The only thing I can say is that the “ learning loss” from COVID closures is real. Having taken many science courses that required a “ lab” one day a week- I don’t know how that could ever be made up at home!
Around 2007 Michigan adopted the Merit Curriculum. The premise was that every student would take a college ready course of study. This is a very noble idea. However, rather than raising all to a higher standard it really actually lowered the bar for the 2nd quartile.
Top tier students continued to take advanced classes such as IB or AP. Theses classes changed very little. The next level of students; students of higher than average ability were in classes that suddenly had to be taken and mastered by “all.”
An above average student that did not push themselves into a higher level or even to excel in their given classes would move on with little challenge. For example, overnight we subscribed to Algebra II for all, Physics and Chemistry for all, and other well intentioned edicts. Students were forced out of classes that actually taught lifelong skills and workplace readiness just to pretend that college for all was the answer. Law makers, while well intentioned, have lowered the bar for all.
Higher education exploded and filled dorms and lecture halls to capitalize and fatten their coffers. Simultaneously, universities decreased reliance on standardized testing so they were able to fill those spaces. They want the bodies and the money, now of course they need to teach them.
Now our nation faces a shortage skilled trades and a lack appropriate choices in school. A student traditionally takes six classes a day over four years. They can only pack so much in 24 classes.
What those students interested in tech whose education was interrupted should've done is attend a community college and start the math sequence all over again, then transfer to a UC. If the student isn't prepared it will destroy their confidence.
I think your conclusions are right on. I think the "Covid effect" is very real, and for good reason. I had a situation myself as a child that gives me some understanding of it.
I went to a one room school house when I was in 6th grade. School was for kindergarten through 8th grade. I was the only 6th grade student., and there was no 7th grade. I did my English with the 8th grade and math with the 5th grade. I don't know exactly what I missed in math, but I do think it affected my subsequent performance, because in a later grade when I had algebra, I had a very difficult time with it. I felt like I was missing something I should have known how to use, and the teacher actually made fun of me, which made me unwilling to ask for help. When I subsequently had geometry, I did much better because I could visualize what I was solving.
The only thing I can say is that the “ learning loss” from COVID closures is real. Having taken many science courses that required a “ lab” one day a week- I don’t know how that could ever be made up at home!
Around 2007 Michigan adopted the Merit Curriculum. The premise was that every student would take a college ready course of study. This is a very noble idea. However, rather than raising all to a higher standard it really actually lowered the bar for the 2nd quartile.
Top tier students continued to take advanced classes such as IB or AP. Theses classes changed very little. The next level of students; students of higher than average ability were in classes that suddenly had to be taken and mastered by “all.”
An above average student that did not push themselves into a higher level or even to excel in their given classes would move on with little challenge. For example, overnight we subscribed to Algebra II for all, Physics and Chemistry for all, and other well intentioned edicts. Students were forced out of classes that actually taught lifelong skills and workplace readiness just to pretend that college for all was the answer. Law makers, while well intentioned, have lowered the bar for all.
Higher education exploded and filled dorms and lecture halls to capitalize and fatten their coffers. Simultaneously, universities decreased reliance on standardized testing so they were able to fill those spaces. They want the bodies and the money, now of course they need to teach them.
Now our nation faces a shortage skilled trades and a lack appropriate choices in school. A student traditionally takes six classes a day over four years. They can only pack so much in 24 classes.
What those students interested in tech whose education was interrupted should've done is attend a community college and start the math sequence all over again, then transfer to a UC. If the student isn't prepared it will destroy their confidence.
I think your conclusions are right on. I think the "Covid effect" is very real, and for good reason. I had a situation myself as a child that gives me some understanding of it.
I went to a one room school house when I was in 6th grade. School was for kindergarten through 8th grade. I was the only 6th grade student., and there was no 7th grade. I did my English with the 8th grade and math with the 5th grade. I don't know exactly what I missed in math, but I do think it affected my subsequent performance, because in a later grade when I had algebra, I had a very difficult time with it. I felt like I was missing something I should have known how to use, and the teacher actually made fun of me, which made me unwilling to ask for help. When I subsequently had geometry, I did much better because I could visualize what I was solving.