With test scores below pre-pandemic levels, Wake says it’s time for a ‘new baseline’
Earlier version of the story had incorrect proficiency rates listed for Wake County on state exams. The school district posted the wrong slides in its presentation.
Wake County students haven’t returned to pre-pandemic performance levels, with school leaders saying the impact of the learning disruptions will likely be felt for years to come.
Wake school administrators on Monday reviewed standardized test results from the 2021-22 school year showing the district’s overall proficiency rate is down on state and national tests compared to three years ago.
While there’s some good news among the results, administrators said they’re looking at ripple effects that could impact graduation rates and leave students behind on needed reading skills.
“The impact of the pandemic is going to ripple through our state’s testing and accountability results for years to come,” said Brad McMillen, Wake’s assistant superintendent for data, research and accountability. “This is not the end of the impact by a long shot.”
Wake’s presentation came the same day that newly released national math and reading test results showed historic declines in both North Carolina and the rest of the country.
‘One part of the puzzle’
Concerns about spreading COVID-19 caused schools around the nation to switch to remote classes for the last three months of the 2019-20 school year. Wake students received only limited amounts of in-person instruction during the 2020-21 school year.
The last two years of test scores at the local, state and national levels have shown most students and school districts are not performing at pre-pandemic levels.
▪ Wake’s overall proficiency rate on state exams dropped from 65.2% in the 2018-19 school year to 55.4% in the 2020-21 school year then up to 61.4% last school year.
▪ Among Wake’s third- through eighth-graders, 59.5% passed the state end-of-grade math exam last year and 59.9% passed the reading EOG. Both rates were higher than the state average.
▪ In Math 1, 53.7% of Wake students passed the state’s Math 1 end-of-course exam. It was higher than the state average.
▪ The percentage of Wake County schools with a D or F school performance grade and the number of schools that met the state’s definition to be labeled as low-performing increased. It mirrored similar changes at the state level because the grades are based largely on passing rates on exams.
School board member Heather Scott said she hopes that people looking at the test data remember that it’s just “one moment in time” for students. Scott, who chairs the board’s student achievement committee, said you don’t know what students may have been dealing with on the day of the test.
“Is it important information?” Scott said. “Yes, we must use this information. But please remember this is one, one part of the puzzle of how we best support our students, best support our teachers and best support our schools.”
‘New baseline’
There were bright spots, including how 80% of Wake schools met or exceeded growth expectations on state exams for the first time since the 2013-14 school year. It had been at 63% right before the pandemic.
Additionally, 80% or more of school subgroups exceeded or met growth last school year. McMillen said this means that growth was universal across the different groups.
Wake’s proficiency rates on the high school Math 3 and English 2 end-of-course exams are now above pre-pandemic levels. They’re also above the state passing rates.
McMillen said the 2021-22 school year should be considered a new baseline.
“Many of those national assessments are showing the lowest levels of performance they’ve seen in 15, 20 or even 30 years,” McMillen told the school board’s student achievement committee.
“Obviously those impacts are being felt by everybody around the country, which sort of leads us to believe that really this is kind of a new baseline for us ... that hopefully we build off of as year one of a new trend.”
‘Lost opportunities’
McMillen said the pandemic will likely have effects moving forward on graduation rates and the number of students going on to college.
Wake’s four-year high school graduation rate that had been increasing before the pandemic has dropped the last two years in a row to 89.6%. Black, Hispanic and English learners experienced larger decreases in Wake the last few years.
McMillen said Wake’s graduation rate could continue to be impacted by the large increase in Wake high school students who had to repeat a grade level during the pandemic. After the 2020-21 school year, more than 15% of freshmen and more than 10% of sophomores were not promoted.
Many of those students who weren’t promoted may still graduate, but McMIllen said it may take them more than four years to get to the finish line. He said these students were hurt by losing contacts and connection to their high schools during the pandemic.
Another concern, McMillen said, is how Wake’s third-grade reading proficiency rates didn’t show the same rebound last school year as other grade levels on state exams.
“Whatever lost opportunities that those kids had in terms of their first- and second-grade years could very well carry forward with them if we’re not very, very careful and intentional about making sure that those kids are making up that lost ground,” McMillen said.
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 5:49 PM.
