Standardized school tests see dramatic drop in scores
The first Maryland standardized tests given since the beginning of the pandemic show a dramatic drop in student achievement, mirroring a nationwide trend of academic loss, according to preliminary data released by the state education department Tuesday.
Just 15% of the state’s public school students passed math and 35% passed English, the greatest single year declines on any state tests given in at least the past two decades in Maryland.
The standardized tests, known as the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, are considered difficult to pass. More than than half of the state’s public school students regularly fail the tests — given in math and English in grades three through eight and in some high school subjects — in years before the pandemic.
However, the pass rate for math fell by more than half from the 33% who passed in the spring of 2019, the last time the test was given. English scores were down by about 8 percentage points since testing before the pandemic.
State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury said the results, while concerning, reflect what is being seen across the country.
“I was not surprised by what I saw. I was just waiting for this moment,” he said.
A study of test results in 12 states showed average declines in math of 14 percentage points and average declines in English of 6 percentage points, according to National Bureau of Economic Research. The declines were worse among students who had been out of in-person school for the longest. Schools in Maryland were some of the last in the country to return to in-person learning. Choudhury said that long stretch out of school buildings is reflected in the data.
The psychological and social impact on families has been significant, he said, but Maryland schools will need to work to fill in the gaps in student learning.
“These are are new baselines and we need to embrace the baselines and get to work,” he said. “If we don’t get this right, then it will effect their trajectory in life. So we have to get this right.”
This year’s MCAP exams, given a month into this school year, were short diagnostic tests aimed at giving teachers and school leaders a snapshot of the pandemic’s effect on learning. The tests were not intended to provide the detailed view of achievement provided by the much longer, federally mandated tests usually given each spring. It was the first time students had been tested since the spring of 2019.
The preliminary data released by the state this week did not include details about passing rates in each school system or school. A more extensive release of information is expected in January and will contain a look at the academic slide of particular groups of students. The federal testing requirement was suspended in the first year of the pandemic, and Maryland education leaders chose not to administer MCAP last spring, opting for the shortened version this fall that will not be used to give schools star grades or as a basis for teacher evaluations. Students were tested on what they were expected to know the spring before, rather than what they were expected to have learned in the first month of school. So sixth graders, for instance, were tested on what should have been learned by the end of fifth grade.
The state also assessed kindergarteners on their readiness to learn, and found that 40% of students were prepared for kindergarten compared to 47% in the two years before the pandemic. Baltimore City students appeared to fare worse with just a quarter of its kindergarteners considered ready to learn.
Amid the bad news was a surprising result on the science test, given in grades five and eight. Students proficiency rose during the pandemic, up to 39% from 33% before the pandemic. Choudhury said the department will try to see whether the test may have been easier than expected because it was shortened or if there was positive achievement in the subject.
The poor results come just as the state is about to launch the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multi-billion dollar investment in education that is designed to make the state’s schools the best in the nation.
Choudhury said it is possible the state should consider refocusing some of the funds to adjust for the effects of the pandemic. For instance, he said, more money could be spent on tutoring to help students recover academically. Between the additional state money and the federal money from the pandemic, schools should have enough resources to respond.