In wake of pandemic, Oregon test scores still falling in math and reading.
The pandemic brought on academic struggles for many. Learning to navigate the new, digital way of learning was a challenge for students and teachers alike, nationwide. During this time, test scores dropped and, on average, students did worse. Math was one of the areas hit hardest by the transition to online learning; but through strong funding for education programs, the blow wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Across the country, proficiency in math has been recovering post-COVID, and every state has seen math scores improve since 2020 except for Oregon. Out of all 50 states, Oregon is alone in the fact that its math scores continue to decline post-COVID.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning cannot be understated. According to the Oregon Department of Education, between the 2018-19 school year and the 2021-22 school year math scores fell like the rest of the country’s, and from the 2021-22 school year to the 2022-23 school year, improvement has been minimal. For example, during the 2018-19 school year, 38.3 percent of Oregon eighth graders were proficient in math. In 2022-23, this dropped to 25.5 percent proficiency. Eleventh graders did worse than eighth graders, with 32.1 percent of students being proficient in math in the 2018-19 school year, but only 20.4 percent showing proficiency in the 2022-23 school year.
Math was not the only subject affected by pandemic losses. Language arts also saw a similar drop in proficiency. Eighth graders in Oregon were around 20 percent less proficient and eleventh graders, again, were hit harder with roughly a 35- percent decrease in proficiency. This trend of continual drops in language arts after COVID-19, however, is more common across the country than a drop in math. Nine other states including Washington and California have also had their English skills continue to fall since COVID.
Additional factors impacted achievement. The biggest indicator for whether students’ math skills stayed above average or fell behind is family income. Though recovery since COVID has progressed at a similar rate among richer and poorer districts, poorer districts have faced larger losses of learning, sometimes more than an entire school year’s worth. Richer and middle-income districts, however, have seen smaller drops in scores, and on occasion, improved math scores. Another driver of this inequality is that poorer school districts often continued to stay with remote learning longer than richer districts; studies have shown that remote teaching is less effective for student learning.
Even in Oregon, the drop in scores and speed of recovery is heavily based on where students go to school. Students in the Lake Oswego school district – where the median income is more than $20,000 higher than the median income in Oregon – scored more than two years ahead in math on average. On the other hand, students in the Salem-Keizer school district now score more than two years behind in math. The median income in Salem is more than $2,000 less than the Oregon median income.
Oregon hopes to recover using some well-placed federal funding. Since 2020, Oregon has received $1.62 billion in aid from congressional funding. Initiatives and programs like the Accelerating Learning In Literacy and Mathematics initiative, K-5 Literacy investment, and the Strengthening Mental Health in Education program all hope to improve student success in school. The funding, however, is limited. After Sept 30, federal funding for these programs will cease.
The 4J school district, however, has implemented programs shown to increase student test scores: A study from Syracuse University in 2019 showed that the adoption of a universal free lunch program increased student test scores for all students, particularly for members of marginalized groups. The effects of the program may be difficult to see, however, due to its implementation being during the pandemic. As a whole, proficiency in multiple subject areas is integral to student success in school and future endeavors. Oregonians can only hope that the actions from the Oregon Department of Education and the 4J school district can help to reverse the decline of student learning.
Article By Oscar Guillemin
The Axe 