Math didn’t add up for kids during pandemic
Math progress ground to a halt during the pandemic, new data show.
No state or big city notched any improvements on national math tests — while kids on the cusp of high school were particularly impacted, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, dubbed the “nation’s report card.”
Eighth-grade math scores plummeted in all states but Utah, where they held steady — with roughly 38% of the age group performing below basic achievement levels in math.
“These mathematics results are historic,” said Peggy Carr of the National Center for Education Statistics, the research branch of the US Department of Education that administers the test.
They’re “the largest declines in mathematics we have observed in the entire history of this assessment,” she said.
Nationwide downturn
The national average math score for fourth grade has fallen 5 points since 2019, from 241 to 236 out of a possible 500, and 8 points for eighth-graders, from 282 to 274.
In reading, average scores dropped by 3 points at both grade levels — from 220 to 217 in the fourth grade and 263 to 260 in the eighth grade.
The test-score slump comes a month after early results showed that, for 9-year-olds, the COVID-19 pandemic undid decades of math and reading progress.
The new findings show math scores dropped in 43 states and jurisdictions in fourth grade, and in 51 of them in eighth grade.
Still, cities including Dallas; Austin, Texas; Tampa, Fla.; Miami; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; and New York, bucked the trend, holding steady in either fourth- or eighth-grade math — although they were still were not improving, the report found.
Federal officials were particularly worried about possible ramifications for current high schoolers falling behind in math. Carr described eighth grade as the “gateway” to more advanced math, from high-level classes to STEM careers, which could put the US behind the global competition.
“This is the moment of truth for education,” US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said of the report. “How we respond to this will determine not only our recovery but our nation’s standing in the world.”
Reading scores also declined in 30 states and jurisdictions in fourth grade and 33 of them in eighth grade — a less widespread drop than in math but still worrisome.
“Math is just simply more sensitive to schooling. You really need teachers to teach math. Reading, on the other hand, is something that parents and community, they are more comfortable . . . helping students with,” Carr said.
NYC holds its own
City math scores for soon-to-be high schoolers, which stayed about the same, also weathered the pandemic better than it did in other big cities. And, like most large-city school districts, the Big Apple’s reading scores were comparable to pre-pandemic levels.
Statewide scores declined on the fourth-grade reading and math tests, and for eighth-grade math — but stayed about the same on the eighth-grade reading test.
Fourth-graders across the state performed below the national average on math, but had roughly the same scores as kids in other states did on the other three federal tests.
Math scores for that age group — an average of 227 — were lower than the national average of 235, and below those of 38 other states and jurisdictions.
But more than four in 10 students across New York state did not demonstrate basic reading achievement levels in the fourth grade.
Research has shown that kids who do not learn how to read by the third grade face an uphill battle to reach proficiency.