Math Scores Take Largest Plunge Ever, Blaming Pandemic Alone Doesn’t Add Up

According to the results of a federal test called the “Nation’s Report Card,” both math and reading scores fell to their lowest levels in decades. The math scores in particular took the largest drop ever.

The leftists in charge are doing what they do best, creating a diversion. They want us to believe that the “plandemic” is the only reason for this disintegration of learning. They also want you to forget that it was their unnecessary and totally tyrannical lockdown procedures that disrupted the education of our children.

However, that is not the only reason for these results. Our children are no longer being taught. Instead, the left is preaching an ideology. They have an agenda and education such as reading and math, is not part of that agenda. The left are ideological predators and our children, the students in their classrooms, are their prey.

Peggy Carr, Commissioner of the Federal Education Department, believes that even after more than two years since most students have returned to in person classes, there are still “worrisome signs about student achievement. The green shoots of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized.”

I wonder why? Someone needs to explain to Carr that for “green shoots of academic recovery” to materialize they need to be fertilized, and in a classroom the fertilizer should be actual teaching of required subjects, NOT an agenda.

Overall, national results indicated that the average math scores of 13-year-old students fell by 9 points between 2020 and 2023. Reading scores also fell by 4 points. The formal name for the test is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). It was given to 8,700 students in each subject between October and December of last year. These results are not surprising. Last year the NAEP released similar results for fourth and eighth grade students.

It should also be noted that math and reading scores were dropping before the “plandemic,” (I wonder why?), but these results are shocking. Math scores are at their lowest since 1990, reading scores haven’t reached these levels since 2004.

Naturally, race has to be brought into the equation. American Indian student scores dropped 20 points, black students 13 points, white students 6 points and Asian students remained even.

IMHO, these directly reflect the status of the family unit. Under duress, children/students learning capabilities often mirror what their lives are about when the leave the classroom. Are they encouraged to study, are their areas for privacy that will facilitate study and learning, and don’t forget that the cultural stigma concerning success and failure is also a major contributing factor.

The results for students of all achievement levels were also measured, and again, IMHO, are not that surprising. Stronger students saw their scores decrease by 6 to 8 points while lower performing students saw a drop of 12 to 14 points. Is it really surprising that stronger students that most likely have better study habits and value learning more, have less of a drop?

Denise Forte, President and CEO of the Education Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group, would like you to believe that the scores reflect the disproportionate impact that the “plandemic” had on black and Latino students from low-income families. However, Forte, who for the record is black, fails to mention or even apparently consider the impact to low-income white students.

Forte also had this to say, “Students want to succeed, attend college, start a rewarding career and reach their full academic potential, but they can’t if they continue to lose precious ground.”

Wow, it appears she has a clear view of the obvious as well.

What is really disheartening about these test results is there was nothing exotic about the exam. The questions were designed to measure only basic skills in math and reading, in fact most questions were multiple choice. Students were asked to read passages and identify the main idea or locate certain information. In math, they were asked to perform simple multiplication and tackle basic geometry, calculating, for example, the area of a square.

Reading, which we all know improves mental capabilities and encourages further learning has suffered. Only 14 percent stated that they read daily for pleasure, which has decreased from 27 percent in 2012. Approximately 33 percent say they hardly ever or never read for enjoyment, up from 22 percent in 2012.

Wayne Gretzky is credited with saying that “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” Well, the same applies to student absenteeism. You can’t learn (or in today’s world be groomed) if you don’t attend. The number of students missing five or more days of school each month has doubled since 2020. This year, it reached 10 percent. Could it be that real education, isn’t what it used to be? Is constant indoctrination dampening the desire to learn?

Our education system is failing. We know it, and those responsible for making it better know it too. Wake up America, this isn’t failure, … it’s sabotage.