COVID leads to test score decline, but area districts still see growth
NEWARK — Licking County school districts, like many around Ohio, saw a decline in standardized test scores in 2020-21 due primarily to the pandemic.
They are establishing ways to address it, and many of the districts actually showed higher than expected growth in several areas during that time.
“Our standardized test scores from last spring were down when compared to spring 2019 (no tests were given in spring 2020),” said Seth Roy, community outreach coordinator for Newark City Schools. “This really does tie into the pandemic overall. Students missed the last quarter of the 19-20 school year; then we were online for a month to start the 20-21 school year, followed by many COVID-related quarantines that persisted in to this school year. Students have not had a ‘normal’ school year for three consecutive years now.”
The district is trying several things to address that.
“Each summer, we have offered a variety of academic camps to help students,” Roy said. “These include kindergarten readiness, reading, math, STEM and more (we have a guitar building camp this summer for the first time. Not necessarily related to this overall topic, other than providing more opportunities for students).”
Despite overall test scores falling, Newark did meet or exceed Value Added across the board, Roy added. This means that students grew the expected amount or more in achievement.
More:Licking County sees major increase in chronically absent students during COVID-19
Heath superintendent Trevor Thomas noted that the district’s test scores declined last year, but it was less than half that of the state average. “Our Value Added progress data was above expected growth (the highest category) in nine out of 13 grade level/subject categories, and only one category was below expected growth,” he said.
County sets precedent
In-person attendance was important in that progress, Thomas said.
“I want to be clear that while we are encouraged by student performance and the performance of our staff, that we attribute some of this performance to the fact that we were able to keep kids in school,” Thomas said. “Heath and the schools in Licking County set the precedent that in person instruction was absolutely essential for our students to thrive. We also had critical support from the Licking County Health Department, led by Chad Brown. They prioritized what was most needed for students in their decision making throughout the pandemic.”
When looking closer at their local data, the district knows that it still has many grade levels where it must work with students to bring as many as possible to performing at a proficient level.
“We know that our students have dropped in achievement through the pandemic due to remote instruction, increased absenteeism, and because of trauma experienced as a result of the pandemic and pandemic related factors,” Thomas said. “Our goal is to continue to work with students and staff to improve instruction and social emotional supports.”
Southwest Licking superintendent Kasey Perkins said that, according to the district’s director of curriculum Tanya Moore, Southwest definitely saw a slide in achievement scores for the district, not just on standardized tests, but on their own district measures as well. However, students are still showing higher than expected growth in most grade levels and content areas.
While they contribute the slide in achievement scores to student transiency and the pandemic, Southwest is combating that slide in a multitude of ways: providing before-school reading intervention to third graders, offering increased summer learning opportunities last year and again this year, offering more personalized learning options, and increasing the frequency in which they meet and plan for at-risk students. Teachers are continuing to identify where learning gaps are, and intervening and enriching to close those gaps more quickly.
Early grades affected
Licking Valley superintendent Dave Hile reiterated his district’s stance, that they have no confidence in the state’s standardized tests, and even if they did, the results are so late coming back, that they couldn’t use those effectively anyway. Their assessment system is NWEA MAP Assessments, which is valid, reliable and has a student pool of several million.
“Yes, our students’ scores, like students across the country, show that many students’ academic knowledge and skills have stagnated or regressed as a result of the school disruptions caused by the pandemic,” Hile said. “The problem is most pronounced in the early grades, i.e., K-3, because when those students are out of school, remote learning is not an effective substitute; most kids don’t learn to read when they are not in a classroom with a highly trained reading teacher. Learning to read is the key to all future learning, so that has to be the priority.”
To combat it, Valley has used the COVID relief funds (ESSER funds) to hire one additional teacher in grades K-4, and they are dedicated to learning loss recovery, so they are working every day with the students with the greatest needs and who are the furthest behind to try and catch them up. “We will have them for two years until the money runs out,” Hile said
Dr. Philip Wagner, Licking Heights superintendent, said that “commensurate with the transient behaviors we have seen within our school district, and related to the 22 percent turnover in student population observed last year, we did experience a decrease in student testing performance. In response, in the last school year we conducted summer school and a year-long intervention program for students who needed some additional supports. We expect to offer summer school again this year for students in need.”
Northridge superintendent Scott Schmidt said to address the declining scores, the district is including additional instruction supports in the form of instructors for students, as well as instructional supports for teachers. “It’s all in an effort to increase the collection and analysis of real time local student data, to help inform our daily plans for supporting student learning and growth,” he said.
Scott Hartley, North Fork superintendent, said the district is focused on looking at curriculum and curricular changes to assist all students in getting caught up. “We offer credit recovery, tutoring programs, and any assistance we can to help students get back to being on track,” he said.
Still achieving
Johnstown superintendent Dale Dickson said that even with the difficulties of the pandemic, his district still experienced incredible academic achievement during the 2020-21 school year. “It was made possible by staff, students, parents and community all working together to maintain quality educational services,” he said.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Johnstown ranked sixth in the Greater Columbus Area in student achievement and performance at 76.8 percent. Granville ranked first with 85 percent.
More:Dale Dickson, Johnstown’s longest-serving superintendent, retiring ahead of Intel growth
Johnstown made more progress than expected in sixth grade English Language Arts and high school Algebra. It exceeded the Ohio average of students at or above proficient in math, language arts and science for both the elementary and middle schools. The high school was at or above proficient in Algebra I, Biology, English II, Geometry, Government and History, and exceeded other Ohio districts similar to Johnstown in Biology, Geometry and English II.
The district ranked first in Licking County in academic achievement for fourth grade English Language Arts proficiency and seventh grade math proficiency, and was second in six other areas. Johnstown rated second overall in on the performance index.
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