I had an unexpected surprise yesterday morning.  While I was walking along a Gulf of Mexico beach, a green sea turtle swam right past me, climbed out of the ocean onto the sand, stopped and stared at me for a moment, and then proceeded to make its way across the beach to find a place to lay its eggs.  Although she was a small green turtle (about the size of a dinner plate), she scooted surprisingly fast as she found her way across the beach and up into the dunes.
 
After reporting the turtle sighting to the Turtle Patrol, I thought how sad it would be if we were not able to enjoy watching a sea turtle scoot across the sand to lay her eggs.
 
June 16, 2022 was “World Sea Turtle Day.”  It’s okay if you didn’t remember or didn’t do anything special, because you can still help today.  What the sea turtles need more than anything else is for you to help keep plastics and trash off the beach and out of the ocean.  How?
 
Two ways:  (1) put on plastic gloves and pick up trash every single time you go to the beach and (2) recycle plastics and keep plastics out of the ocean.  Plastics are deadly for turtles.
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For more details on how you can help, read:  WORLD SEA TURTLE DAY - June 16, 2022 - National Today
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We also need to recycle.  Researchers say that it takes 400+ years for plastic to decompose in a landfill.  It even takes 50+ years for your aluminum drink can or that Styrofoam picnic plate to decompose.  So, yes, pick up your trash but also recycle whenever possible.  If your area doesn’t recycle, start a recycling program.
 
So, let’s extend “World Sea Turtle Day” beyond just one day.  Let’s make it an everyday event that we do something kind for the sea turtles. 
 
When we don’t take care of sea turtles, they end up being injured like the turtle in the picture at the top of the page.  Or, worse, your trash can even kill a sea turtle.  Help a sea turtle today.

Photo by Elaine Clanton Harpine

“We are asking children to be heroes. We are teaching them to barricade themselves in classrooms and dive under desks and play dead and not cry. And if they survive the terror, we expect them to carry on and accept a mass shooting as just part of the school day.”
 
The 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning author, Robin Givhan, wrote this passage for the Washington Post this week, but her best writing was yet to come.  She went on to say,
 
“But we have long ceased to believe legislators will show signs of heroism. Finally, in the last weeks, they’ve come to the table to talk, ….  But after more than 200 mass shootings so far this year, it’s too late for anyone on Capitol Hill to be a hero. But perhaps this time, there won’t be so many cowards.
 
In her article, Givhan summarized the feelings of anger that are sweeping across our nation right now.  She ended with a bit of hope that our anger will be enough this time to bring about change. 
 
Givhan was correct, Capitol Hill will not be producing any heroes. No, most likely, the only thing Capitol Hill will produce is the same number of cowards as usual. 
 
Anger is everywhere. Will we divert that anger in a positive way, or will it lead to violence?
 
 
Will The Nation’s Anger Be Enough This Time? 
 
What if we use our anger for good? If Capitol Hill will not act, will we as a nation get angry enough to bring about change -- safe schools for students and teachers? 
 
Will anger help us stop the terror and psychological harm (as well as physical harm) that is threatening the very lives of our children? Listen to the anger, pain, and fear expressed by one child survivor from Uvalde:  
 
Do you hear the anger?  Yes, anger.
 
“Wait,” you may be saying, “I thought anger was bad.”
 
There are three types of anger:   constructive (motivating into action), violent (aggressive, harmful to others), and passive (depressive or dangerous to self).
 
In this blog post, we will discuss the first two types of anger:  constructive and violent.  In Part 3, we will talk about passive or self-destructive anger.

 
Constructive Anger
 
When Givhan talks about anger, she is talking about anger as a way of motivating people to action, getting people to do something to stop mass murders in schools.
 
The anger of mass murderers that causes school shootings is very different.  Therefore, anger can be used to bring about positive change or it can be very destructive, even violent.
 
How can anger be both good and bad? 
 
Obviously, we need a deeper understanding of anger.  Let’s see if we can get a better grasp of exactly what anger is and what causes anger to become dangerous.
 
 
What Is Anger?

Anger is an emotion; an emotion that can get out of control and be very dangerous, even deadly, but it is still an emotion.  Emotions are reactions.  Uncontrolled anger often leads to violence.  A person with uncontrolled anger may hurt themselves or turn their anger on others in an act of violence.  An organization called Mind, which states that one of its goals is to help people understand mental illness (what it is and what it is not), gives the following definition of anger.
 
“Feelings of anger arise due to how we interpret and react to certain situations. Everyone has their own triggers for what makes them angry, but some common ones include situations in which we feel threatened or attacked, frustrated or powerless, or treated unfairly.”
  
You might be saying, “well, I get angry, but I don’t go out and shoot someone.” 
 
This is true.  Each and every day (without fail), every single one of us gets angry about something.  Maybe it's just your neighbor letting their dog use that darling little lawn decoration that you put out in your front yard as a fireplug. 
 
Anger is an emotional reaction to what is happening in our world.  Our emotional reactions are influenced by the way in which we “perceive” a situation or action.  We all interpret situations differently.  A situation that makes you happy, might make me angry.  Or a situation that might merely be an annoyance for you, might make me furious.  Just because our reactions are different doesn’t make one person right and the other wrong.  It makes us individuals. 
 
It also doesn’t make anger a mental illness.
 
 
What Is Mental Illness?
 
Let’s define our terms.  Then, we will look at the root causes of anger.
 
First, mental illness is defined as a state of mind or the soundness of one’s personality.  What are the most common mental disorders?

• Anxiety Disorders
• Depression
• Bipolar Disorders
• Schizophrenia
• Personality Disorders
• Substance Abuse
• Eating Disorders
• Mood Disorders
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders

 
The list might vary, depending on who you are talking with, but this is a standard description.  Did you notice that anger is not on the list?  That’s because anger is not a mental illness; it is an emotion.
 
  
Why Do We Say That Anger Is Not a Mental Illness?
 
According to the American Psychological Association and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), anger is not a diagnosable mental disorder.  The DSM-5 (the manual used to diagnose mental disorders) does not contain a diagnosis for anger.
 
Why?  Because we all experience anger.  Being angry does not make you mentally ill.  Also, anger can be both good and bad.  If we become angry enough over nonexistent gun laws and the slaughter of young children, maybe we as a nation will finally do something.  In that case, our nationwide anger would be driving us to do something good.  You certainly wouldn’t call anger that motivates us to save the lives of innocent children a mental illness, would you?
 
As one writer stated, we like to call shooters “evil,” but the shooter is not the only one who is evil.
 
“Granted the massacre of innocent children reflects an evil heart, politicians and leaders set on giving evil hearts easy access to tools of mass death share some responsibility for that evil. These politicians and their supporters are part of the structural injustice that gives individual evil room to operate.”
 
So, if we say that mass murderers are mentally ill, are we also saying that organizations like the NRA and their supporters are mentally ill?  Because it is their actions (refusing gun control laws) that are supporting evil mass murderers and allowing such massacres as Uvalde to take place.  We cannot just throw out the term “mental illness” as a scapegoat.  That will not solve anything.
 
As I have said before, you cannot have it both ways.  You cannot say that one person is mentally ill because he pulled the trigger on a gun that you sold him and taunted him to use.  Then say, that the person who sold the gun (knowing full well that the only reason for owning an assault weapon is to kill people) is not mentally ill for supporting and enabling mass murder.
 
Many who say that they are “pro-life” also say that they are against gun control.  If you are actually pro-life, you must also be pro-life for the innocent children sitting in the classroom.  You cannot chant and march in the streets for the “rights” of the unborn fetus and then dance at the NRA convention while murdered children are being mourned and buried. 

 
So, What Should We Do?
 
We are, in essence, sending students each day into a war zone called the classroom. 
How do we make the terror stop?  How do we make the pain go away?  How do we remove the fear that is saturating our schools?
 
The NRA and their supporters are blaming mental illness but as we have shown mental illness is actually not the problem.

 
Guns Kill, Not Mental Illness.
 
Newsweek offers five charts that demonstrate the dramatic and horrible increase in gun crime, especially in schools.  The number of children and teens killed in schools has risen dramatically since 2018.  I hope you’ll take a moment to look over these graphs. 
 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a psychologist, I am always in support of increasing funding for mental health (and we need it), but that will not stop mass murder in the classroom.  The killing will go on.  We must do more.
 
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For more on anger and violence, read:  Is It Physically and Psychologically Harmful for Children to Go to School?  Part 1
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Can We Control Anger?
 
Controlling anger is not as easy as pushing a button or prescribing a new medication.
Anger is an emotion, a reaction.  Emotions are how we react to situations or circumstances in our life.  Emotions are triggered by stimuli.  It could be something someone said, an action, or an event that takes place.  Each of us have had an emotional reaction to the murders in Uvalde, but no two emotional reactions are the same—not even with identical twins. 
 
As one source notes, emotions are individual; they are derived from your personality, your experiences, and your perception of the world around you:
 
“In psychology, emotion is often defined as a complex state of feeling ….  [emotions are] associated with … temperament, personality, mood, and motivation.”
 
So, emotion is a response.  It may be a physical response (some kind of action or reaction), it may be neurological (just thoughts in the brain), or it might be a cognitive response (through communication and interaction with others). 
 
Happiness is also an emotion.  Therefore, emotions can be both positive and negative.  Even with anger, if our frustration and anger causes us to take positive action on gun control, then such anger is actually positive and good.  If on the other hand, someone's anger causes them to go out and buy an assault rifle and murder 19 children and two teachers, then their anger is very, very bad.
 
But as we have established, just because someone does something horrible, does not necessarily mean that the person is mentally incompetent, insane, or even suffering from a mental disorder.  Love and happiness are emotions, so are hate, anger, frustration, and self-centeredness.  
 
Emotions influence every single decision that we make in our life.  Emotions also influence our “perceptions” and the way we view the world, but emotions are not a mental disorder. 
 
You’ll remember that we have talked about perception before.  Perceptions are “what you think,” but your perceptions may not be totally based on reality.  Just because I think something doesn’t make it true.  Remember COVID?  Yes, it still exists.  We have had lots of false information, lies, and distorted “alternative facts” floating around throughout the pandemic—still do.
We have the same problem with anger.  The misinformation machine is pumping out tons of distorted facts and lies in reference to anger and guns.  Remember, perceptions are not necessarily true.  Perceptions are what you think, your opinions.  Your opinion may be based on facts and reality, or your opinion may be based on something you heard or read on social media.
 
Just because you think it doesn’t make it so, just because someone on social media says it doesn’t make it true, just because a conservative news station reports something does not make it honest and factual, just because the NRA says something does not mean you should believe it.
 
Perceptions are also easily influenced by false information or distorted persuasive tactics.  Famous psychologist Albert Bandura devoted an entire chapter of Moral Disengagement:  How People Do Harm and Live with Themselves to the gun industry.  Check your local library, it’s a book worth reading.  Bandura said,
 
“Shifting the blame for mass killings solely to mental illness reframed the debate as a mental health problem rather than a gun problem. The focus on mental illness also diverted attention away from everyday gun violence.” (p. 191)
 
Bandura made this statement after the Sandy Hook massacre where 20 young children and 6 adults were killed.  Again, with Uvalde, we see the NRA and their henchman crying mental illness.  Bandura goes on to explain that such tactics are psychologically deliberate by the NRA and their supporters.  The NRA uses such tactics to change your perceptions.  They distort the facts in order to sell more guns and thereby kill more people.
 
 
How Does Anger Get Out-Of-Control?
 
Remember, our perceptions (our opinions) may or may not be based on facts or reality. 
The problem arises with how we each “react” to our emotions or to anger.
 
Look at what is happening all across the nation right now.  People are angry about the massacre in Uvalde—as they should be.  Well, most people are.  Some people went off partying and dancing at the NRA convention instead of getting angry that children had been murdered.
 
As a result of their anger, many people are finally talking about gun control.  This is good.  If our mutual “anger” causes us to take action, to make changes in gun laws that make it safer for children, teens, and teachers, then our anger has been constructive.  Anger often prods those who are reluctant into action.  As such, anger can be good.
 
But wait, didn’t anger kill 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde?  So, yes, anger can encourage you to take constructive action, but sometimes anger causes the wrong actions. 
 
Exactly when does anger stop being good and become bad?  When anger is out-of-control and hurts someone, even just hurting someone’s feelings, then anger is bad.
 
Often our personal beliefs and judgments of self and others cause out-of-control anger.  Anger is a natural response, but it is how you react or respond to angry emotions that cause the problems.
 
Fear, disappointment, or regret can cause a person to lose control.  When a person feels uncertain, this drives their fear.  Fear is deeply rooted in anger.  Lack of control is often centered in fear.
 
No, someone who goes and murders children in a classroom is NOT brave.  That’s why the shooter is using a gun; he’s out-of-control and afraid of his own feelings of inferiority; therefore, he strikes out at someone he can dominate.
 
Hostility is another level of out-of-control anger.  Hostility is rooted in a negative attitude, usually directed toward others.  Since anger is an emotional state, it is influenced by feelings.  If you hurt my feelings or reject me, I become angry.  These feelings of anger may grow and fester until they either manifest themselves in physical pain toward myself or violence toward you or someone who I can hurt.  As with Uvalde, the children were innocent targets for the shooter’s anger.
 
Pent-up anger may even cause an angry person to attack innocent people—someone who had nothing to do with their frustration or anger.
 
This is what we see happening with mass shooters, particularly school shootings at elementary schools.  Why?  There’s no one specific answer.  Remember each person is different, each person’s reactions to their anger is different.  Some have hypothesized that the shooter was looking for an easy target, but that doesn’t explain all of the mass shootings.  Others have hypothesized that the shooter is returning to a perceived site of his pain.  This idea is much harder to prove but may provide insight into the deeper problem of adjustment. 
 
We may never know, but there are warning signs, red flags.
 
Red flags.

According to Healthline, a few of the warning signs or red flags to watch for are: 

• Someone engaging in self-harming behaviors.

• Someone who expresses anger to those considered weaker, innocent, or less powerful.
• Someone incapable of letting anger go or accepting a situation.  The anger just continues to build and get worse.
• Someone who threatens others, even friends or family.

 
 
What Causes Anger To Become Out of Control?
 
The root causes of anger are feeling embarrassed, being humiliated (either deliberate or perceived), feeling shame from something you've done, frustration, suffering an injustice (real or perceived), feeling intimidated, rage, being hurt by another person, fear, betrayal, being called names, teasing, bullying, lies, being excluded, violation of your rights or expectations (even perceived), hatred, self-pity, a sense of helplessness (there’s no way out), feeling trapped by something you’ve said or done, an intentional verbal or physical attack, uncertainty, and a sense of failure—even academic failure.
Do you notice something about this list?  They are all feelings, feelings that we react to emotionally.  The list also mentions both real and perceived feelings of injustice.  These feelings are also reactions to the words and actions of others.
 
Is Out-Of-Control Anger Always Violent Toward Others?
No, anger can take on different patterns.  Healthline provides a general description.  The following are examples of out-of-control anger.  There is never anything constructive about out-of-control anger.  For example, when marchers in the street become violent, their anger is no longer constructive.  It has crossed over into out-of-control anger.  If you want your anger to be constructive (bring about change), you must keep your anger under control.

• “Outward. This involves expressing your anger and aggression in an obvious way. This can include behavior such as shouting, cursing, throwing or breaking things, or being verbally or physically abusive toward others.
• Inward. This type of anger is directed at yourself. It involves negative self-talk, denying yourself things that make you happy or even basic needs, such as food. Self-harm and isolating yourself from people are other ways anger can be directed inward.
• Passive. This involves using subtle and indirect ways to express your anger. Examples of this passive aggressive behavior include giving someone the silent treatment, sulking, being sarcastic, and making snide remarks.”

 
 
Is It Possible to Cure or Correct Out-Of-Control Anger?
 
Yes, but it is not always easy, nor does every therapy technique work for everyone.  There is no “one size fits all.”  A lot of the advice that you read online doesn’t work which only makes an angry person angrier.
 
I believe anger control techniques only work as one-on-one therapy.  Although I am a very strong believer in group therapy, I believe that you must get control of your anger in a one-on-one therapy setting before you are ready to try controlling your anger in a group.  Groups can complicate anger.  Therapy groups also give a person a chance to try controlling their anger in a controlled setting, but the individual must have control of their anger before they can learn from the group experience.
 
I prefer the term anger “retraining,” rather than “anger management.”  Because if you are not “retraining” the person to control their anger, you will not be successful.  We are not born with controlled emotional responses.  Young children must be taught to control their emotions and anger.  It is a learned skill.  Some people never learn it, no matter how old they become.
 
Lectures never work, and neither do motivational talks.  They are a total waste of time.  
 
I think that cognitive restructuring works best with anger retraining.  True cognitive restructuring can only be taught effectively by highly trained psychological professionals.  This is not something that the schools can teach or even the school counselor.  You need a trained professional.  Restructuring doesn’t happen instantly; it takes time. 
 
BetterHelp describers cognitive restructuring.
 
“Cognitive restructuring is something we can all benefit from….  Typically, restructuring involves acknowledging a thought that may be maladaptive and actively working to reframe or challenge it.
 
How you talk to yourself is every bit as important as how you talk to others, perhaps more so. When you tell yourself negative things like "Everything is ruined," you are perpetuating a negative emotion. When you change your thinking to tell yourself "This is upsetting, and it's understandable to be angry, but now, it's time to find solutions," you turn that negative energy into something that can help you move forward.”
  
This is why I say that the proposed mental health spending to stop mass murders will not work.  Let me say again, I definitely agree that we need to increase mental health funding, especially for professionally trained mental health personnel in schools and for establishing actual mental health clinics in schools.  Unfortunately, anger is an act of violence; therefore, just funding mental health will not stop mass shootings. 
 

What Can We Do as a Society?
 
Stop bickering and control guns, especially assault weapons.  Gun control does not mean that guns are going to be abolished, but availability has been proven to be at the center of the mass shooting sprees.  Many of the mass school shooters purchased their guns less than a year before they massacred students and teachers.  Remember, anger is an emotional reaction.  If you control availability, you go a long way toward controlling the out-of-control anger.
 
Anger kills.  Easy access makes it easier to kill, and when gun advertisements encourage young men to kill, then such advertisements simply encourage out-of-control anger and rage.  Gun advertisements tempt angry young men and persuasively plant the seeds of murder.  Yes, we need gun control in order to stop the anger, and we also need control over gun advertisements. These ads often target children: 
 
“The week before the Texas shooting, Daniel Defense [a gun salesman] posted a photograph on Facebook and Twitter, showing a little boy sitting cross-legged, an assault rifle balanced across his lap. “Train up a child in the way he should go,” the caption reads, echoing a biblical proverb. “When he is old, he will not depart from it.”
 
The ad was posted online on May 16th, the shooter’s 18th birthday.  The next day, the shooter bought his first gun.
 
Forget the NRA’s propaganda.  Guns kill.
 
Be pro-life for the children sitting in the classroom.  Let the children live so that they will have an opportunity to learn and grow up to enjoy life.
 
This Summer
 
Children need help this summer to make up learning losses in reading, but we can’t teach children to read, if they are too terrified to sit in the classroom or go to school. 
 
Tutoring has been described by the schools as the method most likely to help students overcome learning losses.

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Read for more on tutoring methods:  What Kind of Tutoring Programs Do We Need to Correct the Learning Losses Caused by COVID?  Part 2

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I’m emphasizing one-on-one and small group tutoring this summer.  Contact me if you have questions or need help setting up a tutoring program.

After 19 children and 2 teachers were murdered in Uvalde, Texas, many parents and teachers are beginning to ask if schools are safe. 

Anger is not a diagnosable mental illness, but anger and hate often lead to violence and murder, even in schools. We also need to recognize that school shootings cause psychological harm, even to children who are not themselves shot or killed.
 
Therefore, we must ask could the sale of guns, especially assault weapons, be restricted under our constitution and laws to make our schools safe for students and teachers?
 

Are Children Safe in Schools?
 
Let’s turn to a professional consultant on public safety.  Kevin R. Brock, former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI and director of the National Counterterrorism Center, answers the question by stating,
 
“No child in our schools today is completely safe from being shot and killed while in the classroom. If that is an unacceptable risk to you as a parent, you should not be sending your children into these unsafe environments.”
​
You might at first think Kevin Brock is exaggerating the danger.  Yet, as Brock goes on to explain more than 300,000 children have been subjected to gun violence in schools.  He also states that there have been 185 deaths from gun violence in schools.  Uvalde was the 24th act of gun violence in a K-12 school this year.  Notice that he is only quoting statistics from gun violence in schools, not the streets, not the neighborhood—just schools.
 
Yes, schools have become very, very dangerous places indeed, and, no, at present it is not physically safe for children to go to school. Even more, however, the psychological harms of school shootings spread far beyond classrooms full of dead bodies.
 
 
Does Gun Violence Cause Psychological Harm? 
 
I’ll just give one example for now.  We’ll talk more about fear and the psychological harm that fear causes in Part 2.
 
For now, I turn to Nicole Hockley, mother of Dylan, a first grader who was killed at Sandy Hook, and Jake (at the time a third grader at the same school).  She writes to say she asked Jake (who is now 17) how he was feeling after he heard about the Uvalde massacre.  Jake’s response was, “I just felt numb.”
 
She goes on to explain,
 
“I realized this is all my son has ever known. Almost 10 years ago, he hid in his third-grade classroom, listening to what he thought were metal chairs crashing into each other over the school’s messaging system. What he was hearing was 154 bullets being fired from an AR-15, killing 20 first-graders and six educators. What he heard was his little brother, Dylan, being murdered.
 
“In the 10 years since Jake hid in his classroom, 948 school shootings have occurred, taking the lives of and wounding more than 35,000 children and teens, according to Gun Violence Archive. In the first five months of this year, we have had 233 mass shootings in the U.S., and 27 shootings in schools. This is the trauma that is shaping the psyche of this generation.
“When not hearing about school shootings in the news, these are the kids that are practicing for them multiple times a year in active shooter drills. I remember two years ago, after the shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., seeing a young student on the news saying she wondered when her school would be next.
 
“This is what too many youth believe – that school shootings and gun violence are an inevitable part of their lives.”1
 
 
What Should We Do about the Unsafe Conditions in Our Schools?
 
As a parent whose child died at the Sandy Hook massacre stated,

“… escalating gun violence will not stop if we don’t address easy, unrestricted access to firearms. It’s not about taking away Constitutional rights – it’s about sensible regulations that protect our collective right to life.”
  
This parent raises an important point:  Do children sitting in the classroom have a right to live? 
 
Before you answer, remember that we have been bombarded lately by pro-life supporters claiming that we are ignoring the rights of the unborn fetus.  No, I do not plan to dive into a discussion on abortion, except to mention that the same people and politicians who vocally profess to be pro-life are also staunch supporters of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and assault rifles.  Politicians were actually dancing and partying at the NRA convention while families were mourning the death of children in Uvalde.  Obviously, the NRA and their politicians did not care that children had died.
 
How can you be pro-life and stand by pretending to care while children are being murdered?  No, you cannot have it both ways.  You cannot be pro-life and pro-murder at the same time. 
 
Children have rights, too.  Children have the right to live and go to a safe school where they can learn without sitting in fear that someone will come charging through the door and kill them.
 
 
Shouldn’t a Living, Breathing Child Have Just as Much of a Right to Live as an Unborn Fetus? 
 
Yes, I know, I can hear the screaming all the way from here—It’s a mental health issue.  That’s the first thing Governor Abbott said, but let’s not take the word of a politician who is scrambling to win an election.  Again, let’s talk to an expert.
 
Dr. Lori Post, Ph.D., director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at the Northwestern University School of Medicine, explains very clearly why the mental health claim falls short.
 
“There is no evidence the shooter is mentally ill, just angry and hateful. While it is understandable that most people cannot fathom slaughtering small children and want to attribute it to mental health, it is very rare for a mass shooter to have a diagnosed mental health condition.”
 
So, no matter how much Governor Abbott and Senator Cruz would like to shift the blame away from assault rifles, there is absolutely no proof that a diagnosable mental illness caused the massacre at Uvalde.
 
 
Is Gun Violence Caused by Mental Health Disease?
 
To solve a problem, we must find out what causes it. Many people think that better mental health care will prevent school shootings. As a psychologist, I strongly support better mental health care. Yes, we need funding for professional mental health services in the schools.  Mental health, however, is not the main cause of school shootings.

Don’t get me wrong: anger and hate are problems in our society today.  Anger and hate are real, and they are dangerous, but they are not a diagnosable mental illness.  Can anger and hate lead to mental illness? 
 
Anger and hate could possibly lead to a diagnosable mental disease, but they are much more likely to lead one to violence as demonstrated by the prevalence of gun violence in our country. 
 
Anger is an emotion.  Uncontrolled anger leads to outbursts and violence.
 
As Lauren Simonds, from the National Alliance of Mental Illness, explains very clearly,
 
“Violence is not a product of mental illness….  Violence is a product of untreated anger. The contribution of mental illness to overall gun violence in the United States is smaller than two percent….  Mental illness is a significant underlying cause of suicide. But mental illness is not an underlying cause of community violence.”
 
I’m sorry politicians, you will need to find another scapegoat.  While I believe that we desperately need to provide funding for professional mental health services and I hope that we do, blaming mass murder in schools with assault rifles on mental illness will not work. If mental health is not the problem, could it be that weapons are the problem?
 
 
Are Assault Rifles the Problem?
 
Yes, plain and simple, one of the problems is large-magazine assault rifles.  We must remove them from civilian use.  We must also realize that mass shootings in schools are being caused primarily by a particular age group.
 
The majority of mass shootings in schools are by young men 21 years or younger.  As Nathaniel J. Glasser, pediatrician and health services researcher, and Harold Pollack, professor at Crown Family School of Social Work at the University of Chicago explained,

“… most firearm violence and gun homicides are committed by relatively young people, with homicide risk peaking between the ages of 18 and 24. This is conspicuously true of accused, convicted or slain mass shooters: Salvador Ramos (18) in Uvalde; Payton Gendron (18) charged in Buffalo; Nikolas Cruz (19) in Parkland, Fla.; Adam Lanza (20) in Newtown, Conn.; Dylann Roof (21) in Charleston, S.C.; Robert Aaron Long (21) in Atlanta; Elliot Rodger (22) in Isla Vista, Calif.”
 
The exception of course was Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at Columbine.  They had not turned 18 yet, but the friend who purchased the weapons for them was 18 years old.
 
Age and gender are major factors in the mass murders that are occurring in our schools.
 
 
Why?
Some researchers who study mass violence in schools are pointing to the fact that the “decision-making” portion of the brain does not fully develop until age 24.  This decision-making area in the brain also controls impulse, judgment, and the ability to think through decisions and make long-term plans. 
 
Still other experts believe that the mass shootings in schools are intertwined in male identify and adolescent behavior.  This can extend all the way into the early twenties.  Experts remind us that many firearm advertisements link firearm violence to masculinity. 
 
As Glasser and Pollack explain,

“In 2012, shortly before Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic rifle to kill 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the firearm appeared in a series of advertisements that enticed prospective buyers to reclaim their “man card” by purchasing the weapon.”
 
Yes, some people will do anything to sell a gun. 
 
Plain and simple, assault rifles should be banned from our streets and sent back to soldiers fighting wars.  Young people should not be allowed to buy any guns.
 
Yes, I know that you are going to say that these young people have rights.  The students who were murdered at Uvalde, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Parkland, Santa Fe … and the list goes on… also had rights.  Yes, each of the students who were killed had rights as well.  Unfortunately, their right to live and grow up was taken away by non-existent gun laws and uncaring politicians who will not pass restrictions on guns.
 
Why is one young person’s right or freedom to own a gun more important than another young person’s right to live?
 
Can We Legally Restrict Guns?
Naturally, when you talk about restricting guns, people begin to chant about the 2nd Amendment, but does the 2nd Amendment actually give young men or anyone the right to own an assault rifle?  I want to turn to two individuals who talked about this very question.
 
First, Kennan E. Kaeder, a trial lawyer, who wrote an article entitled:  Do you have the right to a gun?  Yes.  A constitutional right?  No.  I hope you read this insightful article.  I’ll just quote one passage:
 
“… no right is unlimited. That there is a limitation of our rights is fundamental to being civilized. So, for instance, the Supreme Court long ago held that your right to self-expression stops at the tip of the other guy’s nose. You have the right to own a car, but you don’t have the right to drive it at 100 mph through Downtown San Diego.
 
“You do have the right to own a gun, but you shouldn’t have one that can kill dozens so quickly. Just like the state can require you to have a license to drive a car by being a certain age and demonstrating competence with driving skills and regard for public safety, so, too, the state can place reasonable limits on property ownership, such as guns. There is no legitimate purpose to own a semi-automatic rifle, any more than you should be able to own a ballistic missile. And that’s all there really is to it. You can own a gun, as many as you like, but the type can be limited for the safety of others. Mass shootings could so easily be made a thing of the past.”

It's ridiculous to think we cannot restrict gun ownership, especially assault rifles.  Listen to another well written comment on guns by Gary Cosby, Jr.:

“… the Second Amendment does not provide the completely unrestricted right to keep and bear arms. There is the mostly ignored phrase that begins the amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State …. 
 
“In the late 1700s, folks used muskets that fired a single ball, which had to be manually recharged with powder, wadding and shot before the gun could be fired again….
 
“The volunteers who made up George Washington’s army were farmers and shop-keepers and everyday people who were expected to come to the defense of their nation should the need arise.  

“They had to have firearms to do that. Had the framers of the Constitution ever considered that the Second Amendment would be used to enable mass murderers, they would have never written it in such an open-ended manner. No rational person would have done so.
 
“… [the framers of the Constitution never] could have imagined a day when a gun rights lobby would buy off congressmen and congresswomen who, for fear of losing an office, would do everything possible to gloss over the violence, taking what amounts to blood money to maintain the status quo. 
 
“There is a literal mandate within the Second Amendment itself that gun ownership would be a protected right within the scope of a well-regulated militia. There is no guarantee of gun ownership apart from such a condition. Congress has both a moral and a constitutional mandate to come up with reasonable laws and regulations to put the brakes on the accelerating violence because turning a blind eye to the situation is clearly costing lives.”  
 
I chose to share both of these statements because they speak very directly to one of the primary problems that we have with guns.  People on the streets and our elected politicians, even judges and the supreme court are interpreting the 2nd Amendment to meet the dictates of the NRA and its large financial campaign contributions rather than actually looking at what the 2nd Amendment says. 

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For clarification on the actual wording of the 2nd Amendment, read Bill's:  Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking: Why Does the Second Amendment's Ambiguous Wording Cause So Much Confusion?
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It’s time for a change.  We must stop gun violence.  Every time you stop at a stop sign, you are adhering to an infringement on your freedom to do as you very well please.  We accept such infringements on our freedom to choose in order to maintain order and safety on the road.  It's time that we do the same for guns.  No one has the constitutional right to go out and kill children or anyone.  The only way it will stop is when we start passing laws to make it stop.
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For more on the 2nd Amendment, read Bill's:  Harpine's Thoughts about Public Speaking: The Second Amendment's Creative Ambiguity
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It is time for us to stop killing children pretending that we are protecting 2nd Amendment rights or someone’s freedom to purchase and own a gun.  Wrong.  What we are doing is condoning the mass murder of children.  Politicians who refuse to enact gun control laws are supporting the continuation of the mass murder of children.  It has to stop.  Now.
 
Children have the right to live.  Be “pro-life” for the children sitting in the classroom.  Let them live.  Let them grow up.  Let them have a chance.

Many people are saying, “Oh, COVID, that’s gone, everything’s fine now,” but is it? 
 
Let’s check the facts for this week:
 
“The U.S. is averaging 108,065 cases a day, up 53% from two weeks ago….  Cases are higher in nearly every state, but the Northeast and Midwest are being particularly hard hit ….”
 
New York and Los Angeles are on high alert and urging people to wear a mask.  Philadelphia and Massachusetts have very high numbers, and COVID may even be worse than what is being reported because many people are doing home testing and not reporting positive test results. 
 
This is not a political stunt.  This is real, and we need to remember that one million people have died in the U.S. from COVID. 
 
COVID is back.  Actually, it never went away, and the BA.2.12.1 is said to be even more contagious.  So, get vaccinated and put your mask back on.
 
 
Mandatory Mask Mandates  
      
Several schools are calling for mandatory mask mandates.

Brookline, Massachusetts (near Boston) has reinstated an indoor mask mandate for the town, including the schools.
 
“The mandate that began Monday requires everyone to wear a face covering over their mouth and nose while inside the library, senior center, all public schools and any other town-owned indoor spaces where the public gathers.   … school dashboard, [has tracked a] steady upward trend since mid-April…. Data shows 232 students and staff in the district of more than 7,700 students tests positive last week.”
 
It’s not just Brookline.  On May 24th, Philadelphia public schools also reinstated a face-mask mandate for students and teachers. 
 
Of course, some students and teachers never stopped wearing their masks.  Even when school boards gave in to the hysterical screaming over the fear of masks, some students and teachers, the smart ones, kept right on wearing their masks every single day, all day long. 
 
As one man said, “I accidently fell asleep with my N-95 on; I’ve never slept better.”
 
So, with mask mandates returning, can the chanting, screaming hoards on the sidewalks and at the school board meetings be far behind?  No, they’re probably printing off new signs right now.
 
But what about the children?
 
 
New Vaccines for Children

​There are new vaccines for children.  The booster for children 5 years and older is available now.  The vaccine for children under 5 years of age will hopefully be ready in June.

• “… children 5 years and older already have access to a COVID-19 vaccine -- and now a booster shot -- through Pfizer's two-dose vaccine….”

 

• “Three doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine produced a “strong immune response” in children under five, according to results from a clinical trial….”   

 
So, what is stopping parents from getting their children vaccinated?  Will misinformation on social media keep parents from vaccinating their children?  I hope not.  A study from Brown University this month stated that 318,000 lives could have been saved in the U. S. if people had just been willing to get vaccinated.  Unfortunately, some of those people who died were children.
 
I can hear it now on the talk shows and social media sites.  They’ll be screaming and yelling that children don’t really get that sick.  That is false. 
 
As Ibukun Kalu, a pediatric-infectious-disease specialist at Duke University stated, 
 
“But children do fall seriously ill with COVID-19. Since the pandemic’s start, the virus has killed more than a thousand kids; thousands more have developed a serious inflammatory condition called MIS-C. The Omicron wave hospitalized the youngest Americans—the least vaccinated Americans—at rates higher than in any other surge.”
 
As Dr. Kalu explains, we should be taking every opportunity to vaccinate our children to protect them from getting COVID.  Vaccinations save lives.  Vaccinations keep children from getting severely ill.  Forget the misinformation on social media, save the children.  Children do not get a chance to decide for themselves.  We, as adults, must make the decision for the children. 
 
Misinformation Kills

Yes, I know, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but facts are facts, opinions are opinions.  No, there are not two sets of facts.  “Alternative facts” do not exist; that is just misinformation and lies.  The fact is we need to vaccinate our children.  And yes, they should be wearing masks.
 
Vaccinating children is a medical question, not a political play toy.  Yes, COVID has killed children.  Yes, we have the vaccine to keep that from happening—if we will only use it.
 
Mary Papenfuss wrote in a recent article for Huffington Post,
 
“While COVID-19 death rates in regions are affected by several factors, including things like wealth and access to health care, death rates closely followed rates of vaccinations, which Republican lawmakers, activists and media personalities often railed against. Not only did they urge people not to get the vaccine, but often spread frightening disinformation about the vaccines.”
  
Unfortunately, doctors and experts fear that many children will die even though the vaccine is now available for them.  Don’t let politicians dictate how you care for your children.  As I have said before, take medical questions to doctors and political questions to politicians.  COVID is not a political question.  It is a medical issue.  Save the children; get your child vaccinated.
  
As Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University School of Public Health, said,
 
"How you vote should not predict whether you die of COVID…."
 
So, yes, we should definitely be concerned about COVID.  It has not disappeared, and it is just as deadly as always. 

It has been proven over and over.  When you put the vaccine and the N-95 mask together, you have provided children and parents with a degree of safety from COVID.  No, it’s not perfect. Also, as has been proven, if you take the masks away, the vaccine may not be enough to keep you from getting sick.  So, give your child every chance to grow up and be an adult.  Get your child vaccinated and give them a mask.
 
Next time, I want to explore new research that is just becoming available showing that there may be a connection between COVID-19 and the new severe cases of hepatitis in children.

A 19-year-old Texas youth recently said,
 
“We are tired of fearing for our lives. 
We are tired of prayers without action.”
 
A young self-proclaimed teen activist made this statement after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday. 
 
As the young teen explained, even the “active shooter drills” can be terrifying for students.
 
"I was terrified. There were countless days where I was afraid to go to school … it wasn't your school today, but you have no way of knowing if it's going to be your school tomorrow…."
 
She went on to say,
 
"I was 10 years old when Sandy Hook happened, now 10 years later the same thing is happening and nothing has been done to stop children from dying in schools."
  
Yes, it is hard to imagine that in 10 years we have done absolutely nothing to keep children safe in school.  Politicians are lining up to blame each other.  Yet will anything really change?  Probably not.
  
Prayers are good, but as this young adult points out, we need to do more.
 
 
What Should We Do?
 
Students frequently fear going to school.  People march in the streets and scream and yell for the “freedom” to buy more and more guns.  Politicians argue and give speeches that accomplish nothing.  More children die. 
 
Most of the solutions being offered by politicians are worthless.  As Zeeshan Aleem pointed out in one news article, handing out guns to teachers will not help and neither will turning the school into a windowless prison.  Interesting article, I hope you read it.
 
So, what is the answer?
  
As a psychologist, I believe that you always need to look at the root cause of a problem or situation.  Absolutely no 18-year-old should ever be allowed to buy an assault rifle with tons of ammunition.  Yet, the problem is deeper than just getting guns off the street, but that’s a good place to start.
 
 
Something Needs to Change
  
If you look back at almost every school shooting, there were warning signs.  We absolutely must stop ignoring these warning signs.  The reports are sketchy on the news, but if the reports are accurate and the shooter actually cut his own face and bragged about it, that is a warning sign that should not have been ignored.  If the shooter actually threatened another teen’s life or said, “I’m going to kill you.”  That’s a warning sign.  Such warnings should never be ignored.  Yet, teens are afraid to report such actions.  I can understand and sympathize with their fear.  Our system frequently does not support the victim.
 
 
Change
 
What if we had a national hotline for reporting questionable behaviors?  What if when a student is threatened at school, they could call or text and report behavior that they feel might be dangerous? 
 
What if it was totally anonymous?  What if students felt safe to come forward and report questionable behavior?  What if such calls were reviewed by actual mental health professionals with the training to know the difference between someone who needs help and someone who was just complaining?
  
Yes, I have no doubt that there would be several prank calls, but if investigating such calls for help could save children’s lives, wouldn’t it be worth it?
  
Yes, our thoughts and prayers are with the families in Uvalde and all families who have been touched by violence.  Next, we need to stop the violence so that no more children or teachers die.  Children shouldn’t be afraid to go to school.

Everyone agrees that we need quality tutoring programs.  Yet, we also know that many tutoring programs of the past have not been successful.  Where can we find guidelines for developing quality tutoring programs?
​
Unfortunately, when I looked for guidelines, I only found general suggestions.  Some were good, such as this one from Potsdam State University of New York.  Be honest, flexible, patient, and a good listener.  Good ideas but not enough.
 
I searched for more.

​Derry Koralek and Ray Collins give advice on how to set up a tutoring program and interview potential tutors.  A good list of ideas, but still, how can the actual tutor know how to develop a quality program? 
 
I kept searching.

James Larson provided a bit more content on exactly how to structure a tutoring session—from the tutor’s point-of -view.  I particularly liked his statement:
​
            “Adapt your teaching method to the student’s learning method.”
 
Yet still, I’m not sure a tutor could develop a “quality” tutoring program just on Larson’s advice.  Therefore, we need to develop guidelines that will help us create quality tutoring programs. 
 
In response to my earlier definition of tutoring, I have had requests for such guidelines. Therefore, I have compiled Five Keys to Successful Tutoring.  As always, I am referring to reading tutoring.  Yes, we need tutoring in math and other subjects, but my work and research are exclusively in reading. 
I welcome your responses.
 
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For more about my earlier definition, reread:  Will Tutoring Correct the Learning Losses Caused by COVID?  Part 1
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Five Keys to Successful Tutoring
1. Focus on the student:  Tutoring is not about educational trends or test scores.  Tutoring is about the student.  Before you can help a student improve, you must understand what the student needs to learn in order to improve.  You cannot just sit down and start teaching.  You must learn as much as possible about the student you are working with.  What does this student need to be successful in the classroom?  What has caused this student to fail to learn and why?  The “why” is very important.  Then, establish tutoring goals based on the student’s needs.  I taught a 15-year-old, who had failed for 9 years, to read. The school said that the student would never be able to learn to read.  I was successful because I first tried to understand exactly what the student did and did not know about letter sounds.  Then, I used vowel clustering and taught the student to read.  Tutoring can be very successful, but you must look at the individual needs of each student.  There is no such thing as “one size fits all” in tutoring.  What works with one student, may not work with another student.  You must individualize your instruction to fit the needs of each individual student.

​2. Select a teaching curriculum that fits the student's specific needs.  Do not just use the curriculum everyone else is using.  Select your tutoring curriculum carefully.  I have used vowel clustering for the past 23 years in my work with all ages.  I have worked in both inner city and rural locations.   I have worked with students diagnosed with dyslexia, ADHD, Aspergers, autism, and an array of cognitive processing problems.  Vowel clustering allows me to adjust my tutoring lessons to the specific needs of each student.  This is very important.  Oftentimes, we expect students to adjust to the curriculum.  Instead, we should be selecting a curriculum that will adjust to the needs of the student.  I worked with a young student one year who had been held back in kindergarten. My first thought was, how can you fail kindergarten?  Unfortunately, the student was unable to memorize the required number of words to be promoted to first grade.  With vowel clustering, there is no memorization.  By the end of the year, the student was reading above his age level.  In my new book, shown at the top of the page, I give several examples showing how I adapted vowel clustering to meet the needs of each individual student.
 
3. Create a positive learning environment—even online.  A positive learning environment is more than just pretty pictures or motivating quotes.  A positive learning environment is how you teach.  A positive learning environment includes the words you speak, how you talk with your student.  Notice, I did not say how you talk “to” your student.  There is a difference.  Many students do not know how to communicate and interact with others, especially with a tutor.  Unfortunately, the same can be said of many adults.  Communication is more than just talking and listening.  Communication means trying to understand how and why a person feels as they do.  A positive learning environment must include good communication.  A positive learning environment also includes the way you teach.  Intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic.  Intrinsic is driven by an internal desire to learn.  You want to tap into this internal desire to learn, to improve, to start over.  Offering a candy bar is extrinsic and can be classified as a bribe.  Extrinsic motivation backfires eventually.  It may seem to work at first, but it soon fades, and you are left with failure.  “Do it or else” demands do not work either.  Strive for intrinsic motivators.  I use hands-on learning techniques.

Tutoring is being discussed nationwide as a possible solution for correcting the learning losses that were caused by the pandemic, but will tutoring be enough? First, let's define our terms and establish exactly what we are classifying as tutoring.
 
What is tutoring?
There are lots of definitions, some complicated, others as simple as “to teach.”  Just saying that tutoring is teaching does not really tell us anything.  An article entitled, “What Tutoring is and What Tutoring Is Not” states that tutoring is a “systematic learning experience” that improves a student’s attitude toward learning a particular subject as well as their academic performance or improvement in that subject.  Tutoring is usually self-paced and may be conducted as an individual, as one-on-one, or in a small group.
​
This definition gives us three principles:  (1) tutoring is systematic, meaning it uses a specific curriculum designed to help students learn specific skills, (2) effective tutoring must improve academic performance, and (3) tutoring should improve the student’s attitude, and mental well-being toward learning, especially about the subject being taught.  As a psychologist, I believe this is important because I encounter so many students who say, “I hate reading” or “I’m dumb, I can’t read.”  It’s not enough to just teach skills.  We must also help students improve their self-efficacy—belief that they can learn.  Mental wellness includes helping students believe in themselves, believe in their ability to learn, and then demonstrating that the student is and can be successful with the subject being tutored. ​

​Everyone is still talking about the learning losses caused by COVID.  The big question is are we making any progress toward correcting these learning losses?

The answer is unclear.  Several states are reporting problems:

• The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR) reported that “learning progress slowed across all grades and subjects.”  The OLR also stated on the average, students made less progress last year than in previous years.

 

• Superintendent Kevin Whitaker from Jamestown Public Schools (JPS) in New York state also confirms concern over learning losses during the pandemic. He explained that JPS would be working on overcoming these learning losses through Academic Intervention Services (AIS).  As Superintendent Whitaker stated,

“We are focused on learning loss recovery….  There’s been a tremendous amount of loss over the course of the past two years, and we’re hoping to address that with AIS teachers and reading teachers and some additional teachers on staff. But the second big item would be mental health support. We are committed to addressing the mental health stresses, anxieties and other mental health issues that have arisen as a result of the pandemic.” 


It is wise that the Jamestown Public Schools are looking at both the academic and mental health needs of their students.  In my reading clinics, I combine both learning and counseling.  It helps students learn and correct old learning problems.
 
While many state education officials talk about learning losses in the classroom from COVID, I could not find anyone reporting on improvement.  In fact, how will we know if learning losses are being corrected?
 
The only true way to measure improvement is through testing.  Although some states are reporting test data, most are not. 

 
One Example:  The Texas Education Agency Report
 
As stated earlier, it’s hard to measure the exact extent of learning losses from the pandemic.  Accurate test data is difficult to obtain unless states compare today’s test data with the test results obtained before the pandemic.  You cannot compare apples and oranges.  In order to accurately measure learning loss, you must use the same test. 
 
Fortunately, the Texas Education Agency did release comparative test data and stated,
 
“Since 2012, test results in the state had been steadily improving, but after COVID-19 related disruptions, the percentage of students meeting reading expectations dropped back to 2016 rates and the percentage meeting math expectations dropped to 2013 passing rates. Math test performance saw the most significant drop, from 50% of students meeting their grade level in 2019 to only 35% this year.”
 
This is from the 2021 report.  The 2022 scores are not available yet.  The report shows what most of us would expect from 2021—no improvement.
 
 
Were Learning Losses Worse Before or After COVID?
 
The Texas Education Agency report shows that 50% were reading below grade level before COVID.  The report talks extensively about how well scores were rising before COVID, but if you look carefully at the test scores presented in this report, the learning losses before COVID are much greater than the losses caused by COVID.
 
This is not a new problem, and it is not just happening in Texas.  It is a nationwide problem.  As a nation, we had devastating learning losses in reading before COVID.  According to the Nation’s Report Card, over 60% of students could not read at grade level before the pandemic. 
 
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For more on the learning losses that existed in reading before COVID, see:  Reading Wars are Over!  Phonics Failed.  Whole Language Failed.  Balanced Literacy Failed. Who Won?  It Certainly Wasn’t the Students
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​Our original question was:  Are schools making progress in reducing learning loss?
Thus far, we have not found any proof of improvement. 
It seems that so far, everyone is still trying to discuss how much COVID affected students.  Schools are talking about solutions, but we are not seeing any progress reports on that improvement.


Is There a Solution?
 
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath continued,
 
“… only 4% of students across all grades who are below grade level catch up within two years.”
 
Isn’t a 4% expected improvement rate completely and totally unacceptable?
  
At my reading clinic, I expect and produce such results as:

• A student who failed for nine straight years in public school is now reading.
• A student diagnosed with ADHD and failing in reading moved up two grade levels in one year.
• A student diagnosed with dyslexia and whose parents tried everything, including expensive private one-on-one systematic phonics tutoring, learned to read, and moved up to beginning chapter books in one year.
• Six children who entered the program reading at the (pre-K) level ended the year reading at the 2nd grade reading level.  Only one child in the group was a first grader.
• One student started at the pre-K level and ended the year reading at the third-grade level, while a second grader started the year reading below first grade and ended at the fourth-grade level.  This improvement was just from September to May.
• One year, a student moved up four grade levels in reading, 4 students moved up three grade levels in reading, and 8 students moved up two grade levels in reading after only 8 months of instruction. 
• Another year, two students moved up four grade levels in reading, 3 students moved up 3 grade levels in reading, and 6 students moved up two grade levels in reading after only 8 months of instruction. 
• Two students moved up 2 grade levels in reading after only 48 hours of instruction.

For the data on these students, see my book  After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation 

So, yes, we can teach failing students to read.  If we use the correct teaching methods, we can correct all reading failure—before and after COVID.  What method did I use?  Vowel Clustering.

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For more on Vowel Clustering, read:  Vowel Clustering Works Better than Phonics with At-Risk Students
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Will Tutoring Help?
 
The Texas Education report does say that Texas will be offering tutoring and special instruction to all students who do not pass the state test.  Neither the new state law or the Texas Education Agency report explains if such tutoring will enable students to pass the state test and/or what steps will be taken for students who still do not pass the state test after tutoring.
  
We need to remember that most schools offer tutoring, even offered tutoring for students who were struggling before COVID.  Tutoring is not new.  Yet the Nation’s Report Card test scores were higher in reading in 2017 than they were in 2019.  Yes, reading scores went down in 2019—before COVID.
 
The Nation’s Report Card showed that 4th grade students had a proficiently level (able to read at grade level) of 37% being able to read at grade level in 2017.  They went down to 35% in 2019 who were able to read at grade level.  This was before COVID.
 
In 8th grade the Nation’s Report Card showed similar results.  Students went down from 36% proficient (able to read) to 34% proficient.  Yes, that means that only 34% of 8th grade students were able to read at the 8th grade level.  These scores are also before COVID.
 
Tutoring alone may not be enough to correct the learning losses that our students are facing.
 
We need to admit that we had a major educational problem in reading long before COVID.  Because if we had been using the correct teaching methods in the classroom between 2017 and 2019, there is absolutely no reason that scores should have gone down.  Unfortunately, scores will continue to go down until we change the way (teaching method) we teach children to read.  We can blame it on COVID, but the real problem is not COVID learning losses.  The real problem is how we teach children to read in the public school classroom.
 
I will say it again.  Yes, we can teach children to read.  If we use the correct teaching methods, we can correct all learning losses in reading.  Unfortunately, we are not using the correct teaching methods in the classroom.  No, I did not say it was the fault of teachers.  Most teachers do not choose their own teaching methods.  It’s also not poverty.  Many of the students who I listed above from my reading clinic lived in the housing projects and were failing in reading when they entered my reading clinic. 
 
School boards, politicians, and angry mobs choose the teaching methods in most school districts.  Education in today’s public schools has nothing to do with teaching.  Schools have become political pawns.
 
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For more on teaching methods presently being used in the classroom, see:  When Phonics Fails  
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Are the Schools Using the Best Solutions?

I think that it is vital to correct any and all learning losses caused by COVID, but just returning to the 2019 reading level is not acceptable. Continuing to use the same old teaching method is also not going to work.  We cannot just ignore the learning losses that existed before COVID. 
​
I have talked about this problem before.  Most schools want to talk about the educational devastation caused by COVID, but they rarely mention the learning losses that existed before COVID.
 
Paul Reville, former Secretary of Education for the state of Massachusetts, provides an excellent point to consider as we strive to correct learning losses in the classroom.
 
“Those of us in education know these problems have existed forever….  We need to redesign our systems of child development and education.”
 
“… in this situation, we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level ….  We should be asking: How do we make our school, education, and child-development systems more individually responsive to the needs of our students? Why not construct a system that meets children where they are and gives them what they need inside and outside of school in order to be successful? Let’s take this opportunity to end the “one size fits all” factory model of education.”
 
Reville is correct.  If we are to help students improve, then we must correct all learning losses, not just the ones caused by COVID.  This brings us back to the question:  Are the schools using the best solutions to solve learning loss problems?
 
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For more on the methods schools are using to correct learning losses, read:  What Are Schools Saying about Pandemic Learning Losses, and What Is Being Done to Help? (Part 2 of a Series)
 ____________
 

Did We Answer the Question?  

We did not find any proof that schools have corrected the learning losses from COVID.  We are still waiting to see proof of improvement.  The primary suggestion that most schools discuss is tutoring.
 
Is Tutoring the Answer?

Many of the schools are talking about tutoring.  Tutoring can be effective; it may also not be effective.  Like every other teaching method, it depends on the tutoring methods being used.  Can tutoring solve the learning loss that students are struggling with? 
 
We will look at tutoring in more depth next time.  We will examine different tutoring methods that schools apply. In future posts, we’ll also examine some research that shows which tutoring methods may be best for helping struggling students recover.

Instead of trying to imitate others and following their example, be brave, wear a mask.

The coronavirus is becoming more and more contagious, so it’s important to choose the right coronavirus mask.
 

Yes, We Still Need Masks 

If you have been trying to decide whether you still need to wear a mask or not, a party of some of our leaders in Washington, D. C. just gave us a firsthand demonstration on why you should wear a mask:

 
“The number of people who tested positive for the coronavirus after attending the elite Gridiron Club dinner in Washington rose to 53 on Friday, all but confirming that the April 2 event marked a significant outbreak.

“The latest count suggests that at least 8 percent of the 630 journalists, politicians and VIPS who attended the annual dinner have reported positive tests.”

 
Yes, you guessed it, people were not wearing masks.  Most were vaccinated and many had received a booster shot, but no, they didn’t bother to wear their masks.  Masks provide that extra level of protection.
 
As Kimberly Prather, an aerosol scientist at the Scripps Institute of oceanography explains that, with the BA.2, a more contagious variant, old safety rules no longer apply.  Prather says that the old 6-foot rule is useless.  Prather contends that the rule should cover anyone sharing the air in a room. 

Similarly, Dr. Carlos Del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, states:
 
"If you were part of an event where there's multiple infections, you will have been exposed. I don't care if it's 6 feet or 15…."
 
As obviously demonstrated in Washington, staying six feet apart or even being vaccinated is not enough.  If there is just one infected person in a room, then everyone is going to be exposed.
 
Remember our earlier analogy that COVID spreads similar to cigarette smoke?  It certainly did in Washington. As Meryl Davids Landau explains: 

 
“It’s true that viral particles are concentrated closest to an infected individual… but just as cigarette smoke eventually spreads throughout a room, so, too, does the coronavirus.”
​
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For more information, read:  Does My Child Still Need to Wear a Mask at School?
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Six feet or 15 feet will not be enough. Since it has been demonstrated that we still need to wear a mask, which mask will you choose?

 
Which Mask Should I Wear?
 
If you are trying to decide which mask to wear, it can be so confusing. 
 
The experts are saying to wear a N95, but what are the differences among the N95, KN95, and the KN94? 
 
 
The Difference Between the N95 and the KN95
 
Some of the experts are saying to be careful when purchasing KN95 face masks.  The KN95 is not necessarily as effective as the N95 mask.  Why?  Because of how it is made.
 
Dr. Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, and president and chief executive officer of ECRI (a non-profit organization that tests healthcare products used in hospitals) cautions people to be careful when purchasing KN95 masks. 


“…product safety, found that 60 to 70 percent of imported KN95 masks do not filter 95 percent of aerosol particulates, contrary to what their name suggests.” 
 
 
Joseph Allen, a COVID and ventilation expert from Harvard also stated that the N95 is best. He warns us to be careful when purchasing a KN95.

 
“… KN95s … a designation that’s very similar to an N95, but it’s not a US manufactured designation. I’m more cautious with these because we’ve had counterfeit [masks] on the market, some producing or providing only twenty five percent capture efficiency, despite being designated 95 percent. So KN95s can be good, it just requires consumers to do a bit more homework to look up on the FDA and CDC Web sites for the links that describe the testing done on masks by different manufacturers.  … if you’re going to buy a KN95, [make] sure that it’s a mask that has been vetted and verified by the US, FDA and CDC."

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The CDC website:  Approved N95 Respirators 3M Suppliers List | NPPTL | NIOSH | CDC
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Another factor to consider is that the KN95 does not provide the same breathability that the N95 provides. According to Conney Safety: 
 
“Besides the N95 being made to meet US standards and the KN95 being made to meet Chinese standards, data obtained from the performance testing of both masks show that there is a lower pressure drop on inhalation and exhalation for the N95 facemask. This signifies that the N95 is slightly more breathable than the KN95 face mask.”
 
One other concern is that the KN95 often fastens over the ears.  The N95 uses straps around the head,  which gives a better fit and more protection. 
 
Selecting the right mask is important.  Therefore, you need to check the manufacturer before purchasing a mask.  Also, be careful and watch out for false advertising. 

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For websites that give advice on selecting masks for children, see:  Do We Still Need to Wear a Mask?
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Is the KN94 safe to use?
 
Allen does say that a KF94 is usually very safe.

“… a KF94, these are masks certified out of Korea and as the name implies, ninety four percent effective. So really good masks. They tend to have a good fit and it’s a trusted certification out of Korea. These are widely used in South Korea.”

 
Buy a quality mask, but remember that fit is still a major concern. Olga Khazan explains: 


“… your mask has to fit well, and it has to be an N95 or similar—cloth masks offer scant protection against Omicron. “Well fitting” means you shouldn’t have any air leakage out of the sides of the mask, near the nose, or by the chin. If you wear glasses, they shouldn’t fog up….  The kind of mask that’s most likely to fit you snugly is the kind with back-of-the-head straps, as opposed to ear loops….” 

 
So, the conclusion is that a KN95 might be okay, but be careful, because some companies out of China are making KN95 masks that do not work as well.  Always check the CDC chart for the effectiveness before you buy a mask.

Don’t let caution keep you from buying and wearing a mask though.  Wear a quality mask and wear it correctly to protect yourself and those around you from COVID.

A lady proudly marched up and down the sidewalk carrying a sign that read,

“No Mask.  No Way.  I Choose Freedom.”

Exactly what was this lady choosing?  According to statistics, she was choosing COVID.  She was choosing to help spread COVID.  She was choosing to help COVID continue to mutate and form new variants.  She was choosing to help COVID continue to kill.
 
As of this week, COVID has killed 982,371 people in the United States. Why would anyone choose to help COVID continue to kill?   And yes, people are still dying.  Just last week, there was an average of  661 recorded deaths caused by COVID per day.  Yes, the numbers are down, but COVID is not over.
  
Many of those who have died were parents.  That means that thousands of children no longer have a parent to help support and care for them.  Nyesha Black, director of demographic research at the University of Alabama stated that:
 
“We will see the rippling effects of the pandemic on our society and the way it impacts individuals for generations….”
COVID is being listed as the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.”
 
  
Why Would Anyone Choose to Support COVID? 
 
Unfortunately, every time you choose not to wear a mask, when you choose not to get vaccinated, or when you choose to not get your booster shot, that is exactly what you are choosing to do.  You may think you're supporting a political party or a particular politician, but in actuality, you are supporting COVID—and all of its many variants.  And COVID is a killer.
  
A September 2021 ABC News and Washington Post poll showed that vaccination and masking predict whether people will die of COVID:
 
“Unvaccinated Americans are several times more likely to be hospitalized and die….  For unvaccinated Americans, the decision to not wear a mask or follow other restrictions, ultimately caused increased transmission [of COVID], which in turn, resulted in more severe outcomes … [in] the 10 states with the lowest percentage of full vaccinations, death rates were almost twice as high as that of states with the highest vaccination rates….” 

 
Is It Really That Difficult to Wear A Mask?
 
I was at a medical facility this past week that clearly requires all staff and patients to wear masks.  There were signs covering the walls, in the hallway, and even on the chairs, saying to please keep your mask on at all times.  Yet, one lady sat in the waiting room with her mask dangling from her ear but nowhere near her mouth or nose.  She became furious when she was asked to put her mask back on.  She even admitted that she was immunocompromised.  In the lab at the same facility, a man walked in with a mask on, sat down, and immediately took his mask off and put it in his pocket.  Why?  He was at least polite when asked to put his mask back on.
 
Why Is It so Difficult for Some People to Give in and Wear a Mask?
 
Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D., psychologist and professor at the University of Nevada, is the author of the popular book, Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life.  His research and work has demonstrated how “language and thought can lead to human suffering.” In a recent Psychology Today article, he outlined several reasons for people refusing to wear masks.  He said:
“…the science is clear: Wearing a mask is an effective measure to stop the spread of the virus (and research has shown that any concern about not being able to breathe properly is unfounded and untrue).

“Wearing a mask is a necessary discomfort to slow the spread of the virus, and to prevent thousands of unnecessary deaths. And yet plenty of people continue not wearing one. They may refuse because it’s uncomfortable, for political reasons, because other people are not wearing one, because ….  And even if people wear a mask, they often do it improperly, covering only their mouth but not their nose, thus making the mask more or less obsolete…. When you walk into an enclosed public space, you are better off with a mask. I know I’m not the first to tell you this, and I will not be the last. Almost everyone understands it at this point, and yet plenty of people continue to not wear a mask—even against their own self-interest.”

Dr. Hayes went on to propose two ideas for getting people to wear masks.
 
Step 1:  Know why it is important for you to wear a mask.

“The more you know why wearing a mask is important for you, the more you are going to act accordingly, and put on the piece of cloth. You have already heard plenty of reasons, but it’s important you find the one that matters most to you. Maybe you wish to protect your grandpa. Maybe you wish to be seen as caring. Knowing your why can be truly powerful, and it becomes even stronger still if you connect it to something bigger than yourself.”
 
Step 2: Empower yourself to do something for others.

“There are still many mysteries in the field of psychology, but after decades as a scientist and therapist, I can assure you: The more you allow yourself to feel uncomfortable in the service of what is important to you, the better your quality of life will be. In other words, by allowing yourself to feel the discomfort of wearing a mask, the more you empower yourself to do what matters to you, and the easier you will be wearing this mask.”
 
Dr. Hayes goes on to say: 

“Life itself asks us to learn not to turn away from what is painful or difficult and instead to turn toward our fears, doubts, and discomforts in order to live a life full of meaning and purpose. And you can practice this skill right here and now, just by covering your face with a small piece of fabric.” 
 
Dr. Hayes makes an excellent point that sometimes we need to step beyond our own self-interests and think of the needs of others.  This is an excellent article, and I encourage you to read it in its entirety. 
 
 
Are You Sure People Still Need to Wear a Mask? 
 
But wait, you may be saying, many people are saying that we no longer need to wear a mask.  Wrong.  You still need to wear a mask because masks provide an extra level of protection.  Only about 65% of the people in the United States have been vaccinated, and only 50% of those who are eligible have received a booster shot.  Vaccines are the best way to protect yourself and others from COVID, but masks provide a second level of protection.
 
Likewise, Dr. Anthony Fauci reminds us that:
​
“The Omicron subvariant BA.2 is more transmissible than regular Omicron, so more people are likely to get it….  The risk of getting the Omicron variant is significantly higher for people not yet vaccinated. The easiest way to prevent [a surge] is to continue to get people vaccinated." 
 
So, yes, you still need to wear a mask because most people who are unvaccinated also do not bother to wear a mask.  Wearing a mask as well as being vaccinated and boosted provides the best protection from COVID.
 
Every state has now removed its mask requirements.  COVID is free to spread, especially among the unvaccinated. Yet, even for those who are vaccinated and boosted, wearing a mask can keep you from having a “breakthrough” COVID infection.

 
But Mild Infections Aren’t Bad, Are They?
 
Yes, even a mild COVID infection can be dangerous because even “mild” infections can cause cognitive processing problems.  Research shows that COVID effects cognitive ability—the ability to think.  This reduction in cognitive ability even affects people who have “mild” COVID. According to a major scientific study:
 
“People who have recovered from COVID-19 tend to score significantly lower on an intelligence test compared to those who have not contracted the virus … the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 can produce substantial reductions in cognitive ability….”

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For more on the cognitive effects of “mild” COVID, read Should We Be Concerned about the Effects of COVID on Cognitive Processing and Executive Functioning Concerning Classroom Learning Losses?
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Masks Help Protect You From COVID
 
 
As Joseph Allen, a COVID and ventilation expert from Harvard explained: 

“…universal masking is still safest… [but] If you are vaccinated, boosted, and wearing a well-fitted N95 or similar indoors … regardless of what everyone else is doing… your risk is extremely low….  An N95 mask filters about 95 percent of airborne particles.”

But Allen goes on to explain that your mask must fit properly.  Your mask must cover both your nose and your mouth with a tight seal—no gaps.

“…two surgical masks—one on me, one on you—filter only about 91 percent, [but because] most people’s masks aren’t perfectly sealed onto their faces, studies show that N95s reduce the wearer’s uptake of coronavirus particles by 57 to 86 percent. And that’s on top of the protection that vaccines and boosters already offer.”
 
So, yes, wearing a mask makes a big difference.  The kind of mask you wear determines your level of protection.  Wear a N95, KN95 or KF94.
 
Also, the way you wear your mask makes a big difference.  Pulling your mask down underneath your nose because you are afraid that you won’t be able to breathe does not protect you from COVID.  It leaves you and everyone around you wide open to exposure. 
 
Wearing a mask loosely looped over your ears but not fitting tightly to your face is also not effective.  Don’t worry.  You’ll be able to breathe, even with a tight-fitting N-95 mask.  Surgeons wear masks all day long and breathe just fine.  When you go to ER, the personnel are going to be wearing masks and have been wearing masks all day, even during long shifts.  Workers who paint cars in factories, wear masks all day long while they work—even before COVID.  Some woodworkers, especially sanders, wear masks to protect their lungs.  Wearing a mask is not harmful or hard to do. 
 
It's easy to wear a mask, and who knows, it may save your life.  Are you planning to wear a mask today when you leave the house?
 
Be smart.  Wear a mask.  The life you save may be your own.
Photo: Elaine Clanton Harpine

A parent ask me recently, “How does it help if my child is the only one wearing a mask in the classroom?”
 
According to the experts, yes, a mask does help keep your child safe, even if they are the only person wearing a mask in the entire classroom or school. 
 
As Dr. Jaimie Meyer, an infectious disease physician at Yale Medicine, explains,
 
“It’s true that masks are most effective when everyone around you is wearing them. If someone is infected with COVID-19 and doesn’t know it, their mask is like putting a thumb over the end of a hose, preventing the virus from spewing….”
 
Dr. Meyer goes on to say that,
 
“…even when that infected person is maskless, anyone around them who has their own mask reduces the chance that those droplets will find their way to their respiratory system and sicken them.”
 
Dr. Meyer also states that,
 
“The strongest protection against the disease remains vaccination… Pfizer-BionTech shots were 85 percent effective ….   But masking may be the next most important thing you can do….  You should keep your mask at the ready because of what’s happening today, but also for what might happen tomorrow….  The mask helps you stay ahead of this disease.”
  
Dr. Meyer is not the only person saying that wearing a mask will help protect your child from COVID.  Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech engineering professor and one of the world’s leading experts on viral transmission, stated that,
 
“…there is also plenty of evidence showing that masks protect the wearer even when others around them are mask-free. The amount of protection depends on the quality of the mask and how well it fits. Given that the Omicron variant is far more infectious than other variants, health experts recommend upgrading your mask to an N95, KN95 or KF94, which are all high-quality medical masks. Other variables, such as how much time you are exposed to an infected person and how well a space is ventilated also will affect your risk.”
 
Can you believe that we are still arguing over whether children should or should not wear a mask at school?  Well, we are, and the answer is still the same.  Masks are safe to wear all day at school.  Now, we add the fact that even if you are the only person or student wearing a mask in the room, wearing a mask will help keep you from catching COVID.
 
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For research on the safety of wearing a mask, see Do Mask Mandates Cause Psychological or Medical Problems for Children in School?
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I’m Vaccinated.  Isn’t That Enough?

Some people may be saying, “but wait, I thought getting vaccinated was all that I needed.  Isn’t that why I got vaccinated, so I wouldn’t be stuck wearing a mask all day?” Yet, a recent report from Cornell University demonstrates very clearly how effective wearing a mask to class can help curb COVID.  This is a current report from this past week.
 
“Between March 17 and March 23, Cornell recorded 515 positive COVID-19 infections among students, staff and faculty, according to data from the university.  …97% of the student population is vaccinated, while 92% of those eligible are boosted.  The increase comes less than two weeks after the school dropped its mask mandate for most locations….
 
“Nationwide, BA.2, now accounts for more than a third of new COVID-19 cases.”
 
Being vaccinated is very important and everyone should be vaccinated and get a booster when eligible.  We should also not forget to wear a mask—students as well as adults.

 
Do You Need To Wear A Mask Outside?
 
Some people will say, “I don’t need a mask.  I’m staying 6 feet away from other people and that will keep me safe.  Or, I have a plexiglass divider.  Or I’m outside.”  However, Marr goes on to explain that, yes, you do need a mask.
 
“It’s true that viral particles are concentrated closest to an infected individual… but just as cigarette smoke eventually spreads throughout a room, so, too, does the coronavirus.”
  
The cigarette smoke comparison is clear and easy to understand.  We have all been in a room when someone was smoking, even if the person is totally on the other side of the room, smoke travels.  In the backyard, if the neighbor two houses down is smoking outside, it travels all the way to your house.  Just like cigarette smoke, COVID travels throughout a room and even in the air outside. 
 
The CDC makes it clear that you need to wear the mask “consistently” for it to do any good.  You can’t put it on, take it off, pull it down underneath your chin, or wear it very loosely.  To be effective, the mask must fit snugly over the nose and mouth.
 
So, don’t hop out of your car to pump gas without a mask or run inside to the restroom without a mask.  It doesn’t count if you are diligent about wearing a mask at work but leave the mask in the car when running errands.
 
The same is true for children.  Don’t climb on the bus without a mask.  Your child may even want to consider wearing a mask out on the playground. 
 
Remember, COVID is just like the cigarette smoke: it travels through the air.  Masks do not take the place of vaccinations, but they are an important step in staying healthy.
 
As we discussed in my last blog post, even mild COVID can cause cognitive processing problems.  So, be prepared, don’t leave home without your mask.
 
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For more information on cognitive processing and COVID, read Should We Be Concerned about the Effects of COVID on Cognitive Processing and Executive Functioning Concerning Classroom Learning Losses?
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We have established that a mask helps protect you and your child, even if you are the only person wearing a mask in the room.  We have also learned that vaccines and masks work hand-in-hand together to give you the best protection.  It’s not an either-or situation, you need both.
 
Get vaccinated.  Get boosted when eligible.  And don’t forget to wear a mask, N95, KN95 or KF94 if possible.

In September, I told the story of a 15-year-old boy who returned to school after COVID, who was confused, unable to remember what he had previously learned, or even remember what he studied the day before?  This was a top student.  In his own words, he said, “Am I going to be able to be a good student ever again?  Because this is really scary.”
 
We have known from the beginning that COVID can cause cognitive processing problems after a severe illness.  Now, new research shows that even mild  COVID may affect cognitive processing and executive function.  Cognitive processing and executive function are essential if we are to correct the learning losses that we have in classrooms right now. 
 
Children cannot learn to read or work math problems if their ability to process information cognitively is severely affected or changed.  Children must be mentally engaged with the learning process.  They must be able to think and process information in order to learn.

Take reading as an example.  Reading comprehension occurs in the brain.  A child must be able to cognitively process the information being taught to learn to read.  As Dr. Sally Shaywitz explains,
 
“In order to read, a child must “enter the language system,” this means that the child must activate and use the brain circuits that are already in place for oral language….”
 
If, after COVID (even mild COVID), the child can no longer “enter the language system” or understand what is being taught in the classroom because of “brain fog” or other processing problems, then the child is not going to learn.
 
While we have been fighting over keeping children in school, we have totally overlooked the harms of long-covid and now possibly even mild COVID.  If future research continues to support the claim that cognitive processing and executive function are affected by even mild COVID, then we have a major problem in the classroom, a problem that pertains directly to learning and correcting learning losses.
 
Indeed, for the past several weeks, we have been discussing what the schools plan to do—and even possibly should do—to correct learning losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  As we look for answers to correcting learning losses in the classroom, a new research study has sparked a whole new line of questioning. 

 
Does a Mild COVID Infection Affect How the Brain Functions as Children Experience Learning Loss?
 
For the most part, schools have only concerned themselves with learning losses caused by lack of classroom attendance, use of online teaching, the wearing of masks, or anything that they considered to interfere with a normal classroom education.  Yet, research now shows that even mild cases of COVID can lead to cognitive processing and executive functioning problems. 
 
First, let's define our terms.  Then, we will look at the research studies.
 
The two problems that we are looking at are cognitive processing and executive function.  Any educator will tell you that these are very important as children learn. David Eagleman, Ph.D., explains: 
 
“Cognitive processing” describes how the brain gathers and uses information.  Slow cognitive processing creates problems when students are trying to learn.  Therefore, a problem with cognitive processing caused by COVID should be a major concern as we attempt to correct learning losses."
 
The second problem that we are looking at is executive function.  “Executive function” can be defined like this:
 
“Executive function is a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. We use these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life.”
 
Cognitive processing and executive function work hand in hand. When cognitive processing slows down for some reason, this affects executive function and the ability to learn.  So, if we are to help students overcome learning losses, we absolutely must identify and correct any cognitive processing or executive function problems.
 
 
What Does New Research Show?
 
The recent University of Oxford study showed that even mild COVID can change brain tissue. On Monday, March 7th, the University of Oxford reported on research with 785 participants over the age of 50.  These participants had a neural image of their brain on file before COVID.  Each participant received two brain scans approximately 38 months apart.  Anyone with a severe case (sending them to the hospital) was not included in the study.  The researchers found that those who tested positive for COVID-19 showed an:
 
“… increase in brain tissue damage, a reduction in brain size, and a reduction in gray matter thickness.” 
 
Continuing, they explained that MRI exams showed noticeable brain problems:
 
“Between the pairs of MRIs, which were separated by an average of about three years, …. those who had Covid [showed]: a greater loss of what’s known as gray matter in the brain, as well as a higher rate of abnormalities in the brain tissue.”
 
Did these brain abnormalities from mild COVID affect cognitive skills?  Yes, they did:
 
“On cognitive function tests, those who had Covid demonstrated a slower ability to process information and had lower marks on what’s known as executive function, which is an umbrella measure of the brain’s ability to manage complex tasks.”
 
This is a peer-reviewed study, and the publisher even offers the peer review statements online for you to read.
 
 
What Does This Study Prove?
 
As one researcher from the University of Oxford study stated, there was “definite cognitive decline between the brain scans” from just mild COVID.  The Oxford study is one of the first studies to document these cognitive changes in the brain after mild COVID.
 
This study from the University of Oxford is an excellent study, but as Dr. Benedict Michael from the University of Liverpool told Newsweek, we still need to know more:  
 
"The bottom line is, this is a very methodologically sound study with pre- and post-COVID controls. But now we need studies to determine what this actually means for people in terms of cognitive function and quality of life ...."

We do not have a similar study with pre- and post-neuroimaging brain scans with children, but this study from Oxford is one of the first large-scale pre- and post-test evaluations of the actual changes that occurred in the brain after a mild case of COVID-19.  This study was also conducted before the vaccine was widespread. 

  
Are There Any Other Studies That Report Similar Findings?
 
Even though we do not have pre- and post-brain scans of children who suffered from mild COVID, we do have other studies and some doctors believe that children and teens can be suffering from the same cognitive processing and executive function problems as the people from the Oxford study. 
 
Doctors from Mount Sinai reported that COVID patients 18 and older who were only treated in the emergency department, then released and sent home (mild cases)  “…also had developed thinking problems.”
 
Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of the division of neuro-infectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine, supports the findings from Mount Sinai and says that yes young people with mild cases can experience cognitive processing problems. 
 
Dr. Koralnik says:

“This study confirms what we have also seen at Northwestern, that cognitive problems are persistent both in patients who were previously hospitalized and also in patients who had only mild respiratory symptoms….”
 
So, something is definitely happening in the brain, even when people have a mild case of COVID. 
 
 
How Does the Oxford Study Relate to Students in the Classroom?
 
We need to become more aware of these cognitive processing problems, especially as students who have had COVID return to school.  What should we do to help these students struggling with mild and long-term COVID problems?
 
A video of a 12-year-old’s story shows the dramatic difference COVID can make in the life of a young person. I encourage you to watch this video.  The video also offers advice on how to deal with long-covid at school. 
 
 
Where Does That Leave Us in Terms of Learning Loss in the Classroom?
 
Searching for answers? Many questions remain to be answered.  Research continues.  Those of us who work with children and teens need to ask what this means for correcting learning losses in the classroom.
 
 
Cognitive Processing Problems are not New with Students who Struggle to Read.
 
At my reading clinic, I will definitely strengthen my efforts in cognitive processing and executive function.  I already emphasize these two areas since they are common problems for children struggling to learn to read.  I think that it would also be wise for the schools to strengthen support for students struggling with cognitive processing and executive function.  COVID may have had more of an effect than we think.
 
One way that I strengthen cognitive processing and executive function skills at my reading clinic is through hands-on learning projects.  For example, the space station displayed at the top of this blog post is an example of an activity that I use.  The space station is created completely and totally from the child's imagination.  There are no instructions, no patterns.  The child must think and figure out how to make things work.  As the children go around from workstation to workstation, they create and add to their space station.  The children must process information and then use that information to build their space station.  The children read stories, and we talk about what astronauts need to survive in space.  I have a table full of recyclable materials that they use to make their space station. They may add spelling words at one station, or stories they have written at a different station.  The only supplies needed are recyclables (plastic containers, tissue rolls, plastic cups…whatever you have on hand), construction paper, and glue. 
 
 
I call it the Peaceful World Space Station because I'm always emphasizing peace, sharing, and cooperation while I teach children to read.
 
Next, we will explore more ways to help students cope with cognitive processing and executive function problems.  Stay tuned.

A first grader was sent to my after-school program because he was not only failing in school, but reading below the kindergarten level.  After one year in my program, he was reading at the third-grade level—as a first grader.  You can imagine my shock the next fall when he was sent back to my program.  The school had retained him in first grade because of his absences throughout the year, even though he was reading at the third-grade level.  Yes, the child was absent a lot, even from my program.  The child had asthma.  I offered to go with the parent to talk with the school; she refused.  This was a single parent household with the family living in the housing projects.  The student had become a behavior problem in just the first two weeks of school; therefore, he was sent back to me to correct his behavior.  The child quickly informed me upon his return that he didn't need to work on reading because he was just a first grader.  I smiled and said, “Here at the Reading Orienteering Club, we all work on reading each and every day, and since you can read at the third-grade level, I'll expect to see you challenging yourself to read even harder books and stories.”  He finished the year reading at the fifth-grade level, even though he was still just a first grader in school.
 
Would equitable grading have made a difference for this student?  I think so.  Naturally, it depends on how the school uses equitable grading.

 
What Is Equitable Grading?
 
There are as many theories on equitable grading as there are people to write comments about the practice.  Yet, for us, I will define equitable grading to be mastery of the material being taught.  That means that the grade being given on the report card from school does not include attendance, class participation, or homework. Equitable grading does not use all sorts of fancy grading scales.  To me, equitable grading means that the grade reflects what the student has learned, not how well they cooperated or behaved in class.  Yes, I know that behavior and cooperation are important.  Trust me, I work with at-risk students who do not always walk in the door displaying their best behavior.  If you are a teacher or counselor, classroom behavior is always a concern.
 
Behavior and cooperation grades, if desired, should be totally separate from academic grades.  Yes, I know that teachers need classroom cooperation and appropriate behavior, but the grading system that we are presently using is not working.
 
 
Why Would Equitable Grading Help Us Overcome Learning Losses?
 
If the grades sent home on a report card actually reflected how well the student has learned the material being taught during that grading period, then parents and teachers alike would better understand what the student has and has not learned.
Parents often come to my reading clinic and tell me that they do not understand why the teacher says their child cannot read.  As they say, “He brought home a B on his report card.” 
If the report card grade includes behavior, attendance, and homework, a well-behaved child can easily bring home a B on their report card and still not be able to read.  Yes, I’ve seen it many times.
 
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For more about learning losses in reading, see: 
Reading Wars are Over!  Phonics Failed.  Whole Language Failed.  Balanced Literacy Failed. Who Won?  It Certainly Wasn’t the Students  
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Do Report Card Grades Reflect How Much Students Have Learned?
 
No, in general, I do not think that our grading system shows how much the student has actually learned.  When we talk about learning losses from COVID or even before COVID, we must actually be measuring true improvement.
 
If the school is adding points for homework turned in correctly or even incorrectly, then you do not have an equitable grading system.  Yes, some schools give points to students who turn in their homework even if it has the wrong answers.  These homework points are then added into the overall grade listed on the report card. 
 
If your report card grades add points for classroom participation or cooperation, then you do not have an equitable grading system.  As Jennifer Gunn said in an article for Resilient Educator, you cannot measure everything with one grade:
 
“The truth is, grades cannot represent everything. They can’t encompass a student’s behavior, ability to meet deadlines, mastery of content and skills, participation, effort, professionalism, attendance, punctuality, neatness, and likeability… inconsistent grading practices and the ways they can inadvertently perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps among our students make grading an issue of equity. There are grading practices that are more bias-resistant and motivational that can improve learning, minimize grade inflation, reduce failure rates, and create stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms.” 
 
I totally agree that “grades cannot represent everything.”  If we are ever to overcome the learning losses from the pandemic and before, we must have a separate academic grade based on what the student has learned.
 
 
Are Schools Changing Their Grading Policies After COVID?
 
Some schools have made changes to their grading policies.  Unfortunately, it is uncertain whether these changes have helped or hurt.  There is no uniform policy change, and no one is checking to make sure that the changes that are being made have actually helped the students overcome learning losses.  As one report explains:
 
 “To curb an alarming rise in failing students at the height of the pandemic, school districts around the U.S. showed leniency in accepting late work and assigning grades.
  
As the coronavirus crisis subsides, some are sticking with it or adopting similar approaches — not because of the pandemic, but often because of what it revealed about how students are penalized for hardships like a lack of support at home, work obligations or poor internet access.”
 
Are lenient policies the answer to correcting learning losses?  I do not think so.  Leniency has its place, but we still need to measure exactly what the student is or is not learning.  At my reading clinic, I give students all the time they need to learn a concept or complete a project, but I never reduce the standards or the reading skills that they must learn.

 
Homework Does Not Reflect Equitable Grading.

As for adding in points for completing homework, we need to remember that it has been proven that homework does not teach and does not always translate into better learning.  I’ll have more to say about homework later.  For now, I will just say that we need to separate homework from the grade that is recorded on the report card, especially since homework has been shown through research not to be effective in helping students learn.

For more details and research on homework, I encourage you to read The Battle Over Homework by Harris Cooper.  If you cannot find it at your public library, it’s available for $3.98 from Better World Books.

 
Must We Rely on Grades?
 
Let me first explain, that I do not give grades in any of my programs, but I do test to make sure students are actually learning.  Regardless of whether it is with my one-on-one tutoring with vowel clustering, my weeklong Camp Sharigan program, or my year long after-school Reading Orienteering Club program, all of my programs test.  I pretest before students enter my program so I can tell where a student needs help.  I use a midpoint test to measure progress and determine who needs extra help.  The mid-point test also tells me if a student is not improving.  If a student is not showing improvement at mid-point, I immediately change my teaching approach with that student until I find a way to help that student.  My post-test at the end of the year tells me the grade level that the student is able to read at after instruction.  I test reading level, spelling, and comprehension.
 
Although testing is essential, testing must absolutely reflect what the student has learned.  If you do not test, you cannot prove that the student has actually learned anything.  I do not use such things as pop quizzes or unit tests.  Parents frequently tell me how much their child’s grades have improved at school.  I’m pleased, but I still rely on a pre-, midpoint, and post-test to tell me exactly how much the student has learned in my program.
 
Since my goal is to send students back to the classroom able to succeed in class, I need to make sure that they have actually learned the skills that I'm teaching.  It takes some students longer than others.  I teach to the individual needs of each student.
 
Behavior and cooperation are separate from teaching and learning.  Yes, I frequently must deal with after-school behaviors and a lack of cooperation.  But I do not grade or test behavior or cooperation. If you must grade behavior, I think that you should have a totally separate grade for behavior.  
 
Hands-on teaching techniques help resolve behavior and cooperation problems.  Puppets, rockets, pop-up houses, hands-on teaching techniques definitely keep students interested and engaged in the learning process. 
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For more about hands-on learning, see Teaching Technique #8:  Hands-on Learning
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Where Should We Start?
 
If you are a teacher or school administrator, you may be asking how can you set up an equitable grading system? If you are a parent, wanting to sit down with your child’s teacher, you may be asking, how do I discuss equitable grading with the school or with a teacher?
 
Some questions you might ask are:

• Does the student's grade on their report card reflect what they have learned?
• Are points added or taken away when the student is absent or does not complete an assignment?
• Is the student allowed to make up a low grade with additional learning activities?  Or do they just retake the test?
• Does the report card grade reflect how well the student behaved in class or cooperated with others?
• Does the report card grade include points or grades for completed homework?
• How can the grade recorded on the report card more closely show what the student has learned and how the student has or has not improved in actually learning the concepts being taught in class?

 
As Sandra Burns, an elementary school principal, explains:
 
“Leaving out irrelevant grading factors, such as time taken or behavior concerns, will focus on the mastery level of each grade earned as opposed to outside factors that should be irrelevant to an overall grade earned.
 
As educators, we want the very best for all of our students. Grading assignments can at times be a challenge when we allow irrelevant criteria to weigh in on overall grades. The more we align our grading rubrics to the ultimate goal or objective of the assignment, the better equipped we’ll be to create meaningful and valid grading procedures within our classrooms.”  
  
So, the next time you have a chance to speak at a school board meeting or to attend a parent teacher conference, don't hesitate to ask, what can be done to provide more equitable grading for our students?  I really do think equitable grading will help us overcome learning losses.  It's not enough all by itself, but it's a good place to begin.

For children to do well in school, they must, first and foremost, protect their health. On February 4th, I mentioned that a link between COVID and diabetes had been found with children. 
 
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that: “A new study shows children under age 18 were at greater risk of being diagnosed with diabetes more than 30 days after a COVID-19 infection than those who weren’t infected with the virus or those with pre-pandemic acute respiratory infections (ARI).”
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For more, see my earlier post:  Why Are Parents Still Afraid of the COVID-19 Vaccine? Is Misinformation to Blame?
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Many parents have shown interest in the CDC’s report.  Schools and teachers should also be concerned because when children are sick, they struggle to learn.  Teachers are also in a position to notice early warnings signs of diabetes—excessive thirst, frequent bathroom trips, exhaustion, and weight loss.
 
I promised to do more research.  This is what I found.
 
A Research Study from the United Kingdom: COVID-19 and Diabetes
 
Researchers from the Imperial College in London said,
​
"Our analysis shows that during the peak of the pandemic the number of new cases of type 1 diabetes in children was unusually high….  this study is the first to show a potential link between COVID-19 and the development of type 1 diabetes in some children.  [this occurs because] …the coronavirus spike protein might be able to attack and destroy insulin making cells in the pancreas.”
 
The researchers go on to say, “Type 1 diabetes can be managed through insulin injections. However, children can become very unwell if the disease is not recognised and treated early.  [symptoms to watch for]  …feeling thirsty, going to the toilet (passing urine) frequently, feeling tired and looking thinner (weight loss).”
 
Research so far does not prove a direct link between COVID and diabetes.  All we have so far is a correlation.  That means that we are finding an increase in diabetes among children who have had COVID.  This is a definite reason for concern but not proof that COVID caused the increase in diabetes.  We need more research.  Parents whose children have had COVID should definitely watch for the symptoms of diabetes and have their children’s blood sugar levels tested by their doctor.
 
One family’s story reminds all of us how important it is to watch for symptoms early.  I hope you will take a moment to watch this heartbreaking video.  By becoming more aware of the symptoms, you might be able to save the life of a child.
 
 
The CDC Study
Concern started when media interest spiked after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an increase in diabetes among children who had been diagnosed with COVID.  The CDC concluded,
 
“Persons aged <18 years with COVID-19 were more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis >30 days after infection than were those without COVID-19 and those with prepandemic acute respiratory infections. Non–SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infection was not associated with an increased risk for diabetes.”

The CDC, again, is basically stating that there is a correlation.  Although we do not as of yet have proof that COVID causes diabetes, such a correlation between COVID and diabetes should definitely concern all parents and doctors. 
 
Since the CDC report is fairly technical, I found this easy-to-understand summary from Li Cohen, a reporter for CBS News.  Cohen stated,
 
“[children] …diagnosed with COVID-19 … were 166% more likely than those who did not have COVID to be diagnosed later with diabetes.”
 
“…children who had COVID were also 116% more likely to develop diabetes than those who had non-COVID respiratory infections prior to the pandemic. Non-COVID respiratory infection was not associated with diabetes…."
 
So, there is a connection between COVID and diabetes.  Researchers are just not sure exactly what that connection may be.  Yet, the connection between COVID and diabetes is too strong for us to merely brush it off as coincidence. 
 
Cohen went on to interview Dr. Sheela Natesh Magge, director of the pediatric endocrinology division at Johns Hopkins.  Dr. Magge stated that,
 
“…the development of diabetes could be attributed to how COVID affects the body's organs, such as the "direct attack of the pancreatic cells….  There's some evidence that COVID-19 infection could affect insulin secretion….  The stress of any infection can increase blood sugars and can make you have a higher risk of any of the complications of diabetes because your blood sugars could get higher."
 
The doubting Thomas’s may be saying, “OK, my child had COVID, got over it, and now is fine.”  That attitude is exactly what the researchers are trying to warn people against.  Diabetes does not always immediately follow having COVID.  Diabetes can develop anywhere from 30 days after a COVID infection to even longer.  Check with your doctor and watch for the warning signs.  Early detection of diabetes is extremely important.

 
Is there any other research supporting these claims?

I found other research supporting this concern.

• Dr. Jennifer Sherr, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Yale, said,

“I can say that anecdotally, here at Yale, we've seen increased risk of type two diabetes and more diagnosis of type two diabetes.”
 
Dr. Sherr again reminds us that “correlation doesn’t mean causation.”  No one is saying that just because your child had COVID that they will automatically get diabetes.  The research is saying to watch for the warning signs of diabetes.  Be on the alert.

• Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, after studying data over the past five years, found that “…the incidence of new-onset T1D [type 1 diabetes] during the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 and 2021 appeared to have increased compared with previous years.” 

 

• Some research indicates that the increase is not just with Type 1 diabetes.  Researchers are also seeing an increase with Type 2 diabetes.

 
“…the estimated prevalence of diabetes among children and adolescents increased significantly for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.”
 

• Dr. Sharon Saydah, a researcher at the CDC, explained that so far research does not tell us whether “post-COVID Type 2 diabetes” would be a chronic (long term) condition or a “transient condition” that might eventually resolve with treatment.  She does remind everyone that Type 1 diabetes is not reversible.  It never goes away.  She went on to say that vaccinating all eligible children against COVID, masking, social distancing, and taking every precaution is the best way to protect the children. 

 

• What the CDC report did state is that for over 2.5 million children under the age of 18, those who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, they were:

 
“… about 2.5 times more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis a month or more after infection.”
 
These numbers are more than high enough for us to take the threat seriously We must not ignore this research.  I will keep you posted as new research emerges.
 
So, the conclusion is, yes, we have seen an increase in diabetes from children who had COVID.  Does COVID cause diabetes?  We do not know.  Research is continuing.  What we do know is that we should all be on the alert and watching for the warning signs of diabetes with children.

No, I do not believe that the administrative plans discussed in my previous blog posts will correct the learning losses caused by COVID or the losses that existed before COVID.  The schools need a new approach.  I believe that hands-on teaching techniques might be one answer.
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What Are Schools Saying about Pandemic Learning Losses, and What Is Being Done to Help? 
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Students anticipate success or failure based on their past experiences.  Students who have failed in the classroom often consider themselves failures.  Perceived inferiority reduces a child’s ability to learn.  If we return from COVID with the same methods that the child failed with (phonics, whole-language, or balanced literacy) before COVID, the child will, most likely, continue to fail.  We need a completely new way to teach reading. 
 
At my reading clinic, a simple craft project becomes a hands-on way of teaching decoding and encoding skills, an initiator for intrinsic motivation, and the means to provide step-by-step directions which help to increase comprehension.  The program uses creative art projects that are tied into the learning process and skills being taught. That helps children to set aside their fear and reluctance and try again.  The craft projects are not mere craft projects for the sake of completing a craft.  At the reading clinic, the hands-on project does not go home until the learning exercise is also completed.  The hands-on craft projects become a teaching tool. 
 
Yes, we have seen success with hands-on learning techniques:

• A student who failed for nine straight years in public school is now reading.
• A student diagnosed with ADHD and failing in reading moved up two grade levels in one year.
• A student diagnosed with dyslexia and whose parents tried everything, including expensive private one-on-one systematic phonics tutoring, learned to read, and moved up to beginning chapter books in one year.
• Six children who entered the program reading at the (pre-K) level ended the year reading at the 2nd grade reading level.  Only one child in the group was a first grader.
• One student started at the pre-K level and ended the year reading at the third-grade level, while a second grader started the year reading below first grade and ended at the fourth-grade level.  This improvement was just from September to May.
• One year, a student moved up four grade levels in reading, 4 students moved up three grade levels in reading, and 8 students moved up two grade levels in reading. 
• Another year, two students moved up four grade levels in reading, 3 students moved up 3 grade levels in reading, and 6 students moved up two grade levels in reading. 

 
So, yes, we can teach failing students to read.  If we use the correct teaching methods, we can correct all reading failure—before and after COVID.

Links to earlier posts in this series about recovering pandemic learning losses 

How Can We Overcome the Education Losses Children Have Experienced from the Pandemic? (Part 1) 

What Are Schools Saying about Pandemic Learning Losses, and What Is Being Done to Help? (Part 2)

Are The Schools Creating A Positive Learning Environment That Will Help Students Correct Learning Losses?  (Part 3) 

A Hands-on Project Helps Create a Positive Learning Environment to Help Students Correct Learning Losses (Part 4 of a Series)​