25 Percent of Wake County 6-12 Grade Students Failing At Least One Class, Administrators OBLIVIOUS As To Why That Could Be

RALEIGH – The Pandemic Panic mongers convinced teachers unions that in-person instruction was a death sentence for teachers due to the coronavirus. Presented with different options, these teacher groups demanded fully remote instruction. The ‘virtual learning’ came at the expense of working parents, but especially the students themselves.

Wake County Public Schools System was one of those that tried to find a balance, at first, but ultimately succumbed to the bullying of the teachers association. Fast forward six or seven months, and one out of every four students, grades 6-12, are failing at least one class.

From ABC11:

“The Wake County Public School System released troubling information on first-quarter grading and attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Approximately a quarter of secondary students — grades 6 through 12 — had an F in one or more courses and approximately 8.8% of students have four or more absences, according to information discussed during a work session Tuesday for district board members.

The district is trying to get to the root cause of what’s causing it. […]”

Here’s the assessment from a couple of Wake County Public Schools Assistant Superintendents:

“[…] “There’s a pretty wide range and it could range from anywhere from housing instability and moving to food insecurity sometimes it’s about caring for another sibling or it’s that students are working because they’re trying to support their families financially,” said WCPSS Asst. Superintendent for Student Support Services Paul Koh.

“While there are obviously multiple factors at play here often outside of our control and while given the trends that we’re seeing across the state and the nation that perhaps make a decline in grades and student attendance less than surprising, any time we see an increase in the number of students that are struggling, regardless of the circumstances, we are of course concerned and also committed to finding opportunities to improve outcome,” added WCPSS Asst. Superintendent for Academics Drew Cook. […]”

Oh, gee, what on earth could it be? Maybe it’s the MONTHS OF NOT LETTING KIDS GO TO SCHOOL IN PERSON, FOLLOWED BY FITS AND STARTS OF IN PERSON/VIRTUAL “LEARNING”?!

Nope; that can’t be it. It must be food insecurity.

Either these are the most oblivious school administrators on the planet, or, when faced with the consequences of horrible policy decisions, these administrators have to engage willful ignorance in order to avoid admitting the damage being done to students by those policies.

The “root cause” of so many students failing classes is not lost on the parents, however:

From CBS17 on the same issue:

“[…] Parents with children in Wake County schools say they’re not surprised.

“I think that they need to be in front of a teacher getting that interaction. Things need to be very hands-on for them for it to motivate them and I think that remote learning is probably not serving them very well,” said Karen O’Leary, a parents of a Wake County student. […]”

Of all the negative fall out from Pandemic Panic, this may be the most significant. Kids don’t only benefit from in-person instruction because of interacting with the teachers; the benefits from being with peers, socially interacting are myriad.

The anecdotes of school kids that are completely dejected whenever they’re relegated to remote learning without these interactions are a dime a dozen. You likely know kids, or have some of your own, that were straight A students before the panic shutdowns, and are now struggling mightily. Not because they’re not smart, but because going to school for a few days, or a week, only to be kept at home for the next weeks to learn on the computer, is not conducive to educational engagement. Or, happiness, for that matter.

It’s not easy to make these deficits up. The actions and recommendations of Pandemic Panic mongers are hurting our kids, it is obvious to any honest observer, and the best thing we can do is to reject the misguided panic as forcefully as possible.