California Students Have Dismally Low Math and Reading Test Scores

While California’s scores remain low, they dropped less than those in other states
between 2019 and 2022.

By Soumya Karlamangla Oct. 25, 2022

Pandemic school closures are over, but parents, teachers and students still wonder
how prolonged distance learning affected academic progress.

The initial signs are concerning.

Scores released this week from a statewide exam administered in the spring
revealed dismally low levels of proficiency in reading and math. About 47 percent
of California students met English language standards and 33 percent met math
standards, both performance drops from 2019.

The findings were echoed by national data also published on Monday, which found
that just 30 percent of eighth graders in the state achieved proficiency in reading
and 23 percent in math, according to the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, known as the nation’s report card. (The national exam, which is separate
from the California one, sampled students around the country and is generally
considered more rigorous than many state tests.)

Both tests showed larger declines in math, compared with reading. If there’s any
glimmer of good news for California, it is that students’ academic performance
here fell slightly less than across the nation during the pandemic, my colleague
Sarah Mervosh reported.

“That’s an unexpected surprise coming from California, the place where students
were remote the longest anywhere in the country besides Washington, D.C.,”
Sarah, who covers education for The Times, told me.

California’s reading scores held steady on the national exam, even as average
reading scores fell in a majority of states. Students here experienced significant
declines in math — a trend across the country — but not as much as in some other
states.

The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to promote the state’s performance:
“California Outperforms Most States in Minimizing Learning Loss,” read the
headline of a news release. But performance on the national exam is influenced by
many factors, and researchers cautioned against drawing fast conclusions about
remote-learning policies based on the latest data alone.
“Comparing states is tricky and people will likely go to red state, blue state, which
is not the most helpful framing,” Sean Reardon, a professor of education at
Stanford University, told Sarah.

In one interesting finding, California, which stood out for its caution in reopening
schools, experienced declines that were roughly in line with those in Florida,
which was among the first to reopen schools. Los Angeles stayed closed longer
than almost anywhere else in the country, according to data by Burbio, a school
tracking site, yet it was the only place to show significant gains in eighth-grade
reading.

Still, California’s fourth graders are performing below their peers in Florida in
math, for example. And scores in Los Angeles are below the average for other big
city districts in several categories.