As bad as the pandemic was for student learning, if some current education fads continue, the future could be worse.
By now, almost everyone has seen reports about pandemic learning loss. A study published in January by the journal Nature Human Behavior found that children around the world lost more than one-third of a school year’s worth of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most definitive study in the United States, the Education Recovery Scorecard, found students lost about a half of a year in math and one-quarter of a year in reading.
The pandemic may be over, but those academic declines may be just the beginning as some schools are now turning the very purpose of schooling on its head. Across the country, we are seeing schools de-emphasizing or banning practices that have long been the norm, such as homework, grades, attendance and academic recognition.
