NAEP Scores Confirm Pandemic Learning Loss and Need for High-Quality, Culturally Relevant Curricula

October 24 (New York) – Today, the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) released the first comprehensive look at student learning in districts and states across the country since 2019—an utterly different time in American public schooling. As anticipated, based on smaller-scale analyses released since the beginning of the pandemic, the results are alarming. In New York City, only 18 percent of the city’s fourth graders were proficient in math, compared with 24 percent in 2019. The scores have not been this low for nearly 20 years. 

Disparities also existed among white and Asian American students compared with their Black and Hispanic peers. Just 11 percent of Black and Hispanic students scored proficient in fourth-grade math, compared with 39 percent of White students and 48 percent of Asian American students in the same grade.

The 2022 reading scores in New York City were not statistically different from the scores in 2019. While this lack of decline amidst significant difficulty is somewhat encouraging, New York City’s reading scores still remained below national and New York state averages. Among eighth-grade students, for example, the average reading score in New York City was 254, compared to the average New York State score of 262, indicating there is still much work to be done.

“Dire challenges require transformative solutions, guided by those closest to the ground. The nation’s teachers are intimately aware of the pandemic-related factors that have negatively impacted student learning over the past two and a half years,” said Evan Stone, Co-Founder, and Co-CEO of Educators for Excellence. “They are also intimately aware of the non-pandemic related factors that negatively impacted student learning for decades before that. And so, they are best suited to guide us forward.”

These record-low math scores come more than a month after Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David Banks announced a reversal of the commitment to creating a universal, culturally relevant curriculum called Mosaic, that would provide tools and resources to educators and students in subject areas such as math. 

While Mosaic will no longer be implemented in its current form, Educators for Excellence-New York is uplifting the voices of educators, who are calling for the city’s leaders to fill the void created by the Mosaic rollback and to address the quality and cultural relevance of curricula in the city. 

“The math scores are disappointing and dire, but unfortunately, not shocking,” said Evan Stone, Co-Founder, and Co-CEO of Educators for Excellence. “Our current curriculum system is an inconsistent, decentralized, school-by-school approach that provides thousands of students with low-quality materials that don’t reflect their own lives and identities. We need the Department of Education to provide high-quality, consistent, and culturally relevant resources to help students be successful in all subjects.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brought America’s public schools into crisis. Innovation, with teachers at the forefront, must bring them out.

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About Educators for Excellence
Founded by public school teachers, Educators for Excellence is a growing movement of more than 33,000 educators, united around a common set of values and principles for improving student learning and elevating the teaching profession. We work together to identify issues that impact our schools, create solutions to these challenges, and advocate for policies and programs that give all students access to a quality education. 

For more information, please visit e4e.org.