Students' test scores recovering after pandemic
Jan. 4—GUILFORD COUNTY — North Carolina schools are steadily continuing to recover from the learning loss of the COVID-19 pandemic, with gains in test scores across nearly all grades and subjects, according to a new state analysis.
A report on the analysis was presented Wednesday to the State Board of Education by Jeni Corn, director of research and evaluation in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction's Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration. Superintendent Catherine Truitt created that office in March 2021 in response to the lost instructional time resulting from the pandemic.
The report, which tracks test results and trends from 2013 to 2023, shows academic recovery increasing in nearly every subject, with the strongest gains measured on the end-of-grade tests for third-grade reading and end-of-course tests for English II, with scores on the English II test above those from 2019, the last before the pandemic.
Notable gains are also found in reading and math for third through fifth grades and science for fifth grade.
Individual school districts received local reports on their data to help inform local discussions about recovery from the pandemic, but Guilford County Schools had not released any local findings on Wednesday.
Prior to the pandemic, test scores were relatively stable from year to year, with small positive or negative trends, but since the pandemic there has been considerably more variation among schools, the report said.
Math was more negatively affected by the pandemic than reading, and math scores have a greater gap to cover to get back to pre-pandemic levels, the report said.
The findings of the analysis will help NCDPI better understand the programs that are most needed and have best served students, Truitt said in a press release.
"Our continued improvement as identified in this report is a testament to the commitment and diligence of educators across North Carolina and a result of what can be done when there is intentionality in strategically implementing programming to support students who were most affected by the pandemic," Truitt said. "This report provides the information we need to continue designing academic programming in subjects where students need additional support while allowing us to better target resources to specific grades and content areas."
