2022 MCAS scores reveal decline in students reading, writing skills

The 2022 MCAS scores are in and have revealed mixed results for the state of education as Massachusetts students continue to recover the learning lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When compared to 2021, the average scores improved in math and slightly in science, but English language arts scores saw steep declines.

Overall, ELA scores for students in grades 3-8, indicate that only 41% of students are meeting or exceeding expectations in 2022.

Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) Jeff Riley said, as a result, they are targeting new areas of focus; the impact of lower writing scores and early literacy challenges in grades 3-5.

DESE will closely examine the writing scores. Average points scored per essay showed an 18% decline when comparing 2019 to 2022.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) calls these results “unsurprising.”

“Massachusetts students are showing the cumulative impact of trauma, given a pandemic that has brought staggering losses to families and communities – including the deaths of loved ones,” an MTA spokesperson said. “Our members, the educators who teach the vast majority of public school students in the Commonwealth, thoroughly understand the mental health, economic and academic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, which have become even clearer over the past year as students and staff have returned to classrooms.”

Student absenteeism remains a challenge in recovery post-pandemic, in fact, those numbers are also getting worse. DESE reports that on average students missed 11 days in 2021 and 15 days in 2022. And startlingly, 18 % of students missed 18+ days in 2021 compared to 28% of students who missed 18+ days in 2022.

The virus is still playing a role, DESE says. 1.7 million days of school were missed because of positive COVID-19 cases in 2022. But they say, 1 million days were saved in 2022 due to the ‘test and stay’ program.

The 2022 scores will be considered a reset of the baseline moving forward.

State education officials say they will use Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) to tackle the biggest ELA concerns. They want to earmark money for “high-dosage tutoring” and writing intervention.

The scores also reveal disproportionate struggles for students of color in grades 3-8. But those subsets of numbers don’t show a worsening decline for African American and Hispanic students over the last two years. There are slight improvements. Nonetheless African American and Hispanic students’ scores are still well below those of their white peers.

“As has been well documented in decades of research, scores on standardized exams are a mirror of family and community wealth and access to educational resources,” the MTA spokesperson said. “The MCAS tests and others like them simply serve to point to and reinforce painful inequities among communities and reflect decades of structural racism.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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