Teachers, parents, or even guardians are often seen pushing or pressuring students to do well in their tests or examination. Students at different levels are often evaluated through assessments, also known as educational tests. Good tests should be reliable and accurate in meeting their purpose and the expectation for the candidate’s level (Dawson et al., 2018). That means the tests given should have validity to every student’s level. The test results are then used to analyze the standard of the students and also know the areas a student might have a problem. Reasons for these problems may be noted, and ways to overcome the difficulties should be worked on to prevent the same experience.
The national score in mathematics has drastically dropped for eighth-graders. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) revealed a significant decline of 8 percent in mathematics scores for eighth-graders compared with 2019, when the test was last conducted (Robinson & Dervin, 2019). New Jersey is among the eight states, including Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, where the mathematics score fell by 11 points (Goodin-Smith et al., 2022). Compared to historical scores, 11 is considered the most significant drop in the country.
There still needs to be more clarity on what might be the cause of the drastic drop. A larger number suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the reasons for the decline in the national results and, consequently, the states. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted on parents’ or guardians’ financial capacity to support children. Caregivers were also expected to interact less with children to prevent transmission of COVID-19. This resulted in s loss of caregivers’ services during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside school closure, which necessitated them to activate remote learning.
We cannot say that the mentioned factors are causes for the drop in the student’s performance, but they may have largely contributed. For instance, when a caregiver dies from contracting COVID-19, the child experiences extreme stress. The stress psychologically and maybe physically inhibits the student from making academic progress (Li, 2022). Mathematics requires attention, which means the student must be both psychologically and physically attentive for a better understanding of the concepts from the instructor. And when the concepts are not effectively understood, that leads to failure or inability of the student to provide the correct answer needed from the test.
The closure of schools during the pandemic may have also contributed to the drop in the results in the state. During the closure, schools adopted remote learning, such as. online classes or television programs. Online learning increased the use of the software. This negatively affected the students unfamiliar with such programs, which remarkably prevented them from acquiring the intended content for the learning purpose to be complete (Hammerstein et al. (2020). Mathematics being technical in nature, proper practice and a good follow-up from the instructor were crucially needed. Physical contact between the instructor and the student was impossible because the instructions were given online.
Students from rural areas were likely to be affected by the need for more technology, a fast and reliable network to access online learning, and a good home learning environment. Out of every four children, one is limited to full access to digital technology at home (Kerrigan, 2019). Inequality was felt between children below the federal poverty threshold and children above the poverty threshold to access virtual learning from home. That resulted in a low number of students logging in to complete their assignments compared to physical education. And fewer new learning materials were inadequately presented to the children during the pandemic.
In conclusion, students’ performance greatly depends on individual’s physical and psychological state. This applies to every aspect of the environment during the learning or assessment period. The K-12 learning programs were affected during the Covid-19 pandemic. As seen in the decline of the scores by students, as revealed by NAEP, it is evident that our learning programs have not fully recovered from the blow of the pandemic. And various measures for good coverage of the learning materials should be implemented. These measures will be discussed in the next session, just like this one today, so appropriate consideration should be taken to help our students.
Reference
Dawson, N., Dzurino, D., Karleskint, M., & Tucker, J. (2018). Examining the reliability, correlation, and validity of commonly used assessment tools to measure balance. Health Science Reports, 1(12), e98. Web.
Goodin-Smith, O., Graham, K. A., Burney, M., & Purcell, D. (2022). Pa. and N.J. Reading and Math Scores Dipped During the Pandemic as U.S. saw ‘Troubling’ Decline. Web.
Hammerstein, S., König, C., Dreisörner, T., & Frey, A. (2021). Effects of COVID-19-Related school closures on student Achievement-A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Web.
Kerrigan, H. (2019). Census Bureau releases annual report on poverty in the United States: September 12, 2018. Historic Documents of 2018, 512-530. Web.
Li, P. (2022). Effects of Stress on Child Development. Parenting for Brain. Web.