Divided into quartiles, the more school districts were remote rather than in-person in 2020-21, the worse they did on reading and math tests.
In every category of STAAR Test achievement (Masters, Meets, Approaches, or Did Not Meet Grade Level), in every subject, in every grade, the more remote school districts had worse learning loss than the more in-person school districts.
If one were designing policies to intentionally weaken the long-term competitiveness of Texas students in the global economy, remote "learning" would be a great place to start.
These learning losses in math are statewide aggregates, but they're concentrated in remote districts.
In reading, the learning losses were not as severe as in math, but these numbers still don't portend great things for Texas students going forward:
Who needs writing, science, social studies, or history, anyway?
Eanes was not classified as fully in-person in 2020-21.
Let's look at STAAR test achievement in E.I.S.D.
I just grabbed the reading and math numbers from 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades in the interest of time and to keep it simple. Maybe other grades/subjects performed better. Who knows. You can look it all up yourself here: txreports.emetric.net
Failure was up in each category.
On the STAAR Test, third graders failing reading and math in @EanesISD doubled and more-than-doubled, respectively, from the 2019 test to the 2021 test.
On the STAAR Test, fifth graders failing reading and math in @EanesISD nearly-doubled and more-than-doubled, respectively, from the 2019 test to the 2021 test.
On the STAAR Test, seventh graders failing reading and math in @EanesISD increased significantly and more-than-doubled, respectively, from the 2019 test to the 2021 test.
Failure doubling in most categories is bad enough, but @EanesISD also saw the proportions of those mastering reading and math plummeting dramatically from 2019 to 2021.
On the STAAR Test, the percentage of @EanesISD third graders mastering reading and math fell significantly from the 2019 test to the 2021 test.
On the STAAR Test, the percentage of @EanesISD fifth graders mastering reading fell only a little, while the percentage mastering math fell significantly, from the 2019 test to the 2021 test.
On the STAAR Test, the percentage of @EanesISD seventh graders mastering both reading and math fell significantly from the 2019 test to the 2021 test.
What proportions of increases in "did not meet" scores and declines in "masters" scores are attributable to "the pandemic," generically?
What, more specifically, is attributable to lockdowns, shutdowns, closures, quarantines, remote/hybrid "learning," and even mask monomania?
Moreover, what role did @EanesISD's abrupt shift in focus toward Critical Race Theory play in its declining standardized test scores?
Although there was only one lonely, single, solitary randomized controlled trial on masks in the COVID era (in Denmark), we do have U.S. data from last year.
Turns out, the COVID results were better in mask-optional than in forced-mask schools.
46 days ago, Texas opened "100%" with no statewide mask mandate, 8 days after @GregAbbott_TX announced the new policy.
Blue checkmarks predicted the apocalypse.
It's now undeniably been long enough to declare that the apocalypse did not arrive. Instead, everything is better.
Since March 10th, when Texas reopened 100% with no statewide mask mandate...
✅Cases: DOWN 25.4%
✅Hospitalizations: DOWN 39.1%
✅% of beds used by COVID patients: DOWN 36.6%
✅% of patients that are COVID+: DOWN 35.2%
✅COVID ICU: DOWN 38.8%
✅Deaths through April 11: DOWN 70.4%
Cases (7-day statewide average per day) are:
✅Down 25.4% since Texas reopened 100% without a statewide mask mandate.
✅Down 50.6% since @GovAbbott made his announcement.
It has now been 52 days since @GovAbbott made his announcement that Texas would open on March 10th, "100%," without a statewide mask mandate.
It has been 44 days since Texas reopened 100% with no mask mandates.
The promised apocalypse has apparently been postponed yet again.
COVID-19 "cases," hospital patients, ICU patients, and deaths have all fallen in Texas in the 44 days since Texas opened 100% without a statewide mask mandate.
It has now been 26 days since March 10th, when Texas "reopened 100%" with no statewide mask mandate; it has been 34 days since @GovAbbott announced the reopening.
So far, so good.
"Cases," positivity rate, hospital and ICU patients with COVID-19, and deaths are all down.
"Cases" are noisy, bouncy, and uneven, for a variety of reasons. Holidays and three-day-weekends impact the reporting. They're a mess. But they're down since Texas reopened 100%, according to @TexasDSHS data.
Next, let's look at the seven-day-averages to get a clearer picture.
The seven-day-average of Texas "cases" of COVID-19:
-DOWN 30.5% from the day Texas "reopened 100%" with no more statewide mask mandate.
-DOWN 54% from the day @GovAbbott made his announcement.
The 7-day-average "case" level is down 87.9% from the peak back in January.
According to @TexasDSHS data, the number of patients in Texas hospitals who also tested positive for COVID-19: down 35.5% since Texas reopened "100%" without a statewide mask mandate.