成人抖阴

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Last week, as leading education experts gathered 鈥� again 鈥攖o ponder the nation鈥檚 sluggish recovery from pandemic learning loss, one speaker put the issue in stark relief. 

鈥淭his is the biggest problem facing America,鈥� Jens Ludwig, a University of Chicago professor, said flatly. Nonetheless, he told those assembled at the Washington, D.C., event sponsored by the , a think tank, 鈥淲e do not have our hair on fire the way it needs to be.鈥�

That disconnect is the subject of a new released Monday that further explores what many have labeled an 鈥�urgency gap.鈥� To pinpoint the extent of the gap, the authors talked to parents about the signals they鈥檙e getting from teachers and schools about their children鈥檚 progress. Parents expressed little concern about lasting damage from the pandemic and typically thought their children were doing well in school 鈥� a view that researchers say is belied by dismal state and national test scores. 

The issue is 鈥済enuinely vexing,鈥� said Morgan Polikoff, an associate education professor at the University of Southern California and the paper鈥檚 lead author.  

鈥淧arents are overwhelmingly getting the message from grades and teachers that kids are doing fine-to-great,鈥� he said. He attributes that upbeat outlook to how little parents pay attention to standardized test scores 鈥� the 鈥渆xternal measures鈥� that matter most to researchers. 鈥淲e just never heard anything about standardized tests from the folks we interviewed.鈥�

The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed historic declines in math and flat performance in reading. According to this year鈥檚 spring test results, pandemic recovery remains elusive for some states. Several have continued to lose ground in reading and most have not surpassed pre-COVID performance in math. Last week鈥檚 release of international scores show U.S. students dropped 13 points in math between 2018 and 2022. 

Ludwig argues that U.S. students have made such little progress that the $190 billion Congress appropriated to address the COVID crisis is insufficient and lawmakers should find to fund high-dosage tutoring.  

鈥淚f we don’t remediate this pandemic learning loss, this cohort of 50 million kids will experience reduced lifetime earnings of something like $900 billion,鈥� he said.

Those messages, however, don鈥檛 always get to parents. 

Given the gauntlet of tests schools administer, it鈥檚 easy for parents to get lost, said Meredith Dodson, executive director of San Francisco Parent Action, a group that advocated for schools to reopen and has recently pushed for improvements in the district鈥檚 reading program.

For many parents, 鈥溾�嬧�媔t’s hard to understand all the acronyms 鈥� this test versus that test, the state versus the national,鈥� she said. 鈥淧arents just really want to trust their teachers. Is my kid on grade level or not?鈥�

Even some parents who knew their children鈥檚 standardized test scores tended to put more stock in grades, Polikoff found. One parent interviewed for the study knew that a majority of students scored higher than her son on the NWEA MAP test in math. But, she said, 鈥渉is knowledge is much greater than that鈥� because he received a 3 on a scale of 1-3 on his report card, which 鈥渕eans they鈥檝e achieved the mastery or whatever.鈥� 

Researchers have documented  between grade point averages and , especially since the pandemic. from three organizations 鈥� EdNavigator, Learning Heroes and TNTP 鈥� showed an increase in B grades since the pandemic even among students who performed below grade level and were chronically absent.

鈥楰ids are not stupid鈥�

Schools have also made it easier to do well, a vestige of pandemic-era incentives to get students to complete their work. Dan Goldhaber, director of the CALDER Center at the American Institutes for Research 鈥� and the father of two school-age children 鈥� said he鈥檚 increasingly 鈥渁stounded鈥� at how many chances students get to bring up their grades.

鈥淜ids are not stupid,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey’re going to learn that, 鈥楴o, I don’t need to study real hard for this test because I can just correct it after the fact.鈥�”

It鈥檚 not a surprise, he added, that there鈥檚 been a lackluster response to some academic recovery efforts. A lot of districts have spent relief funds on less-effective remediation efforts, such as optional on-demand tutoring. And those companies typically get paid whether or not students improve or even use the service, according to . 

In response to disappointing results, some states and districts have shifted course. A few have with large online tutoring companies. Some have turned to 鈥渙utcomes-based鈥� contracts 鈥� in which tutors earn more money for better results. But others are sticking with . 

If districts are going to spend funds on tutoring, Goldhaber said, officials should 鈥渉ave some control over鈥� which students receive the help and when it鈥檚 delivered.

He and Polikoff are among the experts urging educators to make test score data a much larger focus of their conversations with parents. And there鈥檚 some evidence that hard facts about students鈥� scores can be a wake-up call.

A November showed that among parents who knew their children were below grade level in math, improving those skills became their number one concern, more important than curbing the effects of social media and protecting them from bullies.

Being honest with parents starts at the top, said Nat Malkus, deputy director of Education Policy Studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 

鈥淪uperintendents should not say, 鈥榃e鈥檙e chugging along. We’re going to get there.鈥� They should say this is a huge problem,鈥� he said at the Aspen event. Teachers, he added, need 鈥減olitical cover鈥� to tell parents their children are behind. 鈥淚t’s the truth and we need to deliver it.鈥� 

But the news doesn鈥檛 always go over well. When Precious Allen, who teaches second grade at Betty Shabazz Academy, a charter school in Chicago, showed parents test results that indicated their children were a year or more behind, she said they grew 鈥渇lustered鈥� and complained about doing extra review sheets with their children after work. 

It was tough, she said, for them to 鈥渨rap their minds around鈥� the data. She shared passages from that explains where children should be for their age to help parents understand how the pandemic threw their kids off track. 鈥淚 had to bring a lot of science and research into it because sometimes the voice of a teacher is not enough.鈥�

鈥榃orst possible time鈥�

But not all educators believe assessments provide valuable or reliable information. Polikoff sees the separation between parents and the nation鈥檚 education scholars as part of a larger anti-testing movement that started brewing long . The pandemic pause on state assessments and accountability sparked a to limit the number of tests and try .

The Massachusetts Teachers Association, for example, is leading a to remove the state test as a graduation requirement, calling it 鈥渉armful.鈥� The proposal drew sharp criticism from National Parents Association President Keri Rodrigues, whose organization trains parents to advocate for quality education.

鈥淭his is the dawn of a new era, where high school diplomas now become participation trophies,鈥� she wrote in an . 

Testing critics complain that assessments take up too much instructional time and that the results rarely benefit teachers because they arrive after students have already moved on to the next grade. Others say high-stakes tests are racially biased against Black and Hispanic students. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 just very close to zero constituencies advocating for tests or that they matter,鈥� Polikoff said. Republicans, he said, 鈥渨ant only unfettered choice鈥� while the left is not defending the usefulness of tests 鈥渢o ensure educational quality or equity.鈥�

鈥橳he backlash against testing, he said, has come “at the worst possible time given the damage that鈥檚 actually been done.”

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