This story has been updated.
Massachusetts students showed little improvement on English and math standardized tests scores in 2024, and the most recent results remain well below pre-pandemic levels.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary education released statewide data about students’ test performance to its board. Among the findings:
—The number of students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations for English across grades 3-8 remained 13 percent points lower than in 2019, the year before Covid shuttered schools.
—In math, test scores were 8 percent lower during the same period.
—Third grade math testing scores was up 3 percentage points from last year, although still lower than 2019.
State Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler said the results need to be interpreted in the “historically unique context” of the pandemic four years ago.
”The third graders participating in the MCAS last spring were in kindergarten during the throes of the pandemic, and were not able to access consistent in-person instruction on some of the most critical and foundational skills,“ he said during a press conference. ”Not to mention the impact trauma and mental health needs not only of the students, but also families and teachers alike.“
The tests remain controversial, and the Massachusetts Teachers Association has supported a November ballot question that would end using MCAS scores as a graduation requirement. Tutwiler called the tests ”very important.“
”They also help us develop a strategy to ensure that resources an policies are being directed toward students who need the most help and where historical and persistent inequities remain.“
Thirty-nine percent of students grades 3-8 across the state met or exceeded expectations in the English Language Arts exam, compared to 52 percent in 2019. Forty-one percent of students met or exceeded expectations in math, down eight points from 2019.
In science, the percentage of students in grades 3 - 8 who met or exceeded expectations rose by one point over last year. Though achievement improved in grade 5 and grade 10, eighth graders achievement fell by two points to 39 percent.
Rob Gordon, the state’s Chief Officer for Data Assessment, said chronic absenteeism, or when a student misses at least 10 percent of their school days in an academic year, is steadily improving.
“While we are not where we were pre-pandemic...that number has dipped below 20 percent for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic,” Gordon said.
Before the pandemic, about 13 percent of students were chronically absent from school annually.
The impact of simply being in school is “definitely clear” in the state’s achievement results.
About one in five students who were chronically absent reached the meeting or exceeding threshold on the grades 3-8 English MCAS this year, Gordon said.
“That’s a 20 point difference” from students who had been in regular attendance, he said.
The state assessed 285 schools’ absenteeism rates.
Officials identified 50 schools designated as “schools of recognition” for high achievement meeting or exceeding test targets.
The data did not list “underperforming” or “chronically underperforming” schools that showed improvement and potentially subject to state intervention.
The Massachusetts chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the state’s largest teachers’ union that opposes MCAS testing, issued a statement saying teachers are not surprised by the scores.
President Jessica Tang said last year was the first full academic year of school since the pandemic forced school closures in places like Boston.
“It’s concerning that the state continues to use an accountability system that is obviously not working - one that is punitive toward the students with the highest levels of need, one that only exacerbates the achievement gaps we’re seeing between students in our cities and their peers in wealthier suburbs,” she said.
Officials at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will present the data and analysis to its 11-member board on Tuesday morning.
