The North Carolina Board of Education yesterday heard that gains in most subjects and grade levels over the last two years have not been enough to offset losses due to the pandemic.
Middle school math and reading saw some of the biggest drops. Board Chair Eric Davis said confronting the lingering impacts can be discouraging.
He noted that students in North Carolina and across the country continue to face huge challenges related to mental health, attendance and academic performance.
"The recovery gap is wide, and feels even wider on top of pre-existing equity gaps," Davis said. "Our approach to enacting and implementing responsive efforts must be equally, if not more, comprehensive to meet the needs of each and every student, and in proportion to our students’ needs."
Davis spoke at a state board meeting that featured reports on pandemic setbacks, mental health and failure to meet federal goals. Next month, he said, the board will get data on teacher vacancies and student disciplinary incidents.
In its annual report, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction said while there is still a gap from pandemic disruptions, students are making progress toward a recovery.
The state has contracted with SAS, an analytics company based in Cary, to help track learning recovery in K-12 public schools. White presented graphs showing that the average statewide test scores on annual state tests have improved year-over-year in most subjects since the pandemic began.
"There is definitely a pandemic drop in 2021 and then a subsequent recovery in pretty much all of the grades," John White, a researcher at SAS, said. "Obviously some of these grades still have more room to grow, more room to recover."
Average test scores in third grade reading and high school English have rebounded the most. All tested grades have seen progress in math and reading scores for the last two years. Only 8th grade science saw a slight decline in average test scores last spring compared to 2022.
The report also looked at the impact of the pandemic across subject areas. NCDPI found that mathematics scores suffered more than reading scores.
