Data: Student learning suffered

Testing reveals pandemic’s impact on academic achievement

State test results released this week confirmed what educators and parents feared was the case: student learning at all ages and from most backgrounds has taken a hit during the pandemic.

The assessment data offers a first glimpse at how student learning fared in Connecticut during COVID-19, showing proficiency rates dropped since the 2018-19 school year, the last time state tests were administered.

Students who learned fully or mostly in person last year lost the least ground, while their peers in hybrid or mostly remote models showed weaker achievement and growth. The state education department saw impacts in all subjects but the greatest differences in math.

“Students across the board, including those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, are most engaged and learn best when they are in person with their educators and friends,” said Charlene Russell-Tucker, the state education commissioner.

“These results reinforce the state’s continued efforts to ensure students have access to in-person learning in the safest environments possible,” she said.

Connecticut students sat for several statewide assessments in the spring, including the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium reading and math exams for third through eighth graders. Students also take a science test and the SAT in some grades.

“For a whole host of reasons, 2021 was a very different year for our schools: how students learned was different, and it varied across districts,” said Ajit Gopalakrishnan, the chief performance officer at the education department.

Test data show achievement in fifth through eighth grade was substantially lower last year than it was in 2018-19. The department report found the trend was independent of student need, such as learning English, having disabilities or coming from a low-income family.

The analysis considered how the same students grew from one grade to another, including wouldbe hybrid and remote learners that already had lower proficiency levels in 2018-19.

Third and fourth graders, who also sat for the tests this year, were not old enough to take the exams the last time they were administered.

“Prior to the pandemic, our growth was much stronger,” said Gopalakrishnan. “Clearly the pandemic had a big impact on growth for all students, but even more so for our hybrid and remote learners.”

The education department’s analysis only included results from inperson test-takers, which made up 82 percent of third through eighth graders, though these students could be hybrid or remote learners. These tests are usually only administered in person, but an exception was made for the pandemic.

More than 60 percent of third through eighth graders who were mostly or fully in person were proficient in reading, the data show. Less than half of hybrid learners, and more than a third of fully or mostly remote students, scored a three or four on the state English language arts test.

“Even in-person instruction wasn’t the same as in prior years. Many teachers taught in person and remote students at the same time, while in other districts they ran separate academies for remote students so that they could be taught by a different set of teachers,” said Gopalakrishnan.

Student proficiency rates were lower in math. Roughly half of in-person learners were proficient in math, compared to about a third and a fifth of hybrid and remote students, respectively.

“Translating mathematics to that virtual space wasn’t perfect,” said Irene Parisi, the chief academic officer at the education department. “The deep understanding of how math works may not have happened for the child, it just did not click for them. Being in person is where they can see math in action.”

When school buildings shuttered in spring 2020, Connecticut asked the federal education department to pause statewide tests and accountability assessments due to the pandemic.

Last school year, the state asked again to waive accountability, but resumed the exams, saying the scores could help evaluate the pandemic’s impact and target support and resources.

The department said “encouraging results” among students who were at least mostly in classrooms last school year strengthens the case for full time, in-person learning this fall.

“In addition to addressing students’ academic needs, in-person learning ensures that all of our students have access to the critical supports that schools provide,” said Russell-Tucker.