generic Kansas assessment scores show post-pandemic dip in academic achievement
State test scores from the 2020-21 school year show over 30% of Kansas students performing below grade level in math and English language arts, with those figures ticking up in both categories in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scores are another core metric in understanding how student achievement was affected by the pandemic, with performance dipping since 2019, the last year data was available with tests cancelled in 2020 due to the virus' spread.
Assessment scores are divided into four tiers based on performance, with one being the lowest and four the highest. Anything two and above is deemed to be at grade level, with a student at level three or four considered ready for postsecondary education.
The results in Kansas were quietly posted to the Kansas State Department of Education website without much fanfare.
Denise Kahler, communications director for KSDE, said the commissioner of education mentioned the testing at the October State Board of Education meeting and said the results would be included in the agency's annual report, set to be released in January 2022.
While Watson did note academic achievement declined during his presentation last month, it doesn't appear that he referenced specific state-level score data.
Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg and chair of the Senate Education Committee, criticized KSDE for not doing more to publicize the results, saying not even legislators were made aware they had been released.
"This notion of having to figure out when to go hunting or trying to find the information, that's not a good sign to me," she said.
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‘There is ... a strong belief that this would negatively affect learning’
In 2020-21, 34% of students scored below grade level math, an increase of 6 percentage points from 2019. In English language arts, the number of students in that same category increased a percentage point, to slightly over 30%. And for science, 36% of students were below grade level, a rise of 2 percentage points since before the pandemic.
Those trends held when only the assessment scores for high schoolers were considered. For that group of students, the number of students in the lowest performance category in math increased almost 6 percentage points to 46.9%, while those below grade level in English language arts half a percentage point.
Only 20% of high schoolers were deemed to be ready for post-secondary education based on their math scores, with just over 26% deemed ready for a college or technical education program based on their English scores.
And for students receiving free or reduced priced lunch, 48% were below grade level in math, with 43% below grade level in English. For students deemed to be English language learners, scores in the lowest performing category dropped by double digits from 2019 to 2021 in both math and English language arts.
Kahler acknowledged the pandemic impacted scores and said they are "not at the level we would like for it to be." But she noted that the 2020-21 school year would be most affected by learning loss during the pandemic and said future years would be a better barometer for how schools had rebounded from COVID-19.
"It’s really tough to make too many judgement calls about this year’s results because this year has been like no other," Kahler said in an email. "We had approximately 12,000 fewer students participate in this year’s assessments, which makes it difficult to compare to 2019 data ... when the testing population is so different."
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The drop-off in Kansas appeared less severe than what was seen in other states.
In Illinois, for instance, the number of students meeting grade-level standards dropped 17% in math and 16% in English. Schools in Missouri saw similar declines to Kansas, though comparing states is difficult because the format of the tests vary widely.
Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, noted it was broadly expected that test scores would drop but added an increase in state funding approved in the 2021 budget, as well as federal COVID-19 relief aid, to use in reversing learning loss.
"We knew that probably all kids lost some learning time and many kids were operating in an environment that we know was not as effective," Tallman said. "And because kids have been dealing with many other, non-academic issues, there is, I think, a strong belief that this would negatively affect learning."
Test scores to play key role in debate over academic achievement, funding
The scores will likely become part of an ongoing debate over whether schools are making the most of funding increases mandated by a series of Kansas Supreme Court decisions, as well as broader conversations about the COVID-19 pandemic and education.
KSDE data presented to the Kansas State Board of Education last month showed a significant decline in enrollment from 2019 to 2021. Truancy tripled over that same time period and rates of chronic absenteeism also rose.
Randy Watson, Kansas commissioner of education, said at the time that the full effects of the pandemic on children in Kansas won't be known for years. But he said it's already clear the "last 18 months have been the hardest on our state" in the history of its education system.
"In some ways we were ahead of schedule going into 2020," Watson said. "And then this thing happened. It is reality. It is not making excuses. It is just reality."
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State education officials have embarked on an overhaul of the state's education standards that is in large part designed to increase students' social and emotional skills. While other metrics have shown long-term improvement, the number of students below grade level on state assessments increased in the years leading up to the pandemic.
Baumgardner, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said she was most interested in tracking how the performance levels for various cohorts had improved or tracking the progress from a student who was a fourth-grader in 2017 and now is in middle school.
She said lawmakers would be expecting KSDE to come with ways to improve performance in years to come, such as working to use the ACT and pre-ACT, required for Kansas high schoolers, to map out improvement plans for individual students.
"The legislature is going to be intently listening as to what exactly the Department of Education is going to implement with regard to movement to raise academic achievement," Baumgardner said.
Andrew Bahl is a senior statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at abahl@gannett.com or by phone at 443-979-6100.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas test data reveals students' test scores dropping amid COVID-19
