US test scores down, who's to blame?
Table Of Contents
Recall that a short time ago, last year, we all sat down for several hours to do an assessment that is known as the NAEP test. Well the scores have now been released, and the results are alarming, not just for Massachusetts, but for the entire nation. They also serve as a reckoning for the increasing gender and racial inequity that continue to plague the school system throughout. Something must be done, whether it be at the district level or systematic change, change must happen.
NAEP
What is the NAEP? NAEP stands for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the Nation's report card. Its job is to essentially act as the canary in the coal mine; it gives knowledge and/or warning about the status of the K-12 school systems nationally. It takes place every four years, and beginning from 2004, has continued, all the way up to today. The test itself contains topics ranging from STEM to English, and the test takes 90 straight minutes at maximum.
The Statistics
With that said, it should be fairly obvious why such a drop is such an alarming statistic. Any sort of drop shows that the nation’s school districts are suffering, and this time, it reveals much more than the eye can see. On average, reading scores across all grades dipped by 5 points, and in math by 7, and shown in the graph below.
Furthermore, math scores show a widening divide between races and genders. Females had their marks drop by 11 points, while males on average dropped only by 7 points. Black students were also disproportionately affected. Their scores declined by 13 points while White students only slid downward by 6 points. And according to NPR, the divide in scores between Black students and their White peers only increased with the release of the results: 35 points out of 500 to 42 out of 500.
How Did This Happen?
How did this happen? Most experts agree that the Covid-19 pandemic is to blame. The shutdown of schools and transition into online learning has left many learners behind in critical academic skills. And while there has been a trend of lower and lower results, this year is a departure from the expectations, especially when it comes to comparing scores from a decade or two ago, 7 and 14 points were lost in English and Mathematics respectively. Furthermore, recovering from the decline will take an enormous amount of time and effort, as the education system will need years to rebound.
With that, there is one question that still remains unanswered, what do we (or can we) do in light of this news? For one, funding initiatives to recover skills lost is a sound way to go, and as the Department of Education puts it; “Those funds can be used for things like hiring more teachers, counselors, and support staff or providing increased tutoring and one-on-one support to students.” So certainly there is something that can be done. Additionally, with the pandemic all but a memory at this point, in a few years we will be able to see if what we do today will assist with future results.
Sources
Barshay, Jill. "PROOF POINTS: Six puzzling questions from the disastrous NAEP results." The Hechinger Report, 12 Sep. 2022, hechingerreport.org/proof-points-six-puzzling-questions-from-the-disastrous-naep-results/. Accessed 28 July 2023.
Carrilo, Sequoia. "U.S. reading and math scores drop to lowest level in decades." NPR, 21 June 2023, www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/ u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in- decades#:~:text=The%20average%20scores%2C%20from%20tests,are%20the%20lowest%20in%20decades. Accessed 28 July 2023.
National Center for Education statistics. "NAEP." Participating in the NAEP, 6 Sept. 2022, nces.ed.gov/ nationsreportcard/students/. Accessed 28 July 2023. The Nations Report Card. "NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment Results: Reading and Mathematics." The Nations Report Card, 2022, www.nationsreportcard.gov/ highlights/ltt/2022/. Accessed 28 July 2023.
Riley, Jeffery C. "2022 NAEP Reading and Mathematics: Summary of State Results." 2022 NAEP Reading and Mathematics: Summary of State Results, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Dec. 2022, www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/natl-intl/naep/results/2022readingmath.docx. Accessed 28 July 2023.
Wilkes, Mackenzie. "National math and reading scores for 13-year-olds drop." Politico, 21 June 2023, www.politico.com/news/2023/06/21/. Accessed 28 July 2023.