A Feb. 12 webinar hosted by Whiteboard Advisors — an education strategy consulting, communications and advocacy firm — featured experts and education leaders delving into the results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the nation’s report card.
Hilary Knudson, Whiteboard Advisors vice president of K-12 Policy, summarized the “troubling picture of post-pandemic recovery,” citing:
- Record levels of students scoring below “Basic,” the lowest achievement level, on reading — 33 percent of eighth graders and 40 percent of fourth graders — and drops in overall scores.
- Widening achievement gaps between high achievers and low achievers across subjects with highest-performing students largely recovering in math and lesser declines in reading.
- Socioeconomic disparities remain stark, with 77 percent of high-income students performing above the national average in reading, compared to just 34 percent of students from low-income backgrounds.
- Chronic absenteeism remains a major issue, with more students missing 10 percent or more of school days than pre-pandemic levels.
She said that there were bright spots, however, with fourth-grade math scores showing modest improvement nationally, while noting those improvements are concentrated in middle- and higher-performing students.
The webinar also highlighted states that were bucking the trends, including Alabama, which outpaced its 2019 fourth-grade math scores, raising the state’s average rate from 28 percent proficiency, the highest-achieving level, to 28 percent in 2024. Louisiana was the only state to see significant gains in fourth-grade reading scores surpassing 2019 levels from 26 percent to 32 percent proficiency and improving grade 4 math proficiency from 29 percent to 35 percent. In district highlights, Atlanta Public Schools was the only district in the country to see significant gains in fourth-grade reading.
The lesson overall? The nation hasn’t recovered from the pandemic.
Importance of NAEP data
Jane Swift, National Association of Governing Board Member and former Massachusetts governor, explained the importance of national data sets like this.
“While there was not a ton of good news in the NAEP data, there is a veritable tsunami of important data to inform future practice,” she said. “Higher-performing students are scoring higher and struggling students continue to lose ground. Those types of achievement gaps in a country where we have a demographic cliff coming, including a low birth rate, [shows] we need every single child to be prepared to take on the challenges of the workforce and be able to lead lives of purpose and passion. Without these basic skills, it’s really hard to pursue your dreams. Those are the stakes.”
She pointed out that the fourth graders taking the tests had been in kindergarten and first grade during the height of the COVID pandemic — critical years for reading attainment — and the eighth graders were in third and fourth grade. “Those impacts endure and are most enduring in our lowest-achieving students who perhaps need our public education system the most,” Swift said.
State highlights
Representatives from Rhode Island and Alabama, which both saw improvements in scores from 2019, shared what strategies were working in their states.
Angela Infante-Green, Rhode Island commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, talked about how aligning state assessments with NAEP standards began pre-pandemic when they saw students struggling with reading scores. The state turned to fully implementing the science of reading to begin to turn that trajectory around.
“We know that having a research-based, systematic approach to reading will see results; we are starting to see them now,” Infante-Green said. “Having the science of reading at the helm with high-quality instructional materials is really important for us. We also went up in fourth-grade math and we adopted a new early math curriculum which is showing these results now in fourth grade.”
She referenced Rhode Island’s Right to Read bill, in which all K-8 teachers are trained in the science of reading, as part of their improvement strategy. The state also used pandemic-relief dollars to add 30 minutes to the school day, resulting in an extra 15 days per year.
Similarly, Alabama has heavily invested in the science of reading in addition to early numeracy learning and investing in extra supports for struggling students including intensive summer school programs and after-school programs, all focusing on alignment with state standards and high-quality instructional materials.
“We set aside about $200 million of our [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] funds to do summer school and after-school programs for early grade reading and math and we saw that pay off,” said Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey. “We as educators have a moral obligation to make sure that the students whose families maybe can’t do more for them, then we do more for them.”
