Today, there is broad acknowledgment among many public health and education experts that extended school closures did not significantly stop the spread of Covid, while the academic harms for children have been large and long-lasting.
In districts where students spent most of the 2020-21 school year learning remotely, they fell more than half a grade behind in math on average, while in districts that spent most of the year in person they lost just over a third of a grade.
“There’s fairly good consensus that, in general, as a society, we probably kept kids out of school longer than we should have,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who helped write guidance for the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recommended in June 2020 that schools reopen with safety measures in place.
There were no easy decisions at the time. Officials had to weigh the risks of an emerging virus against the academic and mental health consequences of closing schools. And even schools that reopened quickly, by the fall of 2020, have seen lasting effects.
But as experts plan for the next public health emergency, whatever it may be, a growing body of research shows that pandemic school closures came at a steep cost to students.
But the combination — poverty and remote learning — was particularly harmful. For each week spent remote, students in poor districts experienced steeper losses in math than peers in richer districts.
That is notable, because poor districts were also more likely to stay remote for longer.
Some of the country’s largest poor districts are in Democratic-leaning cities that took a more cautious approach to the virus. Poor areas, and Black and Hispanic communities, also suffered higher Covid death rates, making many families and teachers in those districts hesitant to return.
@ISIDEWITH1mo1MO
How do you think the emotional and social well-being of students factors into the decision to close schools during a health crisis?
@ISIDEWITH1mo1MO
Do you feel the long-term academic setbacks outweigh the potential health risks that were associated with keeping schools open during the pandemic?
@9KZ5FN41mo1MO
Eh it doesn’t make all that much sense
@ISIDEWITH1mo1MO
@ISIDEWITH1mo1MO
Would you have supported keeping schools open if you had to make the decision, despite the emergence of the Covid-19 virus?
@9KZ59XJRepublican1mo1MO
closing schools for a flu is stupid we might as well close all the schools every flu season
@ElectoralPonyDemocrat1mo1MO
Where is the data that shows not putting children and their teachers in a petri dish 8 hours a day did not slow the spread and deaths related to Covid?
@ElectoralPonyDemocrat1mo1MO
Thanks for bringing this up. children are/were often time asymptomatic and therefore would not get tested. They are often unwitting carriers infecting elderly and vulnerable adults. Sweden lead the EU in Covid mortality
@L1b3rtyJuliaForward1mo1MO
CDC protocols established years earlier stressing the necessity of keeping the social and economic structures intact were ignored. Renowned experts in the field agreed that vulnerable citizens needed to be protected but not at the expense of children. And economic stability. They were ignored. They were vilified. They lost their jobs. They were booted off platforms that espouse free speech and open dialogue. As a result Americans distrust the very institutions established to protect us. And the result is that vital - and tried and true - vaccinations are lower than they’ve ever been. Add, we are less prepared for the next epidemic. And there will be a next one. The question is do we follow the politics of epidemiology or the science?
The article did not say the shutdowns caused more harm than good, only that there were consequences as a result of the shutdowns. No surprise there. Whether or not you think they were ill advised may very well depend on the extent to which you were affected or inconvenienced. Whether closures did more harm than good is a question to which there will never be an objective answer.
@C1v1cDutyEmilyUnity1mo1MO
I’m sorry, but teachers weren’t eligible for vaccines until March 2021. And then not even in all states. So, the pundits now say those teachers should have risked their lives for their job?
That’s not asked of bankers and entrepreneurs.
Let’s prioritize protecting teachers to get schools open more quickly.
The graph shows that once vaccines were available most all schools stopped remote only protocols.
A study that looked at pandemic-induced differences in school teacher and staff illness and death rates would be valuable. What do we know about the demographics of school teachers and employees, and the risk to that demographic? What do we know about abnormally high retirement and quitting rates (an indication of self-assessed risk) as in-person learning resumed?
@PollsterEdDemocrat1mo1MO
So being remote resulted in being 0.12% behind students who were in person? 0.12%
I think that it's more than a little neurotic to sweat a little over 1/10 of a percentage point in the context of a human beings lifelong capacity to learn.
It's is a microscopic price to pay.
As a teacher I'd also mention that these articles never talk about the role bad curriculum plays in learning loss. We were using a now debunked method of teaching literacy then and have replaced it with one that is even more against what we know about child development.
Students are struggling because there is a strain of thought in education today that we should teach very young children much harder stuff, much earlier. There is no benefit to that. They will still be 12 years early to the job market if we teach things when it is developmentally appropriate.
Thank you. This is absolutely correct. The standards are very difficult to teach to young children, and the curriculum isn't helping matters much, yet it is all supposed to pass as "rigor." It's as if education has completely lost sight of developmental appropriateness. Looking forward to retiring soon.
@9KY6LGG1mo1MO
Another point scored for "conspiracy theorists".
So… what we’re saying is that the extreme “in persons” are less than half a semester behind the extreme “remotes”? Eight weeks? Because an eight week difference at the most extreme doesn’t actually seem like quite the difference this verbiage would suggest.
@9KZ73P6Independent1mo1MO
COVID-19 was a public health emergency and many died from little knowledge of the circumstance regarding the virus. Decisions were made prematurely especially with the decision to close schools as the spread of COVID-19 did not stop. The decision to allow online learning however was smart as it helped protect the most vulnerable in our communities.
@SoreCheeseNo Labels1mo1MO
the same "experts" who advocated for such closures in the first place..now playing innocent bystanders..
and left wing propaganda ra gs carry "experts" like they still legit...
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