NY Fourth Graders See Math, Reading Scores Dip During Pandemic: Report

NEW YORK, NY — There’s no question the coronavirus pandemic upended learning in New York, but fourth and eighth graders’ test scores in math and reading show just how much, according to an achievement assessment known as the Nation’s Report Card.

The report card, released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, also revealed a worrisome trend for democracy — slides in U.S. history and civics test scores, according to NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr.

The report from the NCES, an arm of the Education Department’s institute of Education Sciences, looks at the key measurements of math and reading proficiency in 2022 compared with 2019, before the COVID-19 interruptions in learning.

Fourth Grade Scores Fall In Math, Reading

In 2022, scores on the fourth and eighth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress math tests were the lowest since the initial assessments in 1990. Reading scores also declined nationally.

In New York, the report showed fourth graders scored on average a 227 in mathematics out of 500 possible points. That's down from 236 in 2019.

The percentage of students in New York who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level for math was 28 percent in 2022. That's lower than 2019, when it was 37 percent.

About two-thirds of fourth graders in New York performed at or above the Basic level last year — far lower than in 2019, when it was 76 percent.

Meanwhile, fourth graders are reading at their lowest level since the late-1990s.

In New York, fourth graders scored a 214 in 2022 out of 500 possible points, down from 220 in 2019, and about the same as 1998, when they scored a 215.

The New York reading score was not significantly different from the national average of 216.

Thirty percent of fourth graders in New York performed at or above the Proficient level last year, down from 34 percent in 2019, and a point higher than 1998.

Fifty-eight percent read at a Basic level last year, below the 66 percent in 2019, and closer to 1998, when that number was 62 percent.

Eighth Grade Math Scores Dip As Reading Scores Hold Steady

In 2022, the average score of eighth-grade students in New York was 274, a point higher than the national average of 273, but down from the state average in 2019 of 280.

The percentage of eighth graders in New York who performed at or above Proficient was 28 percent last year, far below 2019 when it was at 34 percent. Sixty percent of New York eighth graders performed at a Basic level, down from 66 in 2019.

Meanwhile, the average reading score for students in New York last year was 262, the same as 2019. The national average last year was 259.

Thirty percent of New York eight graders read at a Proficient level last year, a bit lower than the national average at 33 percent. Seventy percent of students in the state performed at or above the Basic level, the same as 2019.

The report didn’t break out how eighth graders performed on U.S. history and civics tests, but the drop in scores nationally is “a national concern,” Carr, the NCES commissioner, said in a news release.

“Self-government depends on each generation of students leaving school with a complete understanding of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship,” she said. “But far too many students are struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government functions, and the historical significance of events.”

U.S. history test scores have dropped since 2018 among all students except among the very top-performing students. In civics, scores declined for lower- and middle-performing students and did not change for higher-performing students.

The number of students who performed below the basic level increased in both subjects, and about 4 in 10 eighth graders performed below the basic level in history.

Only 13 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the national proficiency level in U.S. history, the lowest proportion to reach that level in any subject on the tests, Dan McGrath, the acting associate commissioner of the NCES, said in the news release.

Only about one-fifth of students were at or above proficiency levels in civics, which is the second-lowest proportion of students reaching that level in any subject, he said. This was the first decline ever recorded by the civics assessment