children have lost an average of five months in mathematics and four months with regard to reading. those numbers are even higher in impoverished parts of the various cities of america. so certainly it s a very difficult decision and why many schools are saying yes, we must do this in a more hybrid fashion. if we close, we do it temporarily and try to get the kids back as quickly as possible. again, the health of the children, the safety of the children is what is most important. martha: they need socialization and time together. we need therapy programs in schools. one of the things that you just touched on in the loss of learning, that increases anxiety in kids. when they re nervous that they re left behind or that they re going to get in school and they re not going to be able to keep up. here s students that scored proficient and above over 2021, that proficiency level in math fell by 14.2%.
the teachers have to have 176 days of teaching. is part of this negotiation and discussion, they now lost four of those. when do they plan to make them up and will they be held to that? that s what these students, the promise that we make to these students, 176 days of education. yes. i hope that they will have to make these days up. in the meantime, the kids are at home and they re not learning. they ve been at home nor the two-week break. that s been basically extended for another week. they need to be back in school. as your last segment shows, they need to see the friends and socialize and be with other kids. they re not getting the opportunity because ctu has taken the law in their own hands. martha: i don t understand how this happens. in most cases, if you don t show up for your job over a certain period of time, you get fired. so everybody watches this.
that thought about college now are so disillusioned by feeling that they have lost so much in school, lost that school spirit, they re not even thinking about college at this point. so this is a major issue. it is a state of emergency with regard to the mental health of our children and this is something that we now have to give all of our resources towards. martha: so what would you say to the department of education? they ve been quiet on this issue of making sure that kids are proficient before they move on or making sure that we work now. it s january on a summer school program for this summer. why aren t we hearing specifics about that? as a psychologist, what would you say to the department of education on what they could do? we have to bring in academic programs to help children to catch up and then after that, staying proficient in these
an illegal strike. the union voted to switch to remote learning last week, cancel school. it s now gone into the fourth day. we re in the second week of school cancellations. i m going to speak with a lawyer for the parents that are suing. first, garrett tenney is live with more. hi, garrett. hi, martha. so seven parents filed this lawsuit against the teacher s union to get the courts to force teachers back into the classroom. the lawsuit claims the teachers are carrying out an illegal strike by refusing to show up to their classrooms to teach in-person as the district has mandated. it states that parents of children of cps students will be harmed because the children will be denied schooling and forced to arrange child care because their children are unable to attend school. earlier today, our photographers caught that frustration on camera when several teachers were outside a high school protesting the safety measures.