The new school year has welcomed Glynn County teachers and students with a daunting challenge: reversing the alarming trend in falling reading and math scores.
The National Center for Education Statistics regularly administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress Long-Term Trend Assessment to assess reading and math skills among 13-year-old students in the U.S. On a scale of 500 points, the average reading score in 2022 was 4 points lower than the average reading score in 2020. The average math score in 2022 was 9 points lower than the average math score in 2020. These are the lowest scores since the 1970s. Scores have been declining for a decade, but performance plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning losses were even more pronounced for low performing students, girls, and certain racial groups.
Both high performing and low performing students saw test score declines, but low performing students saw more extreme declines in their reading and math scores. Declines in math were especially precipitous for low performing students. Declines ranged from 6 to 8 points for middle to high performing students. Low performing students saw declines from 12 to 14 points.
The math results showed a widening gap between boys and girls. Scores in 2022 were lower for boys and girls relative to 2020 scores, but math scores decreased by 11 points for girls compared to 7 points for boys.
All racial groups saw declining scores in reading and math, but learning loss was much more substantial in math. Math scores dropped by the following amounts for students from various racial groups between 2020 and 2022: White (-6 points), two or more races (-8 points), Asian (-9 points), Hispanic (-10 points), Black (-13 points), and American Indian/Alaska Native (-20 points).
Further, math scores showed a widening gap across races. Scores among Black students declined by 13 points compared to a 6 point decline among White students. The 35 point gap between Black and White students in 2020 has widened to 42 points in 2022.
Declining scores and widening achievement gaps reflect learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. In some cases, schools were shuttered for more than a year. Many students experienced long periods of ineffective virtual instruction. However, the blame cannot be placed solely on the COVID-19 pandemic. Scores were declining for a decade before lockdowns and mass virtual instruction. Learning loss during COVID-19 exacerbated declines in achievement that were underway before the pandemic.
Many students are behind academically, but this challenge is compounded by behavioral issues in the classroom, teacher burnout, and difficulty attracting and retaining qualified teachers.
Across our nation, lawmakers are passing legislation that establishes or expands school choice programs. Many of these programs allow parents to use public dollars to cover educational expenses. These programs tend to allow well-to-do children to escape struggling schools, while children from families of limited means are stuck in schools with even fewer resources.
We must address learning loss and close the growing academic achievement gaps among our youth through evidence-based interventions and accelerated learning opportunities for students. Schools can better serve students by providing smaller class sizes, programming and opportunities for at-risk populations, high frequency tutoring, behavioral and mental health support, before and after school programming, and summer enrichment programs. These efforts should be paired with parental outreach efforts and nurturing partnerships with child-centered non-profit organizations.
Any plan to address learning loss must also address mental health and behavioral challenges among students, mitigate teacher burnout, and attract and retain qualified teachers. Of course, significant disparities in funding shape what strategies any given school district may implement.
Our kids and our nation will suffer if we don’t act. Learning loss is correlated with lower levels of educational attainment and lower lifetime earnings. Falling behind academically restricts young people’s ability to enter skilled professions and may reduce the GDP for decades to come.
Roscoe Scarborough, Ph.D. is chair of the Department of Social Sciences and associate professor of sociology at College of Coastal Georgia. He is an associate scholar at the Reg Murphy Center for Economic and Policy Studies. He can be reached by email at rscarborough@ccga.edu.
Reg Murphy Center