Vermont students’ reading and math scores dropped between 2019 and 2022, in line with a national decline on a federally mandated standardized test.
Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, the first collected since the Covid-19 pandemic, showed declines in reading and math nationwide, with particularly acute dips in math.
Dan French, Vermont’s secretary of education, said in a press release earlier this week that Vermont’s results “reinforce a longstanding trend,” as Vermont’s scores have been in decline for years.
“They are an important reminder that, before the pandemic, we weren’t where we wanted to be,” French said.
The test results, called the “nation’s report card,” quiz samples of fourth- and eighth-graders’ knowledge in math and reading every two years. (The test scheduled for 2021 was postponed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.)
In Vermont, scores dropped across both subjects and grade levels. The decline in the state’s eighth-grade math scores were especially dramatic: In 2019, 38% of eighth-graders were proficient or better in math; in 2022, only 27% were proficient. Fourth-grade math scores, as well as reading scores in both grades, showed a more gradual decline.
Despite the decline, Vermont’s eighth-graders still outscored national averages in both math and reading. (Fourth-graders’ average scores were not significantly different from national averages. )
But Vermont’s scores showed dramatic gaps between students at different income levels.
Of fourth-grade students who were ineligible for the National School Lunch Program — meaning their family income exceeded federal limits — 46% met or exceeded proficiency standards in math.
Of their classmates who were eligible for free and reduced lunch, meanwhile, only 17% were proficient or better.
Similar disparities existed across grade levels and subjects, but have neither grown nor shrunk since 2019.
State and national officials caution against reading too much into the data, noting that it represents only state averages. “It’s important to recognize what NAEP can and cannot tell us,” Deputy Secretary Heather Bouchey said in the press release. “These results are a useful general barometer, but can’t tell us specifics as we work to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the National Assessment of Educational Progress.