Mississippi’s scores for the National Assessment of Education Progress exceeded the national average in 2019, but much of that progress has been undone by classroom disruptions throughout the pandemic according to the new report. This learning loss is present in almost every state, though Alabama and Louisiana saw less change overall. Peggy Carr, Commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics, says parents should be concerned about this decline and engage with their school systems to see improvement.
“It’s not good just to go back to normal, because normal wasn’t good for some of us. So we have to make pace and we have to double pace for some students. That is what I hope parents take away from this.”
Several state assessments have been released since the pandemic began, and while these benchmarks have shown that the state is improving, education leaders say that selective data can lack context when measuring growth or decline. Former Mississippi State Superintendent Dr. Carey Wright says it’s also important to not relax education standards because of disruptions in classrooms.
Wright says “This is a time to keep expectations very high. I’m a firm believer that the children will do and can do what you tell them they will do an can do and provide the support to get them there. So this is not a time to water anything down. This is alarming, all eyes should be on this in every single state.”
Among the four major testing groups assessed, eighth-grade math skills declined the most in Mississippi while fourth-grade reading saw little change.
