The Covid-19 pandemic took a ‘profound toll’ on America’s schoolchildren, causing historic setbacks in math and reading and erasing decades of academic progress, a government agency warned on Monday.
Across the US, math scores saw their biggest decreases ever, and reading scores fell to levels not seen since the early 1990s, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress — known as the ‘nation’s report card’.
The collected scores of hundreds of thousands of fourth and eighth graders found that nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts — a sign of the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on America’s children.
The same agency last month found that math and reading scores for other age groups had also tanked, with mass school closures during the pandemic being blamed for upending the education for millions of children.
‘The results show the profound toll on student learning during the pandemic, as the size and scope of the declines are the largest ever in mathematics,’ said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
The declines underscored how home-learning during the pandemic was no substitute for in-classroom teaching
It’s no surprise that children are behind.
The pandemic upended every facet of life and left millions learning from home for months or more. The results released Monday reveal the depth of those setbacks, and the size of the challenge facing schools as they help students catch up.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said it’s a sign that schools need to redouble their efforts, using billions of dollars that Congress gave schools to help students recover.
‘Let me be very clear: these results are not acceptable,’ Cardona said.
The NAEP test is typically given every two years. It was taken between January and March by a sample of students in every state, along with 26 of the nation’s largest school districts. Scores had been stalling even before the pandemic, but the new results show decreases on a scale not seen before.
In both math and reading, students scored lower than those tested in 2019. But while reading scores dipped, math scores plummeted by the largest margins in the history of the NAEP test, which began in 1969.
Math scores were worst among eighth graders, with 38 percent earning scores deemed ‘below basic’ — a cutoff that measures, for example, whether students can find the third angle of a triangle if they’re given the other two.
That’s worse than 2019, when 31 percent of eighth graders scored below that level.
No part of the country was exempt. Every region saw test scores slide, and every state saw declines in at least one subject.
Several major districts saw test scores fall by more than 10 points.
Cleveland saw the largest single drop, falling 16 points in fourth-grade reading, along with a 15-point decline in fourth-grade math. Baltimore and Tennessee’s Shelby County also saw precipitous declines.
‘This is more confirmation that the pandemic hit us really hard,’ said Eric Gordon, chief executive for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. To help students recover, the school system has beefed up summer school and added after-school tutoring.
‘I’m not concerned that they can’t or won’t recover,’ Gordon said. ‘I’m concerned that the country won’t stay focused on getting kids caught up.’
The results show a reversal of progress on math scores, which had made big gains since the 1990s. Reading, by contrast, had changed little in recent decades, so even this year’s relatively small decreases put the averages back to where they were in 1992.
Most concerning, however, are the gaps between students.
Confirming what many had feared, racial inequities appear to have widened during the pandemic. In fourth grade, Black and Hispanic students saw bigger decreases than white students, widening gaps that have persisted for decades.
Inequities were also reflected in a growing gap between higher and lower performing students. In math and reading, scores fell most sharply among the lowest performing students, creating a widening chasm between struggling students and the rest of their peers.
The study reflects two years of upheaval in America’s classrooms as schools shuttered for months at a time amid Covid-19 outbreaks
Surveys done as part of this year’s test illustrate the divide.
When schools shifted to remote learning, higher performing students were far more likely to have reliable access to quiet spaces, computers and help from their teachers, the survey found.
The results make clear that schools must address the ‘long-standing and systemic shortcomings of our education system,’ said Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Los Angeles schools and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets the policies for the test.
‘While the pandemic was a blow to schools and communities, we cannot use it as an excuse,’ he said. ‘We have to stay committed to high standards and expectations and help every child succeed.’
Other recent studies have found that students who spent longer periods learning online suffered greater setbacks. But the NAEP results show no clear connection.
Areas that returned to the classroom quickly still saw significant declines, and cities — which were more likely to stay remote longer — actually saw milder decreases than suburban districts, according to the results.
Los Angeles can claim one of the few bright spots in the results. The nation’s second-largest school district saw eighth-grade reading scores increase by 9 points, the only significant uptick in any district. For other districts, it was a feat just to hold even, as achieved by Dallas and Florida’s Hillsborough County.
Testing critics caution against putting too much stock in exams like NAEP, but there’s no doubt that the skills it aims to measure are critical.
Students who take longer to master reading are more likely to drop out and end up in the criminal justice system, research has found. And eighth grade is seen as a pivotal time to develop skills for math, science and technology careers.
For Carr, the results raise new questions about what will happen to students who appear to be far behind in attaining those skills.
‘We want our students to be prepared globally for STEM careers, science and technology and engineering,’ she said. ‘This puts all of that at risk. We have to do a reset. This is a very serious issue, and it’s not going to go away on its own.’