The last time states graded schools and pinpointed the lowest performers was after the 2018-19 school year—a lifetime ago for many educators.
That was before the pandemic, before tests were canceled in 2020, and before many parents opted their children out of tests in 2021. Because states now lack the year-to-year results they typically rely on to make decisions, determining which schools need the most help will be complicated.
But the pandemic has made such determinations more important than ever. While incomplete, the data states collected last spring showed “staggering” declines for students in reading and math, according to a summary from the New Hampshire-based Center for Assessment, and COVID-19 is now disrupting the third school year in a row.
