(The Center Square) – While average dollars per student in federal COVID-19 relief was on par with the national average, recovery in math and reading by North Carolina schoolchildren the last five years is 26th and 43rd, respectively, a Harvard assessment says.
The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University for the third year measured the pace of academic recovery in school districts nationwide. The Education Recovery Scorecard, a collaboration with The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, measures math and reading from 2019 to spring 2024, just before federal dollars expired.
The analysis combined scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, with district scores on state assessments, a release says.
“Unless state and local leaders step up now, the achievement losses will be the longest lasting – and most inequitable – legacy of the pandemic,” said Tom Kane, a professor at Harvard and one of the project leaders.
Johnston County was a bright spot among the state’s 115 districts, with students scoring above 2019 levels in reading and math.
North Carolina, the release says, was awarded $5.6 billion for K-12 schools. That’s about $3,600 per student, a step below the $3,700 national average.
Compared to 2019, average student achievement is half a grade level below in math (0.46 grade equivalents) and three-quarters (0.75) in reading. This means math achievement is “46% of the progress students typically make annually” between fourth and eighth grades.
The report says 82% of students “are in districts whose average math achievement in 2024 remained below their own 2019 levels.” In Gaston, Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Harnett, it’s nearly a full grade below the 2019 mean achievement in math.
With 97% of students in districts with average achievement below 2019 levels, reading is worse. Nationally it’s 89%.
Spending on education was the largest share of the last state budget at $17.9 billion for 2024-25, and $17.3 for 2023-24 of the $60.7 billion two-year plan.
On the Nation’s Report Card released last month, North Carolina’s eighth grade math scores include 62% at or above basic. That’s better than 59% national. The changes for at or above proficient in math for both fourth and eighth graders were considered statistically higher, with all other results considered within the realm of statistically the same.
In math, fourth graders were 41% at or above proficient, up from 35% two years ago, and 77% were at or above basic, up from 75%. Eighth graders were 31% at or above proficient, up from 25% two years ago, and 62% at or above basic, up from 61%.
In reading, fourth graders were 30% at or above proficient, down from 32% two years ago, and 58% at or above basic, down from 61%. Eighth graders were 27% at or above proficient, up from 26% two years ago, and 65% at or above basic, down from 66%.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
Author
