California students still struggling with math and reading skills
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
California students didn't see much improvement in math and reading scores last year, despite renewed attention to boosting proficiency rates, according to a new national education report.
Why it matters: The findings reflect a learning loss trend exacerbated by the pandemic. Gaps between high- and low-achieving students have also widened.
State of play: California fourth graders scored "significantly lower" than the national average in math, while their reading scores were on par, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
- Often called the Nation's Report Card, the NAEP found no major changes from 2022 in either subject, though the percentage of fourth graders who scored "at or above proficient" in math did tick up.
- Eighth graders statewide also scored lower than the national average in math, but they were middle of the road for reading — neither changed much from 2022.
- All four average scores were still lower than the 2019 assessment.
Caveat: The NAEP, administered under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Education, did not include specific data for San Francisco schools.
Yes, but: Results from the 2023-24 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress did show that San Francisco Unified School District's (SFUSD) English language arts and math proficiency rates remain higher than the state's.
The big picture: U.S. students had record-low reading comprehension scores last year. Fourth grade math was the only area that saw slight improvement.
- "Not only did most students not recover from pandemic-related learning loss, but those students who were the most behind and needed the most support have fallen even further behind," the U.S. Department of Education said in a statement.
Between the lines: 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.
- Bipartisan lawmakers across the country have prioritized closing reading gaps over the past several years, including 37 states that passed laws or enacted policies changing how reading is taught.
- For its part, SFUSD committed to three long-term goals in 2022: increase all third-grade students' literacy, all eighth-grade students' math proficiency and the percentage of 12th-grade students who are college- and career-ready.
Reality check: A lack of accessible data is keeping parents in the dark on schools' post-COVID performance, a recent study found.
- Until that's rectified, states such as California won't be able to compare how far behind today's students are, the study noted.