Dear Friends,
There was news this past week concerning test scores in our nation’s public schools. They had fallen as a result of the inability to have regular classes and teaching during the pandemic. What was not included in the national reporting of the test results were those scores from the nation’s Catholic schools. Since Cabrini is a great supporter of All Saints Catholic School, I thought you should be aware of the national results for our Catholic Schools. The following was taken from an article in AMERICA magazine by Kevin Clarke.
“Years of progress in math (on the N.A.E.P.) were reversed during the pandemic as math scores saw their largest decrease ever, and reading scores dropped to 1992 levels. Nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts. Not a single state saw a notable improvement in average test scores, with some simply treading water.
But the nation’s Catholic schools either held the line on their previous N.A.E.P. scores or lost substantially less ground than both public and charter schools. On eighth-grade reading scores, Catholic schools even managed to score a one-point improvement while charter and public schools each lost three points.
According to the N.A.E.P., Catholic school eighth graders scored five points lower in math in 2022 than in 2019, a serious decline but better than the eight-point loss among public school students and the nine-point drop at charter schools. According to the National Catholic Educational Association, Catholic school students’ average scores remained 15 points higher than the average scores of their eighth-grade public school peers in the assessment…
Emerging post-shutdown studies, Ms. Porter-Magee said, support the proposition that the more time students have been able to experience in-person instruction, the better they have performed both academically and in terms of social-emotional learning.
She emphasized the importance of following the science in making decisions about school closings and re-openings as the nation struggles with the lingering pandemic or confronts other health crises that might emerge in the future. She pointed out that Catholic school officials never followed an ‘open at all costs’ approach during the pandemic.
By the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, according to Ms. Porter-Magee, 92 percent of Catholic schools nationwide were open to ‘some kind of in-person learning, compared to only 43 percent of public schools and 34 percent of charter schools. That decision to reopen accounts for the biggest part of the story of the difference in Catholic school achievement,’ she said.”
Good news for our Catholic Schools but a growing concern for so many students who struggle with some of the basic skills that we expect of all our fellow citizens. Hopefully, you caught our Facebook post this past week about one of our parishioners and former All Saint’s student who is now the captain of the UNO basketball team, Akol Arop. If you did not see it, please follow this link to read it online at the Catholic Voice, https://catholicvoiceomaha.com/standout-athlete-puts-faith-before-basketball/. It is a beautiful story of a young person’s ongoing journey in faith. Stories like these give us all hope for a future.
Happy and safe Halloween for those of you who are planning on celebrating. It is a reminder to us that All Saints Day is here. Masses follow the normal Holy Day schedule.
Peace,
Fr. Damian