The pandemic impacted nearly every aspect of American life.
New test score results show that students also suffered, with academic performance dropping to levels not seen in more than three decades.
According to results from the Nation’s Report Card, standardized test scores for 9-year-old students fell in both math and reading. Average scores in reading fell five points; math scores dipped by seven points. The reading scores marked the worst student performance in that subject since 1990.
"It hurts my heart," said Dr. Lisa Fiore, an education professor at Lesley University in Cambridge. "As soon as I see those headlines — first I feel sick to my stomach because of the anxiety it will create and the increase in standardized testing it will generate."
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Fiore said she fears that the lackluster results will only hurt students and parents, since the typical response to such results are to increase the frequency of standardized testing, something she warns is a critical mistake.
“We better bolster our creativity or otherwise we’re going to have a generation of factory line assembly workers who have no idea how to solve real-world problems,” she said.
