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A disproportionate number of poor and minority students were not in schools for assessments this fall, complicating efforts to measure the effects of the pandemic on some of the most vulnerable students, a non-profit company said on Tuesday. profit that administers standardized tests.
Overall, the NWEA’s fall assessments showed that elementary and middle school students have fallen behind in math, while most appear to be progressing at a normal pace in reading since schools were forced to shut down abruptly in March and recover online.
Analyzing data from nearly 4.4 million American students in Grades 3 to 8 represents one of the first important measures of the impacts of the pandemic on learning.
But researchers at the NWEA, whose MAP Growth assessments are meant to measure student skills, caution that they may be underestimating the effects on minority and economically disadvantaged groups. These students represented a significant portion of the approximately 1 in 4 students who tested in 2019 but were absent from the 2020 tests.
The NWEA said they may have chosen not to participate in the assessments, which were given in person and remotely, because they lacked reliable technology or had stopped attending school.
“Considering that we’ve also seen school district reports of higher truancy levels in many different school districts, this is something that really needs to be concerned,” researcher Megan Kuhfeld said during a call with journalists.
NWEA results show that, compared to last year, students scored an average of 5 to 10 percentile points lower in math, with third, fourth and fifth graders seeing the largest declines .
The scores in English were about the same as last year.
NWEA chief executive Chris Minnich emphasized the sequential nature of math, where one year’s skills – or deficits – spill over into the next year.
“The math challenge is an acute challenge, and it’s something we’re going to have to face even after we get back to school,” he said.
NWEA compared class-level performance on the 2019 and 2020 tests. It also analyzed student growth over time, based on how students made assessments given shortly before schools closed. and those donated this fall.
Both measures indicate that students are progressing in math, but not as quickly as a typical grade. The results confirm expectations that students are losing ground during the pandemic, but show that these losses are not as large as projections made in the spring which were based in part on the learning losses typical of ‘summer landslides’. .
A November report from Renaissance Learning Inc., based on its own standardized tests, also found troubling math setbacks and lower reading losses.
Renaissance Learning’s analysis looked at the results of 5 million students in Grades 1 through 8 who took Star Early Literacy reading or math assessments in the fall of 2019 and 2020. It found that students of all grades performed below expectations in mathematics at the start of the school year. , some 12 weeks or more late.
Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and students in schools largely serving low-income families have faced a worse situation, but the pandemic has so far not widened existing achievement gaps, according to the Renaissance report. .
The NWEA said if it saw differences between racial and ethnic groups in its data, it was too early to draw any conclusions.
Andre Pecina, assistant superintendent of student services at the Golden Plains Unified School District in San Joaquin, Calif., Said his district has worked to stem the learning loss by providing devices to all of its students, but that the district continues to fight for student connectivity at home. .
Students who are typically 1.5 years behind are now two levels behind, he said.
“We just got back to basics where we focus on literacy and math. That’s all we do, ”Pecina said.
“I feel like we’re doing our best,” he said. “Our students are engaged, but it’s not optimal. The learning environment is not optimal. “
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Associated Press reporter Jeff Amy contributed from Atlanta, Georgia.
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