Speaker 1: It's Monday, March. I'm Oscar Ramirors from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. The
Speaker 1: return of in person learning for students is here. Has
Speaker 1: yielded some improvements and test scores in reading and math,
Speaker 1: but still not to pre pandemic levels. Young students still
Speaker 1: seem to be struggling, especially those that were learning to
Speaker 1: read in the last two years. Sarah Randazzo, education reporter
Speaker 1: at the Wall Street Journal, joined us for how test
Speaker 1: scores are rising. Thanks for joining us, Sarah, sure thing,
Speaker 1: let's check in with what's going on with our students
Speaker 1: right now and their test scores. Obviously, throughout the pandemic,
Speaker 1: it was a huge disruptor. We know that it didn't
Speaker 1: do so well for a lot of students that it
Speaker 1: was really tough transitioning to the remote learning, tough to
Speaker 1: keep focus, and we saw test scores dropped through all
Speaker 1: of that, both in reading and math. Right now, what
Speaker 1: we're seeing is a new study showing that students are
Speaker 1: making some of those gains back. They're doing better now
Speaker 1: that in person classes have resoomed in a lot of places,
Speaker 1: but we're still not back to that those pre pandemic levels,
Speaker 1: So a lot of work to be done. There's there's
Speaker 1: so much information here, So Sarah, help us walk through
Speaker 1: some of this. What are we seeing with our students
Speaker 1: now that we're back in school. Yeah, yeah, So for
Speaker 1: a while people have been wondering, will we ever get
Speaker 1: back to that level we would have been at had
Speaker 1: there been no pandemic and kids just continue to learn
Speaker 1: at that a normal pace, and it's looking like, you know,
Speaker 1: being out of school for the two years that many
Speaker 1: kids were out, it's hard to come back from and
Speaker 1: you're not just going to have instant recovery. But so
Speaker 1: what some of these studies are tracking now is looking
Speaker 1: at the growth throughout the school year. So this recent
Speaker 1: study showed, okay, kids started in the fall still much
Speaker 1: further behind than they were the year before, but from
Speaker 1: fall to winter they were really advancing like you would
Speaker 1: expect a kid to advance it within a school year.
Speaker 1: So people are kind of talking now about growth and saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: even if kids maybe don't have all the knowledge they
Speaker 1: would have had pre pandemic, are they just you know,
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the school year to the end,
Speaker 1: are they marching along and learning new skills throughout and
Speaker 1: that you know, a measure of of kids getting back
Speaker 1: to somewhat normal and then doing doing well in school again. Yea,
Speaker 1: our younger kids are still the ones that are set
Speaker 1: back the most. The test results that they looked at
Speaker 1: were four point four million students from kindergarten in twelfth
Speaker 1: grade in reading and then two point nine million students
Speaker 1: in math. And the way you put in the article two,
Speaker 1: so early in the pandemic kids were struggling with matt
Speaker 1: skills the most. A lot of people said, maybe because
Speaker 1: parents weren't as a dept to help them with that.
Speaker 1: Right now, the reading now that you bring us bringing
Speaker 1: us to present time, the reading is still behind right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so especially and so this um the test results
Speaker 1: came out from a comany called Renaissance. It does something
Speaker 1: called the Star Test that is an optional test districts
Speaker 1: can do to help measure assessment throughout the year. And
Speaker 1: so l fifty states there's kids who take it. And
Speaker 1: so it was as mattering from across the country of
Speaker 1: kids who take these Star tests. And what they found
Speaker 1: is that the kids who really only have had a
Speaker 1: pandemic education of kindergarten in first graders, especially those trying
Speaker 1: to learn to read in that pure are really struggling,
Speaker 1: you know, in all of their growth. And so those
Speaker 1: who haven't yet learned to read really had the lowest
Speaker 1: growth scores of any of the cohort that they looked at.
Speaker 1: And so there's a bit of a concern about those
Speaker 1: kids who are still learning to read or haven't yet
Speaker 1: learned to read, and you know kind of where things
Speaker 1: go for them, because learning to read is crucial for
Speaker 1: pretty much your entire life. As you can imagine, once
Speaker 1: you get to third or fourth grade, they say you
Speaker 1: stop learning to read and start reading to learn. And
Speaker 1: so if you don't have the learning learning to read
Speaker 1: part down, you can't read your science textbook and your
Speaker 1: social studies and then everything everything is built upon that
Speaker 1: base learning right there. So yeah, third grade and fourth
Speaker 1: grade are really critical right there. You know, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of students that attended this program is called
Speaker 1: the Institute of Reading Development. They're a literacy organization, and
Speaker 1: they said about of those entering first grade this school year,
Speaker 1: we're reading below expectations. So just kind of illustrating, you know,
Speaker 1: those kids that we're doing that pandemic reading learning for
Speaker 1: the first time. It is just very difficult for it
Speaker 1: to click for them. Yeah, it's definitely what the institute found,
Speaker 1: and things like phonics and just learning do you know
Speaker 1: the sound? Could you know the sound? You know, the
Speaker 1: students are having to go over that at a later
Speaker 1: age and then maybe some of them would have before.
Speaker 1: And so there's a few building blocks and learning to read.
Speaker 1: Phonics is one of them, and there's a few others,
Speaker 1: and teachers are really having to kind of start at
Speaker 1: the basics again and make sure kids have all those
Speaker 1: building blocks so they can really learn how to read.
Speaker 1: I know there was a lot of conversations going on
Speaker 1: throughout the pandemic that had a lot to do with
Speaker 1: safety and everything. But you know, seeing the declines, seeing
Speaker 1: now the rebounds, although they're not to the pre pandemic levels, right,
Speaker 1: we're talking about that, it really illustrates how important the
Speaker 1: value of in person instruction is for our kids. And
Speaker 1: you spoke to a number of teachers and administrators also.
Speaker 1: You know, they even for themselves, they were pretty alarmed
Speaker 1: when they came back and they saw how stunted they
Speaker 1: were academically and emotionally. Yeah, I spoke with districts in
Speaker 1: the Brea, Sco. Florida and California, so the across section,
Speaker 1: and all of them said that the in person element.
Speaker 1: Returning in person really has just helped hugely um for
Speaker 1: some kids when their home. You know, teachers and administras
Speaker 1: were noticing they just especially the early early readers, they
Speaker 1: just weren't talking to as many people in the day,
Speaker 1: and so they just weren't able to even practice their
Speaker 1: language skills in the way that you are in a
Speaker 1: classroom and things you're being asked of you and you're
Speaker 1: turning to talk to your friend next to you, and
Speaker 1: so just physically being present and being able to engage
Speaker 1: and get more feedback doing hands on games versus just
Speaker 1: reading it all really has helped get kids back. And
Speaker 1: certainly everyone did the best they could. District did everything
Speaker 1: they could to adapt to the online learning, and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of good development and especially good tech
Speaker 1: developments happened where now and more kids have access to
Speaker 1: computers and the like. So it wasn't all bad. But
Speaker 1: there's a lot to be said of being in person
Speaker 1: um and how that helps educate kids and how do
Speaker 1: we continue to get back. You know, some of the
Speaker 1: people you spoke to said they'd like to maybe teach
Speaker 1: your concepts so that the kids could have a deeper
Speaker 1: learning of whatever they're teaching, rather than trying to cram
Speaker 1: everything in trying to make up for so much stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think people are trying to rethink, Okay, what does
Speaker 1: it mean to get back to normal? Are we going
Speaker 1: to really try to kick off every single box of
Speaker 1: what someone should have had if if they were having
Speaker 1: a quote normal education, or should we just keep moving
Speaker 1: forward and just try to continue to engage and give
Speaker 1: kids lessons and um, you know, go maybe like that
Speaker 1: one educator, so go maybe deeper on a few concepts
Speaker 1: rather than trying to teach every single thing on a
Speaker 1: chapter test. And so I think educators are looking now
Speaker 1: and figuring out what you know, going forward to get
Speaker 1: back to some kind of normalcy. And I think over
Speaker 1: all they're saying, as long as kids are continuing to
Speaker 1: grow and continue to advance, that's what we can do
Speaker 1: right now. And that's a good good progress and and
Speaker 1: and good for the kids. Right Yeah, some hopeful news.
Speaker 1: Now hopefully we can continue to take those gains back again.
Speaker 1: Sarah Randazzo, education reporter at the Wall Street Journal, thank
Speaker 1: you very much for joining us, sure saying thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm Oscar pro Mirrors and this is in reopening America.
Speaker 1: You don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you
Speaker 1: can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every
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