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State math proficiency falls during COVID

Student learning in math was most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Chautauqua County schools.

This year, 46.6% of students tested statewide were proficient in English, while 38.6% were proficient in math, according to a Syracuse Post-Standard report. A simple average of Chautauqua County proficiency rates shows an increase in English language arts proficiency from 39.6% in 2018-19 to 40.83% in 2021-22. Math proficiency decreased from 44.67% to 34%, a decrease of 10.67%.

A simple average of student proficiency is all that is possible at The Post-Journal and OBSERVER’s press deadline because of the way the the state Education Department released the information on Monday. The data release typically happens in August each year.

This year, they weren’t released until Monday, and that release didn’t come until news organizations and good governments that include the Empire Center for New York State Policy filed freedom of information law requests for it.

When the state finally released the information, it did so in a massive data dump in a file format difficult to convert into current software. When The Post-Journal and OBSERVER can compile the full testing data for our readership area, a better measure of proficiency countywide will be published.

“We’re happy to make crucial educational data available to New Yorkers at long last–though NYSED certainly made us work for its release,” said Peter Warren, director of research at the Empire Center. “The FOIL process should not have been required to shake loose data routinely made available to the public well prior to this date. Nevertheless, we can now begin to unpack the results, which will give long-delayed insight into the extent of learning loss that has occurred in our state.”

What is known is that math proficiency has decreased in many area school districts while English language arts proficiency decreased on only six districts — Silver Creek, Ripley, Panama, Fredonia, Clymer and Cassadaga Valley — from 2018-19, the last year of testing before the pandemic, to 2021-22, when testing resumed after not taking place in 2019-20 and being optional in 2020-21.

Local data is in line with results of the 2021 National Assessment of Educational Progress test results, though the Empire Center notes a true understanding of the state’s educational performance lies in the test scores released Monday by the state Education Department. The NAEP highlights the performance of 26 large districts, so it’s useful mainly as an indicator of large trends. Comparing school districts can only be done with state Education Department data.

“That analysis will require use of state assessments; New York officials ripped off the band aid and quietly released state assessment results today after a long and unusual delay and an assurance only ten days ago that they would be released on November 4th,” Ian Kingsbury of the Empire Center wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

National math scores saw their largest decreases ever, and reading scores fell back to 1992 levels. This year was the first time the test was given since 2019, and it’s seen as the first nationally representative study of the pandemic’s impact on learning. Nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts. Not a single state saw a notable improvement in their average test scores, with some simply treading water at best.

An Empire Center analysis of the NAEP data found New York fourth-graders’ scores decreased 10 points from 2019 to 2022, a number surpassed only by Delaware, Virginia, and Washington DC and tied by Maryland and New Mexico. Psychometricians assert that ten points is roughly equivalent to one year of learning. The six-point drop in eighth grade math is closer to the national norm of 8 points. According to NAEP standards, equal proportions of the state’s fourth and eighth graders — 28 percent — are proficient in math.

The Empire Center analysis also found reading scores declined in fourth grade with only 30% of the state’s fourth-graders and 32% of eighth-graders deemed proficient in reading.

“That learning loss was more pronounced in math and that reading learning loss was greater in fourth grade compared to eighth tracks with state assessment results from New York City,” Kingsbury wrote. “As I noted upon the release of NYC state assessment results, once children are literate, reading learning is more easily self-directed and much of it occurs outside the classroom.”

Area district scoresEnglish Language Arts

District 2018-19 2021-22 Change

Proficiency Proficiency

Brocton 21% 23% +2%

Cassadaga Valley 39% 38% +1%

Chautauqua Lake 42% 56% +14%

Dunkirk 24% 2% +3%

Forestville 46% 51% +5%

Fredonia 42% 40% -2%

Gowanda 30% 33% +3%

North Collins 22% 36% +14%

Pine Valley 19% 25% +5%

Ripley 45% 34% -11%

Silver Creek 35% 34% -1%

Westfield 44% 48% +4%

Math

District 2018-19 2021-22 Change

Proficiency Proficiency

Brocton 26% 16% -10%

Cassadaga Valley 33% 25% -8%

Chautauqua Lake 53% 54% +1%

Dunkirk 32% 21% -11%

Forestville 50% 40% -10%

Fredonia 50% 42% -8%

Gowanda 39% 27% -12%

North Collins 3% 29% -1%

Pine Valley 21% 19% -2%

Ripley 34% 25% -9%

Silver Creek 37% 32% -5%

Westfield 62% 52% -10%

Source: The Empire Center for New York State Policy analysis of state Education Department Data. Proficiency rates are the average for each district for all third- through eighth-graders who took English language arts and math tests who took the state tests.

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