More Evidence of How the Pandemic Hurt Children
More Evidence of How the Pandemic Hurt Children
This is one more piece of evidence of how harmful school shutdowns were for kids. Let’s pray for our children and for better schools.
From CNN. Fourth- and eighth-graders fell behind in reading and had the largest ever decline in math, according to a national educational assessment showing the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on America’s children.
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The alarming findings are based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and math exams, often called the “Nation’s Report Card” and conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the Education Department.
“If this is not a wake-up call for us to double down our efforts and improve education, even before it was – before the pandemic, then I don’t know what will,” US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told CNN’s Brianna Keilar during an appearance on “New Day” Monday.
He called on schools to ensure they are using funding from the Covid relief package passed in 2021 to boost student scores.
Cardona suggested widespread teacher shortages are a “symptom of decades of underinvestment” in schools and called on districts to pay teachers more competitively.
The first national assessment of student achievement in three years revealed the largest math score declines among fourth- and eighth-graders since the initial trial assessment in 1990, according to the Center’s Commissioner Peggy Carr. The tests were administered between January and March.
No state or large urban district showed improvements in math, the report said. Eighth-grade math scores sank in the more than 50 states and jurisdictions participating in the assessment. …
The average math score of 236 for the fourth grade was 5 points lower than in 2019, and 8 points below the 2019 mark of 274 for the eighth grade. The reading score of 217 for the fourth grade was down 3 points this year – the same decline as the eighth grade score of 260 – compared to 2019.
The discouraging results come more than a month after the national assessment released results showing math and reading scores for 9-year-olds – typically fourth graders – fell between 2020 and 2022 by a level not seen in decades. …
The math exams reflected the performance of 116,200 fourth-graders in 5,780 schools, and 111,000 eighth-graders in 5,190 schools. The reading tests were given to 108,200 fourth-graders in 5,780 schools and 111,300 eighth-graders in 5,190 schools. …
Carr said more analysis is needed to understand the role the pandemic played in the declines, along with other factors such as teacher shortages and bullying.
“This must be a wake-up call for the country that we have to make education a priority,” Beverly Perdue, former governor of North Carolina and chair of the National Assessment Governing Board which oversees the test, said in a statement.
How are you praying for children and schools across the nation? Share your prayers and scriptures below.
(Excerpt from CNN. Photo Credit: Getty Images)
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Comments
Lord, please reveal especially the spiritual and emotional issues behind these dropping academic performances, such as the fact that the use of pornography skyrocketed as academic scores dropped. Help parents and loving adults to see and deal with such addictions that were used to deal with the loneliness and stresses of the pandemic in their own lives as well as in the lives of their children. May this bondage be something that brings many on their knees at the foot of the cross.
Many students who were on Zoom classes have told me they turned off the sound and/or camera during classes and played video games or slept. And many parents were either not home or were not engaged with what their students were doing. I’m glad for the schools that got waivers and didn’t close (private and Christian schools) because their students are ahead of the game now. As a former teacher my heart and prayers are especially with our children. May God protect and watch over them.
Kids being mandated to wear masks in schools has a major impact on their cognitive abilities. There have been over 350 studies that have shown the negative impact of masking (the majority which the media have censored) showing that the person loses 20% of oxygen to their lungs and brain. Since children’s brains are still in the developmental stage, you can imagine what kind of affect this is having on their ability to think, reason, imagine, comprehend, create, perceive, etc.
Additionally, you are hearing recent reports of the increasing number of children entering pediatric hospitals with respiratory-related problems. There is a strong possibility that this is due not only to the masking but also to the adverse effects of the vaccine.
Father God, you have charged us with taking care of our children and we have many times put them in harms danger by allowing the enemy (satan) to impact their minds, bodies, souls, and spirit. We first repent and take back our righteous authority in Jesus Name. We stand and vote against abortion which robs our children of a life here on earth, we train up a child in the way they should go following and abiding by Godly principles, we don’t follow the mandates of this world in caring for our children but follow Godly wisdom and knowledge. We teach our children how to fulfill their Godly destiny by exposing them to that which is pure and Godly in your sight (participating in Church, prayer, Christian activities, Christian movies, games, family activities, Christian friends, etc). We take back what we may have unconsciously surrendered to the enemy but know are awakened! In Jesus Name. Amen.