Do South Florida’s school districts deserve F’s more than students?

Do South Florida’s school districts deserve F’s more than students?

Bottom Line: It's too bad the “COVID 10” refers to weight gain rather than the number of grade points gained by students during the pandemic. Instead, when it comes to education, the COVID Slide is the phrase used to describe what’s been happening educationally. Last week’s annual NWEA fall assessment showed just how far the slide has been for students nationally, with the average 3rd-8th grade student half a year behind where they were a year ago. And South Florida’s students haven’t been immune. Through the first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year here’s the percentage of 6th-12th graders who are failing.

• Broward: 11% up from 4% last year
• Miami-Dade: 9% up from 4% last year
• Palm Beach County: 11% up from 3% last year

Let me put this another way. Here’s the increase in F’s year over year in South Florida:

• Broward: 275%
• Miami-Dade: 225%
• Palm Beach County: 367%

That’s staggering. It’s the worst one-year decline in education outcomes I’ve seen and I’ve extensively studied education outcomes dating back to the creation of the Department of Education in 1980. Again, it’s also to be somewhat expected. Entering the current school year, a study showed 60% of students performed worse with online education than in the classroom. It stands to reason that the COVID slide could take A students down to B’s, B’s to C’s, C’s to D’s and D’s to F’s. That’s essentially what we’re seeing happen here. So back to the school districts. Right along we’ve heard educators say we should follow the science during the pandemic. To be clear, the science has been in favor of classroom education dating back to this summer. Prior to the start of this school year. As Dr. Fauci put it, the default position should be in favor of classroom education. However, in the name of the virus, South Florida’s school districts delayed the start of the school year, began with online only options and were reluctant to fully embrace classroom education. What’s more is the state’s largest teacher’s union, the Florida Education Association, sued the state to attempt to prevent classroom education. While their lawsuit eventually failed, the disinformation behind the lawsuit misinformed many parents who trusted the FEA and led to them keeping their children away from school.

There’s often been a debate about whether the education system has been slowly failing students or whether parents aren’t doing their part to prepare their kids to learn. The truth is likely a combination of the two. This time however, as our kids are suffering the worst year over year performance decline on record, it’s safe to say our educators failed our communities. Thankfully the districts have realized their error of their ways and are now calling on parents to prioritize classroom education for students but for many the damage from the COVID slide is already done. Time is the one thing we can never get back. If they’d followed the science, rather than the politics in the first place, we might not be having this conversation in South Florida.

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