Young students’ math and reading scores dropping nationwide

The nation’s report card came out and the students are not doing well. We’ve seen the sharpest drop in reading and math scores for 9-year-olds in 30 years.

It’s important to note that this is the first nationally representative report comparing students from before to after the pandemic.

The data includes only 9-year-olds, most of whom are in fourth grade.

This is the most significant decline in reading since 1990 and the first decline in mathematics ever. The national average in mathematics dropped by seven points while the mathematics dropped by five.

And, what’s equally alarming is how minority communities have been statistically more impacted by this. For 9-year-olds who are either black or Hispanic, their reading score dropped by six points. And for black children, their math scores dropped by 13 points over the last two years.

WINK News spoke with Lee County school board member Gwyn Gittens and said it’s clear that Covid-19 shocked the education system in the United States.

“When people talk about we, the board, wanted to keep kids at home and keep them away from learning, that was the furthest thing from the truth for me,” Gittens said. “I knew that, especially our babies that don’t have access to all of the technology and support and everything we’re going to do poorly.”

For the time being, no local numbers were readily available.