Virtual schooling led to dramatic learning loss

New data from Texas shows that regardless of economic status or race, enormous numbers of students who learned virtually for the majority of the past school year experienced a dramatic learning loss. This learning loss was most pronounced for Black and Hispanic students.

This outcome is tragic given that schools that reopened for in-person instruction did so safely, most with no reported cases of COVID-19 transmission at all. What’s even more tragic, however, is that this is what the science predicted months before the start of the school year. As I wrote as far back as June 2020:

Studies now show that not only are children far less likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19, but they also do not spread it to others easily. However, depriving children of traditional schooling can have severe consequences for their health, welfare, and socioeconomic prospects. For these reasons, countries from Norway to New Zealand have resumed traditional schooling with appropriate safety measures in place. Schools in the United States should do likewise in the fall.

Numerous studies have also shown that science had nothing to do with decisions to reopen. Brown University looked at the reopening plans of around 75% of the nation’s school districts and was unable to find a consistent relationship between a district’s response and how intense the pandemic was in the area. Rather, it found:

Mass partisanship and teacher union strength best explain how school boards approached reopening.

Importantly, it also found that:

[D]istricts located in counties with a larger number of Catholic schools were less likely to shut down and more likely to return to in-person learning.

The human cost of virtual learning in Texas was noted by Texas Education Minister Mike Morath:

This is probably 800,000 more students in Texas in mathematics that are noticeably below grade level this year as a result of COVID than in normal years. It is important to remember that these are not numbers, these are children.

In Texas, almost all schools fully reopened for in-person learning within a few weeks of the school year, but many offered a virtual learning option. The learning loss in Texas, state officials say, is explained by the significant number of students that took this option.

Given that some states barred schools from reopening for most of the school year, these staggering learning deficiencies are likely to be even more pronounced elsewhere. For the sake of children in all states, virtual learning should only be offered in the rarest of circumstances this coming fall.