Troubling stats: ‘Nation’s Report Card’ shows COVID-19 pandemic’s devastating effect on K-12 education

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Newly released numbers paint a clearer picture of the pandemic’s devastating effect on K-12 education.

Across the U.S. — and in almost every demographic — students fell behind in reading and math. It’s all laid out in the new edition of the “Nation’s Report Card” by the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the Education Department.

News4JAX dug through the report and found the numbers appear to confirm what many education officials had feared.

It confirmed the fears that the pandemic had a profound impact on education — particularly math progress — in all 50 states.

Now, the question for state and federal education leaders is: what do we do about it?

The nation’s test scores saw huge dips in learning progress in the key subjects of math and reading.

The Nation’s Report Card — a report from the national assessment of educational progress — shows fourth graders across the country scored an average of 217 in reading – and eighth graders scored 260. That’s a three-point drop in each from 2019.

The report also showed the average fourth-grade math score dropped five points from 2019. The average eighth-grade math score dropped eight points.

Those math scores represent the most significant decline since the assessment started in the early 90s.

The nation’s top education official, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, said the troubling trend should motivate states and districts into action.

“If this is not a wakeup call for us to double down efforts and improve education, even before the pandemic, then I don’t know what will,” Cardona said. “We really need to make sure we’re utilizing the arp dollars to help our students in reading and math and go beyond the data that we had in 2019. We have to double down now.”

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided $122 billion specifically to address education challenges from the pandemic.

A report from future-Ed showed that the money has been largely used to hire staff to combat the growing shortage of teachers across the country, – and combatting learning loss through tutoring programs, new class materials and summer schools.

Cardona said it’s important for states and districts to use their resources wisely – prioritizing personnel…

”We need to make sure we have highly qualified teachers in every classroom, programs for students after school, in the summer,” Cardona said. “We know what to do, we have to have the urgency across the country to get it done.”

The head of the Florida Education Association, Andrew Spar, agreed.

The report pulled data from 26 large urban school districts – including Duval County.