Tag: school closures

Students’ Math and Reading Scores Aren’t Bouncing Back from School Closures

Michigan Star Staff

Students’ academic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic has stalled despite efforts to make up for the learning loss, according to a Tuesday report.

Students on average need more than four extra months in school in order to catch up to grade-level expectations, according to a report by NWEA, a nonprofit organization that provides Pre-K-12 assessment data. The report showed that, on average, students’ math and reading scores are growing slower than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Union Boss Randi Weingarten Ripped for Denying She Pushed Biden Administration to Keep Schools Closed

Susan Berry, PhD

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is drawing fire from many sides for her denial before a congressional subcommittee that she pressed the Biden administration to keep government schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as U.S. private and religious schools, and public schools in Europe, reopened. CNN contributor and Kentucky parent Scott Jennings confronted Weingarten Thursday night for pushing the Biden administration to keep schools closed during the COVID crisis but claiming to the House COVID subcommittee she had always wanted to reopen schools.

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Documents: Teachers’ Union Played Significant Role in CDC’s Halting of Full School Reopening

Susan Berry, PhD

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and its president Randi Weingarten had significant input into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pandemic school reopening guidelines than was known in 2021, according to documents obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT).

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Teachers’ Union Boss Randi Weingarten’s Rant About Student Loan Forgiveness at SCOTUS Draws Fire

Susan Berry, PhD

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, who was unhinged as she ranted and raved on the steps of the Supreme Court over the prospect that Joe Biden’s student loan handout could be declared unconstitutional, is drawing rebukes for being the height of hypocrisy.

Weingarten, joined by other far-left proponents of student debt relief, screamed on the steps of the Supreme Court Tuesday as oral arguments were heard in challenges to Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loan payments, claiming the move is essential to “make good with the students of America.”

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Government School Districts Plan K-12 Closures as Student Enrollment Plunges

Susan Berry, PhD

Some of the largest public school districts in the nation are planning to close K-12 schools as they face plummeting student enrollment rates. “Nationwide, public school enrollment fell by more than 1.4 million students to 49.4 million between fall 2019 and fall 2020—a decline of roughly 3%, according to data from the U.S. Education Department,” reported the Wall Street Journal in January. “The following school year, enrollment failed to return to prepandemic levels and remained roughly flat.”

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Medical Student Calls for Profession to ‘Admit We Were Wrong About COVID’

Susan Berry, PhD

A 7th year medical student from Texas is calling upon those who consider themselves to be part of the “scientific community” to “admit we were wrong about COVID,” and acknowledge the policies encouraged regarding the vaccines, masks, school closures, etc., all “cost lives.”

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Dems’ School Closures Were an Absolute Disaster for Poor and Minority Students, Study Shows

Michigan Star Staff

Students that were forced into remote learning due to school closures experienced significant learning loss, which hurt poor and minority students the most, according to a study conducted by researchers at Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR).

The study looked at the consequences of K-12 hybrid and remote learning over a period of two years, starting in the fall of 2019, and found that students who were in-person for the majority of the 2020-21 school year on average lost about 20% of a year’s worth of math learning, while students who were learning remotely suffered a 50% loss of a year’s worth of math learning in the same time period.

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Surge in Homeschooling Families Continues after Schools Reopen

Susan Berry, PhD

The number of families homeschooling in the United States has remained significantly above pre-pandemic levels even though government schools have reopened.

The number of homeschooling students increased by 63% during the 2020-2021 school year in 18 states that shared data, AP reported. That percentage then dropped by only 17% in the next academic year.

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Republican Report: CDC Official Confirms Teachers’ Unions Given ‘Unprecedented’ Status on Whether to Reopen Schools While Parents Not Consulted

Susan Berry, PhD

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used “political science” and not “medical science” to collaborate with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to create guidance on the issue of reopening the nation’s government schools.

Appearing as a guest on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Scalise referred to a report released by Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that revealed a CDC official’s testimony confirming the nation’s top health agency coordinated with teachers’ unions at an “unprecedented” level to craft school reopening guidance, despite the CDC’s earlier claims that their coordination with the unions was routine.

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Child Psychiatrist: Toll on Children’s Mental Health During Government Response to Pandemic Is ‘Utterly Devastating’

Admin

Though children are least likely to experience severe illness from COVID-19, the level of mental health distress many are exhibiting during the government’s response to the pandemic is “utterly devastating,” child psychiatrist Dr. Mark McDonald said in a recent interview.

The Los Angeles-based clinician expressed his concern during a late November podcast for the Unity Project, an organization working to end COVID-19 vaccine mandates for healthy children in grades K-12.

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Commentary: Senate Paves Road to Reopening the Economy with Coronavirus Relief Bill, But When Will States Reopen Schools?

Michigan Star Staff

By a vote of 96-0, the U.S. Senate has passed a $2.2 trillion legislative package, by far the largest in U.S. history, to keep tens of millions of Americans on payroll and expand unemployment benefits to those who are laid off while the country waits out the deadly Chinese coronavirus that poses additional risk to seniors and those with underlying conditions.

That way, when the virus passes, those businesses, particularly the 30 million small businesses that are struggling most of all right now, but also critical industries, will be able to rapidly reopen and we can get back to our lives.

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