School Shutdowns Ruined Student Learning — Here’s the Proof

It's no secret that keeping schools closed throughout the pandemic was disastrous for students' education. A new report details how extensive the damage really was. By Aaron Kliegman Shutting down schools was perhaps the most unscientific response to COVID-19. Sweden was the only major Western country to keep schools open for kids 15 and younger throughout the pandemic. The result: zero COVID-19 deaths among 1.8 million children attending day care or school. And this was without masks or mass testing. What’s more, the teachers were at lower risk compared to the average of other professions. None of this should’ve been surprising. We’ve long known the virus poses minimal risk to kids, who in turn don’t spread it efficiently. So, both students and teachers are relatively protected in school. Indeed, we knew last year, well before vaccines were available, that schools weren’t danger zones. If anything, they proved to be safe zones. As long as schools were flexible with students and teachers who were older or had certain medical conditions, there was no reason to shut them down. Yet, public health experts pushed school closures, and politicians in power across the country — and much of the public — blindly obeyed. These decisions despite the science weren’t just unreasonable. They were also destructive, ruining student learning not just over the past year but also for years to come. Most people had a sense that total remote learning for such an extended period of time wasn’t as effective as in-person study. Now we have the proof. McKinsey & Co., one of the world’s most prestigious consulting firms, released a report this week detailing the extent of the damage. The firm analyzed spring 2021 test results for 1.6 million students in grades 1 through 6 across the U.S., comparing their performance with the performance of similar students before the pandemic. According to the study, students testing this year are “five months behind in math and four months behind in reading, compared with where we would expect them to be based on historical data.” This decline came from only about a year of school closures, meaning the drop-off in learning was sharp and immediate. Even worse, “these results likely represent an optimistic scenario,” McKinsey says. “They reflect outcomes for students who took interim assessments in the spring in a school building — and thus exclude students who remained remote throughout the entire school year, and who may have experienced the most disruption to their schooling.” What’s even more tragic is that poor and minority students were the most affected. According to the report, children in low-income schools ended the school year on average seven months behind in math and six months behind in reading. In majority black schools, students ended the year six months behind in both math and reading on average. Their peers in high-income and majority white schools, meanwhile, fared better, although they still lost months of learning due to the shutdowns. But regardless of race or income, all these kids will move onto the next grade ill-prepared, “missing key building blocks of knowledge” that are necessary for success. Too many students are already on a path to educational failure. The damage is not just educational, however. There’s also a real financial cost. “Without immediate and sustained interventions, pandemic-related unfinished learning could reduce lifetime earnings for K–12 students by an average of $49,000 to $61,000,” the report states. “We anticipate a potential annual GDP loss of $128 billion to $188 billion from pandemic-related unfinished learning.” These figures seem low. But again, black, Hispanic, and lower-income kids will be the ones most hurt. Beyond economic damage, McKinsey also found that school closures had a devastating effect on the mental health of kids, many of whom were not only suffering academically but also socially isolated. In short, keeping schools closed throughout the pandemic was disastrous for students' education and broader wellbeing. And while McKinsey doesn’t mention them, teachers’ unions are largely to blame. Just look at Chicago, where the teachers’ union repeatedly refused to return to work and made countless demands, including less stringent schedules, that made consistent in-person learning impossible. This scene played out across the country. And the kids were the victims. Meanwhile, numerous Catholic and charter schools returned to the classroom or offered hybrid learning as public school officials showed a shameful dereliction of duty. Parents and students need to do what’s best for themselves, and that means not being at the mercy of teachers’ unions whose top priority is something other than teaching kids. The lesson here is obvious: We need more school choice. Newt hosts monthly virtual events in which he discusses news of the day and why it matters to you and your community. These Newt Live events are your opportunity to communicate directly with Newt. We hope you will join us next time and let Newt answer your questions and provide his insight on the issues that concern you most. JOIN TODAY to be a part of this special event and receive a BONUS GIFT. Click here to join Newt’s Inner Circle. More from Aaron Kliegman: