On Monday, the National Assessment of Educational Progress released its first national “report card” since the beginning of the pandemic. The obvious conclusion: During COVID, student achievement fell dramatically. The survey of fourth and eighth graders found that math scores fell in nearly every state. No state showed significant improvements in reading. The lowest-performing students saw the largest declines in achievement.
So my follow-up question is: How much of this historic decline was the direct result of school closures?
Since the start of the pandemic, the Nationwide Assessment of Educational Progress on Monday issued its first national “report card.” Unmistakable conclusion: During COVID, student achievement fell precipitously. The survey of fourth and eighth graders discovered that math test performance dropped in almost every state. No state demonstrated reading proficiency improvements. The biggest drop in achievement was seen among the kids who performed the worst.
What comes next is: How much of this unprecedented drop was caused directly by school closures?
The most recent NAEP study, according to a number of prominent news outlets, provided only shaky evidence that school closures were the main offender. Texas, for instance, started its schools very early but nevertheless experienced math score losses that were consistent with the national norm. The scores of California students decreased less than the national average despite the state’s schools starting comparatively late. One school monitoring website found that Los Angeles schools were closed for longer than those practically anywhere else, and that there were unexpected improvements in eighth-grade reading performance. (The district’s superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, credited “strong attendance for online courses and summer classes,” according to The Wall Street Journal.)
