Commentary
​The state of New York has decided to lower what it calls “proficiency” standards in math and English-language arts for students in grades 3 through 8. The reason: a drastic drop in student scores on statewide tests from 2019 to 2022. In Schenectady alone, not one eighth-grader scored “proficient” on the statewide math test in 2022.
One reason for that: New York’s public school systems’ insistence, prompted by militant teachers’ unions, on closing down schools more or less continuously from March 2020 to September 2022 during prime COVID-19 hysteria. The students were supposed to be on remote learning, but it turned out that children, especially very young children, didn’t have the concentration to focus on screens for long periods of time—that is, when they or their parents even bothered to get screens in front of them. Closed schools during the pandemic led to a nationwide decline in standardized-test scores….