New Test Data Show That COVID School Closures Rapidly Accelerated U.S. Learning Losses; Pandemic Learning Slide Continues for 13-Year-Olds, Making Full Recovery Unlikely, and other C-Virus related stories

By admin On Jun 23, 2023

New Test Data Show That COVID School Closures Rapidly Accelerated U.S. Learning Losses:

Nearly two years after most children returned to the classroom, educational losses continue to grow.

New national data provides evidence of widespread learning loss among American schoolchildren following COVID-19 school closures. While declines in scores on this specific test began well before the pandemic, American students have suffered larger testing declines since the start of the pandemic than they did in the previous eight years.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) regularly administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress long-term trend (LTT) test, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, to a representative sample of American schoolchildren. Last September, results of the test given to 4th and 8th graders in late 2020 revealed dramatic score declines.

These declines were blamed directly on pandemic school closures, which implied that a return to normal test scores would soon follow a return to normal schooling. However, new data from American 13-year-olds shows that students are still behind.

Compared to test results from just before the pandemic, students lost four points in reading, declining from 260 to 256 on a 500-point scale. Students also lost nine points in math, declining from 280 to 271. In all, the declines brought reading scores to their lowest point since 1975 and math scores to their lowest point since 1990.

The testing decline began before the pandemic. Reading and math scores on the 500-point scale declined by three and five points, respectively, between 2012 and 2020. While it isn’t exactly clear why scores fell over this period, some have theorized that it’s the result of fewer students reading for fun and fewer middle school students taking Algebra. —>READ MORE HERE

WSJ: Pandemic Learning Slide Continues for 13-Year-Olds, Making Full Recovery Unlikely

National math scores from 2022 are worst in decades, forecasting struggles in high school and college

National test results released Wednesday show reading and math scores for 13-year-olds have continued to worsen since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, setting up more roadblocks to their success in high school and beyond.

Average scores on the 2023 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, show 13-year-olds declined four points in reading and nine points in mathematics, compared with 2020. For mathematics, it was the largest drop for 13-year-olds seen in 50 years.

The average score in math fell to 271 out of a possible 500, reaching its lowest point since 1990. For reading, the average score fell to 256, falling to its lowest point since 2004.

The tests assessed students’ ability to complete basic equations in math, such as multiplying a two-digit number by a three-digit number, and to demonstrate foundational skills in reading comprehension, such as locating specific information in a short written passage.

The long-term assessments were administered in October through December 2022 to 13-year-olds in the eighth and seventh grades. They provide a crucial measure of pandemic learning loss for U.S. teens at a critical point in their schooling.

National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner Peggy Carr said the most recent data show academic declines suffered during the pandemic haven’t stabilized, despite efforts by districts and schools to address learning loss.