Teach ’em how to read!

‘WE’VE never been taught how to breathe,” Mayor Adams claimed Tuesday, as he mandated two to five minutes of “mindful breathing” per day for all K-12 students next year.

But the mayor should save his oxygen for the real crisis in our schools — our children are not being taught how to read, if they’re even showing up to class at all.

On New York’s own third- to eighth-grade state assessments, less than half of students scored proficient in English language arts or math last year.

Looking at how many students are actually attending classes, it’s not difficult to understand why.

The announcement ironically came on the last day of classes for the 2022-23 school year — a year in which more than half of city seniors were chronically absent.

This is a symptom of a larger trend. In New York City’s public schools, 40% of students were chronically absent this past school year. That means out of 938,000 students enrolled, some 375,000 kids are missing at least 18 days of school.

Absenteeism has been on the rise since the pandemic — though it’s worth noting that our numbers have been worse than the national average since schools were shut down during COVID.

Compared with the 2018-19 school year, average chronic absenteeism across city schools increased by more than half.

Absenteeism is swelling in schools that were already struggling and among families with comparatively fewer resources to mitigate its harms — the exact populations Mayor Adams should be trying so hard to help.

Nearly half of the city’s black and Hispanic student populations were chronically absent in

While NYC schools mandate two to five minutes of “mindfulness,” they face:

56%

3-8

grades 4-8.

Chronic absenteeism of 40% .Of 938,000 students enrolled, some 375,000 kids are missing too much school.

of high school seniors missed at least 18 days of school in 2021-22.

Only 38% of kids in grades achieved math proficiency in 2022, a drop of nearly 8 points from 2019.

For English Language Arts, it’s 47.4% proficiency for

2021-22. The same goes for almost half of all students in The Bronx.

Absentee crisis

The Brookings Institution relays that poor kids in kindergarten are about 2½ times more likely to be chronically absent compared to non-poor peers.

The academic consequences associated with missing school are profound. An Economic Policy Institute study estimated that missing just one or two days of school was associated with a statistically significant drop on the 2015 math NAEP exam (the “Nation’s Report Card”).

While it’s hard to exactly measure the impacts of absenteeism, New York’s recent performance on the most recent NAEP exams certainly suggests our students are falling behind.

Compared to the 50 states, New York ranks among the bottom for fourth-grade math scores on the latest NAEP exam and had one of the largest score declines in the country. This isn’t an isolated trend either. There’s been no “significant increase” in fourth- or eighth-grade reading and math scores in New York for over a decade.

Persistent learning gaps remain for special-needs, economically disadvantaged and minority students.

Students aren’t learning basic functions, if they’re even showing up at all. Kids learn to breathe whether they’re in a classroom or not. Math and literacy are not so instinctual.

Let’s focus on the fundamentals and get butts back into seats. Then we can all collectively take a deep sigh of relief.