The School Lockdown Catastrophe

The awful NAEP scores show damage from closing classrooms

WSJ editorial. 

"The pandemic lockdowns were a policy blunder for the ages, and the economic, social and health consequences are still playing out. But the worst catastrophe was visited on America’s children, as Monday’s release of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress shows.

The 2022 NAEP test, often called the nation’s report card, found a record drop in learning across the U.S. since the last test in 2019. The tests measured proficiency in math and reading for fourth and eighth graders, and the harm from closed schools and online-only instruction is severe and depressing.

America’s schools weren’t doing all that well before the pandemic, but the lack of in-school learning made them worse. Eighth graders lost eight points on math since 2019, falling to an average 274 out of a possible 500. Fourth graders lost five points to an average of 236 in 2022. Not a single state or large school district showed better math performance.

The news is little better on reading, with the average score for fourth and eighth graders dropping by three points. Nationwide only 33% of fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders read at or above grade proficiency.

It’s hard to understate the human damage that these dry statistics represent. The learning loss is considerable and will take years to make up, if it ever is. Children who fall behind in reading skills have difficulty learning other subjects. The numbers also mean that millions of young Americans don’t know even the basics of writing and arithmetic.

The NAEP breaks down scores by states and school districts, though it is hard to compare scores by the degree of lockdowns. Every state lost ground to some extent, and different school districts across states often had different lockdown policies. There were also surprises, like a relatively small learning loss in Los Angeles, for unexplained reasons. Some 200,000 children were chronically absent from L.A. schools last year, which makes the results even odder.

But more often students in districts that struggled before the pandemic and had some of the most stringent lockdowns had some of the worst learning loss. In Detroit the average fourth-grade math scores fell 12 points to 194—20 points below basic mastery of fundamentals. The data-analytics company Burbio says Detroit students had access to in-person education only 51.2% of the 2020-2021 school year.

Fourth graders’ average math scores have now fallen below basic levels in Milwaukee, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cleveland. In-person instruction was available less than one-fifth of the 2020-2021 school year in all of these cities, according to Burbio. Baltimore and Cleveland fourth graders recorded a 15-point drop since 2019.

Compare that to three Florida districts covered by NAEP, which offered in-person instruction 90% or more of the time in 2020-2021 by Burbio’s count. Fourth-grade math skills declined by seven points in Duval County, one point in Hillsborough County, and five points in Miami-Dade. Yet in all three districts the average fourth grader remained above basic mastery of math fundamentals in 2022.

The NAEP results support the case for school choice. Charter school performance was uneven, but in at least 11 states charter fourth graders outperformed their non-charter counterparts in math in 2022, including in Alaska (+16 points), Nevada (+12 points) and North Carolina (+21 points). NAEP says reporting standards were not met for a charter comparison in 22 states.

Catholic schools tended to stay open during the pandemic, and on average their fourth and eighth graders scored higher in reading and math than public-school students. Department of Defense schools performed even better. Students deserve an escape route from schools that can’t prepare them for life and work.

These learning losses didn’t need to be as severe as they are because the school lockdowns didn’t have to continue as we learned more about Covid’s relatively small risk for children. Sweden kept its schools open and avoided the catastrophic learning loss of the U.S.

The school closures were a political decision, typically influenced by teachers unions. The political consequences now should be a backlash against the politicians who let the unions close the schools for so long. For starters, that means anyone endorsed by American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten."