Beyond the Headlines: What Can We Learn From a Closer Look at NAEP?

“I think the real challenge coming out of the pandemic is how can we get our students who are in poverty the resources they need? What can we learn from the way we deployed devices so that even after the bell students could still connect and continue to learn, like many of their peers across the country. I think our real question as a country coming out of the pandemic is, how do we help our students and our families in poverty not only recover but grow, and that’s our primary focus.” — Raymond C. Hart, Ph.D., Council of the Great City Schools

In last week’s GLR Learning Tuesday webinar, CGLR’s John Gomperts moderated a panel of distinguished education leaders exploring insights to be gained from the recent NAEP scores. Panelists — representing the perspectives of rural and urban districts, charter schools as well as Department of Defense Education Activity schools — shared some of the key lessons from the pandemic and what we might be able to extract from the recent release of NAEP scores. Our panelists noted that they are still in the process of analyzing much of the data, but see some early lessons emerging.

Raymond Hart, representing urban schools, shared that the impact on students in poverty was significant, but in some urban areas reading scores in particular did not see as big of a drop. Tim Taylor and Heather Zellers, representing rural schools, shared many of the challenges that rural districts faced during the pandemic and continue to face including staffing challenges and resource distribution of ARPA and ESSER funds. Christy Wolfe, representing public charter schools, shared some of the bright spots seen within charter schools including reduced disparities for English language learners. Both rural schools and charter schools noted the ability to adjust more quickly to the pandemic. Tim Taylor shared the importance of having a strong instructional leader, such as a superintendent or principal, and the direct correlation to student outcomes. Beth Schiavino-Narvaez shared the results from Department of Defense Education Activity schools, which outpaced the entire nation. Some of the elements contributing to these positive outcomes included rigorous curriculum, professional development, consistent leadership and the support of military leaders throughout the system.

Raymond Hart closed with the following words that represented the consensus of the presenters. “I think that our challenges are far more alike than they are different. As a country, we can only be as strong as those who struggle most in our respective communities.”