Memphis district records its lowest NAEP scores, showing COVID’s devastating impact

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newslettersMemphis-Shelby County Schools showed some of the country’s sharpest declines in math and reading scores on the test known as the “nation’s report card.”Results from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, illustrate the pandemic’s devastating effect on learning in Tennessee’s largest school district, where most students are Black and come from low-income families who were hit hardest by the pandemic, and where waves of COVID infections led to prolonged stretches of remote learning.While district school buildings reopened in the spring of 2021, most students did not return to classrooms until last school year — only to be hit by new disruptions and safety protocols as the delta and omicron variants struck.MSCS’ most notable declines were in math. The average score for fourth-graders decreased by 12 points from 2019 (on a 500-point scale); for eighth graders, scores dropped by 14 points, the greatest decline among the 26 big-city districts that participated in a special urban assessment program using the NAEP test.Reading scores also took a hit, with fourth graders dropping 8 points on average and eighth graders falling 6 points from 2019.This was the first NAEP test conducted since before the pandemic shut down classrooms in March 2020.MSCS interim Superintendent Toni Williams said the district’s students are resilient and will be able to bounce back.“MSCS has used federal stimulus dollars to make key investments,” she said. “Because of such efforts, we are already seeing evidence that the pandemic downturn is reversing.”Memphis’ results largely mirror the state and nation. Despite Tennessee’s big bet that tutoring and summer learning programs would help students rebound quicker from the pandemic, the state’s scores slid to their lowest level in math and reading since 2011. That was before the outsize gain on the 2013 exam earned Tennessee the title of the nation’s fastest improving state.Nationally, students in fourth and eighth grade saw unprecedented declines in math and substantial dips in reading achievement between 2019 and 2022. The declines were broad-based — affecting students in virtually every state and every region of the country.Other research has already shown that the pandemic derailed academic progress during that period. But the results from the closely watched NAEP provide the most detailed and authoritative accounting yet, with data coming from a representative set of students nationwide and allowing for comparisons across states and some cities.This is the third time MSCS has participated in the voluntary assessment program for urban districts, called the Trial Urban District Assessment. The first time, in 2017, the district’s students ranked in the bottom third of the nation.They remain there this year, with Memphis-Shelby County Schools posting its lowest NAEP results ever. MSCS was the only TUDA district in the nation to be among the top-five decliners on every test. In both subjects and grade levels covered by the assessment, MSCS scores consistently fell below national and large-city averages.Here’s how the district’s average scores compared:The district’s NAEP scores underscored how its most vulnerable student groups — such as students of color and children from low-income families — continue to lag behind their peers academically, especially after their communities were disproportionately affected by COVID.In fourth-grade math, for example, the average score dropped by 12 points among MSCS’ Black students and 6 points among Hispanic students. The average score for white students, meanwhile, increased by 1 point.In fourth grade reading, the average score for students eligible for the National School Lunch Program, a federal measure of poverty, plummeted by 8 points, while students who were not eligible saw a drop of only 3 points.MSCS’ performance on the national assessment contrasts with the rosier picture painted by the district’s gains on state standardized tests, which tend to be more closely aligned with state academic standards and curriculum. On those tests, the district’s overall proficiency rate rose about 6 percentage points in a near return to pre-pandemic levels.District officials trumpeted the results on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program as evidence that MSCS is “trending up.” But they also acknowledged they had a lot of work to do, with fewer than a quarter of MSCS students meeting grade level expectations in each subject.In a briefing for reporters on Friday, MSCS administrators said they believe Tennessee’s largest school system is still trending up. While TCAP tests were administered in April and May, administrators said NAEP assessments occurred in January, at the height of omicron.“This is a snapshot of how student wellbeing impacted academics during a time of heightened uncertainty,” said Angela Whitelaw, deputy superintendent of schools and academic support. “Our students, they epitomize grit and grind. … Our TCAP shows already show our students’ resilience and, with more time, they will continue trending up and learning recovery.”As they did when TCAP results were released, administrators touted the district’s investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief aid in a variety of academic strategies, such as increasing access to before- and after-school tutoring, adding teachers assistants to lower the student-to-adult ratio in K-2 classrooms, adding an academic intervention period to the school day to help students catch up, and holding data nights to keep parents better informed about their child’s academic progress.MSCS officials also emphasized that standardized assessments are only one factor in how they measure student success and needs.Board Chair Althea Greene said she’s proud of the MSCS’ growth on TCAP and on Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, known as TVAAS, where the district received the state’s highest ranking for academic growth.“I don’t want the momentum for Memphis-Shelby County Schools to be drowned out by the NAEP story,” Greene said. “Our administrators and teachers are working hard. I want us to be proud of our district and our progress.”Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.