Learning loss in California is undeniable
The many lives lost during the coronavirus pandemic haven't been the only casualties. So have been the educations of millions of children, especially in California. That's according to a study by Stanford and Harvard universities, “The Education Recovery Scorecard.” Unlike other studies, it went down to the schooldistrict level to tally the effect the lockdowns had on student achievement.
“The pandemic was like a band of tornadoes that swept across the country,” said Thomas J. Kane, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the study's co-author. “Some communities were left relatively untouched, while neighboring schools were devastated.”
The study found statewide, students lost four months of learning in math between 2019 and 2022, and one month in reading. But there were wide variations among the school districts. The study's interactive map showed the following drops in math achievement grade levels: Santa MonicaMalibu -0.2 grade; Irvine Unified -0.21 grade; Newport-Mesa -0.26 grade; Huntington Beach -0.27 grade; Orange Unified -0.38 grade; Los Angeles Unified -0.46 grade; Riverside -0.46 grade; Santa Ana Unified -0.59 grade; Long Beach -0.65 grade ; Anaheim -0.61 grade.
The numbers show districts with more Black and Latino students, such as LAUSD and Santa Ana Unified, saw their achievement levels drop faster than in other districts, such as Irvine Unified and Huntington Beach. Part of that problem stemmed from LAUSD and Santa Ana Unified, at the insistence of their teachers unions, imposing lockdowns that lasted longer than in most other districts.
But this also reflects what's called the “achievement gap” between Black and Latino students on the one hand and White and Asian students on the other, a gap that long preceded the pandemic. That's despite the state now spending nearly $24,000 a year per student, according to the state budget passed last June for fiscal year 2022-23.
Unsurprisingly, Black and Latino Californians overwhelmingly support school vouchers, according to polling by the Public Policy Institute of California. But that route to improved schooling is, of course, shut off by the powerful teachers unions, which have nothing but contempt for the idea that parents should be able to send their kids to whatever school they wish.
A major cause of the statewide drop in achievement is “rigor has imploded,” Lance Izumi told us; he's senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. “Even when the schools went back into session, students are telling me tests could be taken several times and homework could be turned in late. That has caused a big impact on these test scores. What had been used as a passing grade has been relaxed around the country. Benchmarks for passing have been reduced, instead of brought back up again. The schools are doing it so they don't look so bad.”
Izumi notes that not just lower-income students have suffered declines; so have middle-class students. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress for California, “Even middle-class kids in 8th grade math were 50% proficient in 8th grade in 2019. But by 2022 that had gone down to 41%, a huge drop.”
He said California has talked about more tutors and summer school, but the state has not been able to bring that up to any scale to make up for the pandemic learning loss. Unfortunately, the recent reelections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond will provide no relief from the vast power of the innovation-stifling teachers unions. Until that power is reduced, the children will continue to suffer.