‘I Wouldn’t Be Boasting’: Reports That Los Angeles’ School Lockdowns Didn’t Hurt Learning Are Misleading. Here’s Why

‘I Wouldn’t Be Boasting’: Reports That Los Angeles’ School Lockdowns Didn’t Hurt Learning Are Misleading. Here’s Why

Reagan Reese on October 26, 2022

• Though Los Angeles Unified School District was one of the few districts that saw a learning gain during the pandemic, the increase in scores still puts the school district below proficiency level.
• “I wouldn’t be boasting when nearly half of fourth grade students can’t read at a basic level there,” Andrew Handel, education task force director for American Legislative Exchange Council, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And then one out of three eighth graders can’t read at a basic level either, so I’m not really sure that now’s the time to be taking a victory lap.”
• Some school districts in Florida that saw learning declines were posting scores more than 10-points higher than Los Angeles Unified School District before the pandemic.

While many school districts suffered from learning loss after the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s largest school district was one of the only to see an increase in its scores, despite leaning on remote learning through the fall of 2021.

Los Angeles Unified School District saw a nine-point increase in eighth grade reading scores, a two-point increase in fourth grade reading scores and an one-point increase in eighth grade math scores since 2019, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The school, however, was already posting scores below proficiency level before the pandemic.

Andrew Handel, education task force director for American Legislative Exchange Council, a non-profit that drafts model legislation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Los Angeles Unified School District’s scores aren’t as good as the district believes they are.

“I wouldn’t be boasting when nearly half of fourth grade students can’t read at a basic level there,” Handel told the DCNF. “And then one out of three eighth graders can’t read at a basic level either, so I’m not really sure that now’s the time to be taking a victory lap.”

The school district is now scoring a 207 in fourth grade reading, 31 points below the proficiency rate and 10 points below the national average, according to Education Source. In eighth grade reading, Los Angeles Unified School District is scoring a 257, 24 points below the proficiency rate.

In eighth grade math, the school district scored a 262, 37 points below proficiency level, Education Source showed.

“The data was so good,” Los Angeles Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said about the learning gains to the Wall Street Journal. “It bodes very well for our L.A., and is really a testament to our strategy.”

While school districts in the state of Florida saw larger drops in their scores despite pushing to return to in-person learning, the schools were performing well before the pandemic, according to the NAEP. Before the pandemic, Hillsborough County Public Schools posted a 276 overall and Duval County Public Schools scored a 274 overall, more than 10-points higher than Los Angeles Unified School District.

Many Florida schools returned to in-person learning in August 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal. By March 2021, 81% of schools were fully in-person.

“We also knew that younger and at-risk students would be the most impacted if schools were closed, and the results speak for themselves. In Florida our fourth grade students rank third in Reading and fourth in Math, achieving top four in both English and Math for the first time in state history, while lockdown California and New York aren’t even in the top 30,” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Monday statement.

Los Angeles Unified School District stayed with remote learning until January 2022, when students were able to return to in-person learning as long as all students and staff wore masks indoors and tested negative for COVID-19, according to Spectrum News 1. Baseline testing for all educators and students was required until the end of January.

On average, school districts who remained remote the longest suffered a 13% sharper learning loss than schools that returned to in-person learning sooner.

“During the pandemic, just hastily transitioning everybody on to Zoom, which was never a platform that was created for educational purposes, just throwing everybody on there is not true virtual schooling,” Handel told the DCNF. “I do think that transition is emblematic of a kind of a bloat and the ineffectiveness of a lot of public school districts. Teachers weren’t prepared to make that transition. The teachers weren’t given the resources to be able to teach online effectively. I think it’s because public schools have been used to doing things a certain way for so long.”

Los Angeles Unified School District did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.