Report: Math, reading scores down significantly during pandemic

Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Math and reading scores are down dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, showing how students are continuing to struggle in the shadow of recovering from virtual learning, according to a leading national exam on Monday.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress said that according to a sampling of fourth and eighth-grade scores, math and reading scores are their lowest since the early 1990s. Math scores for eighth graders fell in almost every state, where overall only 26% show proficiency. That total is down 34% from 2019.

Among fourth graders, scores were down 41%, showing that 36% of students were proficient.

Reading scores, which had been on a downward trend before the pandemic, fell in more than half the states. The report said no state showed a substantial improvement in reading.

"The pandemic simply made it worse," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on Friday, according to The Washington Post. "We must treat the task of catching our children up with the urgency this moment demands. If this doesn't have you fired up to raise the bar in education, you're in the wrong profession."

Some cautioned against drawing a state-by-state comparison with states that opened schools early compared to schools that kept students out of buildings longer during the pandemic.

For example, California, one of the last to open classrooms, saw its scores slightly decline under the national averages in several categories in line with Florida, which opened its schools much sooner.

"Comparing states is tricky and people will likely go to red state, blue state, which is not the most helpful framing," said Sean Reardon, a professor of education at Stanford University who is conducting research on the pandemic's effects on education, according to The New York Times.