Let's Not Go Back to Normal at School

For John, BLUF:  As you suspect, John, a lot of people think we should be doing testing of our students.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Pandemic Didn't Create Inequality. It Revealed How Broken Public Education Is | Opinion

From Newsweek, by Shaka Mitchell, 15 April 2021.

Here is the lede plus six:

One of the biggest impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been on parents.  In many states, the pandemic resulted in the immediate cancellation of in-person schooling and a pivot to virtual classes, which meant that this time last year, parents were in triage mode, navigating video conferences, Chromebook firewalls, and any number of connectivity issues.

It's well established by now that the challenges posed by the pandemic disproportionately affected students in high-poverty schools, in communities where the internet can be elusive, assistance nonexistent, and even food shortages common.  Parents who could not work remotely scrambled to find a place for their kids to spend the day.  Many quit their jobs altogether, and still, children in these communities fell even further behind.

But while the pandemic has exacerbated educational inequities, it did not create them.  And those urging us to "return to normal" would do well to recall just what "normal" meant for millions of students in the U.S:

Normal was a situation where, in my state of Tennessee, only one in three students reads at grade level.  For students of color, the number is closer to one in five.

Normal was a public school system in which students who look like me, a man of color, are suspended three times as often as their white counterparts.

Normal was only six percent of Black students meeting all four ACT college readiness benchmarks.

Who wants to get "back to normal"?

The Writer then goes on to discuss how the Pandemic has opened the eyes of parents to issues within their children's schools and school districts and the need for additional options for learning.

The Writer then goes on to tackle testing:

For instance, some proponents of the status quo have already proposed canceling academic testing so as not to traumatize students.  That's like being in the midst of a diabetes epidemic and throwing out scales because we don't want to body shame.  We owe it to our kids to know exactly how they are doing so that we can help.  That's what it means to be "student-centered."

Testing should not be just a way for racking and stacking students for college admissions or for determining graduation readiness.  It should also be a diagnostic tool for helping all of us see where we need more work within our school processes.  That our teachers unions are pressuring DESE (Commonwealth Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) to not resume testing is not a good thing.  It is a vote for "normal" when reform is needed.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff