What Can You Do to Help the Rising Generation?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when parents are involved in the education of the rising generation. The foregoing statement was true before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and it is still true today. When schools closed and children were being taught over Zoom, many parents saw what was going on in the schools, and they did not like it. For that reason, the closing of the schools was a blessing in disguise. However, the closing of the schools brought other problems.

            According to Sara Mervosh, national test results were released this week, and the scores showed that American schoolchildren were greatly impacted by the impacts of the pandemic. The “performance of 9-year-olds in math and reading [dropped] to the levels from two decades ago.” Mervosh continued with the following information.

This year for the first time since the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests began tracking student achievement in the 1970s, 9-year-olds lost ground in math, and scores in reading fell by the largest margin in more than 30 years.

The declines spanned almost all races and income levels and were markedly worse for the lowest-performing students. While top performers in the 90^th percentile showed a modest drop – three points in math – students in the bottom 10^th percentile dropped by 12 points in math, four times the impact.

… The tests were given to a national sample of 14,800 9-year-olds and were compared with the results of tests taken by the same age group in early 2020, just before the pandemic took hold in the United States….

High and low performers had been diverging even before the pandemic, but now [low performers are dropping faster]. …

In math, Black students lost 13 points, compared with five points among white students, widening the gap between the two groups. Research has documented the profound effect school closures had on low-income students and on Black and Hispanic students, in part because their schools were more likely to continue remote learning for longer periods of time.

The declines in test scores mean that while many 9-year-olds can demonstrate partial understanding of what they are reading, fewer can infer a character’s feelings from what they have read. In math, students may know simple arithmetic facts, but fewer can add fractions with common denominators.

The setbacks could have powerful consequences for a general of children who must move beyond basics in elementary school to thrive later on.

            Mervosh’s article contained much more information, which can be found here. The take-away for parents is that most children fell behind in progress because schools closed during the pandemic. If you happen to live in a state – like Florida – that kept their schools open, your children are most likely doing okay. If you live in a state that closed their schools and kept them closed, your children are most likely behind in their educational progress. 

            Children usually do better in school when parents are involved in their education. Now it is imperative that parents work with their children to help them learn all that they can learn. It is imperative that the rising generation catch up on their learning in order to be competitive against children in schools that did not close. If you are in a position to help low-income or minority children, you should do so. Our children are our most valuable asset, and we should do all that we can do to help them. When we help the rising generation to catch up in their learning, we will strengthen our family, community, and nation.