‘Small victories.’ Wake says some student test scores are rebounding during pandemic.
Test scores are rebounding in Wake County, offering hope that students are starting to recover from the negative academic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, the state Department of Public Instruction released a report showing all North Carolina students suffered learning loss during the 2020-21 school year.
But also least week, Wake County released new test results showing that district high school end-of-course (EOC) scores in the fall semester were higher than they were a year ago in the fall 2020 semester.
Edward McFarland, Wake’s chief academic advance officer, told school board members that the district “set the foundation for academic improvement” this school year by prioritizing “a safe return to in-person instruction and a renewed focus on taking care of each other.”
“We’re already seeing a rebound in our academic scores during the first semester, namely in our high school EOCs,” McFarland added. “We also expect that we’re going to see similar improvements in our elementary and middle school results later this year.”
But McFarland and other school administrators also were quick to add that it will take several years to continue to help students recover from the pandemic.
Test scores dropped last school year
Schools across the state and nation have been grappling with how to help students get caught up after seeing learning being disrupted over the past two years.
Students have dealt with issues such as limited amounts of in-person instruction, mask requirements, extended absences due to quarantine rules and the deaths of caregivers and other relatives.
According to DPI, students across the state performed lower on state exams last school year than they would have been projected to do so based on pre-COVID test data.
Many Wake students adapted well during the pandemic, according to McFarland. But he said he doesn’t want to imply that today’s students are just as prepared and ready as students were two years ago.
“To be clear, there have been some missed instructional concepts, absent prerequesites and some slower skilled development,” McFarland said.
DPI found that students who received in-person instruction performed better than those who only received virtual instruction. In Wake County, the district didn’t offer high school students any in-person instruction during the fall 2020 semester.
The passing rate for Wake high school end-of-course exams dropped from 65.3% in fall 2019 to 55.4% in fall 2020.
Score gains ‘an encouraging sign’
The new data released by Wake last week showed the passing rate for high school EOCs had risen to 61.9% in the fall 2021 semester. For instance, the passing rate on the biology end-of-course exam that had fallen from 65.2% in fall 2019 to 55.3% in fall 2020 had risen to 61.2% last fall.
Brad McMillen, Wake’s assistant superintendent for data, research and accountability, said most high school subject areas have bounced back, at least halfway to where they were pre-pandemic. In other cases, he said the gain was even higher.
“This is certainly an encouraging sign,” McMillen told a school board committee last week. “We know that those (pandemic) impacts are going to continue to come, but I think it’s important to take stock of the small victories that schools are having along the way.”
The passing rate on the Math 1 end-of-course exam rose from 27.7% in fall 2020 to 40% last fall. McMillen said those results only reflect the scores of students who took Math 1 in high school and not the exams of the many typically higher scoring students who took it in middle school.
School board member Karen Carter said the Math 1 passing rate, even if it only includes high school students, is still alarmingly low.
“A student taking high school math in high school doesn’t mean that they can’t succeed,” Carter said. “ It does not mean that their numbers cannot be just as high as someone who took it in seventh or eighth grade math.”
Helping students recover from pandemic
Drew Cook, Wake assistant superintendent of academics, told Carter that the results for Math 1 and other subjects are not where they want them to be. He said they want to set a higher bar moving forward.
School administrators are working on the details for a new multi-year strategic plan that will help North Carolina’s largest school district move from pandemic response to pandemic recovery.
Administrators laid out the broad outlines of their work at last week’s student achievement committee meeting. Cook said this work includes creating a system where students are engaged in their learning and feel safe and protected.
It’s also a future, according to Cook, where families have renewed faith in the district and teachers feel they have enough time to receive training “to build their craft.”
“I don’t think we’ve ever lost sight of what we have to remain focused on in terms of providing support and services to our students across the district,” Cook said. “Now though, I think part of what we’re talking about is shifting gears and sharpening our focus and creating a clearer vision so that the future for our students and families can in our view be brighter than ever. Of course, time will tell.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 7:30 AM.
