(Nexstar) – Some schools are beginning to take away some of the lost ground due to the disruptions in learning during the Pandemic era, but according to new reports, there is still a way to go.
The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) releases a national report card compares test scores for fourth and eighth graders in school districts across the country. According to the report, fourth graders have made a small profit on mathematics scores over the past two years (although the 2019 test scores are still lacking), but no mathematics scores for eighth graders have occurred.
The situation was even tougher with even tougher scores, and in 2024 it fell even further for fourth and eighth graders.
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“Overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance,” NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Kerr said in a press release. “If there are signs of recovery, they are mostly mathematics and driven primarily by high-performing students. Low-performing students struggle, especially in reading.”
State-by-state results
Some states are taking a small step, while others seem to be behind, report cards have been found.
In public school mathematics scores, most states saw no major changes between 2022 and 2024. One state, Nebraska, saw a lower fourth grade score. At the 8th grade level, test scores fell in four states. Alaska, Idaho, Florida and Nevada.
More state students are struggling to read, the report found. Fourth graders from Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota and Vermont saw their test scores drop between 2022 and 2024.
Eighth grade reading scores fell in many of the same states, with some more drops in: Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Nevada, Utah, Vermont.
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The rest of the states saw “no major changes.” It turns out that one city, Atlanta, has made some progress, but not a single state that has proven to have significantly boosted its reading score over the last two years.
In some cases, it is difficult to know whether students are making progress or whether the state is changing standards. For example, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Florida seem to have relaxed the cutoffs of math and reading proficiency over the past two years, Harvard economist Tom Kane told The Associated Press.
Educational Recovery Scorecard analysis by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth shows that the average student remains half of his prenatal grades in both reading and mathematics.
The gap between high-performance and struggling students is also generally widening within the state.
“The pandemic not only drove test scores, it also masks the harmful inequality that has grown during the pandemic,” said Sean Reardon, a Stanford sociologist who worked on the scorecard. “Not only is the district even lagging even more Black and Hispanic students behind more Black and Hispanic students, even within those districts, Black and Hispanic students are even lagging even further behind their white district peers.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
