By Quinton Klabon, IRG
You don’t want to hear it. Your kid is fine, you tell yourself. You’re done with the nervous calls to teachers, politicians fighting on TV, the sense that no one’s making sure your child lives a better life than you did. You want a normal school year. I get it. But over the next three months, as the full weight of what Wisconsin’s leaders did to your children becomes clear, I ask you to listen closely.
Sept. 1 told you what you already sensed. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, the “report card” that tells us how our students are doing, showed the devastation that overextended school shutdowns, quarantines, and substitute teachers wrought on students.
Compared to 2020, the average 4th grader is three months behind in reading and six months behind in math. A struggling student is a whole year behind in both. Math collapsed 7 points in an instant; it took Wisconsin 16 years to rise just 3 points.
Continue Reading on Wisconsin Spotlight
