San Diego school math scores rebounding after pandemic
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Elementary and middle-school students in San Diego made greater gains in math scores than many of their peers in the state, but the area is still behind, according to a recent analysis by The New York Times.
Why it matters: Students are still recouping essential learning lost from pandemic school closings, which worsened already-wide learning gaps between students from wealthy and low-income communities.
- Billions of dollars of federal aid has helped schools and students recover, but many still lag behind in standardized test scores.
Zoom in: At San Diego Unified, the state's second-largest school district, math test scores in 2023 were higher than those of other major California school districts, per a new study by researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities.
- The district is still below its 2019 scores and just under the U.S. average for that year — as many school districts currently are; however, it's above the U.S. and California averages for 2023.
The big picture: Nationally, from 2019 to 2022, math test scores plunged and students lost more than half a year of learning, the study suggests.
- Students in grades 3-8 have made up ground since 2020, but they're "nowhere close to being fully caught up," the Times reported.
- Students have made up about one-third of what they lost in math and one-quarter in reading, per the analysis.
Zoom out: California's major school districts retained their math test score rankings within the state but had significantly different performances during the pandemic.
- Notably, Los Angeles has made an above-average recovery compared to the rest of the state.
- Meanwhile, Long Beach saw the steepest decline in math scores.
Be smart: Use this interactive tool to see the charts on how school districts in California and across the nation compare.