Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier staff writer
Fourth and eighth-grade students throughout the country have shown significant declines in math and reading achievement levels following the pandemic, according to the 2022 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Average reading scores in both fourth and eighth grade dropped by three points since 2019, with no states recording an improvement in scores. Math scores were particularly affected, with average scores dropping by five points in fourth grade and eight points in eighth grade. Every state reported a decline in math achievement, and overall a quarter of fourth graders and nearly 40% of eighth graders scored below basic level in math.
In Georgia, the results were less dramatic. Compared to 2019, fourth-grade math scores and fourth and eighth-grade reading scores held steady, with only eighth-grade math scores showing a significant decline. Georgia returned to 75% in-person instruction during the 2020-2021 school year. With different states returning to full in-person instruction at different times, some have raised questions about certain states keeping schools closed for too long. Lawrence Baines, professor and director of teacher education, said that school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly caused most of the decline in all areas.
“There’s no question that most of it is caused by school closures due to COVID,” Baines said. “All the data that I’ve read says that it’s put those kids as much as a year behind. Rather than second grade, you actually have the skills and abilities of a first grader. I’ve been in a lot of the schools in the local area—we’ve got kids who are in the second or third grade who don’t recognize letters from the alphabet. They can’t distinguish ‘b’ and ‘d’.”
When the pandemic first took hold in the United States, many schools opted to maintain some form of education through distance learning, requiring students to receive lessons and complete assignments online at home. Mary Clement, professor of teacher education, said that while teachers and schools did an admirable job in attempting to minimize disruptions, students’ lack of engagement with distance learning ultimately limited their achievement levels.
“The big thing about the pandemic was, the time on task changed,” Clement said. “Even if kids were sitting in front of their computer monitors all day, they weren’t engaged. The biggest difference was that there wasn’t as much time spent on learning, and that’s what lowered the test scores.”
According to Baines, another factor that may have precipitated the decline in test scores was the lack of access to the required technology in many poorer areas of the country.
“You had the technological infrastructure in relatively wealthy schools. You can pull off some Zoom stuff,” Baines said. “You go to rural schools in Georgia or Texas or high-poverty urban schools, they had no technological infrastructure. They couldn’t Zoom if they wanted to. When the school district decided we’re not going to meet face-to-face anymore, they were out of luck. A lot of those districts put together some packets, just staple some paper together.”
The large declines in math scores are particularly worrisome. Even before the pandemic, American students ranked 31st in international math scores. According to Jill Cochran, associate professor of mathematics education, poor math proficiency has an even greater effect on future life outcomes than literacy levels.
“[Life quality] is more closely tied to mathematics than to literacy and reading ability, which is also very important.” Cochran said. “If you don’t get into a good math track, it limits the possibility for what you can do as a job, as a career. It limits what colleges you can get into; it limits all sorts of things if you don’t have that good math foundation.”
The general lack of math proficiency in the population may have been a reason the steep decline in math scores. Cochran said that many parents didn’t have the mathematical knowledge to help their children with assignments during distance learning, adding that many services for students with math disabilities went away during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we had a lot of kids who were all of a sudden at home, and the only help they could get with their math were their parents who were around or other adults in their life, I don’t think there were the resources at home for most students that there maybe was in other areas,” Cochran said. “We also have a lot of students who receive additional help at school due to dysgraphia or general learning disabilities related to mathematics. All of those services went away for a while.”
The long-term impacts of the pandemic’s disruption of education are already beginning to be seen. Graduation rates declined in at least 31 states in 2021, and ACT scores dropped to their lowest average level since 1991 this year. Efforts are already underway to fill in the gaps left by COVID-19 pandemic-era schooling, with the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in 2021 setting aside $122 billion in extra funding for school districts with the stipulation that funds be spent by 2024. Clement said that many schools are adding remediation programs to help get students back on track.
“I think some schools have already started doing some really good things,” Clement said. “Some schools are beefing up their summer school programs. Some schools are beefing up after-school programs. Some high schools are adding more graduation coaches to help kids directly, help them catch up.”
Clement added that returning to rigorous, direct teaching is essential.
“I think we get back to basics,” Clement said. “We get back to direct teaching and giving homework and having high expectations of our students to get them to high achievement.”
Still, the problems in education caused by the COIVD-19 pandemic reach beyond declining student achievement. The additional stresses imposed by the pandemic caused many teachers to leave their jobs. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there 600,000 less educators working in the profession at the start of this than at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While oftentimes low salaries play a role, Baines said that poor working conditions have dissuaded many from education.
“A lot of it is the working conditions, because more and more is heaped upon a teacher’s back. It’s just incredible the amount of bureaucratic overhead they would need to complete to get through a single day,” Baines said. “If we went back to the thing where we said, we’re limiting class sizes and then we’re going to make sure that teachers have duty-free lunch and it’s a good life, they have a teacher’s lounge or they have a closet — usually none of those things are present.”
Baines added that attempts by states to control classroom curriculum, like the restrictions on teaching critical race theory passed by 16 states, is causing further apprehension among potential teachers.
“All the high-achieving countries are those that give teachers autonomy,” Baines said. “A lot of states are trying to do this micromanagement stuff. You can teach this but you can’t teach that, like critical race theory. For a new teacher coming in not sure about that, what does that really mean? Could I lose my job?”
According to Clement, Berry is combatting the teacher shortage with its rigorous teacher education program with multiple years of field experience built into the curriculum.
“What we’re doing is producing the best teachers we possibly can,” Clement said. “We have a really strong teacher ed program that has a lot of field experience and student teaching. Our students spend a lot more time out in schools than teacher education students would at some other universities and colleges.”
Baines said that Berry education graduates come out of college well prepared to become excellent teachers.
“At Berry, our teachers are basically in the field for three or four years,” Baines said. “We have all these courseworks; everyone has a major in a content area. They’re really sharp, they’re ready to go, they’re autonomous. Let them teach now.”