Only 45% of students passed state exams. How will NC deal with COVID learning loss?
Newly released test results show that the majority of North Carolina public school students failed state exams during last year’s COVID-plagued school year.
Only 45.4% of K-12 students passed state reading, math and science exams given during the 2020-21 school year, according to results presented at Wednesday’s State Board of Education meeting. The test proficiency rate was 45.6% for elementary and middle school students and 44.7% for high school students — much lower than normal.
For instance, 58.8% of K-12 students passed state exams in the 2018-19 school year. In that pre-pandemic school year, the state exam passing rate was 60.4% for elementary and middle school students and 52.7% for high school students.
But state and local education leaders cautioned against making comparisons because of how North Carolina’s 1.5 million students received only limited amounts of in-person instruction last school year due to the pandemic. Additionally, some high school students took the exams months after they completed the course due to COVID safety concerns.
“While the 2018-19 data is included as a way to provide context, comparison of the two years should only be made with a recognition that multiple anomalies occurred during the 2020-21 school year and during test administration,” said state board member Jill Camnitz.
The results can be found online at https://bit.ly/3yAXYL5.
Learning loss feared
The results offer a detailed look at how far behind the state’s students may be after the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Education had waived the need for states to test students in the 2019-20 school year but required it for last school year to assess the extent of learning loss.
“To say that this information has been anxiously awaited would be a huge understatement,” Camnitz said. “Educators, administrators, parents and many others who are concerned about the education of North Carolina’s children will have access to data that will deepen their understanding of the effects of the past 18 months on our students’ growth and proficiency and will guide efforts to recover from the losses that we know have occurred.
“The release of this information is a first step.”
The state recognized that the pandemic had hurt many students by requiring school districts to offer a K-12 summer learning program to address learning loss. Tens of thousands of students gave up part of their summer to attend.
A state report about learning loss is scheduled to be presented to the state board in March.
Graduation rate falls
In another discouraging sign, the new state report shows that North Carolina’s high school graduation rate dropped to 86.9%. The four-year graduation rate fell from 87.6% last school year.
The state’s graduation rate is higher than when it was reported for the first time at 68.3% for the Class of 2006. Schools have worked to try to keep on track high school seniors who spent much of their past 16 months of school learning online.
But Tammy Howard, director of accountability services for the state Department of Public Instruction, said the graduation rate is still higher than what it was in the 2018-19 school year.
Passing rates below 50% on most state exams
Most of the information presented Wednesday was not promising.
Only 45.2% of third-grade students were proficient on the state end-of-grade reading exam. In fourth through eighth grades, the reading proficiency rate was 45.6%.
The passing rate on the math EOG in grades three through eight was 40%. The passing rate reached as low as 32.7% for the eighth-grade math exam.
At the high school level, the proficiency rate was as low as 38.6% on the state’s Math 1 end-of-course exam. The passing rate rate was 44.6% for the Math 3 EOC, 45.6% for the biology EOC and 58.5% for the English 2 EOC.
Across the board, passing rates were much lower than the 2018-19 school year. For instance, 64.3% of third-grade students passed the math EOG in the 2018-19 school year compared to 44.5% this past school year.
“We’re still in a pandemic and these results allow the board and DPI and local districts and charter schools to determine the extent of learning in the prior year and to plan appropriately for student learning this school year,’ state board chair Eric Davis said Wednesday. “These results show the resilience of our students and the dedication of our teachers and others to persevere despite many disruptions to learning.”
“These scores are one of many tools we’ll use to continue to develop instructional plans to meet the academic needs of each and every student. Most of all because of these results, we will rededicate our efforts to providing every student the opportunity to obtain a sound, basic education.”
Some students opt out of testing
Unlike prior years, the state isn’t giving each school an A through F letter grade that’s largely based on their performance on state exams. Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law this week legislation that temporarily waives the school performance grade requirement. The law doesn’t deal with grades given to individual students.
One of the reasons the school performance grades aren’t being given is because more students than normal didn’t take the state exams. For test security, the state required students to take the exams in-person even if students were only taking virtual classes due to COVID concerns.
There were largely no consequences at the elementary and middle level for skipping the exams. The EOC exams count for at least 20% of the final grade in those high school courses, but districts worked to avoid penalizing students who had low scores.
Statewide, 7% of elementary and middle school students and 8% of high school students opted out of the exams. Howard said more students than expected took the exams.
The opt-out rate was much higher, though, for Triangle school districts.
Durham Public Schools, Wake County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro led the state with the lowest percentage of elementary and middle schools taking the tests at 69%, 79% and 83% respectively. In contrast, 95 of the state’s 115 districts had a test participation rate of 95% or higher.
Amy Bailey enrolled her two children in Wake County’s Virtual Academy program last school year. She opted not to have them take the state exams because she didn’t think it would be fair given how unusual schooling was compared to prior years.
“Parents were just trying to get their kids through the year,” Bailey said in an interview. “EOGs just weren’t on the top of their priority list.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Only 45% of students passed state exams. How will NC deal with COVID learning loss?."
