The COVID-19 pandemic has had a long-term impact on grade-school education, as new data released Wednesday shows 13-year-olds nationwide tested significantly lower in reading and math, with math scores facing the single largest drop in 50 years.
“Most of these students were 10-years-old when the pandemic hit, and schools were disrupted,” Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, said in a call with reporters. “The bottom line is these results show that there are gaps in basic skills.”
Carr explained that these assessments focused on basic reading and math skills, such as locating information in a passage of text or calculating the area of a square. Most questions were multiple choice or required short answers, she said.
The newly released scores, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) or the nation’s “report card,” show a decline by 4 points in reading and 9 points in math when compared with the same scores from three years ago, before the onset of the pandemic.
These assessments take place every two years. In 2022, they were canceled because of the pandemic.
The declines were found across school types – rural, suburban and city. Declines also occurred across regions of the country – South, Northeast, Midwest and West. The data doesn’t include state or district-level scores.
Some racial and ethnic groups experienced higher declines than others.
The biggest decline in math scores was among Native American students, who averaged a 20 point decrease. Black students averaged a decrease of 13 points, Hispanic students faced a 10 point decrease and white students faced a 6 point decrease.
Asian students were the only racial or ethnic group that didn’t experience a statistically significant decline in math scores, despite having a decline like the other groups.
Reading scores for Black and white students decreased by 7 and 4 points respectively, while other groups didn’t experience a statistically significant decrease.
Female students experienced an 11-point decrease in math scores, compared with a 7-point decrease for male students. Both female and male students experienced the same decline in reading by 4 points.
The new data includes survey questions of the students who took the assessments. The percentage of students who reported missing five or more days of school in the past month doubled from 5% in 2020 to 10% in 2023.
Students with fewer missed school days had higher average scores in both reading and math than students with more missed school days, the data shows.
Students were also asked about how often they read for fun on their own time. The survey found that 14% of students reported reading for fun almost every day, which is 3 percentage points lower than in 2020.
Meanwhile, 31% of students reported never or hardly ever reading for fun, an increase from 29% in 2020.
The average reading score for those who reported reading for fun almost every day was higher than the scores for students who reported other levels of frequency for reading.
“Our low-performing students were hit the hardest by the pandemic,” Carr said. “Even before the pandemic, they were falling behind their peers.”
The scores of students in the lowest percentiles were significantly lower in 2023 than in 2020.
When compared with data from a decade ago, the average scores nationwide declined 7 points in reading and 14 points in math.
“Leaders must act with urgency,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
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June 21, 2023 at 05:00PM
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National test scores for 13-year-olds declined in reading and math - The Dallas Morning News
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