The Delta Issue #21

Making a plan for NAEP scores

By: Jessica Baghian

Two weeks before millions of Americans tune in to watch Super Bowl LIX, education wonks like me will be getting ready for our own Super Bowl. The National Assessment of Student Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, will be released on Thursday, January 29, giving us insight into how students are doing nationally in reading and math. 

NAEP scores are of course about education, but they are also about workforce, the economy, and the very health of each state — and that’s why we want to make sure every governor, legislator, educator, and advocate is prepared. 

Want to get ready for this release? 

1. Keep reading below for 5 things to pay attention to when scores come out. 
2. Register for our free webinar on Monday, February 3rd at 10 am ET where we’ll take you beyond the headlines.

We know these scores will reinvigorate a critical conversation about pandemic learning loss. The 4th graders included in this assessment were in kindergarten when the pandemic began. We’ve got to know how they are doing, what interventions are working, and where we need to invest more support. But that’s just one important headline among many pieces of this puzzle. Here’s what else we’re tracking:

1. Look at the long-term, not the short-term

NAEP scores are released every two years, which makes it tempting to just compare 2024 to 2022. This is the wrong approach. 

This report card is a sample of students in fourth and eighth grade — it is not a measure of every student in America. As such, it’s intended to assess long-term trends. That’s why you’ll learn a lot more about your state from 10-year comparisons than from 2-year comparisons. A decade-long view is the best way to tell which states are taking sustained actions to meaningfully improve kids’ reading and math skills, and what methods are worth replicating in more states.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to do this alone. Our team at Watershed breaks down the data into an easy-to-use dashboard to help you take a look at longer-term trends. You can see our 2022 dashboard here. We’ll be moving quickly as soon as we have the data to update the dashboard to reflect the latest numbers. RSVP for our free webinar on February 3rd at 10 a.m. to join us as  we dig into the dashboard. 

2. Pay attention to subgroups

Just looking at the topline number in a state will mask important information about what’s happening with the students in your state who need the most support. We encourage you to look below the surface to understand whether the big trends in your state are bearing out for all of your students or just some students. For example, in 2022, we saw a widening spread between high achievers and low achievers — we want to see if that troubling gap is continuing to grow. 

We’ll have subgroup data available on our 2025 dashboard. 

3. Take a hard look at whether your state assessments are doing the job 

Every state has its own assessments, which are important because they measure all students in the state, rather than a sample. But the problem is some of these assessments have lower standards than what is required by NAEP. Compare your NAEP results to your own state assessments and ask if they truly provide an accurate picture of whether students have learned what’s required to be proficient in reading and math. 

Want to learn more about this? Check out https://honestygap.org. 

4. Spend extra time on 8th-grade literacy scores

As I mentioned up top, I anticipate seeing a lot of headlines about 4th-grade literacy scores — this year’s data will be coming from the kids who were in kindergarten when the pandemic began in 2020. While I love to see the focus on the science of reading in the early grades, it’s important to keep that focus on reading proficiency in the middle grades so kids don’t fall behind. 

A recent RAND study took a look at a nationally representative sample of U.S. grade 3-8 teachers across all subjects. According to the study, these teachers say 44 percent of their students always or nearly always experience difficulty reading the written content within their instructional materials. In addition, almost three-quarters of teachers in grades 3-8 say they need access to more resources to identify and support students with reading difficulties. I encourage every state to spend extra time looking at 8th-grade literacy scores. Watch for evidence of what literacy supports students are getting — or not getting — by 8th grade.

 Every state needs to commit to science-of-reading-based instruction and professional development not just in the early years, but in the middle grades as well.

5. Heed the call-to-action on math 

The 2022 NAEP scores fueled deep conversations around reading, but we haven’t seen enough of the same energy around math. As we prepare for the upcoming release, we’re going to be paying close attention to math. This must be the moment that states recommit to numeracy skills with the same intensity they’ve committed to the science of reading. 

I’m personally interested to see which states are bouncing back post-pandemic and making gains for the long term, and I’ll be on the lookout for successful approaches that other states can use to confront persistent math achievement issues.

Even though it’s tempting to copy and paste literacy legislation for math instruction, legislators should resist that urge. The way kids learn math and number sense is fundamentally different from the way they learn to read — which means investing in math has to look different. We wrote more about that last fall if you want to revisit this post.

Let’s Get Muddy

What else will you be looking for when NAEP scores come out on January 29? 

And we hope you’ll join us on Monday, February 3rd at 10 am ET for our deeper dive. Register here.