THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES
- Many working parents were forced to leave their children at home alone or under the care of older siblings.
- Most households were not equipped to provide suitable remote learning environments
- Reported non-attendance rates soared to 42% in some areas.
- Anecdotally, teachers report that actual online interaction with live students was even lower with non-participation rates that often exceeded 60%.
SCHOOLS DID NOT HAVE THE EXPERIENCE OR TOOLS TO DEAL WITH THESE LEARNING ISSUES.
As a result, scores from the National Assessment of Education Progress for the nation’s fourth and eighth-grade students show dramatic declines in math and reading. Most if not all states, experienced significant declines in their own achievement test results.
Nationally, students failing to meet standards increased across the three-year span, and students meeting standards declined across the same time. Proficiency, as determined by test scores, not only dropped but reversed the multi-year upward trend. The outcomes are a direct result of the multiple issues encountered with distance learning.
Consequently, students missed out on vital instruction, and they did not acquire the content knowledge commensurate with their assigned grade levels.
ACHIEVEMENT RATES AT A LARGE SAMPLE OF SCHOOLS
Standards Plus reviewed test scores from a large sample of schools that included over two million students. Achievement test results for the large sample are displayed below, and they are consistent with the national results.
ACHIEVEMENT RATES AT STANDARDS PLUS SCHOOLS
Standards Plus compared this large control group to a subset of schools that used Standards Plus instructional materials.
Based on state testing results, 82% of the Standards Plus schools performed significantly better than the control group and/or increased the number of students who met standards in one or more grade levels.*
Specifically, many schools implemented Standards Plus High Impact Language Arts or High Impact Math materials.
