Study: Remote Learning in Blue States Widened Economic and Racial Gap While Red States Fared Much Better
“Interestingly, gaps in math achievement by race and school poverty did not widen in school districts in states such as Texas and Florida and elsewhere that remained largely in-person.”
A new study has found that blue states which kept schools closed longer, opting for remote learning during the pandemic, had a harsh effect on poor and minority students.
Meanwhile, in red states like Florida and Texas where schools reopened sooner, the same types of students fared much better.
Michael Lee reports on FOX News:
Blue state COVID learning loss widened racial achievement gaps relative to red states: Study
A study shows remote learning led to large losses in achievement for students during the pandemic, with blue states and students from low-income areas hit the hardest by the losses.
“Interestingly, gaps in math achievement by race and school poverty did not widen in school districts in states such as Texas and Florida and elsewhere that remained largely in-person,” Thomas Kane, a professor of education at Harvard and one of the authors of the study, said of the study’s results in an interview with the Harvard Gazette last week. “Where schools shifted to remote learning, gaps widened sharply. Shifting to remote instruction was like turning a switch on a critical piece of our social infrastructure that we had taken for granted.”
The study was conducted by Harvard University, the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research, and NWEA. The group analyzed data from 2.1 million students in 10,000 schools in 49 states, finding remote learning to be the primary cause for large losses of student achievement during the pandemic.
Here’s more from Liz Mineo of the Harvard Gazette:
Remote learning likely widened racial, economic achievement gap
A new report on pandemic learning loss found that high-poverty schools both spent more weeks in remote instruction during 2020-21 and suffered large losses in achievement when they did so. Districts that remained largely in-person, however, lost relatively little ground. Experts predict the results will foreshadow a widening in measures of the nation’s racial and economic achievement gap.
The report was a joint effort of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research, and NWEA, a nonprofit research and educational services provider. It analyzed achievement data from 2.1 million students in 10,000 schools across 49 states and is the first in a series that will be tracking the impact of catch-up efforts over the next two years.
Professor Thomas Kane, who was part of the study, is interviewed as part of the article and offered this comment:
Interestingly, gaps in math achievement by race and school poverty did not widen in school districts in states such as Texas and Florida and elsewhere that remained largely in-person. Where schools remained in-person, gaps did not widen. Where schools shifted to remote learning, gaps widened sharply. Shifting to remote instruction was like turning a switch on a critical piece of our social infrastructure that we had taken for granted. Our findings imply that public schools truly are the “balance wheel of the social machinery,” as Horace Mann would say.
This is especially fascinating if you remember how viciously the left went after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for reopening schools before other states.
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Duh. The bright, self-motivated kids were largely unaffected. Everybody else was hit hard and the gap is not gonna close any time soon.
Low income students had variable wi-fi access which decreased the times they could get onto remote learning. Even when schools placed wi-fi trucks to boost signals it wasn’t enough.
Any child with ADD or who used support personnel in school to stay on track in learning had difficulties with the remote learning. Add in siblings who would be providing distractions not present in a school enviornment and they are behind an 8 ball trying to learn.
Brightness and self-motivation don’t help if your Mom and/or Dad can’t pay for reliable wi-fi so the remote learning works.
True. The feds were giving out mobile hotspots so kids would have access. My district has about 30% of the kids with reliable internet service. Every single kid without it was loaned a laptop and a hotspot.
Also being literate and educated, the first word that came to mind after reading the article but not yet getting to comments was also …
Duh!
Our experience was quite different. Our 8yo gk was registered in a suburban school closer in to Phoenix that went remote. We set him up his own workspace here, had good Internet, but it was a clownshow. If your kid wasn’t a self-starter, no work happened. Plus, the kid was in total isolation from any friends, which absolutely does not work. After one disastrous term, we re-registered him at the rural school at our end, which had never shut down. The difference was night and day.
One of my memories from back when I was a kid was a TV documentary about schooling in the sparse areas of Australia, where the classes were taught via shortwave radio. I thought it was the coolest idea imaginable, watching the kids tune in radios to go to school. I realize now that the kids on that show had 1950s “white culture” motivations that barely exist any more, except among certain Asian populations now. Their approach would never, ever succeed today.
That we needed an expert study to show exactly what “social science’ predicted would happen instead of just not doing something catastrophic says a lot more than I ever could.
These pieces of crap
The republican senate leadership team held a press conference today announcing their support for the priority agenda of Joe Biden and the White House.
As Leader Mitch McConnell noted at the beginning of his remarks, “we all agree, the most important thing going on in the world right now is the war in Ukraine,” and with that statement McConnell announced he and Joe Biden have agreed to advance a massive package of $40 billion to pay the salaries and retirement benefits of the Ukrainian government.
Comrades, you must put aside any stress about how to afford groceries and still fill your gas tank, there are people in the government of Ukraine who need your tax dollars more
The (R) party, on the whole, is useless.
They are useful, but not not to us.
My nephew is a high school coach at a private school. He has lamented about the huge loss for kids who had no coaching for 2 or more years. Thousands of talented athletes futures were permanently ruined.
A freshman with a two year gap won’t have the skills. A senior with no play his senior year would have no stats.
Yes, this is only sports, but it is the easiest glaring example I know.
There is a cultural issue here as well: white parents are far more likely to spend time teaching their kids than black parents.
This has been known for decades. The most common time it is noted is with Kindergartners – which kids tend to show up to their first day of K already knowing their alphabet and some math vs which know almost nothing at all.
The D’s push for pre-K funding isn’t just about getting more unionized teachers to vote for them. They know their constituents don’t spend time teaching their kids. They believe, probably correctly, that this contributes to the racial disparities in education results we see all the way up through High School.
No. You are using race as a proxy for other cultural factors. White parents who do not value education are no more likely than black parents who do not value education to push their kids academically. Don’t fall into the racist d/prog trap of using race as the determining factor for every outcome.
It may be indicative of a combination of other factors, but if you know the race/ethnicity of a person as well as the income bracket of their parents, then you have a really good shot at accurately predicting their standardized test scores and graduation rate.
I teach mostly poor white kids at the school I am in and I see pretty much the same behaviors I saw when I taught mostly poor black kids. But it isn’t as severe. The biggest difference is that, at my current school, it is really rare for a kid to look down on another kid for doing well. At my previous school it was extremely common for black kids to do poorly on purpose so that they didn’t face the teasing of their peers for being smart.
I think it is okay to discuss things in generalities and recognize realities about those generalities as long as nobody is foolish as to think a generality is determinative of the individual.
As long we caveat the statement as a generalization then sure, no problem. When we say black people this or white people that without that statement then we adopt the racist language of the left.
“white parents are far more likely to spend time teaching their kids than black parents.”
“No… White parents who do not value education are no more likely than black parents who do not value education to push their kids academically.”
But these two statements do not oppose each other. The missing simultaneous equation examines the difference of how much education is truly valued between the average white parent and the average black parent.
This is hard to express in “non-racist” math, since the black parents (and students) who value education highly keep being shifted over to the “white” column when you’re not looking.
When we use the language of the left we cede the argument. They believe race/group determines who you are and your opportunities. Your individual merit or lack, your hard work or sloth none of it matters; only race. It’s not true.
Race in isolation has jack crap to do with whether you read to your kids, have books in the home, set and maintain expectations, hold your kids to a standard, create a home environment that fosters and encourages learning.
When we adopt or accept race as the most determinative factor we adopt the CRT narrative of oppressors and oppressed.
The pre-K teaching is all about indoctrination, not learning as we know it.
A lot of it is just a guaranteed jobs program for teachers’ unions.
No, the pre-K push is all about them getting their hooks into your kids at an even earlier age so they can indoctrinate them even earlier. The achievement gap is just their excuse.
Culture is more indicative than race. SOME Asian cultures value education even more than Caucasian.
A parent, black or white, that did not graduate high school is much more likely to not have kids prepared for K.
I remember taking a mandatory civics class as a high school senior in a public school.
I was on a college track for my other classes.
The teacher had us take turns reading out of the book out loud.
It was shocking to hear fellow seniors who could barely read.
It was mixed races who were having trouble.
This was in the 70’s.
I doubt my classmates and those that dropped out before the senior year were reading bed time stories to their kids.
I don’t know if it can be fixed without significant pain.
I do know that if you live in a place where the education sucks, MOVE!
There is nothing more important for a parent.
We had a program under Bush called No Student Left Behind. Now we have a new program where Many students Are Left Behind.
It’s by design because ignorant people are easier to control than people who have critical thinking skills.
” The group analyzed data from 2.1 million students in 10,000 schools in 49 states, finding remote learning to be the primary cause for large losses of student achievement during the pandemic.”
Thanks, Fauci, the teachers’ unions, and the rest of you woke idiots. You seems to have ruined a generation of children.
typo correction: “seem”
I thought “seems” was the hidden joke. 😉
What a surprise … not going to school is bad for a kid’s education. Shocking, I tell you!
Then add on that people who can’t afford stuff like laptops and high-speed internet get hurt when you do everything over the internet … damn who saw that one coming?
If anyone needed further proof of how stupid communists really are, I submit this.
The schools ended up providing laptops.
Internet — not as easy.