The New York Times reports this morning what many of us expected: The nation’s students are in academic free fall post-pandemic, especially in mathematics. What we didn’t know was just how atrocious the results of testing would be.
Sarah Mervosh and Ashley Wu, writing about the assessment known as “the nation’s report card,” note in the Times:
In math, the results were especially devastating, representing the steepest declines ever recorded on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, . . . which tests a broad sampling of fourth and eighth graders and dates to the early 1990s.
In the test’s first results since the pandemic began, math scores for eighth graders fell in nearly every state. A meager 26 percent of eighth graders were proficient, down from 34 percent in 2019.
Fourth graders fared only slightly better, with declines in 41 states. Just 36 percent of fourth graders were proficient in math, down from 41 percent.
Reading scores also declined in more than half the states, continuing a downward trend that had begun even before the pandemic. No state showed sizable improvement in reading. And only about one in three students met proficiency standards, a designation that means students have demonstrated competency and are on track for future success.
We knew that students would have issues coming out of prolonged lockdowns and remote instruction. Still, an eight-point drop for eighth-grade math is a shocking statistic. A drop was observed even in states such as Texas (five points) that reopened schools much sooner than others.
Delving beneath the surface of these top-line scores will be the work of many. For instance, how many students were near competency in 2019 and have been forcibly submerged by circumstance, union selfishness, and government decree? How do these stats break down by district, income, and family structure?
Answers to come.