EDUCATION IN THE NEWS: FALLING TEST SCORES ILLUSTRATE THE DISASTER OF DISTANCE LEARNING

Chalk this up once again to Democrats ' obsession with rewarding political allies at the expense of the public.

New data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that student test scores nationwide suffered their worst decline in history.
The NAEP, also known as the Nation's Report Card, measures student proficiency in reading and math at the fourth and eighth grade levels. This year, it found that students at all levels, from the most advanced in the 90th percentile down to the lowest achievers in the 10th percentile, have seen a significant decline in their math and reading proficiency.

Although there are surely other culprits — in Virginia, for example, Democratic appointees watered down educational standards starting in 2015, followed by precipitous declines in proficiency — the obvious culprit for most of the national decline is distance learning during COVID.

And there's no question that the closures contributed significantly to the decline in learning. There are two proofs of this. First, Catholic schools almost everywhere were open full time by the fall of 2020, and on aggregate, the data show that they avoided the worst of the learning loss, avoiding declines in proficiency in fourth grade math and eighth grade reading.

Moreover, states that kept more schools open experienced smaller declines in proficiency than their peers — a statistically significant result that this chart illustrates graphically.  Read more at

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/falling-test-scores-illustrate-disaster-distance-learning#:~:text=Falling%20test%20scores,largest%20teachers%20union.

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THE NEW EVERYTHING CROTON: IN THE NEWS: PRO-LOCKDOWN RANDI WEINGARTEN CLAIMS VINDICATION AS STUDENT TEST SCORES PLUNGE

IN THE NEWS: PRO-LOCKDOWN RANDI WEINGARTEN CLAIMS VINDICATION AS STUDENT TEST SCORES PLUNGE

 Pro-Lockdown Randi Weingarten Claims Vindication As Students' Test Scores Plunge

America will be grappling with the aftershocks of COVID-related school closures for years, as nearly an entire generation of kids was subjected to learning loss and social isolation at the hands of adults.  We've been covering this issue for many months, and the evidence continues to roll in.  This is just devastating, and the devastation appears to be most acute in places where actual science was ignored, in favor of politicized 'safety.'  The New York Times summarizes the top-line outcomes: MORE AT Pro-Lockdown Randi Weingarten Claims Vindication As Students' Test Scores Plunge (townhall.com)

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YOU MAY ALSO HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE NEW EVERYTHING CROTON: EDUCATION ISSUES, ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS: CATHOLIC SCHOOLS AVOIDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS' LEARNING LOSS, MAYBE BECAUSE THEY WERE ACTUALLY OPEN

NARRATED BY HOWARD DA SILVA,1974, " AND TAKE ME BY THE HAND," WRITTEN, PRODUCED, DIRECTED & SCORED BY ANDRE DE LA VARRE

Welcome to The New Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton--our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses of worship--in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.

NARRATED BY HOWARD DA SILVA,1974,

AND TAKE ME BY THE HAND

WRITTEN, PRODUCED, DIRECTED & SCORED BY ANDRE DE LA VARRE

FROM THE KINGSTON DAILY FREEMAN NEWSPAPER. CLICK ON THE IMAGE.

ROBERT SCOTT'S TREATISE ON CASABLANCA

The late Robert Scott wrote a number of movie treatises over the years and one of his best was on Casablanca. We had a request for the link.

This film is a must see for your bucket list----and Scott's post on the film is a must-read as well.

Read more ABOUT CASABLANCA here.

--Read more about Ingrid Bergman at https://bit.ly/2GkO2eh

--Read more about Humphrey Bogart at https://bit.ly/2l6nrGy 

--Read more about Conrad Veidt, who played the villainous Nazi major at https://bit.ly/2lTwkHr

--Read more about Claude Rains here AND more about Paul Henreid here.

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SEE MORE FILMS FOR YOUR BUCKET LIST here.

IN THE NEWS: NY SUPREME COURT ORDERS NYC TO REHIRE, PAY BACK WAGES TO UNVACCINATED CITY EMPLOYEES

The New York state Supreme Court has ordered New York City to rehire and pay back wages to government employees who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19. MORE FROM THE NATIONAL REVIEW HERE.

UPDATED: WATCH: Fired NY firefighter upset by NYC appeal halting unvaccinated workers' reinstatement | Washington Examiner

EDUCATION ISSUES, ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS: CATHOLIC SCHOOLS AVOIDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS' LEARNING LOSS, MAYBE BECAUSE THEY WERE ACTUALLY OPEN

Catholic schools avoided public schools' learning loss — maybe because they were actually open

With news that reading and math test scores saw record drops in the United States during the pandemic, there is fear that this could hurt Democrats. Some are skeptical that closures were a leading cause.

Not only does this argument try to deny every parent’s real-world experience, but it also cuts against the evidence. For instance, Catholic schools outperformed public schools:

Before continuing, we should recall the vitriol with which public officials and commentators attacked Catholic schools that fought to stay open. My former county health czar, Travis Gayles, tried to close all Catholic, Jewish, and other nonpublic schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, and when parents and schools pushed back, he personally attacked them.

“The Archdiocese of Louisville should be ashamed of itself,” wrote columnist Bobby Nichols in the Louisville Courier-Journal in August 2020. “Opening schools to in-person classes is immoral.” (Nichols, to his credit, admitted he was wrong.)

But this isn’t just a story about Catholic schools. It’s also a story about public schools that opened in fall 2020 versus those that didn’t. And the data suggest that being closed harmed children's learning above and beyond other factors. READ MORE AT Catholic schools avoided public schools' learning loss — maybe because they were actually open (msn.com)

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------EDUCATION ISSUES IN THE NEWS: NATION'S REPORT CARD SHOWS LARGEST DROPS EVER RECORDED IN 4TH & 8TH GRADE MATH; CLICK HERE

------LETTER TO THE GAZETTE, PAUL STEINBERG, "NEW VISION" AT CROTON SCHOOLS DIMINISHES ACADEMICS; CLICK HERE

------THE SERIES: HOMESCHOOLING AND ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION ISSUES, EARLY FALL 2022; CLICK HERE

-----Students who graduated high school this year performed worse on the ACT standardized test on average than any previous class for the past 30 years, in yet another sign of the lingering toll of pandemic-era school shutdowns. MORE AT  Standardized Tests: High School Graduate ACT Scores Drop to 30-Year Low | National Review

-----Weingarten and the union; more here and here

CONGRATULATIONS TO CROTON BOYS SOCCER SENIORS FOR THEIR TOUGH EFFORT IN SECTIONALS

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FROM THE CROTON HARMON BOOSTER CLUB FB PAGE -  Congratulations to our Boys Soccer Seniors!!! We are proud of their tough effort in sectionals!!! Tiger Pride!!! SEE SOME PHOTOS AT

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IN THE NEWS: STATE AGs SAY FAUCI, ZUCKERBERG "COLLUDED" T0 KILL COVID LAB LEAK THEORY

State AGs say Fauci, Zuckerberg 'colluded' to kill COVID lab leak theory----On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt will get a chance to depose Fauci and other Biden administration officials on these collaborations as their case proceeds. One key fact they want to prove is that Fauci worked with Facebook and others to tamp down talk that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.

"Defendant Dr. Anthony Fauci, a senior federal government official, coordinating with others, orchestrated a campaign to discredit the lab-leak hypothesis in early 2020," Landry and Schmitt state in their brief. "As director of NIAID, Dr. Fauci had funded risky 'gain-of-function' research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through intermediaries such as EcoHealth Alliance, headed by Dr. Peter Daszak."

"Thus, if the lab-leak theory were established, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Daszak could be potentially implicated in funding the research on viruses that caused the COVID19 pandemic and killed millions of people worldwide," they said.  MORE AT https://www.foxnews.com/politics/state-ags-fauci-zuckerberg-colluded-kill-covid-lab-leak-theory