The COVID-19 pandemic spared no state or region as it caused historic learning setbacks for America’s children, erasing decades of academic progress and widening racial disparities, according to results of a national test that provide the sharpest look yet at the scale of the crisis.
Virginia’s Black and Hispanic students faced some of the sharpest declines in academic performance over the course of the pandemic.
The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, an assessment known as “The Nation’s Report Card,” showed that test scores for Virginia students have fallen significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, researchers at Harvard and Stanford have shared data that translates changes in test scores to “grade-level equivalents,” in an attempt to give added context to what those test score dips mean.
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The findings for Virginia’s students are bleak. Fourth- through eighth-graders in Virginia lost nearly two-thirds of a year’s worth of ground in reading and almost a full year’s worth in math — the sixth- and seventh-largest declines in the country, respectively.
Virginia is one of six states to be in the “top 10” in both reading and math learning loss, along with Maine, Delaware, Oklahoma, Oregon and Maryland.
Post-pandemic learning loss hit Virginia’s Black and Latino students even harder. Latino students lost more than three semesters’ worth of ground in math, the largest drop in the country, and almost a full year of learning in reading, a mark topped only by Ohio. Black students also lost three semesters’ worth of math learning, second to Oklahoma.
Published on Friday, the new analysis, called the Education Recovery Scorecard, shows that Hopewell, a school system of 4,000 students who are mostly low-income and 60% Black, lost an average of 2.29 years of math instruction.
“This is not anywhere near what we wanted to see,” said Deputy Superintendent Jay McClain.
Richmond Public Schools, which was one of the last of Virginia’s public state school divisions to return to 100% in-person learning, lost an average of 1.96 years of math instruction and 1.45 years of reading instruction, according to the analysis. Like Hopewell, RPS students are mostly Black and low-income.
“These are absolutely devastating numbers,” said RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras. “They’re why I’ve advocated for a ‘Marshall Plan’ for this generation of students. They’re also why we need to be bold in our recovery efforts.
“I’ll continue to fight for vastly more learning time for our students, a laser-like focus on early literacy, and huge investments in our students’ mental and emotional health.”
Chesterfield County’s public schools lost an average of 1.22 years of math instruction and 0.87 years of reading instruction.
Hanover County fared best among the Richmond area’s largest localities. Its public schools lost an average of 0.71 years of math instruction and 0.57 years of reading instruction.
During a news conference on Monday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin decried Virginia’s performance on “The Nation’s Report Card” and slammed previous Democratic administrations for “lowering [testing] standards so far that they have become essentially meaningless.”
Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter, in response to the new analysis, referred to a comment from Youngkin on Monday: “Every Virginian clearly sees our children need us now more than ever. Achievement gaps in the critical fields of math and reading could dim the bright futures of a generation of Virginia students if we don’t act now. That’s why we must double down our commitment to Virginians, and specifically our commitment to Virginia children.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow mentioned at a recent news conference that Black and Hispanic students performed far behind their peers across all subject areas and grade levels on “The Nation’s Report Card.”
In an interim report in February, Balow sought to downplay the role of systemic racism in fostering those disparities and directed the state education department to scrap dozens of resources on educational equity.
A report from Balow in May addressed declines in student achievement exacerbated by the school closures during COVID, with the most “devastating” learning loss affecting Black and Hispanic students and students living in poverty.
Hopewell began offering in-person learning in March 2021, but only one-fourth of students returned to classrooms.
“There was so much fear of the effects of COVID,” McClain said. “Families here were just hunkered down.”
Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras (right bottom) and Mayor Levar Stoney (background) greeted students for their first day of school at J.L. Francis Elementary last August. RPS is facing a $9.8 million deficit between what its school board approved earlier this year and the revenue that officials are now anticipating.
When classes resumed in the fall, COVID spread through Hopewell, and half of the division’s students stayed home either sick or in quarantine, McClain said. A full 40% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 18 days of school.
The new analysis shows that online learning played a major role in student success, although students across the U.S. lost significant ground even where they returned to brick-and-mortar classrooms quickly.
While most Virginia school divisions scored below the national average in reading this year, Hanover was one of only a few in the Richmond region to surpass the national average. The division’s student population is 76% white, and only one-fourth of its students are considered “economically disadvantaged” by the state.
Hanover was also the only school division in Virginia to fully open for the entirety of the 2020-21 school year with face-to-face learning five days a week.
“We believe our instructional plans have been exceptionally strong and well-executed by our staff throughout the pandemic,” said Hanover Schools Superintendent Michael Gill.
“We are proud to have offered our families a choice in instructional setting. … Still, we are not immune from the realities of unfinished learning and will confront these challenges head-on.
“We will continue to meet each child where they are — academically, socially, physically and emotionally — and provide the necessary resources and supports to help ensure we meet their unique, complex and ever-evolving needs.”
