America’s Catastrophic Learning Loss

An annual benchmark of 4th and 8th graders found that math and reading proficiency has cratered.

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Happy Friday! Elon Musk is officially in charge of Twitter after his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media platform finally closed late last night. His first move? Fire the company’s CEO, CFO, general counsel, and head of trust and safety.

“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk said yesterday. “That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday that real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the third quarter of 2022 after two quarters of contraction. The bulk of this growth came from a reduction in the trade deficit, as U.S. oil and gas exports increased while imports fell; consumer spending grew just 1.4 percent over the period. Nevertheless, President Joe Biden pointed to the numbers as evidence the economy “is continuing to power forward” in a statement.
  • During a speech Thursday in which he sought to portray Russia as a defender of traditional Christian values and a rising force in a multipolar world, President Vladimir Putin claimed that—despite senior Kremlin officials’ warnings—Russia has no intention of using nuclear weapons against Ukraine. “We see no need for that,” Putin said. “There is no point in that, neither political, nor military.” President Joe Biden didn’t buy it. “If he has no intention, why does he keep talking about it?” Biden asked. “He’s been very dangerous in how he’s approached this.”
  • After a months-long stalemate, the Iraqi parliament officially selected Mohammed Shia al-Sudani—a 52-year old Shiite former labor and human rights minister—to serve as prime minister. The move is likely to strengthen the regional ties between Baghdad and Tehran.
  • The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial jobless claims—a proxy for layoffs—rose by 3,000 week-over-week to a seasonally adjusted 217,000 last week. The measure is up from earlier this year, but it remains near historic lows, signaling the labor market—though cooling—continues to be tight.
  • The number of weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States increased about 0.7 percent over the past two weeks according to CDC data, while the average number of daily deaths attributed to the virus—a lagging indicator—increased 1.9 percent. About 20,600 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, down from approximately 21,400 two weeks ago.

Reading the Nation’s Report Card

Teaching from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Olivier Douliery / AFP via Getty Images.)

There are plenty of time-honored ways to deal with a bad report card. “Forget” it in your locker, bury it deep in your book bag—tear it up and eat it if you’re really desperate. But no amount of deception would be enough to hide the lousy grades America’s schools got this week from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP).

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  1. Clarity

    "“Looking at this pair one way, you could see Donald Trump’s endless influence over the Republican Party. But if you zoomed out, neither of these people has that much to do with Mr. Trump personally,” she notes in the New York Times. “Neither Mr. Youngkin nor Ms. Lake owes him an inarguable debt for name recognition, neither particularly mimics his mannerisms, neither cropped up in the background of surreal scenes at the White House, neither has lived some embarrassed, poisoned-in-real-time transition from Trump critic to supporter before a national audience."

    Ms. Lake's #1 issue is the Stolen 2020 Election. Her #2 issue is to finish Trump's border wall in AZ (even though the border is a federal responsibility.) She won her primary against an establishment candidate supported by popular Governor Ducey only because of Trump's endorsement. As a totally inexperienced outsider with substantial experience (22 years) on TV, she is following the Trump playbook. Like Trump, she doesn't have a an established political philosophy. She supported Kerry and Obama and left the Republican party in the 2000s. Now she is opportunistically jumping on the radical populist bandwagon with Trump as her role model.

    Youngkin is different, but can only serve 4 years as VA governor. If he has ambitions to run for another office, campaigning for other Republicans is a good strategy.

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    Jlenhikes

    Looking guard to the West Coast regional meetup 😁

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  3. Djhaynes

    So just maybe, public school teachers are important to a child and their ability to learn? What a radical idea!

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  4. Jah.Jacobsen

    I'm coming to this late but I feel a need to vent as a high school teacher about what I find infuriating about our current public education system . . . at least how its expressed in my neck of the woods:

    *I'm, of course, not opposed to teacher accountability. I'm happy to embrace it. But it appears schools do not have much, if any, interest in student accountability. As noted above, students are not held back for failing. They're passed along until a crowd of ineptitude coagulates in our high schools. Then admin wants you to find a way to "get them to pass" because they want districts to have high graduation rates.

    *Continuing that theme, schools have been and seem to continue to be "enfragilization" centers. (Yes, sadly, I do think "enfragilize" (verb) and "enfragilization" (noun) should be added into the lexicon.) To be clear, certainly we have students who are fragile, and yes, they require more care and patience. And yes, instructors, including me, should receive some awareness training and guidance from our special ed/EBD colleagues regarding how to help these students successfully navigate our school. However, we seem to be forgetting that we need to be preparing them, even them, to survive and succeed in the adult world outside of the pseudo-reality that is high school. For instance, this past week in a professional development meeting, we were told that instead of challenging a student with his/her head down in a class, we should express to him/her that we were simply glad he/she showed up. Now, of course, there are innumerable kind ways to challenge and direct that behavior, but "expecting nothing," which by the way, we were actually also told to do (literally), how in the world does that prepare that student for adult realities: Are there jobs where the boss will simply comment that she's just happy he showed up, and he doesn't have to do anything if he doesn't feel up to it? And regarding the notion of "free college for all," my hesitation involves precisely this: Will it just become continued "enfragilizing" of a portion of our population who have been taught to believe that reality ought to bend to their issues rather than their developing the grit, capacity, and tools to adapt and mature, often developed only through a loving kick in the britches?

    *Along a similar vein, I do understand that the COVID era was very stressful for kids and families, but we've allowed the "enfragilizing" of concept creep to infringe in student development there, too: Based on some student responses to that era, you'd swear they were asked to cope with the equivalent of Ukrainian families fleeing a war and/or having their schools/communities bombed by the Russians. The complaint that COVID was difficult is now the "get out jail free" card (read "get out of accountability" card) for almost anything.

    *In some sort of bizarre effort to conserve our energies (I guess), we're actually told that our high achieving students don't really need us, so we ought to focus on our crisis kids. Again, to be clear, we need to be lovingly kind and tender to our suffering kids . . .but I'm beginning to get the notion that solid homes/families--of a variety of types--should actually get the short shrift from our public schools, ironically, because they have done and are doing things right: reading to their children, checking homework, attending conferences, supporting their schools . . .

    *Lastly, and this is what is exhausting, from a teacher vantage point: It seems we're the only ones held accountable. I know this sounds like I'm being a victim, but the vibe is real: "Teachers, you're responsible for everything." The reason that vibe is real is that we're not really allowed to hold students accountable. Even our state tests do not include individual accountability -- so yes, we absolutely have students completely blow those off. We're encouraged to "enfragilize" instead.

    So our culture shouldn't be altogether surprised when we see students coming down the pike who are incapable of doing much and are incapable of handling much. Shocker: That's what happens when you take individual accountability off the table.

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      Cheerio

      I cannot agree with you more.-- Begin Rant: I work in healthcare (RN) and we get the same thing irt our patients. Btw the two institutions we have created a population of anxiety ridden imbeciles who can't manage to eke out a day without calling their doctor because... anxiety and either demand to be seen! immediately! or show up at Emergency Rooms where they demand to be seen! immediately! for their non-emergency anxiety. Also we are assaulted verbally and physically on inpatient floors by family and patients and when we report it, we are asked by our "superiors"--- "what could you have done differently?" Additionally, the administration's long habit of crapping on nursing has driven many from the profession so we are always working short-handed and every week are given more shit to document on. I spend more time with EPIC than any patient. And despite doing everything we can, we still are subject to patient survey complaints and their calls to patient relations because it all was not perfect and they had pain after surgery and it took nurses a long time to answer their frequent call lights and requests for snacks and drinks. It is hospital, not Disneyland. Yet-- do we hold people to account for basic health habits like walking 30 min a day, reasonable daily caloric intake, taking their life saving /preserving medications, showing up for their doctor appointments and getting some cognitive behavioral therapy to treat their anxiety after finding that meditation and yogic breathing is not working? There is no magic pill for that. And... In my entire life, telling someone to calm down, never results in them calming down. Also.. we are nurses. We work with doctors. We are not your parents. Be a freaking adult.

      As to the "fragility" of teenagers. I frequently heard how deprived all these kids have been of life's touchstones because of Covid, because of some kind of trauma.. sure. I bet the kids in the Ukraine are missed out on their proms, college freshman orientations, homecoming game and dances. There was a global pandemic FFS. That meant it was time to step up not curl up in a ball of navel gazing self pity (or in many cases, a particular fugue state involving glazed stares at a screen and game controller in their hand, the only discernable sign of life is the thumb moving after about 20 hours straight of gaming only to pass out at 0530 to wake at 2pm and do it all over again after yelling about how hungry you are and there is never any food in this house so can't someone Doordash some McDs??)

      While attending med school a friend of mine lived in an off campus studio apt. Directly across the hall was a 1 bedroom which housed 4 Chinese students. They would return home after class cook a meal together and then they would all sit around the kitchen table and study together until 1-2 am. She said they were the hardest working students she knew. She found out they learned English from listening to the radio. You have to really be motivated to learn a foreign language so different from your own listening to Voice of America broadcasts and then manage to get admitted into a medical school in an English speaking country. Do American children have that kind of grit? To me, it seems not. We are literally preventing development of character.

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      1. Scianti7

        I was just telling my husband how weary I am of the whining! Not of children--however it is on us parents to teach them how to take care of themselves as they get older, it is our *job* to raise adults capable of self care & contributing members of society. I'm weary of partisan whining about decisions made 2 years ago under different circumstances, a severe lack of information, & circumstances well beyond our control.
        My main point, & sounds like you might agree, is we have to adapt to survive! That isn't just Darwin, that is also Biblical (for those who care). If you aren't dealing with the reality in front of you & taking responsibility for the things you can change then you're not doing life well--I think they call it adulting. Instead folks like to point fingers & blame others or groups of people for their circumstances. Instead of rolling up their sleeves & figuring out what they can do to make the situation better. And then if they want & have the capacity, to honestly & openly evaluate *all* the contributing factors of how those circumstances came to be & try to address the things they actually have control over. Might as well accept the things you can't change, otherwise you'll go nuts. (All those videos of folks melting down in stores is an example of people going nuts due to unacceptance of things they don't control).

        Because of my own challenges & the constant need to find work-arounds or better ways to do, or overcome, I felt that teaching my kid that was extremely important. Problems come into our lives so we can solve them, that's how we grow. Challenges are there to be overcome. They have a purpose. Our job is to figure out how to have a life that works, & you keep figuring till you find something that works. Yes, it's hard but "it's supposed to be hard. Hard is what makes it great." (Tom Hanks A League Of Their Own)

        Unfortunately, with the profitability people in charge of medicine, the customer service angle can get out of hand. Personal responsibility used to be valued a lot more.

        I have compassion & empathy for peoples' feelings & they are valid. There comes a point though when you feel your feelings accept them, then do what needs to be done to survive anyway, sometimes one tiny step at a time. As long as we're stepping we're progressing.

        And neither partisan is very good at talking about our responsibility to adapt. I think this is why civilizations fall apart when the people become hard hearted & stiff-necked (prone to double down). They simply fail to adapt & destroy themselves. It requires humility.

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      2. Jah.Jacobsen

        I have a dear friend, who's an RN, too. Her experiences and views are quite similar to yours. Maybe we need to start selling hats: "Make Grit Great Again!"

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          Cheerio

          Thanks...I seriously maintain that some medical diagnoses will confab with other comorbidity DSM level diagnosis......we totally need a nationwide mental health plan..

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    Cheerio

    This "return to thread" link is a Hot Pile of LIES!!!!!

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    Ray Salemi

    Here is an anecdote from Natick High School. I recently chaperoned the Sophomore dance and saw that the kids didn't know all the steps to Cotton-eyed Joe. I mentioned this to another teacher who pointed out that these kids hadn't been to a Bnai Mitzvah party because of COVID, the place most kids learned the steps.

    It makes me wonder what other skills and information have been lost to this generation.

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  7. Grandmattyp

    I’ve never been convinced that school programs are the end all be all for our kids’ learning. We’ve lived in district with excellent ratings and others with subpar ratings, and we’ve seen the same thing- family support, family culture, and a growth mindset of the student matters way more than the programming and staffing of the school itself. I’d say how to think and an attitude of lifelong learning is on a level greater than information transfer when we’re looking at success down the road.

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  8. BPhillips

    Am I doing something wrong? When I click the "view & reply" button on a Dispatch email it just links back to the original article, not the pertinent comment. Anyone else having this issue?

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    1. GregS

      Its a glitch caused by the fact that the page doesn't load all the comments when the article loads.
      So the "view and reply" link will take you to the article but when it tries to take you to the specific comment, it finds that the comment does not exist (because it has not been loaded).

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      1. BPhillips

        Thanks - yours is the first comment I've been able to respond to - hopefully they've fixed it.

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  9. Sntrrck

    It’s hard to say because my son has been eligible for “summer school” (of course not called that anymore) for years, and he has benefited greatly. The 3 month break is ridiculous - a relic whose time has past. Kids struggle remembering anything after one week off - forget 14.

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  10. BenP

    One of the most interesting things I learned from looking at the changes in NAEP changes over time is how much they've *increased* up until COVID hit. This certainly contradicts the general tone of most comments here, and most opinions I hear expressed more generally. It's always "educations is going downhill" and "kids today can't really learn because of *insert nefarious new technology here*". But then I took a look at those numbers and, whaddya know?! They've mostly been going up for decades. Hot diggity damn, maybe education hasn't been going to hell after all! (Cept for now, post-COVID, that was bad)

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      Cheerio

      I am not certain, but from my conversations with teacher friends, test scores became a measure in job performance since the "No Child Left Behind" policy. Like quarterly earnings in publicly owned corporations, their scores had to improve from year to year to show progress and professional competency. This led to "teaching to the test." the lesson plans were focused on scores. More time was taken for practice testing and teaching how to test well from the actual course content. I have a friend who taught in a very high performance suburban school who decided to retire from public high school teaching and take a job as a professor at a private college because after a banner year, she ended up with a class consisting of 3 ESL students. She knew her scores would drop and she would end up on probation. Public schools don't get to choose who enrolls. Their teachers don't get to choose who stays in their classes.

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