During the COVID-19 pandemic, student assessment scores across every grade level dropped. District officials point to students missing classes from COVID exposure, students working from home, and general instability as reasons for the declines.
Across the country, districts are seeing slower than expected returns to pre-pandemic student performance—Washoe County School District (WCSD) included. The National Assessment of Educational Programs (NAEP) shows a decrease in fourth and eighth grade math and reading scores as compared to 2019.
MAP growth assessment results in English Language Arts also show achievement lagging behind pre-pandemic performance in all grades but third within the district, with grades sixth through eighth remaining the most impacted.
In math, assessment shows that students in fifth, seventh and eighth grades are most impacted.
According to Joe Ernst, chief continuous improvement officer for WCSD, the pandemic worsened existing disproportionalities, including within minority groups. MAP estimates show that Hispanic and Black students in middle school would need six additional months of instructional time to reach pre-pandemic levels in math, when inequities were already a concern.
Washoe still performs higher than the state average, with a 41.2% ELA performance and a 33.6% mathematics performance. The state is only at 41% and 31.2%, respectively.
State Charter schools and Eureka County lead the pack, but even their studentsbarely break the 50% proficiency barriers.
The star rating system is a Nevada Department of Education performance measure that rates schools based on various factors. During the 2018-2019 school year, the majority of WCSD schools fell into the 3-star and 2-star category, followed by 5-star and 4-star, with the fewest (nine) in the 1-star category.
“Students experiencing chronic absenteeism have about half the proficiencies as their peers.”
However, during the 2022-2023 school year, that number plummeted, with the majority of schools being in the 1-star designation, followed by 2-star and 3-star schools. Only six schools remain in the 5-star category.
Some students fare better than others
Close to 60% of Washoe’s elementary and middle school students are not proficient in ELA, and 73% of middle school students are not proficient in mathematics.
In high school, 55% of 11th graders are not proficient in ELA, with disparities among racial and ethnic groups. For example, Asian students and white students have the highest proficiencies at 68% and 62% respectively, while only 22% of Black students, 24% of Pacific Islander students and 26% of Hispanic students are proficient.
Only 22% of 11th graders are proficient in mathematics, again with significant disparities between racial groups. Asian students (39%) and white students (33%) are ahead of American Indian students (7%), Black students (8%), Hispanic students (9%) and Pacific Islander students (9%).
However, Trustee President Beth Smith, at Tuesday’s board meeting, said that for the high school proficiencies, which are sourced through the required ACT tests, the test includes curriculum 11th graders have not reached yet in their education, which skews results.
“I need someone to really look at why we’re doing this,” Smith said. “I support universal testing, but I don’t know why we’re testing students on material we know that they haven’t actually taken yet.”
Absences to blame?
According to Laura Davidson, director of research and evaluation, the main culprit in the district’s low student achievement scores is chronic absenteeism.
“Students experiencing chronic absenteeism have about half the proficiencies as their peers,” Davidson said.
In some high schools, absenteeism has reached over 50%. Students become chronically absent after missing 18 days in the school year, which is approximately two days per month.
However, Smith said that for many families, students are kept home due to an illness or COVID exposure. If the child does not see a doctor, due to the expense, access or parental availability, that student cannot be medically excused for the absence, which adds to the reporting of chronic absenteeism.
“We’ve had our conversations about the equity of it and about who’s able to access health care to obtain that note so certainly it’s something unique to Nevada,” Davidson said.
School Superintendent Susan Enfield agreed, calling it “fundamentally an equity issue and inappropriate.”
“I don’t think a doctor’s note should be required,” she said.“I think it’s offensive to families. If you want to keep your child home,you know the best reason to do that.”
Enfield said absences could also be caused by students feeling unsafe at school, which occurred last school year when a national prank threatened school shootings across a number of states and districts, prompting students across the nation to stay home.
Improvements
According to Troy Parks, WCSD chief academic officer, the district is undertaking a number of improvements to bring those proficiency scores up.
These improvements include adopting a new curriculum for ELA, science and social studies; using iReady for personalized lesson plans; providing early literacy and language instruction based on “the science of reading;” and creating professional learning communities for educators to learn evidence-based best practices.
Access to dual enrollment with community college, advanced coursework, and career technical education (CTE) programs have been expanded, with over 2,700 students this year having taken the opportunity to dual enroll—up from 1,000 students last year.
Deputy Superintendent Seng-Dao Yang Keo said the district is increasing funds to make sure that students have access to expanding their educational pursuits regardless of their family’s ability to contribute financially, including through a districtwide laptop borrowing program.
“We are investing roughly $4 million this year to ensure students whose parents have identified they need these resources will have these resources,” Keo said.
The district is expanding ways for families to become involved, including parents who are immigrants or newcomers to the Nevada education system.
Mental health coordination for students, families and educators is also a focus, including family resource centers that provide resources for community supports to help families access services. The plan also addresses investing in educators through professional growth and learning plans, educator pathways, and increased support from administration.
“We’re always coming back to our strategies and monitoring how they’re doing,” Parks said. “And this is at all levels.”
There are a number of additional improvements and statistics listed, which can be viewed in the agenda packet.
