John Ewing, president of Math for America, skewers the concept of “learning loss” in this article in Forbes.
I have been a fan of Dr. Ewing ever since I read his article “Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data,” in which he eviscerated the idiotic idea of rating students by the test scores of their students. If you have not read it, you should.
In his latest essay, he shows how various interest groups, politicians, and pundits have used the idea of “learning loss” to promote reopening of schools, regardless of local conditions. The same concept is now used to promote the useless requirement of standardized testing in the midst of the pandemic.
You might say that he is the anti-Emily Oster; Oster is the Brown University economist who has written extensively about why schools should reopen and how young children are unlikely to catch or carry the coronavirus.
Ewing disagrees.
He writes:
With a mix of exasperation and despair, many writers CONTINUE READING: John Ewing: “Learning Loss” is an Absurd Concept | Diane Ravitch's blog