Education Week - November 2, 2022 - 18

5 NAEP Takeaways on ...
That Steep Drop in Math Scores
By Sarah D. Sparks
The National Assessment for Educational
Progress announced historic declines in math
for students in its main NAEP for 2022, with
average scores dropping 5 points, to 236 out of
500, in 4th grade, and 8 points, to 274, in 8th
grade.
NAEP, administered by the National Center
for Education Statistics, takes a snapshot of
progress every two years, but was delayed by
the pandemic from 2021 to 2022. That makes
this the comprehensive assessment's first
look at students' math achievement since the
pandemic began. The 2022 assessment looked
at the progress of a representative sample of
more than 116,000 4th graders and 111,000 8th
graders in every state.
Here's what you need to know.
1 There's bad news for (nearly)
everybody.
Nobody improved in math in 2022. I mean
nobody: Students in grades 4 and 8, lowincome
and wealthier students, boys and girls,
students in every racial or ethnic group, and
students with and without disabilities, in every
region of the country, all stayed flat or fell back.
Asian, Black, Hispanic, and white students
all saw drops in average scores in 4th and 8th
grades since 2019. Native American students
lost some of their progress in 4th grade but held
flat in 8th.
None of the states or large school districts
that participate in NAEP's Trial Urban District
Assessment improved in math at either grade.
Only students in Utah and students in the
Department of Defense schools stayed steady
in math at 8th grade in 2022, while 4th graders
in 10 states (not including Utah) and the
Department of Defense schools also showed
no change since 2019.
Eighth graders in every kind of school-
private Roman Catholic, charter, and
traditional public schools-lost ground in
math, as did 4th graders in both kinds of public
schools. However, 4th graders in Catholic
schools held steady at 246.
Charter schools saw the biggest declines in
math: 4th graders in those schools declined
6 points, to 232, and 9 points, to 268, for 8th
graders.
2 This shouldn't be a surprise.
The results of the main NAEP come on the
heels of similarly grim results from other major
tests, detailing the ongoing fallout of pandemic
disruptions to schooling and more than a
decade of faltering academic progress.
Last month, NAEP's long-term trend study,
which uses a pool of mostly the same questions
to compare the achievement of 9-year-olds
over time, showed the first decline in math in
the test's 50-year history. And independent,
large-scale testing groups such as NWEA and
Amplify have been sounding the alarm about
learning loss-particularly in math-during
the pandemic. The 4th and 8th graders
participating in NAEP in 2022 would have been
in 2nd and 6th grades, respectively, when the
pandemic began and schools faced extended
and widespread closures.
Yet experts also noted that the pandemic
provided more of a tipping point than a single
18 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 2, 2022 | www.edweek.org
push. Math scores have been falling off for
years, particularly for those in the lowest 10
percent to 25 percent of students.
" Let's be very clear here: The data prior to the
pandemic did not reflect an education system
that was on the right track. The pandemic
simply made it worse. It took poor performance
and dropped it down even further, " said U.S.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona,
speaking in a briefing with reporters on the
NAEP results. " As an educator and as a parent,
that's heartbreaking and it's horrible. It's an
urgent call to action. "
3 There are more students now
with severe needs in math.
Only 37 percent of 4th graders and 27 percent
of 8th graders are proficient in math-meaning
they are considered capable of handling
challenging academic work-representing
significant declines in both the number of
proficient and advanced students in both
grades. The share of advanced-level students
fell from 9 percent to 8 percent in 4th grade and
from 10 percent to 7 percent in 8th grade.
By contrast, 38 percent of 8th graders and
a quarter of 4th graders cannot meet NAEP's
lowest benchmark-the basic level. More than
half of students in poverty as well as Black,
Hispanic, and Native American students in
grade 8 performed below the basic level in
2022, along with more than a quarter of white
students. In 4th grade, more than 40 percent
of Black and Native American students, more
than a third of Hispanic students, and 14
percent of white students performed at that
lowest level in math.
What does that mean for students? In 4th
grade, fewer than 3 out of 5 students now can
tell whether whole numbers are even or odd-
down from 67 percent before the pandemic.
Only 51 percent understand that subtraction is
the inverse of addition, and just over 1 in 10 4th
graders can identify numbers that can divide
into another number without a remainder.
Among 8th graders, only 44 percent can solve
a problem using division, down from half in
2019, and only 1 in 5 can use an interactive tool
to plot a point on a number line.
Fewer 8th graders said they had a lot of
confidence in their math ability, and fewer took
Algebra 1 in 8th grade, compared to 2019. And
13 percent of 8th graders attend schools where
more than a fifth of students are taking multiple
remedial math classes.
" Eighth grade is that gateway to more
advanced mathematical course-taking, " said
Peggy Carr, NCES commissioner. " This is
what these students are missing. They're
missing important skills that will prepare
them eventually for [science, technology,
engineering, and math] careers. We need to be
concerned about getting these students back
on track so that they can be prepared for global
competition in these areas. "
4 Teachers are overwhelmed.
While fewer teachers reported classroom
supplies are a problem in 2022 than in 2019,
more teachers reported problems with
too many teaching hours and not enough
workspace, teachers reported as part of NAEP's
background survey. For example, 27 percent of
4th graders and 29 percent of 8th graders now
have teachers who say their work hours have
become a " moderate " or " serious " problem.
That's a higher share in both grades than before
the pandemic.
While a majority of students still have
educators who are satisfied with being a teacher,
teachers were generally less satisfied and
inspired by the profession in both grades than in
2019. That may be both a cause and a symptom
of widespread teacher shortages, in which math
is the subject with the greatest need for staff.
Significantly more 4th grade teachers have
received training or become proficient in
education technology since the onset of the
pandemic. Forty-two percent of 4th grade
students now have teachers with a full or parttime
math coach to support their instruction,
up from 37 percent in 2019. However, less than
half of teachers who reported having a math
coach had one who worked with 4th grade
teachers individually or worked specifically on
4th grade content to a large extent.
5 It's going to take a lot of time
and money to fix this.
The federal government has already dedicated
$190 billion through ESSER and the American
Recovery Plan to help schools address lost
student learning during the pandemic.
Recent research suggests that's not nearly
enough money, for a long enough time frame.
One study published in the journal Education
Researcher earlier this month estimated
schools will need $500 billion in additional
funding-and targeted more specifically to
high-need students-to fully recover.
" State education leaders are committed to
accelerating learning and recognize it will take
years to fully recover from the impacts of the
pandemic, " said Carissa Moffat Miller, CEO
of the Council of Chief State School Officers.
" States have put interventions in place, and
many of these began in earnest just before
students took the 2022 NAEP exam. We are
grateful to have another two years of federal
COVID-19 relief funding that will allow these
interventions to have their full effect on student
learning. "
NAEP background survey data show
nearly 70 percent of 8th graders attended
schools in 2022 that offered supplemental
math instruction weekly to nearly every day,
and more than 1 in 4 students received math
tutoring outside of school at least once a
month.
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Education Week - November 2, 2022

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