|
ILLINOIS COVID-19 SCHOOL CLOSURES HURT
MATH, READING SCORES
Illinois Policy Institute
| Hannah Max
SAT math scores dropped nearly 15%, and reading scores dropped 9% from
2019 to 2021 among Illinois high school juniors. Low-income and minority
students saw bigger losses.
|
|
 Illinois high school juniors saw greater declines
in their standardized test scores from 2019 to 2021 compared to other school
years, with math scores dropping nearly 15% and reading scores dropping 9%.
This drop in proficiency is higher compared to recent years, according to data
released in December 2021 by the Illinois State Board of Education. Students’
SAT reading scores had dropped an average of nearly 4% from 2017 to 2019 while
SAT math proficiency scores actually increased by 1.5% between 2018 and 2019
after a nearly 6% drop in the previous school year.
National data shows school closures had the biggest impact on the passing rates
of low-income and minority students. Illinois saw the same trend – academic
achievement between socioeconomic and demographic groups diverges, with
low-income and minority students faring worse.
Among low-income high school juniors in 2021, under 16% scored at proficiency
level in reading and fewer than 13% were proficient in math. This represents a
nearly 15% and 25% overall proficiency decline since 2019 in each subject.
Comparatively, proficiency scores in reading and math for higher-income juniors
dropped around 11% and 16%, respectively.
By the end of the 2021 school year, higher-income juniors were almost three
times more likely to be proficient than low-income students.
Illinois test results from 2019 and 2021 also show in nearly every case, Black
and Hispanic students experienced higher drops in performance than white
students.
These steeper-than-normal proficiency declines for all high school juniors come
after school year interruptions. Many students received only remote or hybrid
instruction as their schools were closed by the pandemic.
Illinois public school districts proved restrictive in their return to fully
in-person instruction. Illinois public school students received less access to
in-person schooling during the 2020-2021 school year compared to most other U.S.
states, according to research reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Illinois ranked 42nd in the country for access to full-time, in-person
instruction with just 10% of Illinois public students on average having this
access from September 2020 to April 2021.
[to top of second column] |
The same study found minority students in Illinois were even less likely to have
access to full-time, in-person instruction. Access for minority students was
nearly 10 percentage points lower when compared to white students.
For low-income students, drops in proficiency scores followed a school year in
which chronic absenteeism for students from low-income households rose from
25.4% in 2019 to 31.7% in 2021 – a nearly 25% increase. Similarly, chronic
absenteeism during that period among Black and Hispanic students increased
around 26% and 27%, respectively.
Chronic absenteeism for students statewide increased 20% while chronic
absenteeism for white students increased just under 9%.
A research and evaluation officer for the Illinois State Board of Education
commented that “less access to in-person learning” can result in lower student
engagement that spurs chronic absenteeism.
Two years of instructional interruptions – affecting student access to in-person
learning, lessening student engagement and spurring higher rates of absenteeism
– have not helped Illinois’ low-income and minority students.
The Chicago Teachers Union was responsible for the delay in getting Chicago
Public Schools' 330,000 students back in the classroom following the 2020
COVID-19 closure. In both 2021 and 2022, CTU walked outon students to get their
demands met. Parents learned they had no say in their children's educations.
Now an amendment on the ballot Nov. 8 would cement that kind of militant union
control over children’s educations into the Illinois Constitution. Not only
would Amendment 1 allow unions to demand anything and go on strike to get those
demands met, it would also prohibit lawmakers from ever restricting what unions
could demand and when they could walk out on students.
Illinois’ students are already behind thanks to the pandemic. Do they really
need their educations interrupted even more by giving union bosses the increased
powers contained in Amendment 1?
Hannah is a policy research assistant at the Illinois Policy
Institute. In this role, she conducts research into policy issues and helps run
labor policy projects. She is a recent graduate of Wheaton College where she
earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and International Relations.
|
