏nal Progress.
“COVID had us behind in a lot of things🌠,” Jolene Mckee, a mom-of-six who has two sets of ♛twins at Brooklyn’s PS 13, told The Post.
John Fraiberg, a Long Island father-of-three, said that “kids regressed” throughou🐬t the pandemic due to the lack 🐲of in-person learning.
“Last year was tough,” he said of his son’s experience returning to Harborfields High School in Suffolk County after months of trying to carry out his I🉐ndividualized Educational Plan remotely.
“He’s currently behind, failing a class, and struggling with math… I think kids regressed. It’s almost as if they missed a year of school.”
But his son isn’t the only one struggling, according to the NAEP — known as the “nation’s report card” — which tested hundreds of fourth- and eighth-graders nationwide earlier this year.
It’s the first time the test has been given since 2019 — and sheds light on the severe setbacks the pandemic had on children, as well as the size of the challenge schools now face as they help students catch up.
Losses in math were especially jarring, with scores for eight graders plummeting in all states but Utah, where they held steady — and 🏅nearly four in 10 students in the age group failing to grasp basic con🌳cepts.
Some parents feared there ꦡwill never be any hope of “closing the gap” if schools don’t step up more.
“If we take a look at this neighborhood, a lot of these kids need after school. They need tutoring, they need help in math and English,” said McKee,𝐆 the PTA President at PS 13🌊 in East New York.
She added that extracurricular ac🦂tivities in he🌳r neighborhood would help boost education.
“You don’t see any karate schools in this neighborhood, or any dance programs or swimming. And I think that adds t﷽o the education,” the mom said.
Queens mom Maria Ochakovsky echoed those concerns, insisting that schools need toᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ�💛�ᩚᩚᩚ do more to help students make up learning losses caused by remote teaching.
“Online doesn’t adapt to that well. Especially not for special needs kids. More after school, in person, extra help would help them close that gap,” she said as she dropped her son at PS 98 in Little Neck.
An increase in teachers calling out during the pandemic also become nothing short of chaos for kids during the pandemic — because substitute teachers were being thrown into areas out of their expertise, Pennsylvania mom, Rose Schulz, told The Post.
“Becಞause the need is so high, they’ll ju🌺st take whatever teacher is available and have them sub … you just pray that the teacher who is out, short term or long term, is leaving detailed notes” said Schulz, whose 15-year-old daughter Dakota is a sophomore at Reedsville High School in central Pennsylvania.
“We throw a math teacher in a science class, an English teacher in an art class. That’s lost e🎃ducation, no matter which way you sliꦫce it.”
She added: “Dakota once told me ‘we🎐 had a s♕ub in English today, we got to be on our phones the whole period.’ I cringed, I just cringed.
“[My daughter and her frieﷺnds] think it’s a waste of time, 🐟they’re bored.”
The 💦NAEP test, which was g🍌iven to a random sampling of fourth and eighth graders across the country between January and March of this year, showed learning decreases on a scale not seen before.
In both ma🅷th and reading, students scored lower than those tested in 2019. Math scores were worst among eighth graders, with 38% earning scores deemed “below basic.”
The findings show math score꧂s dropped in 43 states and jurisdictions in fourth grade and 51 of them in eighth grade. For reading scores, 30 states and jurisdictions s𝔉aw declines in fourth grade and 33 of them in eighth grade.
New York state scores declined o▨n the fourth grade reading and math tests, and on the eighth grade math — but stayed about the same on the eighth grade reading test.
In the Big Apple, math scores for fourth graders fell by a record nine points and fou🌞r points for those in eighth grade. Reading 🥂scores, however, stayed roughly the same.
One Brooklyn mom, whose son is in first grade at PS 13, said she no longer had any faith in the public school system in the wake of the pandemic, saying bluntly: “No, it’s sh—y.”
“They can do whole a lot better. Most of the teachers don’t care,” she griped. “Put less kids in the classroom, when there’s so many kids the teachers can’t pay attention.ꦬ”
Queens dad Alessandro Ancona, whose daughter is in the sixth grade at PS 98, said something was clea༺rly missing after the pandemic.
Sample questions from 8th Grade Math TestEasy questions:
- Ari ran 2 miles. How many yards did Ari run? (1 mile = 1,760 yards .
- There are 8 students playing in the school yard. There are 3 girls and the rest of the students are boys. What is the ratio of girls to boys?
Harder question:
3. Mary has a rectangular poster board that measures 18 inches by 24 i♔nches. What is the length of the diagonal of the poster board, in inches?
Answers: 1. 3,250 yards 2. 3/5 3. 30 inches
“She tells me they are doing well but they are missing something,” he said of his daughter. “It’s not the same. The truth is, they missed a lot in two years. I understand, they cannot focus on what looks like a teleconference meeting. Even the teachers, they try but it looks fake.”
State Education Department spokesman Emily DeSantis said that “New York’s trend is similar to what we are seeing nationally and at the state and district levels as a result of the lost instruction time caused by the pandemic.”
“We have work to do to get students to where they need to be, not just academically but social emotionally as well,” DeSantis said in a statement. “The Department is working with local districts to address the unique learning needs of students.”
New York also released standardized test results of its own on Monday — from state exams administered t𒅌o 3rd through 8th graders last spring. The data showed drastic declines since pre-pandemic in math, resembling federal data, and reading scores that stayed about the same.
Roughly 46.6% of students were considered at grade-level in reading, compared to 45% pre-pandemic, the state data showed. A🦋nd just 39% reached proficiency on the statewide math tests — compared to 47%🐭 before COVID.
In New 💯York City, just 49% and 38% of students demonstrated a grasp on reading and math, respectively, according to data compiled by the Education Trust Ne𝔉w York.
Je🌟ff Smink, its deputy dir🔯ector, warned against interpreting gains in reading scores statewide until grade-level data is available.
“We 🔯know in NYC and Buffalo, that has released its data, that third and fourth grade (reading scores) went down pretty significantly. And we know that’s an important time, when we’re look𓆉ing at future success,” he said.
Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the US Education Department, meanwhile called the results from the national tests “a serious wakeup call.”
“In NAEP, when we experience a 1- or 2-point decline, we’re talking about it as a significant impact on a student’s achievement. In math, we experienced an 8-point decline — historic for this assessment,” she said.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the res⛦ults showed that schools need to redouble their efforts and make use of the billions o༺f dollars dished out for pandemic aid.
“Let me be very clear: these results are not acceptable,” Cardona🌞 🐻said.
With Post wires
