On the Fly
The headline is: “PANDEMIC CLOSURES IMPACT KID’S TEST SCORES!!!!”. It’s screamed from the rooftops, the “shocking” result of the Covid era – the “Covid Gap”. I was a teacher for over thirty-five years. I made the “mistake” of taking a long-term substitute job the week before Covid closed the world. We switched “on the fly” to online education. When kids did come back the next year, it was with masks, alternating schedules and days, and limited interactions with classmates and teachers. So my question is simple: “What the Hell did you expect?”
The “world” was already complaining about education before the pandemic. So when schools were shut down, and a whole different form of mass education applied with “online” schooling, did you think it was really going to improve things? And, shock of shocks (not), urban schools had worse outcomes than suburban schools. How could that be a surprise to anyone?
We know that Covid was a dramatically “urban” disease, so of course urban schools took more draconian actions. And we know that poorer folks had less computer and internet access, and less opportunity for childcare. So now “enterprising reporters” discovered the “great revelation” that education was impacted more in urban than suburban schools (some that completely ignored Covid protocols): the “Covid Gap”.
It Just Doesn’t Matter
We can go back and argue again whether Covid protocols were necessary. “Monday morning Quarterbacking” is an American tradition. The best science of the time became the political issue of the day. We really don’t know the cost that states like the “Free Republic of Florida” or Texas paid for pretending Covid wasn’t serious. How many thousands died that didn’t have to die? But that question; who was right, who was wrong, who should have been sacrificed, doesn’t really matter anymore. Either way, we are left with the “Covid Gap” in education.
Look, I bet Ukrainian test scores are down too. In fact, I bet test scores are down worldwide. Whenever there’s societal disruption, schools become the “frontline”, and education gets left behind. So whether Dr. Fauci was right or wrong isn’t the issue anymore. The best intended or necessary choices of that time all have a current outcome. Kids aren’t “up to snuff” on their scores.
Now what?
Power of Money
During the Covid pandemic, we saved the American economy with a dramatic expansion in government spending. Even as the unemployment rate approached 15%, the government was plowing trillions of dollars into businesses through the PPP “loans”. And we were individually getting money as well, thousands of dollars, checks with the a “thank you note” from the President so we knew who sent it. And there was money pushed into schools systems. Covid protections, improved ventilation systems, better online accessibility were included. But, Covid relief money or not, the online education era was, for the vast majority of students, nowhere near as effective as going to school, being in class, and having a teacher in the room.
What Works
We know what works in education: smaller student to teacher ratios and more time on task. We also know what the most expensive factor in education is: the salaries of the teachers (80% of most school districts’ budgets). If you want to fix the “Covid Gap”, it’s going to cost you. Want longer school days, or all-year schooling, or more teachers in class, all important possible solutions? Don’t expect teachers to do that for free.
More teachers: today, fewer students are even going into the profession. More time: today, schools are attacked for everything from books on the shelves to the courses in the curriculum. A portion of the public doesn’t even trust the time their kids spend in school now.
Both of those solutions require more money. It’s fine for the news media to “discover” that students are falling behind, especially after Covid. But unless Americans are willing to put the same kind of investment into education that we put into the economy to avoid a “Covid Depression”, it’s all just talk. There is a literal price to pay to fill in the “Covid Gap”.
Summer Vacation
Just an aside about “summer vacation”. Teachers are expected to put 2000 hours into their jobs over the roughly 180 days that public schools are open. That’s around 11 hours per day, or 55 hours per week. The average American working the “average” workday is 8 hours or 40 hours a week, that’s 2000 hours for a whole year. So when you hear, “Teachers get paid all year for working nine months,” remember that they put a whole year’s worth of work into those nine months. One solution to the “Covid Gap”, all year schooling, would be to keep schools open for 220 days; that’s 2420 hours. That’s fine, but plan on raising teacher salaries by 22%, plus overtime.
It’s an American phrase, “Put your money where your mouth is”. Want to fix the “Covid Gap”, America? Ante up.
