Virginia students' test scores are basically unchanged from 2022 — and they were terrible then
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Virginia students saw some of the steepest drops in the country on reading and math scores during the pandemic — and a new national education report shows they're basically unchanged two years later.
Why it matters: Reading scores are continuing to slip nationwide and in Virginia despite efforts to reverse the decline, and the gap between high- and low-achieving students is also widening.
By the numbers: In Virginia, 42% of fourth graders scored "below Basic" in reading on a decades-old exam the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation's Report Card.
- 40% of fourth graders were proficient or advanced in reading.
- Among Virginia's eighth graders, 34% scored "below Basic" in reading, but just 33% were proficient or advanced.
- In math, 34% of fourth graders and 37% of eighth graders in Virginia scored "below Basic."
In NAEP scorecard terms, Virginia fourth graders' reading scores were unchanged from 2022 and their math scores up by two points on the 500-point scale.
- Eighth graders dropped four points in both math and reading.
Yes, but: Across the board, Virginia's students' scores are "not significantly different" from the national average.
Last week, Gov. Youngkin noted that the NAEP tests were administered early last year, before school districts had a chance to access the $418 million he set aside for high-intensity tutoring and combatting chronic absenteeism, the Times-Dispatch reported.
The big picture: Declines in student performance date back about a decade, but student performance worsened during the nearly two years of remote learning and other COVID disruptions.
- Daniel McGrath, associate commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, said in a news release: "NAEP has reported declines in reading achievement consistently since 2019, and the continued declines since the pandemic suggest we're facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19."
Threat level: The results show widening gaps since 2022 between higher- and lower-performing eighth graders.
- "Higher performers regained ground lost and their lower-performing peers continued to decline or show no notable progress," the National Center for Education Statistics said in a news release.