Post-pandemic data shows scores falling, but student growth accelerating
Editorial note: The latest CUSD 220 report card can be found here, and the CUSD 300 report can be found here.
SPRINGFIELD – Student test scores continued to fall last year but new data shows Illinois’ students are on the path to recovering from the learning loss that occurred during the pandemic.
Numbers from standardized tests administered last spring show steep declines in the percentage of students who met or exceeded state standards in English language arts and math compared to 2019, the last year tests were administered before the pandemic.
Those numbers were reported in the latest state report card, which the Illinois State Board of Education released Thursday. In addition to test results, the report card includes information on a wide range of education metrics such as graduation rates, class sizes and teacher qualifications. It offers statewide data as well as data on each district and school building.
But while proficiency rates were down across the board, State Superintendent Carmen Ayala said the amount of growth students are showing from one year to the next is improving, suggesting that strategies being used help students catch up in their academics are working.
ISBE devised a new metric this year to track growth rates. It involves measuring a student’s year-over-year change in scores in a particular subject and comparing that growth to a student in a prior year – in this case, 2019 – who started off with the same score. This year’s report card suggests students in 2022 showed greater growth than their academic peers in 2019.
“Now, proficiency rates are still not back to pre-pandemic levels, but this accelerated rate of growth tells us we are on the right track,” Ayala said during a media briefing on the report card.
Read more here.
To be clear, children are recovering from the lockdown policies of JB Pritzker. The Pandemic did not do this to them.