Author Archives: DCG

Here in Oklahoma schools shut down for just six weeks beginning in March 2020 when the pandemic first hit and we didn’t know what to expect. They returned to normal in-school classes in the fall of 2020. Turns out that was really best for the kids.

From Daily Mail:

Students in school districts that relied more heavily on remote learning during the pandemic fell behind in math at a far greater rate than students in states, like Texas and Florida, that stuck to in-person classes, according to a Harvard study.

Nationally, all students have seen a decrease in academic achievement because of the disruption from the pandemic, an issue that has been exacerbated by poverty and race.

But  Prof. Thomas Kane, an economist and director of Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research, found that kids that were allowed to come to school faired far better than those who were forced to learn over video feed.

‘We estimate that in high poverty schools students lost about half a year of learning if their schools were remote for half a year or more last year,’ Kane told CNN’s Jake Tapper. ‘That’s a large effect.’

The study looked at test scores for 2.1 million American students in 49 states. Math scores suffered more than reading, according to the report.

‘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,’ Kane told the Harvard Gazette. ‘Where schools remained in-person, gaps did not widen. Where schools shifted to remote learning, gaps widened sharply.’

Read the whole story here.

DCG