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: StudyA 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 gapA 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.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY