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Nationwide, fourth- and eighth-grade students’ math and reading scores declined between 2019 and 2022, but Dallas fared better than many major metro areas during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation’s Report Card, released today by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.
The research shows Dallas is one of just a three districts nationwide that managed to hold steady in fourth-grade mathematics. Dallas also held steady in fourth- and eighth-grade reading. Dallas eighth graders declined in mathematics, along with most of the country.
The national average score declines in mathematics for fourth- and eighth-graders were the largest ever recorded in that subject, the researchers report. There were no improvements in mathematics in any state or large urban district, and eighth-grade mathematics scores declined in 51 participating states and jurisdictions since the assessment was last given in 2019, the year prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only Utah and the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity schools held steady in eighth-grade math.
“The results show the profound toll on student learning during the pandemic,” NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said in a news release accompanying the report. “The results also underscore the importance of instruction and the role of schools in both students’ academic growth and their overall wellbeing. It’s clear we all need to come together—policymakers and community leaders at every level—as partners in helping our educators, children and families succeed.”
The commissioner went on to say that recovery is about more than returning to pre-pandemic status quo.
“The pandemic laid bare an opportunity gap that has long existed,” Carr says. “It also showed how every student was vulnerable to the pandemic’s disruptions.”
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said in a separate press release that the national results “give us a baseline from which we can continue to work to improve and lift up our students.
“They also show a student-centered board who supported the hard work teachers, principals, auxiliary staff, parents, partners, and everyone with our district did during the pandemic to minimize disruptions and accelerate learning.”
Daniel J. McGrath, acting as NCES associate commissioner for assessment notes that if left unaddressed, the decline in math skills could “alter the trajectories and life opportunities of a whole cohort of young people, potentially reducing their abilities to pursue rewarding and productive careers in mathematics, science and technology.”
“Eighth grade is a pivotal moment in students’ mathematics education, as they develop key mathematics skills for further learning and potential careers in mathematics and science,” McGrath said.
The assessment also found that more-successful students during the pandemic had access to a computer all the time, a quiet place to work at least some of the time, a teacher available to help with schoolwork at least some of the time and for eighth graders, daily, real-time video lessons with the teacher.
The analysts also collected information on teacher confidence in performing remote instruction tasks, including addressing knowledge and skill gaps that may have occurred due to pandemic-related school closures.
Fifty percent of teachers or fewer reported feeling “quite” or “extremely” confident in their ability to address learning gaps.
Commissioner Carr added that the news was not all bad.
“Despite the countless obstacles that students faced over the course of the pandemic—including instability at home, decreased access to resources, teacher shortages, cyberbullying and an uptick in violence once schools reopened—we also see pockets of remarkable resilience across the country, particularly in the country’s urban districts,” Carr said. However, when it comes to addressing the problems uncovered in the study, “We do not have a moment to waste.”
See the full report and methodology here.
