November 4, 2022
by: Alex Timothy | Human Events
A dramatic learning decline throughout the nation, caused by pandemic restrictions and closures, will result in students suffering a loss of nearly $1 trillion, a new study finds.
Results published by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) show a decline in math scores in every single state, while reading scores dropped back to levels not seen since 1991 following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Daily Caller reports.
The situation was particularly dire within school districts that chose to stay with remote learning throughout the pandemic, with reading and math levels dropping by as much as 41% compared to schools that retained in-person learning.
A study from Harvard Economist Tom Kane and Dartmouth economics professor Douglas O. Staiger suggests the drop in scores will cause these students to lose around $900 billion over their lifetimes.
Staiger explains that when there are improvements in scores, those kids coming out of school are going to have better outcomes later in life, so we can infer that this decline in scores will result in outcomes that will be worse than expected.
This is the latest study to reveal yet another way in which future generations will be affected by the pandemic restrictions. It has already been reported that younger children are failing to meet learning milestones after COVID-19 lockdowns.
The recently reported average score on the ACT, a college admissions exam taken by high school graduates, is only 19.8 out of 36. This is the first time since 1991 that the average score has fallen below 20 points. Results from the previous year, when widespread lockdowns and closures were still in force, show that 38% of students failed to meet any of the benchmarks in reading, math, science, and English, which are used as a means to determine how well a student will perform in college.
The study looked at the test scored of 125,000 students across 4,800 different schools.