COVID decimated Tri-City test scores. Now, some schools are recovering faster than others
Reading and math test scores got a big bump from in-person learning in Tri-City schools last year, but administrators admit it may be a couple more years — and millions of dollars — before students are testing at pre-pandemic levels.
“It shows that having students back full time in regular school makes a huge difference because we saw a big dip when they weren’t, and we’re seeing increases now that they’re back,” said Kennewick Superintendent Traci Pierce.
The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) on Friday published state test score data that gauges students’ performance relative to grade-level learning standards in math, English language arts and science.
The data — available at the state, district and school level — comes from the Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA) and Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS) tests students took last spring.
- Richland is the only Tri-City school district currently testing above the state average in all three categories, but more than half of its students don’t meet math and science learning goals. However, about 56% of Richland students meet English language standards, however.
- Close to one-third of Kennewick students are at or exceeding math and science standards, while about half meet English standards.
- Pasco remains at the bottom end. Only one-in-five students are meeting math standards, while 28% met science goals and 31% reached English language goals.
- In Prosser, about one in three students meet English and science standards, and about 23% of students meet math goals.
- About a quarter of North Franklin students meet math and science standards, and about 36% meet English standards.
- In Finley, 31% meet English, 14% meet math and 23% meet science standards.
- Nearly a quarter of Kiona-Benton students are testing at grade level in English and science. In math, less than one in six meet the grade.
- More than one in three students at Columbia (Burbank) are testing at their English and science grade levels, while just one in five students meet math standards.
And while school districts will tap federal funds to address learning loss, it may take much more to rectify the impacts of COVID on math and reading.
One estimate says it might take upwards of $77 million in tutor funding for the Tri-Cities to make up for the time students spent away from in-person classrooms.
Measuring achievement
District officials from the three largest school districts told the Tri-City Herald that SBA results are just one data point they use to measure the student achievement and goals over time.
The test reflects math and English skills of all third- through eighth-graders and 10th graders. Meanwhile, the science testing is administered to students in fifth-, eighth- and 11th-grades.
Schools also take into consideration grades, engagement and retention, in-school testing, attendance and discipline data.
“It’s one data point. I don’t think you can say this in and of itself shows the impact of COVID,” Pierce said.
Still, it gives district officials and community members a better picture of how students are doing academically over time. And, at an individual level, SBA scores can help determine if a student is on track for college-level learning.
“We still are not back to our pre-COVID numbers, but we’re closing that gap,” said Brian Moore, assistant superintendent of Student Services at Richland School District. “This is really promising initial data.”
Between fall 2021 — when students came back for their first full year, post-COVID — and spring 2022, Richland saw a 5-percentage-point gain in English, a 7-point gain in math and a 3-point gain in science.
Kennewick saw a 6-point gain in English, a 6-point gain in math and a 2-point gain in science.
Pasco hasn’t seen much gain in English, but saw a 3-point gain in math and a 7-point drop in science.
COVID rebound
Pasco Superintendent Michelle Whitney said her district has put a narrow focus on getting students up to state standards since she came on in 2016. But the pandemic derailed that progress.
Compared with pre-pandemic scores, science scores stayed steady for Pasco and Kennewick. Though the two district’s English and math scores are still in the hole by 8 and 10 percentage points, respectively.
Richland is down about 7 points in English, 8 points in math and 1 point in science.
The recovery has also been tougher for schools that have traditionally tested lower.
Captain Grey STEM Elementary in Pasco, for example, had 12% of students meeting English standards, 9% of meeting math standards and 12% meeting science standards before the pandemic.
Those percentages tanked in fall 2021, and this most recent data collection shows 10% of students met English standards, 5% in math and 9% in science.
About 94% of students at Captain Grey are Hispanic.
Schools with a higher percentage of low-income and non-English speaking students tend to perform worse on the tests, which are given in English.
These students are also much likelier to have experienced a rebound in academic progress coming out of remote learning.
At Ruth Livingston, where the district’s population skews 52% white and 39% Hispanic, the percentage of students who meet subject standards are near or exceeding pre-pandemic levels — about 64% in English, 65% in math and 68% in science.
Statewide test scores
Roughly 51% of Washington state students are meeting standards in English, 38% in math and 43% in science.
The data shows that 70% of students were proficient or made progress between fall and spring last school year.
“These data are encouraging,” state Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in a news release.
“There is no question that COVID-19 significantly impacted the learning environment. The disruptions of remote learning, quarantine and isolation, and transitioning back in-person after periods of learning remotely are evident in the decrease in proficiency from spring 2019 to spring 2022,” he said. “However, the incredible work of our educators and families to support students is evident in the recovery we are seeing across grade levels and subjects.”
Washington students tend to perform similarly or better than students across the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is a national representative assessment of student achievement.
A recent study published by the NAEP found that, across the U.S., test scores for 9 year olds sharply declined during the pandemic.
Reading scores saw their largest decrease in 30 years, and math scores decreased for the first time in the history of the study, the Associated Press reports.
Reading scores dropped 6 percentage points across the board for white, Black and Hispanic students, but the pandemic negatively impacted Black and Hispanic test scores at a disproportionate rate.
Cost of learning loss
Tri-City school officials expect to commit a minimum of $17.6 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) over the next two years to addressing learning loss by way of “evidence-based interventions.”
But public schools will likely need a larger investment to lift students out of COVID-caused learning loss than the 20% stipulation marked in the latest round of ESSER funds.
“It’s not going to be enough,” Thomas Kane, an economist and education professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said last summer at an Education Writers Association’s 2022 conference. “We’re not going to be able to do it more cheaply than a regular school year.”
One estimate from Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab shows it would take more than $52.5 million in math tutoring and $25.2 million in literature tutoring for Kennewick, Richland and Pasco to rectify an average 12 weeks of math and 8 weeks of reading learning loss.
One-on-one tutoring is one of the highest impact investments in terms of producing academic improvements in students.
But local schools are also committing funds to summer schooling, after school programs, early literacy support, and re-engagement programs to help curb learning loss.
